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07-11-2018
09:10 AM
3 Loves
@rtbarron wrote: Getting rid of peanuts? This is heresy!!! If you allow this, what's next?!? Getting rid of the "club" seating area at the front and middle of the cabin? Repainting the beautiful ochre, red and orange fuselage? Not using numbered plastic boarding cards? I feel like I'm losing the Southwest of my youth!!! You forgot to mention free liquor on every flight to anyone over 21, and free donuts and coffee in the morning at Love Field (and maybe elsewhere?) Getting rid of those things might cause passengers to rush back to Braniff.
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Ironcally, I was on the 7 pm Midway/Love field flight last night. We delayed so that a connecting passenger could board -- and then waited a bit longer for that passenger's luggage to make it to our plane. Of course, no one connects in Dallas at 9:15 pm so our delay wasn't going to cost anyone a connection, although our plane was to turn around and fly back to Chicago. So it also was delayed. No one connets in Chicago after midnight either. So the delays affected no connections, which is why Southwest allowed the delays. The delays only affected the airliine's on time stats. We were 20 minutes late. No big deal.
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I have experienced flight attendants requesting for passengers to allow those with a close connection to get off first. It always creates a bit of a mess (but it has come to my rescue more than once).
I have to imagine that asking preboarders to wait seated would create a real mess. And it would be almost impossible to track.
You never know what invisible disabilities or challenges a person has...
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07-10-2018
12:35 PM
07-10-2018
12:35 PM
Great answers, @DancingDavidE and @dfwskier. Thanks for being thorough!
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@Majmm, Tough one, and I have been there and did exactly what you did. Hung out in the aisle as much as possible and tried to (1) pretend I was somewhere else and (2) churn up enough empathy for the oversized person having to sit in the middle. I would venture a guess that the person in the window seat was bigger than you, so the passenger in the middle seat had to make a choice and chose to encroach more on your space than the other direction. As for whether that was the proper thing to do, I could not say what is correct. I just take it one flight at a time. Everyone has to sit somewhere, so that is why I just deal with the occasional oversized flier to whom I might end up against. I do prefer being next to a person of size over sitting behind the gas-passing "fart blossom." But I just mentally deal with that as well and hope that their condition is not permanent. As an A-lister, I board relatively early, so after seeing a substantial number of people board, I often watch the stream of people, make eye contact and a slight hand gesture to the thin person with no rollerboard luggage who may or may not receive and react to the hint I cast out. That move has backfired on me when I ended up next to a perfume covered lady who triggered an allergic reaction/runny nose. She was probably regretting her decision to sit next to me. Here's hoping your future travels are more pleasant, and the good news is that most of them are fine.
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07-09-2018
11:20 PM
Be aware that you also choose if your ticket remains refundable or not. "Fully refundable" fares on Southwest become non-refundable if you make any change to the itinerary at any time. Never change, always cancel and rebook any "refundable" fares, in order to keep them refundable.
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07-09-2018
05:15 PM
07-09-2018
05:15 PM
As mentioned: Yes, as long as you make no changes to the itinerary at any time. This cannot be stressed enough. "Fully refundable" fares become non-refundable if you make any change at all. This includes things like upgrading an Anytime fare to Business Select, or changing things like the departure time or day. Always cancel and rebook any "refundable" fares.
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07-09-2018
02:29 PM
07-09-2018
02:29 PM
This would seem pretty unfortunate. I've never run into this situation. I can't imagine all opassengers for the flight would fit on one bus. Thus it would seem to make sense to me to take all a-listers out on one bus, then b-group on another bus, and then c-group on another bus, with a final bus for any late arrivers. Another rule of thumb probably should be to sit as close as possible to the bus door, so first on the bus could be first off the bus.
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07-05-2018
04:54 PM
1 Love
@dfwskier wrote: The only way to insure you get TSA pre every time is to register for it and pay the fee. TSA does occsionally give travelers TSA pre-check free of charge. It does not happen every time someone travels. The process appears random, but I'm sure that TSA has some type of algorithm that decides when a traveler gets the freebe. https://www.tsa.gov/precheck Technically not guaranteed even with the application, but seems to be coming through most times for most people. User error by having your name not match or forgetting to enter the known traveler number when you book your ticket seem to be two preventable reasons that it doesn't show up on peoples' boarding passes.
