Southwest Airlines Community

If you donate to charity maybe make donations via the card before the December closing date? Win for you, and a Win for your charity ... View more

First off, thank you for sharing your experience flying with Southwest. It's definitely a difficult situation when you end up missing a connection and the inconvenience that it causes is unfathomable.   Generally, Southwest and other air carriers may delay flights to accommodate connecting passengers who are delayed but other factors may interfere with this general practice, such as delays that may interfere with other customers' itineraries. Due to the excessive delay that you encountered in your departure airport, it is only possible for Southwest to hold connecting flights for so long before other customers lose their connections as well. I hope this clarifies the situation that you may have encountered in St. Louis, and I hope this helps you understand what the supervisor may have been trying to say. From my perspective, Southwest is a generous carrier when it comes to delaying flights to accommodate connecting customers. Most other air carriers do not practice this, as it interferes with their schedule and results in excessive fees that are the result of delayed flights.   It is definitely unfortunate that the flight had to leave so close to the time you arrived at the gate.   I hope that Southwest was able to accommodate you on the next available departure and make any necessary arrangements for lodging, etc. I hope that you will consider choosing Southwest to travel with again. ... View more

Thank you for sharing about your experience on Southwest Airlines. It is appalling to me to hear about the way you were treated on the plane and within the airport. I highly urge you to contact Customer Service to seek a formal remedy for your concerns, as this is not in any way consistent with the Southwest promise.   Open-seating does have its benefits - however, there are drawbacks. If you choose to travel with Southwest again, an earlier boarding position can help reduce the possibility of finding seats in an already boarded plane. The first solution would be to check-in earlier, perhaps 24-hours on the dot before your flight. If this is an inconvenience, you can always purchase Early Bird Check-in, which will automatically secure a boarding position for you 36 hours prior to your flight. With an earlier boarding position, you increase the chances of having more seats available for you and your family to sit in so that you can be closer to one another. Flight crew are not required to reseat passengers to accommodate families; however, it has been generally extended as a courtesy in part with Southwest employee's kindness and character.   "One child over 14 days old and under two (2) years of age, not occupying a seat, may be carried free of charge when traveling with an adult (12 years of age or older)."   Please note that Southwest employees may ask for documentation to ensure that your child is of appropriate age to be carried as a lap infant. This has been a practice of Southwest (although I am not sure if they ask this frequently), so it is recommended that you bring along a birth certificate or documentation to prove your child's age.   All in all, I encourage you to contact Southwest's Customer Service team. This experience is unacceptable, and the action taken (with the $150 travel credit), I believe, should be refunded to your original method of payment instead. Should you wish to pursue this, you can write to the refunds department at Southwest.   Southwest Airlines Refunds Department P.O. Box 36649 Dallas, Texas 75235-1649   Thank you for sharing your Southwest story, and I truly do hope you will give the airline another chance so that you can experience what the Southwest experience truly is like. ... View more

I'll take "This Didn't Happen" for $500, Alex.   --Jessica ... View more

to add on,  anytime you book late or change flights on short notice (after the boarding positions have been assigned), you can board after the "A's" and before the "family" boarding. ... View more

@amgibson wrote: Oh, I’ve reached out to southwest and my funds were sent to their bank (Chase) but never received by my bank. This has been ongoing for 3-4 months now. They refuse to help at all. my funds WERE travel funds then they refunded them, after saying they wouldn’t. Plus they didn’t tell me they refunded them so I never knew to look for them for almost a year until I went to use my travel funds and they were gone. The travel funds also don't last forever, there were several extensions that might have applied during the pandemic to make it longer than a year but typically they are to be used within a year of original purchase.   That doesn't sound like the issue here if they said it was refunded, then I would be trying to confirm the routing numbers, etc.     ... View more

Why don’t you board with the grandchildren and they can board in their spot ... View more

It will depends on the flight attendants how they will treat your 2 year old. However it seems that flight attendants get some kind of satisfaction making a big deal about 2 year olds not wearing a mask. I saw flight attendants making big deal of a young child not having a mask on while he was asleep, and not saying anything to an adult man who had mask under his chin almost entire flight.  One thing you can try to do is to get a mask exemption  document from your son's pediatrician for the flight.  ... View more

Hey there. new to the group. My question on this topic is, what's the difference (if any) between "Award" travel and "Reward" travel? The email I received said:   Simply fly two qualifying round trip flights (or four qualifying one-way flights) between August 19 and November 19, 2021 to keep your A-List benefits through December 31, 2022. This offer applies to all flights taken August 19 - November 19, regardless of when they were booked, including award travel! No registration required   If I go on the terms and conditions page, it says this:   "A qualifying flight for this promotion is a one-way revenue flight on Southwest® from an origin city to a destination city, including any intermediate stops and/or connections on Southwest, or a round trip revenue flight on Southwest from an origin city to a destination city and back to the originating airport or carrier-recognized co-terminal. Companion Pass®, charter flights, reward and group travel, and Southwest Vacations® packages do not qualify as one-way or round trip revenue flight(s) for this promotion. Changes made to any itinerary after purchase of a qualifying flight may eliminate qualification for this promotion"   My question is, do flights booked with RR points count for this A-List promo or not?   Thank you for any info! ... View more

