Southwest Airlines Community

Did you just recently earn A-list? You will "check-in" after 24 hours just as you always did before - the only difference is that your number is already assigned. After the 24-hour mark you are actually just claiming your boarding pass. Since the number if pre-assigned, you don't have to scramble to do it right at 24-hours, you can do it more or less at your leisure.     ... View more

Southwest sells bags for $17 each.   These aren't required, it's up to you if it is helpful to make sure things don't get scuffed, or if you find cheaper bags somewhere else that's okay too.   If you might be flying 5-10 times or more, the cost of the bag may be reasonable to reduce wear from handling.   From my perspective, for any one trip you aren't expecting much to happen to your item. But now having used our blue bags 30+ times, the bags sure are beat up...glad that cumulative punishment (even if a very little each time) wasn't onto our stroller.         ... View more

I am somewhat surprised at the responses you received regarding your inquiry about being told ( not asked) to change seats under the circumstances you described.    Flight Attendants are people too and they are also representatives of the airline and as such are held to at least the same standard as we all are-common courtesy. The manner in which you were ordered to change seats without explanation and with the added haughty dismissive hand gesture--is unacceptable.     The onus is not on you as a paying passenger to provide a defense to not move in an open seating arrangement and with no valid cause--that is ludicrous.   Yes-an apology for the unprofessional behavior IS in order.       ... View more

Feel free to send expiring vouchers to your favorite middle seat traveler 🙂 Or anyone else you like who can fly last minute as they aren't tied to a specific person.    ... View more

No, it's up to the customer to track their own travel funds. You can reference cancelation emails or if you remember specific trips you canceled, use the confirmation email to find the confirmation number. I recommend using a spreadsheet if you do a lot of canceling/rebooking. I store mine in a Google sheet so I can access it from anywhere on multiple devices.  ... View more

I found this by accident one time.  I needed 4 tickets for a simple trip up/down the west coast.  I was just fiddling around trying to see which of the 5 LA airports had the most convenient or cheapest points.  Then I somehow noticed that 1 was different than 4 on points.  So I tried 2 and then 3.  I was able to get 3 at the cheaper points level and then just booked a fourth at the higher level.  But if you put 4 in the sytem it went up for all of them.   So now whenever I look for multiple tickets for my parents or in-laws, etc, I try one person first, then check two.  If they are the same I just book it and move on downt he road.   Hopefully Southwest will still LUV me ... ... ... cuz I LUV them! ... View more

Remember you can always buy Early Bird for the reservation that doesn't have a-list.  It really isn't that much if you got the flight on points or companion pass already.  The only thing is that Early Bird is non-refundable, so if there is any chance you're going to cancel / change the booking, maybe wait until later to buy the EB.  Of course it appears that EB are in a first come - first serve basis by my experience, so you can end up with a very high A or even a low B even on an EB that you buy just a couple days before the flight rather than 3 months earlier when you bought the tickets.   Also, if A-List or A-List Preferred applies to the reservation, SWA's reservation system won't even offer you EB purchase, so you'll know you're good at that point.   Luv -- hgm ... View more

So you would get two "regular" bags to check, and then two baby items.   If you get one of the blue bags or buy a third-party bag for the stroller its possible that the car seat and stroller (if it's a snap-in type) can fit in one blue bag.   This you may gate check or curbside check, either way depending if you will use the stroller inside the airport.   Curbside check the pack and play also since you won't need that inside the airport.   For gate check, get the item tagged (put the tag on the blue bag) ahead of the boarding process so you can board at "A61" with family boarding - you don't want to have to run back to the desk to get the stroller tagged and miss your spot in line.   ... View more

I don't think OP was inquiring about carryon, but certainly all good and valid information. I hadn't seen the eBags listing with all the size information.  ... View more

Extrememly unlikely that additional flights would be added now that the schedule has been released.  The only occasions I can think of where flights were added are for major events such as sports championships once locations are announced, other big news events that lead to an increase in travel on specific routes, or rerouting due to weather. ... View more

just after I posted this i checked again and price had gone up from $94 to $122.We only fly once a year and to Vegas but have always used Alaska Air.So swa would be our first time.There wouldnt be any reason to get a voucher if the price goes down because we wouldnt use it.Its too bad   ... View more

Yes, each person is allowed to check two bags.  They are free as long as they don't exceed the weight or size limits.   Maximum weight is 50 pounds and maximum size is 62 inches (length + width + height) per check piece of luggage. Overweight items from 51 to 100 pounds and oversized items in excess of 62 inches but not more than 80 inches will be accepted for an overweight and oversize baggage fee of $75 per item. ... View more