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I've used a High Sierra rolling duffle bag the last few years, and have been happy. No signs of early onset wear that I can detects and it's probably been on a hundred flights at this point. The potential downside is that it is a bit less wide than a standard roller suitcase. Also it's pretty cheap to buy. My view is that how the wheels are attached is important. I'd stay away from spinners as the wheels stick out from the sutcase, and reduce the allowable volume of the bag (carry on rules measure size of the bag. If the wheels stick out that counts in the measure). I strongly prefer suitcases where there are only two wheels that are incorporated into the body of the bag.
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07-04-2018
03:46 PM
07-04-2018
03:46 PM
At roughly 2,500 air miles, it's within the range of any of Southwest's 737s (perhaps with some payload restriction on the NG aircraft). And with only six or seven flights a day on three airlines, the market doesn't appear to be saturated. The only challenge that I can see is breaking into a market dominated by Alaska (Seattle's hometown airline with an outstanding service reputation) and JetBlue (another airline with an outstanding reputation and an employee culture second only to Southwest). Fares are probably already low given the carriers serving the market. It's certainly worth a try. Maybe they could test the demand out of Paine Field.
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07-04-2018
11:24 AM
07-04-2018
11:24 AM
I would take that over an August flight out of LGA with no AC any day (another airline). Unfortunately, it is a tough situation; I would rather be cold than be delayed. As for the flight attendant interaction; that sound very unlike a SW employee. As other have said, I would encourage you to store your thoughts directly with the airline.
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07-04-2018
06:39 AM
Travel can get tough when you thrown an emergency into the mix! Sometimes, you just have to balance the cost to the need. I see it this way: 1) SW offers so much flexibility for changing flight and keeping fees away or low. If that means they have to be strict on the policies that do make them money, I’m ok with that, even if it sucks. 2) As a parent, I would just want to make it home. Period. I do understand your frustration, however. I encourage you to offer your feedback directly to SW, and I hope your child is back to healthy now!
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07-03-2018
06:27 PM
1 Love
@elijahbrantley wrote: And if you aren’t able to track down any email confirmations, call SW, and they will be able to help you find it. Be aware that, unlike in the past when reps could search using the credit card number you used to book, it's now more difficult to get a lost confirmation number via a phone rep. EDITED TO ADD: I just noticed the new wording now being used in email confirmations (below, replaces what I posted above). Apparently Southwest really does not want to look up a lost confirmation number for you. This makes it very clear that it's 100% on the customer to keep track of all their confirmation numbers (and any funds associated with them).
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07-03-2018
03:41 PM
07-03-2018
03:41 PM
@bgubs14 wrote: I believe you can just call southwest customer service and they should be able to fix it. I don’t think you can do this online If you can't do that, remember that you can cancel any ticket within 24 hours of purchasing the ticket (be sure to ask for a refund as opposed to having the funds becomming travel funds for future use). Then you can buy the ticket again using the correct name. That assumes you didn't use travel funds to buy at least part of the fare on the new ticket.
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06-29-2018
01:46 AM
06-29-2018
01:46 AM
Just a note that Southwest will cancel reservations it feels are "duplicates," and refund to the original payment method. Did you happen to have mutliple flights booked for the same day? Or overlapping itineraries? Their system may have interpreted it as a duplicate booking. If that's the case, the rep should be able to rebook at your original fare. Please do come back and let us know what you learn, and how it works out.
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06-27-2018
10:00 AM
Good morning. This forum is not run by SW employees. If you'd like to have someone at SW contact you to resolve your issue(s), you'll need to call the airline. To use travel funds from your cancelled flight you will need to know your confirmation number, AND travel within one year of the date you bought the original ticket, AN D book the flight with the same name as was on the original ticket. That's all there is to it. To do so online, just select your flight, and when you get to the payment method, select travel funds, and input your confirmation number and the name of the person on the original ticket. Note travel funds are only useable by the person whose name was on the original ticket.
