Southwest Airlines Community

My guess is that's the biggest airport around, and there are no other airports in the northern part of the state that would make sense for Southwest to go to. If you know of an airport. ... View more

Thanks for your help, but I don't know what happened here. I booked on March 24 from BLI to LAS to HRL. It wouldn't let me book online and when I called, I was told they couldn't do it on their end either, and that "point to point flights aren't permitted." Both flights ended up being booked separate, with a 3 hr layover in Vegas, both on WGA fair.    It was same day travel, long layover in Vegas, all same fair, so IDK what happened. Thanks for y'all's assistance though.  ... View more

I am hopeful for more nonstop flights!   --Jessica ... View more

Yes, the city of Rapid City is bigger than Bozeman, but if you look at passenger traffic which is what really matters for airlines, Bozeman is bigger. Pre-pandemic, Rapid City had 705,429 passengers while Bozeman had 1,573,860 passengers. In terms of the airport, Bozeman is twice as busy. So while there are many unserved cities by Southwest, I don't believe Rapid City is super high on the list. ... View more

Just to be clear. That's just my own analysis, so don't take my word for it 😄 ... View more

Summarizing:   Likely only curbside check in closed. You will probably have the option to tag the bag yourself, but you will hand it to someone at the baggage desk. If you need assistance, you can go thru that line/option as well. More here on baggage check hours. If you have one ticket for the whole trip, you bag will be tagged at check in to your final destination, and you will not have to pick it up in MDW...as was shared below. Happy flying! ... View more

This was probably before Southwest switched to their new scheduling system. The prior system was old and outdated and essentially only allowed Southwest to operate the same exact schedule everyday, not allowing them to adjust according to demand. The new Amadeus software enabled them to have a dynamic schedule, allowing Saturday or Sunday only flights as well as weekend only flights. So these days a lot of Southwest's schedule is consistent Sunday through Friday then all the flight times are different on Saturday since they seem to be a fan of Saturday only flights for those leisure markets. Southwest is first and foremost a low cost leisure airline, so they try to fly the peak travel days and times for particular routes plus leisure travelers typically schedule their vacations around the flight schedules since leisure travelers are more flexible than business travelers.    -Andrew E DEN based | Southwest Passenger | Aviation Enthusiast ... View more

For those that want an interactive route map right now, there's this website that you can use for all airlines: https://www.flightconnections.com/route-map-southwest-airlines-wn You just change the airline and it'll show their route map. It's not as up to date as the individual airline's website, but it does pretty well with keeping up on route changes!     -Andrew E DEN based | Southwest Passenger | Aviation Enthusiast ... View more

It's a little bit further but you can fly southwest to Fort Lauderdale from the Long Island/Islip airport. That said, it does seem to only be operated on Saturday and Sunday.   Southwest used the pandemic to expand to new markets since the aircraft were underutilized due to a drop in demand and because of that, they haven't fully restored their pre-pandemic network. Over the next five years, instead of expanding, they'll be working on rebuilding their pre-pandemic network since all the expansion they recently did would have been done over 5-10 years, but was implemented in two.   -Andrew E DEN Flyer | Southwest Passenger | Aviation Enthusiast ... View more

Jealous! I wonder how prizes went "unclaimed" - you didn't have to claim points prizes, so it's a little confusing how they are giving more points away now. Maybe the prices given away specifically on June 18, like the large point prizes, had to be claimed? That would be a shame if the bigger prizes were never claimed by anyone!   --Jessica ... View more

@ghsiehswa wrote: Can you use travel funds to buy points?   Also, you're saying we need to convert travel funds to a travel voucher before the funds expire to get the extra 6 months added?   Morning.   One can  only use vouchers to buy flights.   Travel funds may be converted to vouchers   1) no earlier than the day after they expire 2) no later than 6 months after the expiration date.   Vouchers are good for travel for 6 months.     ... View more

Anyone know if the "travel day only" coupons will be given the same end of year expiration when and if SWA opens back up beer/wine service?  Asking as a responsible and respectful traveler. ... View more

If you received a C position at exactly t-24, it's most likely that your flight is a continuing leg of another connecting flight or flights. Those who have booked the connecting flight can check in t-24 for their originating flight's departure, which is earlier than when you can check in. This gives them a better position for the connecting flight than is possible for you to receive. ... View more

After you install the app, open any browser and go to the following site   getconnected.southwestwifi/com ... View more

And another thing, the title is wrong, SWA reserves the right and is authorized, via their policies, to make any flight change they feel are needed or are forced to make.   ... View more

In all the years of flying, I've only had my bags not show up about 3 times, and mostly because of connecting flights.  But it's also something I know is possible, even in the best circumstances.  I've always been compensated for the issue and had bags delivered to where I was staying.  But still a pain in the butt. ... View more

Sorry to hear of the loss of something you treasure.  Yes, way too much time has gone by and the chances of a return of them diminish.  Something of that importance (I'm just assuming here) should have been a carry-on.  And for the most part, I'm behind SWA that this isn't their wrongdoing, but seems to be the Airport personnel or the TSA.   ... View more

