Southwest Airlines Community

@floridaguy wrote: Maybe I'm reading this wrong.   The curbside checking is right outside the main check in area. Yes - and if you don't use it and instead had to go park your car or return a rental car, then you have a chance to forget something in the rental, leave it on the shuttle bus, etc.   Or do you mean - if you have someone else in the car with you - to run it into the terminal and check it at the counter instead? That sounds fine if the cops aren't rushing you out of there. They won't let you do that at Midway or O'Hare for example. But you could let one person out to go check the bags at the counter while the other goes and disposes of the car if you have only two items.   Otherwise curbside is the way to go if you have only one person traveling with many bags, or multiple people are checking two items.     ... View more

This is greattly explained. ^ ... View more

There is no "family pre-boarding", only "family boarding".  Family boarding occurs between group A and B.  For you to have family boarding, you must have an individual under the age of seven.  Then, that individual can be accompanied by up to two adults.     The first people on the plane are pre-board who self-declare a disability that requires a specific seating arrangement.     ... View more

@TheMiddleSeat wrote: That is an interesting question. I believe that you will benefit from the fact that Southwest is not going to ask you about your usage of the wheelchair and thus will check it for free, without impacting your standard baggage allowance, as they would any other wheelchair from someone who utilizes one. Now, if you volunteered the fact that it wasn't yours and not a medical need for yourself that might change the story. How you handle the situation is up to you.    Same thing for baby gear. A baby somewhere needs this stroller/car seat/etc. - in my case I was bringing the kids back with me.   But anyway, you get two checked pieces and if you were only checking one otherwise, then it's your second piece.         ... View more

Does Southwest honor tickets from other airlines? ... View more

floridaguy must be slipping. One DISASTER was   red while the other DISASTER was  black ... View more

@bec102896 wrote: @sr103 wrote: When was the last non-stop SWA you used?  Pre-Covid?  Many routes now have connections, and ALL my routes do.  But never fear, I will never buy another WiFi connection on SWA, nor will many others.      one thing I would like to see change with the price going up allow people to switch Wi-Fi to a different device in case one of you devices dies during the flight.  This would be nice, I did see it on my one trip on the other guys.   The other guys also had two price tiers where you could buy a couple of hours or else pay much more for duration of your trip (it might have even been for 8 hours and not the full trip duration) which compared to $8/day I was like "ugh" but if the price is going up this might be a good way to break it into bite size wifi.         ... View more

So?   --TheMiddleSeat ... View more

I’ve always strangely found the WiFi spottier on the 800s than the 700s—whether that’s just anecdotal or has something behind it, no idea.   i feel pretty respected/understood as a frequent business traveler by SWA (although I am not a BIG IMPORTANT GUY—I only fly about four to ten hours a week and make significantly less than $300 an hour); it’s why the status exists and why the family boarding got pushed back years ago.   I’d like to know who has the really good, consistent, strong WiFi. In my experience, they most all aren’t impressive, domestic nor international.   i’ve  occasionally been annoyed by the WiFi but I’ve been able to get emails out no issue, usually tap into my organization’s system, and occasionally attend a Zoom (sorry, I know that’s a no-no). When I am working up there, at worst I do it offline and connect-send/save at the end. I most usually take the time to rest though—maybe like the WiFi, you could (should) work less? ... View more

Buy Business select you get the better position buy WGA get worse position so it’s kind of like that. Buy Anytime fare get middle of the pool of boarding passes since it comes with EB check in.  ... View more

If you find that coming to this board is a waste of time, then consider other options.   People do have the right to use this board and whether they post something that is informative to you, or not, is irrelevant.     Again, this board is available within the terms of use. ... View more