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06-26-2018
12:28 PM
1 Love
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I've rented from Payless multiple times and not experienced any problems. Every rent car firm will try to upsell you and/or try to get you to buy extended coverage. They all do, not just Payless.. That being said, Southwest does not endorse any rent car firm. You can rent from 12 different companies on the Southwest website, I think that's about every major rent car firm in America. Southwest does not endorse any of them. Southwest lists all 12 firms and hotel options, too, so that travellers can do one stop price comparisons and shopping, as opposed to going to multiple websites. It's a customer convenience. Firms like Payless buy Rapid Rewards points from Southwest. They offer points to customers in the hope that customers will choose them , as opposed to a firm that does not award points, when renting cars. That isn't an endorsement. I'd recommend two things: 1) Send Payless a complaint 2) Review Payless on Yelp and other ratingplatforms so others cn read about your bad experience, and maybe use your feedback in deciding who they should rent their cars from.
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06-26-2018
04:52 AM
06-26-2018
04:52 AM
I find that some charges and points carry over and post on the next month's statement.
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@SoCo4Now wrote: Curious if Southwest ever adds Wanna Get Away seats to their flights. Tyring to book a flight 5 months in advance and all these seats are sold out. Is it worth waiting, or is the number of seat fixed and I'd be wasting my time. Thanks! I'll add to what @dfwskier @TheMiddleSeat @chgoflyer have said - if you are an infrequent Southwest flyer, buy the Anytime fare if your date/time is set and then refund it if you see a WGA pop up. As the others all said, these may come and go to some degree but I wouldn't recommend waiting for one, particularly if this was a holiday travel or going to Orlando during special events at WDW. If you are a frequent Southwest flyer, I'd recommend spending the extra few bucks for Business Select over Anytime - you get the 12x points, beverage, and priority boarding. Especially if you may be close to A-list or A-list preferred at the end of the year based on points accumulation, don't buy the Anytime.
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06-20-2018
07:45 PM
@dianamezzanotte wrote: I went to create a rapid rewards account and it said I already had one, even though I have no info about it in my email. I tried to log in to retrieve my password and it says the system can't find me. Essentially, I can't create a new account, but I don't actually have an account to log into. Has this happened to anyone? For some reason Southwest may not have an email associated with it - then they can't email you a reset link. I'd say call. Worst case if you are in a time crunch to get tickets booked now, and most likely if there is an account in your name that you've forgotten about you must not have used it and any points are likely expired? Make a new account to get your flights booked, then combine them later. https://www.southwestaircommunity.com/t5/Rapid-Rewards/I-ve-discovered-that-i-have-2-separate-Rapid-Rewards-accounts/td-p/52456 Use the same contact info in the link above to call and get a new email assigned, then you should be able to use the online reset tools.
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The idea of putting the disabled at the back is not a good solution. The flight attendants usually sit in the front. If you put a handicapped person in the back and there is an emergency to exit the aircraft the flight attendants are around at the front to help them off. If they are in the back it may spell disaster.. Putting restrictions as to where they can sit is put in place. (No exit rows). Some people may be taking advantage of the pre boarding rule I agree but in my experiance (and I do fly a lot) I do not see that many taking advantage. I even have friends who can claim a "Medical" issue and they prefer boarding with the normal group because they do not want to be "pointed at".
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06-19-2018
08:24 AM
To cancel part of your itinerary you have to call the airline. The travel cedit will be saved to the confrmation number on record.
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06-15-2018
04:38 PM
1 Love
Thank you. It certainly helps with the understanding and that there are many variables.
