Southwest Airlines Community

Thank you @ swdigits  ... View more

@lorisue you should be able to log in to your account and then search for a flight you'd like to book. Just be sure to click "Points" instead of "$" on the top-right side of the page to book with points: https://www.southwest.com/air/booking/index.html I'm guessing you already have the phone number to call to book a reservation: 1-800-I-FLY-SWA (1-800-435-9792) ... View more

Thanks for all these suggestions!  Will try to take a phone photo of the voucher, which looks like a SW ticket, and the Marriott bill and get it to SW on Monday.  Will also try calling Marriott and seeing if they didn't follow procedure.  Stay tuned! ... View more

@gabbylou, there are a couple of click through links on the terms and conditions page listed by @chgoflyer and one of the links indicates that the travel certificate they issue will list an expiration date (though it doesn't give any clues to duration). ... View more

The ramp-up in service to Hawaii was initially planned to take all of this year and into next year. I suspect that the grounding of MAX aircraft, which Southwest had stated would be used eventually for Hawaii, will slow things down and push back some planned expansion. Southwest never completed ETOPS certification on MAX, and I believe that is now on hold until the planes are allowed to fly again. ... View more

I also had a similar situation which I posted 2 days ago.  It was not posted even though I received an email that congratulated me on my 1st posting.  Explain that? My connecting flight was canceled on Friday, 15th at 12:07pm. to San Juan.  This flight was taking me to my 7-day Carribbean Cruise. Numerous calls were made as we were looking on the internet for different flights to get us to San Juan by 7pm Sunday.  This would be a very long response if I told you all that we did and all that we went through to just get to San Juan by Sunday.  Remember!  It is noon on Friday and our 1st leg of our trip leaves at 8:55 am on Sunday!  We called, searched every available airline on the internet, cried, and stayed up all night trying to see if someone had cancelled their flight for us to grab! HERE IS THE KICKER!  THE REASON GIVEN TO ME VERBALLY AND WRITTEN WAS MECHANICAL FAILURE.  BUT THE REAL REASON WHICH WAS FINALLY STATED TO ME WAS IT WAS NEEDED MORE SOMEWHERE ELSE!  MY PLANE WAS NOT A MAX737 BUT IT WAS NEEDED FOR FLIGHTS THAT WERE AFFECTED BY THE MAX737 SITUATION! And now I am left to fight the Cruise Insurance to get a full refund.  Even though weather related plane issues is the only thing they cover!  So I asked them-"THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ALONG WITH 49 OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE GROUNDED ALL MAX737s!  SO YOU ARE TELLING ME MY CRUISE WILL NOT BE COVERED?" And their answer was "yes". I also have flown for many many many years on Southwest and always said..."only way to fly is on Southwest!"  Very disappointed and very angry right now! ... View more

Thank you for sharing! ... View more

Young Travelers (age 12 and up) don't get to preboard. I'd recommend buying EarlyBird Check-In or checking in online at exactly 24 hours prior to departure to secure the best boarding position. ... View more

Thanks so much for the replies. They were very helpful. She has a cell phone, so I can walk her through it if needed. I'm sure the SW employees will help her as well. I'm going to go ahead and book the flight, she's super excited! ... View more

@judygolfing, if you are located anywhere around the middle of the country, please keep in mind that many flights are “one stop, no change of planes,” so you might be the first Business Select or Early Bird Boarder and still see a great many passengers in the front rows.  When a plane lands, the attendants usually say “and if you are continuing on to .... with us, please remain in your original seat until we can get a through count.  After that, you are free to change seats and use the lavatory.”  Many through passengers find it advantageous to move to the first few rows during these breaks between landing and boarding.     I know that does not address your specific situation if you see people that board first saving seats for later boarders, but even if you buy early bird (or if you are A-List Preferred), you may not be able to get one of the first seats on the plane.  I occasionally buy early bird for fellow travelers, but it has more to do with getting the guaranteed check-in than getting a specific seat.     And yes, you can buy one and save the seats for others as it is “free range seating,” but when I sit in the back, I time the deplaning, and it is typically less than ten minutes. So I let those folks save their seats if they want to put up with the hassle of being questioned frequently and with some people actually taking the seat.  Not me.  I don’t want to sit by those people and usually ten minutes is not a big deal.  I always secretly hope that they are on a special trip like a family reunion or going to a wedding, because it helps me justify their behavior.  I will never know but for me, it is just another business trip and the seat does not matter.  As others have mentioned, some people feel passionate about it, even though I do not.  I hope you get a chance to relax and enjoy your flying time wherever your travels take you. ... View more

Anthonly I was not trying to that fraud on your RR card caused SW to put a hold on your RR account.   I was saying that banks put holds on credit card accounts becaue of suspected fraud, and maybe Southwest did the same for your RR account if it suspected fraud.   ... View more

Potential agreement on the way: https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2019/03/17/southwest-mechanics-union-reach-tentative-deal-labor-dispute/amp/ ... View more