@fejeldy wrote: This is not so much a discussion as some advice.   Southwest Airlines ... please, quit apologizing. Please.   I was in San Diego over Christmas, trying to get to back Oklahoma City the day before your system crashed. And crash it did, in grand style, and it should not have. I get, we all get it, and we trust you are getting it fixed and that it should be better than ever, top of the line, and first class, no pun intended. If not, you know, fool me once and all of that, but I trust you are already doing what it takes.   In the mean time ... please quit apologizing. You already have, a few times that I have seen, to a few reporters, to Congress (please, as if those people's hands are clean of anything), and to us.   As I said, I was in San Diego that night, trying to leave the next day, and it was a bad bad evening. But if you fly you have to figure things similar to this are going to happen. My wife and I were up until 2:00 AM that following morning figuring out how we were going to get home, and we figured it out.   Yes, we had to drive from San Diego to Palm Springs, yes we had to spring for a hotel room for one night, yes we had to fly home on American one day late, and yes our little Chihuahua had not spend one extra night in the kennel. BTW, it's a little murky now but we tried American and Delta, tried them from San Diego, Los Angeles, and Phoenix and if memory serves, if they could, it was ~ $2,500 per seat and ten or eleven hour flights. Don't let their sanctimony that night fool anyone.   But we got home, no one died, the dog was good and life has gone on.   Southwest, to their credit, apologized. And before I knew it Southwest deposited 50,000 points in my account just to say they were in fact sorry. And soon thereafter Southwest had a website set up to collect information to reimburse me for my trouble. $2,150 was in my bank WAY sooner than I ever expected to pay for an extra day of a rental car, a hotel room in Palm Springs, two tickets on American to get me home, and wait for it, the extra $17.50 for the extra day my little dog had to spend in lockup!   For my money, you guys are still the best. Get your $@!& together and we'll move on. I like everything about you guys from the gate people to the people inside the cabins.   Quit apologizing, move on, and thanks for making me whole so quickly.   I'm heading back to San Diego in late March, booking the ride right now on Southwest, and can't wait!   In full-disclosure, I'm not a business class kinda of guy. My wife and I rarely pay extra to grab the first fifteen seats in line. We fly in the middle of the pack just like most others. And I'm not a Southwest Corporate shill. Just a guy who loves Southwest and they way they handle their business.   BTW, a personal note to the trolls who may reply to this, I won't reply nor get in a discussion with you. I have said my piece, I respect your right to what you have to say, but we don't need to wear each other out with back and forth 🙂 Very well said! Thanks for posting.   --Jessica ... View more

Interesting article by Forbes - looks like Southwest is going to take a bath financially.   https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2023/01/06/southwest-meltdown-could-cost-825-million/?sh=57740326709f ... View more

@JeffreyViti wrote: what are the changes? click on the link contained in the first post of this thread ... View more

@rglexecutive putting your claim # in your post is probably not the best idea.   --TheMiddleSeat ... View more

In response to my DOT complaint, Southwest reached out to me and asked me to file the paperwork AGAIN including the receipts, numbers, dates of flights etc. which I did.   Hope is what keeps us humans going 🙂   ... View more

And now we know why....   SW somehow didn't create a file number for our claim so that's why it wasn't being handled.   Out of all the nice phone agents, today I spoke with someone who took his time to research and get me answers.   Now, we have to start over and submit an entirely new claim.   It's only taken over a month to uncover what happened.   So, to those who think patience is the way to go - maybe rethink your philosophy.   Had we relied on patience any longer, we would still assume our "escalated" issue was being handled behind the scenes when it hasn't been in front of anyone in all this time.   ... View more

The issue of preboarding has been discussed many, many times.  If you do a Google search you will find posts that date back over 10 years about the same subject.   Southwest has unassigned seating, open seating.  That means that it is truly first come, first served.  With preboard, the passenger has the right to self declare and is the first person on the plane.  That's the way it works.   There is somewhat of a "perfect storm" with Southwest since they charge a surcharge to be an earlier boarding passenger and then those same passengers get irritated by preboarding.     A little song has developed and I've heard it a few times at different airports.   ... View more

So here we are, over a month later and the complaints drag on...   Time for a housecleaning. ... View more

