Southwest Airlines Community

Good Luck! Yeah Southwest does a great job welcoming its passengers which helps me calm down too when I'm nervous! ... View more

Note: You'll be asked questions regarding your need when you request to pre-board at the gate. Customers with a disability that need either 1) a specific seat on the plane, or 2) assistance boarding are allowed to pre-board. Those needing extra time are asked to board after the A group, before the B one. Make sure that they understand that you'll need assistance. ... View more

Thanks for posting your question on the Community, @dazhan! Hope you enjoy your brief stop at the home of LUV!   ... View more

Hi. The way it's worked for me in the past is for multiple reductions taken to be cumulative.   So using your numbers a $100 fare dropped by $43. You bought the change  giving you a new fare of $57 and a $43 travel credit.   Then when you checked again, the system showed a  fare drop of $13 FROM $57. You took it and your new fare should have been $44 and you should have a $56 travel credit If you did all this on one confirmation number.  If you somehow did some of this across more than one confirmation number, then you migh have travel credits in multiple places. ... View more

@Arjamison62 wrote: I know it is the hot new thing to can you dig a service dog so you can early board but tillary this one took the cake. Not only died the person with the dog but the person traveling with them got to early board without paying any kind of fee. Then I get on they are sitting in the front row dog not in any kind of carrying case.  Now I can't have my book bag in the floor should a dog be allowed to lay in that same floor out of a carrier.  I personally have a special needs child so I know the importance of such animals to the calming of people but this person had none of these issues.  Are there any rules to this?  Hello.   Service animals typically are not caged and lie at the feet of their travellers. If they are large, they are typically put in the bulkhead row (row 1) as it has the most room for large anmals. So what you experienced is not atypical.   https://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/unique-travel-needs/customers-with-disabilities-pol.html?CLK=SITESEARCH     ... View more

@manwadkar wrote: Today only I realised that I have lost so much funds since last couple of years. I always thought that these funds are automatically gets adjusted. I used to be the fan of Southwest and had great respect on them to be honest airline. But these guys rob customers by doing this. They are pretty generous compared to other airlines by offering no change fees.   I'm sorry that you weren't aware that you had to take action yourself to redeem the travel funds. The process could be easier, but I don't see that they have been deceptive about the travel funds. They do make you keep track of it yourself though.     ... View more

@tparrent wrote: I was unable to simply upgrade and had to cancel the tickets and rebook. This casued me to lose my preferred flight as it was fully booked. At least I was able to soak up a bunch of my SWA credits (is everyone else incredibly annoyed that you have to keep track of all the confirmation numbers?)   Keep an eye on it periodically depending how stronly you want the original time slot. You already paid the higher rate, so swapping flight times isn't a big deal if all of the flights have the same BS fare price. There will often be a couple of cancelations right after the 24-hour mark when people are reminded of their check-ins and forgot to make changes. That won't matter to you, since you get 1-15 anyway you can change last minute.     ... View more

@melgallion   Sorry your flight was canceled. It sounds like there was an aircraft swap which caused your flight to be canceled since it was going to Houston then instead went to Pittsburgh. Swaps happen for many reasons from staffing to weather or other planes breaking down just to name a few.    I believe the airline schedules people on the next available flight as soon as they cancel the original flight that way there isn't a 100 plus person line waiting to rebook one by one. You can always talk to an agent at the airport or by phone to see what other options are available as they usually allow you to make 1 change for free. You could also try to go standby on the other flight if it leaves before your new flight in case someone no shows and a seat becomes available.    Hope the rest of your flights go smoothly! Blake  ... View more

@Travel_Junkie92 wrote: At check in my travel case was over weight by 2-3 lbs. So I was charged $75.00 for the bag I was checking. I asked the customer service gal at the counter why do I pay for an over weight bag. She said it had to do with fuel consumption. I then put my carry on bag on the scale and it to was over weight by 10 lbs. But she said since it's a carry on I would not be charged....seems odd. Thoughts? Mainly: Take about 3.1 lbs out of your suitcase and put it in your carry-on?   Fuel usage might be one of the answers, also the wear and tear on baggage handlers. Not that 2-3 lbs is a significant increase over the limit, but Southwest's operation benefits all around to discourage overweight luggage.   At most airports they don't want you to pay, they'd rather just have 49.9 lbs bags show up all day.   Funny story curbside at MCO one time...had one at 52 lbs and one at 48 lbs...juggle, juggle, juggle, one small item into my carry on....voila! both came in 49.8 lbs with only the one iteration.             ... View more

@surflesssoul wrote: I just had a similar problem/issue and results...   Neither I, nor their customer service rep, could check-in to my flight (<20hrs from departure) b/c of an error message indicating online check-in isn't available; try again and/or call cust svs. Cust Svs saw that on my reservation there were several copies for entries for my DOB and KTN/TSA#; after removing them extra copies and rebooking the flight they were able to check me in w/ a C boarding. They said that since there were so many copies it must not have processed my RR# for automatic check-in.  So I asked them to look at another flight two weeks out that I booked directly from their online site, and was informed that yes, there are several copies of my DOB and TSA#, etc... and so they cleaned up that reservation too.     What happened to you is very confusing, and I don't recall anyone else experiencing your problem.. I don't know multiple entires for DOB and KTN could be in one reservation. My understanding is that the system retrieves that information once when a reservtion is booked, and whatever is in your travelerr profile is used. There's not a way to input multiple DOBs and KTNs in your profile.    I guess at this point I'd suggest that you review the information in your profile to veryify accuracy.   Log on to your Southwest account click on my account within my preferences click on personal verify your personal information ... View more

