Southwest Airlines Community

@Einhander wrote: Wow! Thanks for putting it so simply and beautifully. 12 percent back now sounds like a heck of a lot! 1.5 percent cash, not so much. The cash you can use for anything, which is good. But if you are flying fairly often then the benefit in points value could be more.   There are other ways to redeem points which may not yield the $0.015 estimated value, flights are the best option for keeping the value high.         ... View more

A lifetime pass on WN doesn't make sense IMO. It is after all, a LCC that is not aligned with any major airline alliances, it doesn't even have interline agreements with any other airline and it uses its own proprietary reservation system than using the major ones like Amadeus Altea or SITA.    You're right that had you gone with AS, your miles and status would've mattered long term as they're now part of the oneworld alliance. Your lifetime status on AS would've allowed you to use your miles to book flights on JAL, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, etc. and it would've granted you lifetime lounge access to all these airlines as you traveled around the world in your retirement.    But if WN had lifetime status and points, it wouldn't make much difference. At best you can go to Aruba, only on WN, no lounges, no other airline partners, etc. And I don't see WN making any upgrades to their system, starting interline agreements or even joining any of the airline alliances. Maybe they can start their own LCC alliance and team up with RyanAir or AirAsia, but that's another major hassle in itself and highly unlikely in itself also.  ... View more

Why is the question.   Shortage of planes is the answer. Boeing is coming up well short on plane deliveries while plane retirements continue. So the airline is forced to make route decisions based on where it can fly to get the most revenue.   Hopefukly  if Boeing steps up deliveries in 2025 (it is not clear that it will do so ), then maybe the route will return. ... View more

@1HeathG wrote: So a couple of weeks ago I booked my mom and I’s flight from St. Louis, MO to West Palm Beach, FL with a layover in ATL. Well a couple of days ago our whole itinerary got changed to a layover in Baltimore, MD. My mom and I don’t want to fly there because it would be silly to do so. I was wanting to change our arrival airport to Orlando and I for some reason can’t and it only gives me the options of West Palm, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami. I don’t want to fly into the other two and I kinda just want to get a non stop flight to Orlando but I can’t without paying for it. Would be possible to change to Orlando on the website rather than the app? Thank you in advance! I don't think Southwest considers Orlando as equivalent (they use the word "co-terminal" with the Miami area airports.   If there was a major weather disruption they may allow people to swap between these on an emergency basis but for a basic schedule change like this I think they expect you go continue with PBI, FLL, or MIA.   If you decide to call in you can give it a try, and who knows if you can find a fare that's equivalent you can change it yourself with no change fee, only have to pay the difference in fare.   BWI is quite a bit bigger of a Southwest operation than ATL so I'm curious if you are worried about the distance in the terminal? It's a pretty good airport for connections as there is a high frequency of service in case of delays and O'Brycki's is one of my favorite airport places to eat.   BNA is also a good connection option if that's a choice, plenty of food and beverage outlets, music, and on a more direct line of travel for you.   Maybe MSY not as frequent for service but keeps the path straighter.             ... View more

So you are saying that HER RR points are being applied to your RR account --  AND YOUR RR points are also being added to your RR account? I've never heard of two card tied to two fwo different cardholders having point go to one RR account.   So just book her ticket with your (her) points. ... View more

The error would have made sense if I had actually USED the bad word in the error message, in my message.   But nowhere in my message was the work "ess tee r oh kee ee" used.   Hope the IT folks get this, since it really looks like an AI hallucination.   ... View more

@srockgibson wrote: Formerly a Southwest regular, I took my first Southwest trip today since I got caught in the Dec 2022 meltdown.     I had a online Southwest transfer in San Diego.  I arrived at Southwest Gate 5 and departed from Southwest Gate 13.  I couldn't believe that in the year 2024 you have to go to security again to complete a Southwest online transfer.    To add to the pain, the Southwest monitors only show the flights for each gate "hub"  So if you arrive at Southwest gates 5-8 and are departing are are departing from Southwest gates gates 13-18, your connecting flight will not even show on the monitor.  You're totally on your own to figure out what's going on.   Third world operations in San Diego.         Greetings!   SAN is my primary home airport (ONT is my 'convenience' origin). I would submit and guarantee that both Southwest and SAN airport staff are very well aware of the inconvenience of Terminal 1's current layout that not only impacts connections but also gate changes.     Last September, I experienced this too--and it involved lucky Gate 13: https://community.southwest.com/t5/Inflight-Experience/Sept-23-Photo-Trip-Report-SAN-LAS-with-2x-TSA-Screening/m-p/163651   Regarding your connecting departure at Gate 13, you arrived at Gate 5 which is on the eastern concourse of Terminal 1. Being a frequent SAN flyer, I've noticed that the Customer Service desks and monitors at that concourse all use the older model counters and tv's. E.g. from Gate 7:     These TV's rotate between a full view of the next scheduled departure (as pictured) and departures/status of flights from nearby gates that exclude flights that take place on the Gate 11-18 western concourse to your point. However, there's two sets of vertical status monitors (pictured below) in each concourse that show all the gates:       This would be your go-to place to check for flight status. If for some reason your flight was still missing on the monitors, the Southwest App or website is the next best place to check: https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-status/   Regarding the airport getting all this straightened out...Not sure if you saw the construction activity either from the terminal windows or from the plane but SAN will be replacing Terminal 1 with the New T1 which on schedule to open sometime next year.     When that happens, all of Southwest's gates will be linked together airside and we can bid good-riddance of having to go through a TSA checkpoint twice for both SW connections and/or gate changes.   ... View more