Potential agreement coming: https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2019/03/17/southwest-mechanics-union-reach-tentative-deal-labor-dispute/amp/ ... View more

You can use the weekly view of the flight schedule to get a visual of the number of stops (look just to the right of the flight times): https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-schedules/results.html?departureDate=2019-08-04&destinationAirportCode=TPA&originationAirportCode=ROC&scheduleViewType=weekly&timeOfDay=ALL_DAY ... View more

@Jwalsh3rd wrote: I have never had this exact issue, but I have found that often on sold out flights, a seat opens soon after the 24 hour checking time has passed.  That is cutting it tight, but I have been rewarded in the past by good timing and continued searches to catch the flight I wanted.   Been there, done that (very uncomfortably!)   Especially now in the modern age where Southwest will not intentionally oversell a flight, I would expect most of the time one or two seats will open up. There may also be more than one or two people trying for those, so keep checking regularly once you are within the 48 hour window.   ... View more

Very frustrating - my daughter got a notice that her flight on Wednesday is cancelled but it still shows up in her trips online.  Still on FLightView too.  tried to call and wait time is way over an hour. no response on twitter either.  Don't really want to change her off the direct flight but afraid everything wil fill up.   ... View more

I am sorry to hear about your delay, I would be bummed too! I don't work for the airlines, I'm just another customer, but my *guess* is that Southwest is trying to get their planes in place and repositioned to start getting on track with the normal schedule. The best description I've heard is that airline schedules are like a puzzle that needs to get put together every day. The operational emergency, severe weather, and grounding mean that right now the puzzle is a mess and there is a lot of rearranging that needs to take place. Good luck! ... View more

@tri650,   I'm truly sorry for the frustration and inconvenience. I know my apology doesn't change your situation, but I want you to know that we see and hear your concerns. We have all hands on deck in our Customer Support and Service and Customer Relations Departments, and we are committed to working with each Customer who desires to speak to us.    The Southwest Airlines Community is a peer-to-peer discussion forum, so we do not have the tools here to address individual Customer Service issues, but you are welcome to share your thoughts and experiences here. It is my sincere hope that this one-off situation will not deter you from flying with us in the future, as I am confident we are capable of providing the Customer Service and travel experiences you expect from us.    ... View more

Hey, one other thing. I just wanted to tell you how horribly sad I feel for you that this happened. Amazingly, I was saving my miles for the same reason. We have a dream of moving to Hawaii and was saving all my miles for when we started to fly back and forth. I was even planning on a surprise vacation there for my wife.   ... View more

@SWDigits wrote: Agree with the comment above that this is not being handled well. It may not be feasible but another poster reported that they went to the airport to get everything resolved: https://www.southwestaircommunity.com/t5/General-Travel-Policies/Help-re-flight-2274-for-3-14-19/m-p/88207#M6849 If you can do that, this is also a potential approach. I'd avoid DEN, but other than that if proximity and availability make it feasible to swing by the ticket counters in person go for it - stay on the phone the whole time as well to see what connects first.             ... View more

Thank you all for your feedback! I just went down to the airport and they were able to rebook my flight. Cheers, Tai  ... View more

@SWDigits wrote: @syber2th wrote: I have a flight in the future.  Would like to know what I should do if my flight is affected by the grounded planes To add to the comment from @dfwskier the travel advisory is for travel through March 31st. I have to imagine that Southwest is making a contingency plan to cover a long-term grounding scenario that they'll update as they learn more from the investigation. To add to that, every MAX flight will not result in a cancellation becasue Southwest has the ability to use other planes instead of MAXs -- at least for some flights. ... View more

Yours is a common complaint and a long lasting pain point with the Southwest booking system. Unfortunately, the best you can do is call (or Tweet, as hold times are very long at the moment due to the operational emergency, weather issues and the recent grounding of MAX aircraft). If the phone rep can see the fare they can make the change for you. ... View more

Southwest Statement on grounding of MAX8 aircraft   here is the statement posted on the official Southwest Twitter account  ... View more

My post to try to compile boarding suggestions was marked as spam and removed... ... View more

@roberttrucker wrote: Hello All I've been searching for information today on how to identify what equipment Southwest has scheduled for my flight and have had no luck. The Boeing 737 8 Max reporting is disturbing but not overly so, but I want to know and believe I have a right to this information. Southwest, will you allow passengers to access this information? I really love flying Southwest and I don't say that lightly, but other airlines make it fairly simple to access this information. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious but I would sure appreciate some help! Thank you.   Bob T.   Bob, have you searched the threads for an answer?   I ask because this question has been answered at least 10 times in the last two days, but here it is again..   Start the process of booking a flight. Enter date and departure and arrival cities. Click enter. A list of available flights will appear. The left side of the page will list flight numbers. By clicking on a flight number you will learn the type of plane and on time stats for that flight. ... View more