Assuming you are at least 21, you need toi insure that your profile is set up to tell the airline to send you drink coupons.   Log on to your Rapid rewards account click on my account under my preferences click on travel within travel click on extras to insure you are signed up to get drink coupons   If everything is as it should be and you have not received the coupons, you should contact customer service to discuss the matter.   Again, coupons should be sent automatically upon completion of every ten paid one way flights. ... View more

@chgoflyer wrote: New information I saw this posted on Facebook today. Very interesting.   Well, chgoflyer, that is interesting, but the response brings up a question:   How can the airline "evaluate the number of tickets it actually sells in countries that the airline does not serve" when it's website prevents people in those countries from actually buying tickets? ... View more

@aimeeandy wrote: Why would the points transferred to RR be less then $ spent on credit card?  The only reason I can think of is if you returned items for credit and chase "took back" the points it gave you for those items. ... View more

I was having this exact same problem from Sweden for several months. "Access denied. You don't have permission to access http://www.southwest.com... on this server".  It didn't help changing computers, browsers, trying to access it from home or work. Nothing helped. Even the the iPhone App would not work from Sweden.   Until... I started using a VPN on my Macbook, which "tricked" the southwest webservers into thinking I was located in the USA (Atlanta GA).  Now I can access the southwest website without any problems.     I suggest trying to use a VPN software to get around this problem. Obviously, SW airlines has major problems with their IT systems--having this type of problem for so long should have caused heads to roll in the IT department!     /Jeff from Stockholm   FYI: I use Avast Security antivirus and VPN on a Macbook pro.  The AntiVirus is free, and the VPN has a 7-day free trial.  www.avast.com.  Give it a try.  ... View more

Thanks for the input ... View more

If you are concerned about points expiring, you might want to sign up for the dining for points program, and have a cheap lunch somewhere. My experience is that points coming as a result of this program typically show up within a week or two of the event. ... View more

I understand your frustration with the connecting flight not being held.  Sometimes Southwest is able to do that and sometimes not because all those people on your connecting flight may have had connections to make later on and if they delayed the flight, those people would miss their connections.   I am glad to hear that you were offered the voucher; that could turn out to be a free flight somewhere.    Either way, this was definitely a frustrating experience and I'm sure your next one will be better.  Happy travels! ... View more

@spacecoastbill wrote: The only way to rectify it is to go to assigned seating.   That is not going to happen anytime soon. I disagree.   While assigned seating may ultimately be the only real solution to some Southwest boarding issues, such as pre-boarding abuse, that's not true when it comes to seat saving.   As has been suggested, a specific seat saving policy (allowing the saving of only one adjacent seat, for one example) could do much to help alleviate perceived boarding pain. ... View more

You mentioned dry ice which is mentioned in the link provided up above, it is allowed with some guidelines for use.   But I agree that you may not need a lot of additional ice, since the cider will also be frozen.     ... View more

@vetriselvan,  If you are staying at a hotel, I suggest calling and asking if you can ship 2 or 3 boxes to them before you leave so that they arrive while you are there.  Less hassle for you and probably less cost.  Most hotels will accept shipments because they are used to hosting meetings.   Good luck and safe travels.   ... View more

@chgoflyer The duplicate post is about 3/4 of the way down the first page of the General Discussions topic board.   @Dongminator, you might not have seen the responses to your original post, but it does look like you received accurate information on both posts. Please help us keep the forums uncluttered by avoiding duplicate posts!    ... View more

@chgoflyer wrote: @bec102896 wrote: @Shelbster2002   My 13 year old cousin flew with his 6 year old brother to Florida to see the grandparents with no issues and no UM fees so you should not have to pay the fee unless you want the UM service (yes some parents still pay the fee for 13-17 year olds if they want the kids taken care of)  I believe you would just have to fill out the Young Traveler form when booking just to give your contact info so if there were to be any problems southwest could contact you.   hope this helps Blake    Just to be clear: You can't pay the UM fee or receive UM service for any child over the age of 12.   Southwest considers children ages 12 through 17 traveling alone to be Young Travelers, not Unaccompanied Minors. Accordingly, Southwest’s Unaccompanied Minor procedures do not apply to ages 12 through 17.   From the website:     Can a child older than 11 years of age be treated as an Unaccompanied Minor?   No. Our Unaccompanied Minor program is only for children ages five through 11 years old. Children ages 12 and older are allowed to travel independently. However, we encourage parents to decide whether their children are capable of and comfortable with: Negotiating all airports Going through the checkin and boarding processes Following crew members' instructions Dealing with possible flight disruptions that may arise If not, we strongly discourage allowing these Young Travelers to fly alone.     Oh I didn't know that that's weird they offered me the service when I booked the cousins tickets by phone maybe the reservations agent didn't know the policy (like myself 😂). I figure they would want to sell it to Young travelers (as an optional fee) to make more money  ... View more

Thanks for letting everyone know that the process worked as it should have worked.   Now go out and enjoy your points! ... View more