Just an FYI-posting the same complaint in multiple threads dilutes its impact ... View more

SW's stated policy is that as long as there is a mask mandate, service will consist of no more than 4 different drinks  plus coffee.   Why? To minimize flight attendant  potential exposure to Covid. ... View more

You probably don’t know that, as of today, 56% of US population is injected. A lot of nurses got fired because they refused to be injected. Ask “why”?  ... View more

Thank you! We will keep working on the face mask, I’m sure she will get it eventually.  ... View more

Hello, I just went through a search for an item left on the seats at the gate. I boarded, in the air and realized I did not have my valuable art. I found that SW agents would not call the gate. Told me to file a claim. Although, technically the boarding area is not SWA property. If you left it on the plane, then that would be SWA property.  I needed to call the TSA if lost before security, and the Police if lost after security. I also called custodial services, and all the shops in the area. So, depending on where you lost it, you have to have faith someone turned it in somewhere. 1) file a claim 2) call SWA night and day (I found different people, on different shifts, would either help or not at all) 3) call TSA if lost before security point, and the Police if lost after security checkpoint 4) Call custodial services 5) Call any / all retailers in the area (people may not know where to turn it in) 6) Have faith, call night and day (I found different people, on the different shifts, would either help or not at all)   I got to know a custodial supervisor, and she found it sitting on the SWA desk at the gate!!!! it was there for 4 days, with my name and phone number on it!!!!   Be persistent, Ask for recommendations, Be polite (obviously) because some of the folks that you talk to about your item will not be nice. Good luck! ... View more

It’s almost close to four hours in the website for Fa postion is still not working for me   ... View more

11 cancellations in one day? Possibly "New Math?" but seriously sorry to hear you had issues and glad to hear your completed your travel safely ... View more

I would recommend you pay for your rental in almost every case, (also sign up for the particular rental company's frequent renter program and designate your car rental "points" be funneled to your RR account, usually 600 points, unless you rent enough that you want the status perks from the rental car company you patronize.) I personally don't rent enough cars to see the return on investment to do that.  I find I am able to always get a cheaper rental rate directly from the car rental company, even with the pandemic car rental shortage. Using RR points for flights yields the highest value for me personally, best of luck.  ... View more

Thanks for sharing firstcallonline, I found a lot of interesting information here. A really good post, very thankful and helpful. ... View more

The ones profiting from this plandemic are the pharmaceutical companies and China. ... View more

Hmm... someone doesn't understand travel funds,  and that canceling nonrefundable fares still gives you a year to use them.  By his description,  he'd have PLENTY of opportunity to use the travel funds.   And yet,  he hasn't figured that out?    And what other airline would have a BETTER cancelation policy? None I know of.    Sounds like another fish story to me.  ... View more

If it looks odd and is metal be prepared for a delay at TSA screening, hope all goes smoothly. ... View more

I would not call this a regular occurrence, but prices change daily, over the years I've kicked myself several times for coming back to book later only to find a higher price on particular destination. If it's really cheap it's worth booking on the spot..... ... View more

LOL...   You'll be missed! ... View more

Short answer yes you must name the child as your companion, keep in mind SWA limits the number of times you can change your designated companion on an annual basis ... View more

You mentioned "checked bag" so as long as there are no prohibited items (like Lithium Batteries) you should be good to go. ... View more

I was able to register from the full website, the link in the email was to the website, (I signed in and then clicked register.) I did not see the promotion on the mobile app.  ... View more

"Masked up? Lol the kids are terrified and now they can’t smile or see people smile. We are going to have a whole generation of psychotic adults because of this stupidity." Psychotic Adults? Where is your data to back up this claim? Children take their cues on behavior from their parents' behavior. The apple never falls too far from the tree. Good luck with your anger ... View more

Certainly not ideal, but a healthy way to handle the situation.   --TheMiddleSeat ... View more

I read it. Totally agree Southwest has gone downhill. ... View more

@MarshallbCapps wrote: I hate to leave SW after all these years but I cannot accept or condone this charge and their lack of concern over this issue.   You cannot accept or condone a charge you made yourself? This is not Southwest's problem. As others have clearly stated, this is a charge you agreed to at the kiosk. I know if it were me, if I saw that I was paying nearly $500 for an upgrade to Business Select, I would have backed out and not paid it. You paid it. This is not the standard "pay X and get an A1-A15 boarding position" which is something you can do at the gate. You literally paid more to upgrade to a different fare, from Wanna Get Away to Business Select. I'm sorry you did not realize that until after you purchased the upgraded fare.    You don't have a case.    --Jessica ... View more