@dfwskier wrote: The reason tfor that suggestion is that SW can do the cancel and add of your companion in real time -- minimizing the risk that someone else could grab the last seat on the plane - thus leaving your companion without a seat.   Other than that, you can cancel and then book your companion yourself. Agreed - try to "buy" tickets for the flight now and you can see if it is sold out or nearly sold out (or blocked for any other unknown reason).   You may be able to self service on it by canceling only your husband's ticket, or if it won't let you make that change online for whatever reason then call in and the phone agent can make the swap.           ... View more

@Sobczynd wrote: Southwest changed my departing flight and it's now an hour and ten minutes later. I have a round trip flight and may have found a better flight on a different airline. If I were to cancel the departing flight, but keep the returning is that possible and does it change the cost?   Yes you can cancel the outbound flight and the cost of the return would not change. I'm not sure where the break point is delay wise between being able to get a refund vs a travel credit  . Also, is it possible that Southwest will change the flight back to the original time?    Not likely, but anything is possible.   ... View more

@Jeverett  According to SWA’s career FAQ:   We love that you’re excited to hear from Southwest. Unfortunately, we’re unable to provide individual updates; however, your application status is on your dashboard. Once we’ve filled the position, the job status will change to “closed.” “Under Review” means we’re still in the process of reviewing candidates. Please be assured all applications submitted online are carefully reviewed by our Recruiting Team, but we do receive a high volume of applications. Only the most competitive applicants will be contacted for an interview.     ... View more

Thanks for everyone’s feedback! Turns out the proper window seat was on the right side of the plane.  After this experience, I would honestly not recommend doing this due to too many favors in play. I booked my flight last year with Early Checkin and knew things were off to a rocky start when the system auto checked me in and I got B15. I’ve never seen so many pre-boarders and knowing Southwest, like all airlines, they’re not going to probe for legal reasons why you need to pre-board to people were requesting that left and right. I did not request a pre board and by the time I boarded, there was literally nobody left to board. Couple the pre-boarders with the media there, there were literally 30 people who boarded before they even started calling the A groups.  The staff at AUS were friendly and nice. They decorated the gate with some eclipse/stars and everyone got a snack bag with a luggage tag, eclipse glasses, starbursts, chocolate moon rice crispy treat, and a code to pay for an upgrade at Omni hotels to upgrade to their top tier loyalty program. We also got a choice of one of 3 speciality cocktails for free which was served on a branded napkin.  On arrival at Indy, there was a balloon arch to welcome us with a table setup by the airport for popcorn, stickers, and an airplane stress ball.  Seeing the eclipse through airplane windows is a gamble depending on how clean the window is and the position of the plane. I did not get a window seat and opted for an aisle. The pilot was nice and let everyone know when we were close to totality over Dallas and did an angled maneuver to tip the plane to one side for a better view. There was literally nothing on the left side unless you did a Timelapse of the sky changing colors. The best way to see it was lying down on the seats. Most everyone was friendly and left those on the left use their seats to see outside the window. The plane did not go out full.   If I were to do this again, I would opt for another airline with a guaranteed window seat and do my homework for where to look out the window. I would actually recommend not flying through the path of totality and instead taking a flight that flies parallel to the path of totality but at least a few states away that way the sun is not over the plane and you can see the sun and ground out the window at the same time.  Here are some pics that everyone airdropped during the flight.                  For comparison, here was Delta’s gate:     ... View more

@dfwskier wrote: @PDXMusicman wrote:     Second, Southwest tries to upsell EVERYONE to buy the A1-A15 boarding spots - including people that lmight already have A16. There's no conspiracy to give people bad boarding spots so that SW can upsell them. As I understand it the business is going quite well, definitely no need to do that.   There are too many variables here @PDXMusicman with number of A-List people, EBCI tickets, etc. that even if you were the first one to check in it can vary quite a bit.   You are doing everything that you can and I hope you get good results more often than not with your method.   A B-number may be common on flights with many A-list passengers.     ... View more