That BOLD print is such a cool effect in Floridaguys post  ... View more

@LubahnD wrote: They need to find someone to fix it.  A new CEO trained in house in Southwest family thinking.  This is a long term problem. Nationwide! So as you said this is a LONG TERM problem a new CEO tomorrow or next week won’t change a thing. Problems like this don’t just fix themselves overnight. You could go and buy a technology update sure but you have to make sure it works before rollout or you could have a bigger issue. Also things actually have to be voted on it’s not a one man show and you don’t just buy the first thing you see in the technology world. Go look up other airline technology failures or other company technology update failures there have been several (bad files, bad updates, weather knocking a system offline)    here’s what I do know in other airline meltdowns none of them covered all reasonable expenses or gave out 25K miles to all affected automatically (they might have given out compensation only if someone contacted the airline and you may get different than the person next to you who had the same experience)  ... View more

I just had this happen as well. I had almost $1000 worth of extra expenses that I submitted, and yet today, I get an email stating I will be receiving less than $400. I am not happy and will escalate this further.  ... View more

DISASTER ... View more

@TheMiddleSeat wrote: You may want to ask that person how they did it as I don't think any US airline would allow international travel without a valid, unexpired passport.   --TheMiddleSeat   The US authorities will not be impressed if this person is here with an expired passport either.   It does look like there is an online renewal - good luck! https://www.pica.gov.jm/passport/renew   Otherwise maybe check in at the nearest embassy. I can see the case where the traveler doesn't need a passport to go back to Jamaica as a resident there (it would sure be easier to have one, but let's say it can be done the hard way) but if there is some other way to prove identity on this end to board the aircraft I don't know.           ... View more

@PettyIntrigues wrote: I gotta be honest with you, even if pre-board had been half of that, and there wasn’t a separate family boarding, with a high B now you likely would’ve been in the Cs somewhere.    I am on these birds a few times a week, and I have learned that no desired seat is ever guaranteed. I’m A16 pretty much every single time and that’s still often the case.   Your best bet to get a seat (or any type of seat I should say) you desire is to pony for Business Select or even Early Bird. Failing that, there are a lot of other airlines with assigned seating.   (All that said, I’m apt to agree with you and all these threads—it does seem like preboard gets taken advantage of with some minor regularity. It doesn’t bother me personally though as I prefer the exit rows and they can’t sit there, so I usually have few problems grabbing one of those seats.) EBCI is probably not going to solve it as described, that may often be behind the families.     ... View more

You would definitely want to have this confirmed in writing by a Southwest representative prior to purchasing a ticket.  I would also have documentation and correspondence from the Gov't of Jamaica, not just a birth certificate. Since SWA typically requires passengers flying internationally to obtain a paper boarding pass on arrival at the departing airport, this is the stage where a valid passport must be presented, and the boarding pass gets stamped "DOCS OKAY." If you show up with expired travel documents and without some written confirmation from Southwest and the Gov't of your home country you would be setting yourself up for a world of pain and delay. Even then, plan on extra time to obtain the boarding pass because the agent will likely need to get a supervisor involved before issuing a boarding pass.    Good luck and safe travels. ... View more

@floridaguy    I have a serious question for you    what brought you to the community? Was your flight late and you found this? Did you want to announce you’re a preboard passenger? Did you actually have a question about SW? I see you joined in 2021 so I’m just curious what brought you here  ... View more

The preboard rules are that anyone who "self declares" with a disability preboards and they can have one person accompany that individual   Preboarding has been discussed multiple times and there has even been a song written about preboarding.   Other airlines offer you to choose a particular seat.  With Southwest, it is open seating and that includes any open seat.  So, ideally, a preboard person has the largest selection of seats, except for the exit row(s) which are prohibited by law for a preboard passenger.     ... View more

@tenaciouss I've booked over 100 rooms through the SWA hotel (booking.com) process and have to say only once did I have any issue.  That once was my fault for not seeing no cancelation, however, I still got it cancelled by going through the process of contacting booking.com and working with the hotel.  In the end, it's up to the hotel to force you to keep the room, or courteously cancel it.  With all that said, I know that it's often cheaper by direct contact with the hotel, but you get no SWA points.  I've had a companion pass for the past 6 years primarily due to the fact I use the SWA link to bookings and get on some stays up to 8,000 SWA points.  Getting something, I need any way, a hotel room, and paying a bit more than rack price that helps me get companion, Priceless.  To end this, no I've not had any issues with SWA and booking.com on any of the hundreds of bookings I've made.   ... View more