@20477875843 It appears that damaged luggage seems to be the new attack of the week on SWA, so be it.  I'm with the others, sorry for the loss of beloved baggage.  But as I put ON THE OTHER POST about damaged baggage:  I'm not going to dismiss you for using your money to buy whatever you want, good on you.  But since the beginning of time (and a commercial of a gorilla just throwing bags onto a plane) it's known that accepting a plane ticket has many risks, one being damaged luggage should you check it, it's a no-brainer.  The relief to that is that you can make a claim against the airlines and get reimbursed, however, it may be a drawn-out process.  I will just give you my direction on the luggage issues since I care not about what people think of my luggage and don't place travel luggage on a fashion statement level.  I buy a 10-15 dollar decent bag from goodwill.  It helps out the Goodwill foundation which employees people that might not otherwise get a job.  The bag normally lasts about 2-3 years and I'm really worry-free about if it ever becomes damaged.  And since I shop often at Goodwill or other stores of this nature that benefit our Veterans, I'm in there often and not a trip just to buy luggage.   ... View more

I feel your frustration. Having been late to the gate myself, (boarding starts 30 minutes before departure), I have had to own and take personal responsibility for my tardiness. It appears you cut it too close since you reference the 10 minute time frame.    ... View more

Remove the confirmation number as said above, someone could in essence steal it.    You don't need your confirmation number to see if your flight is on time, you just need the flight number and can look at the status here:  https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-status/?clk=GSUBNAV-FLTSTATUS or search the flight number on Google or here https://flightaware.com   Again, you only need the flight number to see if it's on time, no need for confirmation number, that's for checkin in only.   -Andrew DEN based | Southwest Passenger   ... View more

Most airlines don't allow this due to "Hidden City Ticketing" where someone will buy a connecting flight with a stop in the city they actually want to go to because it's cheaper than a flight that ends in said city. Airline's don't like this and thus don't check bags just a partial way. This tends to not be a problem on Southwest because a connecting flight is generally more expensive due to paying a combined fair if I'm not mistaken. Sometimes a gate checked bag will be handed back to you at the stop over unless the next flight is on the same plane. But generally all bags are checked to the final destination to avoid passengers skipping out on their last flight. This is true except when arriving on an international flight into the US where you have to grab your checked bag and recheck or not if you're continuing on.   -Andrew DEN based | Southwest Passenger ... View more

Definitely one of the best hidden perks ^^ 🙂 ... View more

I always travel with a small fan in my carry-on.  You should have no problem! ... View more

Best time to book domestic flights is three weeks before departure as airlines want to fill the plane so prices will tend to be cheaper. This sometimes depends on the origin/destination, so maybe anywhere from 3-6 weeks before departure. This also lowers the risk of flight schedules changing. ... View more

One piece of information about the airline industry is that there are specific dates when airlines submit schedules to airports and this can be different from when they make flights available to purchase. This is why it can be troublesome if you book a ticket too far in advance because the schedule on the airline's website is what they expect their schedule to be, but airlines are always evaluating routes and cities based on supply and demand of passengers and even when passengers want to fly, so sometimes they change the schedule. Airlines will even trade their slots with other airlines if it's past the schedule submission deadline.    Airlines are given certain slots based on their historical flight operations, but sometimes the airline decides to change flight time or even drop the airport all together or add destinations all of which affect flight schedules across their network.   Here is a link with more information, it's pretty long, but worth a skim or "command/control F" to learn at least a little bit. http://www.wwacg.org/up/files/DocsWSG/WORLWIDE_SCHEDULING_GUIDELINES/WSG2-Jul00.pdf   ... View more

Basically every thing you described is a typical day in the airline industry except for maybe the pee soaked lavatory. Think about it. This is an industry where we're trying to get a big hunk of metal safely into the sky that's loaded with civilians tens of thousands of times every single day just in our country. There's bound to be delays like this, it's just the nature of the business. Airports are in the process of renovations to handle the larger number of passengers than they were built for. So, the nature of the business combined with the renovations and airports with exceeded capacity, these things are bound to happen. So, if anything, what you experienced for the most part is an effect of the airport infrastructure and not the airline.   As for the lavatory, if you were the first one to use it, then sure that's on Southwest's cleaners. However, it's likely someone used it before you and they trashed the place. Flight attendants don't normally clean those kinds of messes because they need to keep their hands sanitary to serve food and beverages to the passengers. ... View more

@5280Av8r wrote: There's instructions in the information packet in the seat back pocket. The same one that has all the snacks and beverages. True, however I haven't seen the information packet on flights lately - all they have is the safety instruction packet for the plane.   --Jessica ... View more

@5280Av8r It's been some time.  I'm a runner, and El Paso, TX use to have a 15K race that would start in El Paso, run across the border into Mexico, and back to the USA.  Since El Paso is a 4-hour drive from ABQ, I would take the one-way flight.  I wouldn't think I could justify to myself to take a 7-8 hour flight that gets me where I'm going 3-4 hours later than I could drive, AND, have to get a rental car.    ... View more