Yes you can!  ... View more

There are no "extra" planes or gates, same number of planes and gates as always, but schedules and number of flights to/from destinations are adjusted to create space on busier routes while reducing capacity on other routes that may normally be more utilized by businesses travelers who are not flying. It's quite amazing work to adjust such a large operation to meet the unique demands of holiday travel.  ... View more

Mismatching middle names should not cause a problem with TSA, especially if it's an initial versus full name.  ... View more

Let me see if I understand this... you bought the ticket with Patti, but her ID has Pat?   That's a minor difference and I don't anticipate that will be a problem.  Even if TSA doesn't like it, they would let you through security after a few additional questions and perhaps a more thorough screening such as when they allow people through that don't have any ID.  Just give yourself a few extra minutes to get through security.     ... View more

The offer:    Please allow up to 8 weeks for bonus points to post to your Rapid Rewards account.    Good luck!  ... View more

As this is a customer to customer support forum you'd have better luck getting a response from Southwest if you call or send a direct message on Twitter @SouthwestAir  ... View more

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:   And to clarify refundability in this case, if the original purchase was WGA then it's non refundable to begin with. If Anytime was purchased, it's refundable, but when "upgrading" you're better off not refunding and having funds held as travel funds so they can be used immediately towards the purchase of the BS fare. If there's an actual refund they would go back to the travel system and the flyer would be back at step one.   Mixing non refundable and refundable money makes all the money non refundable so if the original purchase was WGA, the new BS ticket would be non refundable.   This isn't completely correct.   This situation is complicated by Southwest's recent policy change regarding "refundable" fares, combined with the passenger and purchaser being two separate entities.   Anytime fare: If the original fare was Anytime, and you change the flight to Business Select, you will lose the ability to get a refund at any future date. An employer would likely be upset to learn that they can't get their funds back if necessary, when they had purchased a refundable fare in the first place for exactly that reason. The funds would now be locked into the name of the passenger.   If you cancel the Anytime fare, hoping to upgrade to BS, the refund would be sent to the purchaser. Meaning that this avenue of upgrade isn't possible in this scenario.   Wanna Get Away fare: If the original fare was WGA, and you change the flight to Business Select, the original portion of the fare will remain non-refundable (locked in the name of the passenger), but the new funds added to purchase Business Select will be refundable (assuming no further changes are made to the itinerary), back to the form of purchase used for the "upgrade."   If you cancel the WGA fare, hoping to upgrade to BS, you can use the funds from the original booking towards the BS one, and everything essentially works the same as above.   NOTE: If you upgrade to a Business Select ticket from a Wanna Get Away fare that you currently have, the original Wanna Get Away portion of the ticket will remain nonrefundable. Any new funds that you apply to make up the difference will be refundable, as long as you make no further changes to the itinerary.   The absurd "refundable" policy change has unnecessarily complicated things. One hopes Southwest follows through on their promise to address the system limitation that allegedly caused this strange policy change to be put in place. And soon.   ... View more

Just want to add that your brother can use the travel funds from the refund (assuming you purchased a non refundable Wanna Get Away fare) within a year from the original purchase date. Travel must be completed within the year.  ... View more

Lol @DancingDavidE, I'm a slight germophob and read too much about flying. Just google'ing "tray table bacteria" is frightening! Perhaps a little exposure is beneficial for kids, but I'll pass. Being in the middle seat all the time I get more than enough exposure without the tray table.  ... View more

Yes, all unused credit is valid to be applied to any number of flights, as long as they are completed within one year of the original purchase.  ... View more

That is the guidance if you want to board together. Obviously as discussed at length that isn't stated in writing anywhere by Southwest.   I had missed this thread earlier, I'm amused by the concept of "Schroedinger's Seat" @chgoflyer. ... View more

If your statements close on the 5th your cutoff for earning points via credit card spending this year is December 5th.  There are reports that points earned from hotel stays booked through southwest.com do count towards CP, but the fine print indicates otherwise so there's no guarantee about those points. The only way to earn A-List is to fly, points earned otherwise do not count towards status.  ... View more

Fly more?  Change existing reservations fares from Wanna Get Away to Business Select if possible and use BS for new reservations.  Lots of Southwest credit card spending, car rentals, and hotel stays would also work.  Also, hopefully you're referencing the CP progress in your Southwest account and just calculating projected points. Remember, points must post by Dec 31 so credit card spend will only work for the billing cycle that ends in December.  ... View more