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I'm not sure if someone else has brought this up, if they have then let me second it, if they haven't then let me offer an alternate POV: I'm a disabled veteran with a cane and I'm flying Southwest for the first time in my whole life BECAUSE of their preboarding policy, and I'm willing to bet a lot of others are too. Now my cane is folding, and honestly I might fold up my cane and put it in my purse beffore I board because I don't want to inconvience people once on board. That said I still need to hold onto seats (something that's hard to do when dozens of others are getting seated) or keep a hand on the wall as I walk onto the plane, I might even need to stop because my knee locked up as it so often does and I don't want someone to run into me because I came to a sudden stop if/when that happens. Now chances are I'm probably won't fold up my cane because threads like this are a constant reminder that society expects my 32 year old self to LOOK disabled. Society glares at me when I pass them on the sidewalk with my cane on my good days and society watches me on the days when I'm barely hobbling along and wonders if I'm faking on my bad ones. When I mention that I'm former military everyone just goes "OHHHH You got injured" Well... No actually I just have a bad hip (and because of that a bad leg) and the military isn't exactly kind to any weakness in our bodies. The military (no matter what happened to you) basically fast forwards your body's wearing down far faster than your average civilian job, and mine was probably originally meant to start having issues at 40-something. I LOVE that Southwest isn't forcing me to pay even more than I already do for being disabled. I've already paid years of my life, my health, my marriage, and who I was as a person just to end up a disabled wreck who couldn't even function in society for the first teo years that I was out. Do some people abuse the system? Of course they do, someone ALWAYS abuses every system out there. But Southwest has chosen not to punish the rest of us as a result and I applaud them for that. You are not Southwest, and you are not judge jury and executioner of anyone who may or may not have a disability. Maybe you luck out and the person you call out as a fake is actually a fake and is embarassed enough to never try to scam the system again. But in my experience that never happens. If you actually do catch a scammer they'll likely just continue to keep up the act and you'll end up tossed out of the airport by secuity for harrassing the 'disabled' person cause scammers will use the system to their advantage here. If you catch someone with a legitimate disability then you're making their already difficult life that much worse. In my case I'd probably have a panic attack and shut down if you actually confronted me in public cause I also have severe anxiety and moderate PTSD. You basically need to ask yourself it that risk is worth it for you. Are you okay with adding additional suffering to someone who might already suffer more than you can possibly imagine on a daily basis? The thing to remember is that the preboarding is as much for your benefit as it is for those who are disabled. It keeps us out of your way with our gimpy selves while you all rush for your prefered seats. In fact most disabled people I know who fly Southwest actually don't even go for the better seats, they just go for anywhere that allows them to sit with their companion who may need to assist them. And if we do board alongside you we possibly can do things like lifting up luggage or walk without aid and we'll get them done to keep from holding you up, but often we're internally screaming in pain during or after doing those things. It's said over and over again but you can't possibly know everything a person is dealing with in their life. I'd rather let a few scammers slide than chance hurting those who are already hurting and don't deserve it.
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In the summer there are a lot of people going through Orlando so the A Lister count on a flight can go up quite a bit with business travelers still coming and going and EB check in purchases go up from the extra vacationers especially on early flights from what I have seen because not a lot of people want to be up at 5-6am just to check in while on vacation if they don't have any other reason to be up early. Also families usually try to go to/from Disney for cheap so a lot of people end up on the early flights as the evening ones sell out or go higher in cost and the early ones are much cheaper from my experience so one or more people from a family will buy EB and they board after pre boarders, Business select, and A Lister's so a B is not uncommon for checking in right at the 24 hour mark during peak travel season Hope this helps Blake
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06-10-2018
02:03 PM
06-10-2018
02:03 PM
I suspect you are talking about Ding fares. They are no more. They were discontinued a few years ago. However, you can sign up for Click 'N Save e mails. Sign up is near the bottom of the initial Southwest.com webpage.
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For anyone seeking more info, there are quite a few forums online dedicated to "manufactured spending," which offer news of specific offers, and discuss the advantages -- and also the risks -- involved. When it comes to Southwest specifically, keep in mind that using a Southwest gift card comes with some limitations worth considering. Never use one to buy a "refundable" fare, since you can't get a refund to a gift card (even if within the first 24 hours on a WGA fare) -- all "refunds" become travel funds. Also, gift cards themselves are non-refundable, can't be replaced if lost or stolen, it's impossible to combine gift card amounts together, and the Southwest payment system limits gift cards to a maximum of three per passenger on each reservation, or two if you need to also apply a credit card. If you're able to reduce the "cost" of a Southwest gift card through manufactured spending they can be worth using, but only if the limitations won't affect you. Otherwise, I generally do not recommend using them. Here are the full terms and conditions.
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