Thanks, I didn't know it before. ... View more

@GaelleG wrote: Late to the discussion on this, but as a long-time A-lister, I am disappointed to no longer receive drink coupons in the mail periodically.  It takes a lot of flying to achieve A-list status and while I can understand the desire to save $$ on postage, a periodic electronic credit for a beverage would be appreciated.   As a person who has been A-List for every single year that the program has been in existence. I agree that ti takes a lot of flying to get and keep the status.   But if you are A-List, how is it that you are just now complaining about something that changed over a year ago? If you fly at least 25 one ways a year, surely you should have noticed that the coupons were missing (multiple times) a long, long time ago. ... View more

what does "change the pickup" mean? Date , city.??   IIf it's the date, then you do a ticket change and pay the difference in price between what you paid and what the fare is now (or get a flight credit if the current fare is lower).    If it's a city change, same as above.   In both cases you keep our existing confirmation number as well as your early bird purchase -if you purchased it. ... View more

just for reference I recently booked with a coworker on LAX LAS. I got A-28 as A List WGA+, he got A-31 as Anytime. So it does come right after A-List ... View more

@Estebanjr61 wrote: On March 21, 2024 I was traveling from SJU to Philadelphia with my grandson for a surgery on his hips and knees at Shriner's Hospital. Upon arrived at the Southwest counter the Employee Manuel Maldonado jump and without questions he started to assist us with our bags and the rest of our luggage. Mr. Maldonado not only assist us with our bags but he also assist with the wheel chair, he provide the boarding pass with a pre-board to make sure our grandson will be one's of the first inside the plane and the wheel chair was manage by the ground personnel, he also instruct his fellow partner who was the one to work the flight to assist us on the particular needs we had. I can say that all instructions given by Mr. Maldonado they all were follow to the dot and the experience was a smooth one. Mr. Maldonado did not know anything about the surgery or the reasons of our flight but his sense of helping others became an experience not to forgot. Mr. Maldonado is a True Employee who value his customers, is focus in Customer Service and employees like Mr. Maldonado carry the Southwest Core Values to the Top. Thanks Mr. Maldonado for the experience and the well care in all details to ensure everything was cover as it was with no missing details until we complete our trip to Philadelphia. A JOB WELL DONE. Great to hear travel stories like these on this board! LUV it!   As @dfwskier suggested, forward a copy of your compliment directly to SW customer service so that it can be processed and Manuel can receive is due praise.  https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/email-us Click on "Compliment", "Customer Service"   Prayers for your grandson! ... View more

yes, but only if you  use a Chase Rapid Rewards credit card to buy them. ... View more

@epcot wrote: There is a cargo interline with Westjet https://www.swacargo.com/swacargo_com_ui/ship/facilities/interline-destinations/ Interesting to know.    I guess the statement "Southwest has interline agreement with Westjet" may be true but it would be for cargo. However, the discussion context on this thread appeared to focus on making name changes to reservations and booking non-SW flights with points. No mentioning of cargo. Thus, it would be way too easy to misinterpret this statement. ... View more

unfortunately they are not responding and the system has error and doesn't submit the case! ... View more

@Ntrums34 wrote: If I were to do that, is there a way to use my points and my spouse's points to pay? Right now, it is prompting me to buy more points because I do not have enough individually to pay for all four one way flights. Is this a situation where I should just call to have the reservation made? You can use your points to buy tickets for other people, or yourself and other people at the same time.   So you may:   If one person has enough points for everyone then that person will be logged in and buy RT tickets for four people. If not, then break it apart you buy four tickets one-way and spouse buys four tickets one-way. If not enough there, then you'll have to start splitting up the reservatations into pairs - spouse plus one kid and then yourself and one kid, pay cash for remaining tickets. If you do this, book one-way tickets so when you use cash on the return trip you can buy all four tickets together again. Since I'm chasing status personally I would use my points to buy tickets for my family, and cash for my own. Keep that in mind if either you or your spouse are trying to make A-list or ALP - buy that ticket cash and use your points for the kids.   If you split up from the kids you have to buy your ticket first and then theirs in case they are younger and can't fly alone, the system will ask for your confirmation number to be flying with them.         ... View more

I appreciate your response. I was told by a Southwest Agent that they were contracted by Southwest Airlines.  ... View more

Just for reference they have never sent a confirmation email for the initial booking and I've done this Promo Companion Pass offer multiple times. You usually get one a few days after the flight confirming it qualified. ... View more