Southwest Airlines Community

Working in Reservations, we get a lot of your typical calls: making a reservation, changing a reservation, seeing what's available, so on and so forth.   Here's some tips that may help you when booking or changing your next Southwest reservation: The Internet and the Modern Person   1.  Our confirmation numbers never contain the number 0 or number 1.  It's always the letters "O" and "I".   2.  When booking online, should you get a phone call or leave the computer for an extended amount of time while booking a reservation, the security software will "time out" to make the seats available for another Customer.  We do this because, otherwise, individuals would be able to hold seats indefinitely without ever making a purchase.  If you try to continue after a time out, you will receive an error that states "the reservations system is unable to process your reservation."  Unfortunately, you will need to start over again from the beginning and go all the way through without stopping.   3.  Internet fares are only available on southwest.com.  As such, our Reservations Sales Agents are unable to offer Internet fares over the phone.  We also can't check you in for your boarding pass over the phone.  Click here for information on online checkin.   4.  Rapid Rewards Awards reservations cannot be made through the "Book A Flight" option on the right hand side of the page.  The information is accessed by going to the top of the web site and clicking on "Book Travel."  From there, click on Rapid Rewards Awards Reservations and select your desired flights.  The system will ask you to login to your Rapid Rewards account.  If there are no Awards in your account, the system will not allow you to move to the next step.  5. Sometimes your reservations won't show up in your MySouthwest snapshot.  This is because you need to be logged in to your MySouthwest account at the time of the initial booking for the reservations to display on this page.   The Art of Communication (and other miscellaneous items)  1. Sometimes, we just can't hear you.  The modern marvels that are cell phone coverage and speaker phones can distort the human voice.  N sounds like M, X sounds like S or F, and B sounds like D.  If you're on a cell phone or a speaker phone, please spell out your name and especially your confirmation number phonetically so we can be sure to get it right!   2.  We don't fly to Mexico (who knows what will happen in the future).  For some reason I get asked that a lot.   3. For most of your questions regarding what you can take on a plane, the Transportation Secuirty Administration's web site pretty much has it covered with several comprehensive lists.   Hopefully, these tips will help you when booking your next Southwest trip.  Please, feel free to comment or ask questions!  We LUV hearing your comments!   ... View more

So, I'm heading out to Dallas for the Nuts About Southwest Birthday Party, and it is my first time to visit Headquarters.  Here is a running account of my trip.  I would have loved to post some pictures up, however, they aren't developed yet....maybe I'll get a Photobook or something going on as soon as I can.    04/26 1:00 a.m. (Pacific Time)--Leave my post at Phoenix Reservations to catch the 6:40 a.m. flight.  Start packing.    4:30 a.m.--I head up to the gate to grab some "Fourbucks" and some Wendy's (a.k.a. breakfast of champions).  While I'm in line at Fourbucks, I'm talking to one of our wonderful Pilots, trying to figure out if our own Captain Ray Stark was possibly flying my plane.  There's a ton of Phoenix-based Pilots, so he's got no idea since he's running a totally different route.   5:30ish a.m.-- I'm just hanging out at the gate, when a Captain flashes his badge at me and asks, "You looking for me?"  Lo and behold, it's our own Nuts About Southwest superblogger extraordinaire Captain Ray Stark!  After shooting the breeze for a bit, he heads to his flight's gate.  Boarding commences for my flight. 6:40a.m.--Takeoff time!  As we fly over the mountains and desert, I'm starting to doze off, but I'm coherent enough to snap a few photos over Arizona and New Mexico.  At this time in the morning, I'm usually going to bed.   11:40a.m. (Central Time)--Dallas!  So, after the shuttle drops me off after rolling past the people playing beach volleyball in the parking lot during their lunch hour, I drop my bags off in the Public Relations Department, eat some lunch with some of our wonderful PR folks, and then I head up to the cafeteria for, you guessed it, more coffee.  By this time, I'm fairly delirious.  I walk the halls totally, completely, and utterly lost, which is a good thing.  As I see all the memorabilia on the wall, I can't help but think how special this Company is, compared to other corporations.  Hand-drawn sketches of Herb and Colleen, letters from children, a velvet painting of Herb in an Elvis suit, and other things "Southwest" adorn the hallowed hallways of Headquarters (say that three times fast!).  I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the hallways!  I stroll into the Executive Office, and I'm greeted by an enthusiastic receptionist.  I inform her that I just want to get a picture of Herb and/or Colleen's nameplate on their doors.  Her response was "Honey, they don't HAVE nameplates!  You know how informal we are here!"  I about died laughing, and I realize that, while everyone has an ego of sort (I mean, *I* would have a HUGE nameplate on my door!), our Leaders don't need that kind of recognition.  The fact of the matter is, Colleen is a sweetheart, Gary cares about what happens, and Herb is, well, Herb. 2:00p.m.--Time for the christening of a new plane!  There is a huge ceremony for the new Adopt-A-Pilot Program plane at the adjacent Dallas Maintenance Base.  A ton of people pour out of Headquarters to go to the ceremony.  It's kind of warm, but a cool breeze blows over the hangar. However, when it stops, it gets warmer.  The crowd gathers around the podium as the stars of the show begin to speak.  Gary is up there; Colleen is up there; and a few Pilots and young kids are up there.   As the speakers begin, I can't help but realize how important this program is to the youth of our generation and generations to come.  For those that don't know about this program, it started with about 50 Pilots that got "adopted" by a fifth-grade class, and it has grown to over 600 Pilots and 30,000 students each year.  The Pilots come into the 'classroom, teach math, science, and geography, delivered in an aviation context, and maybe even take a flight!   One thing that stuck out the most to me was a story about an inner city school whose kids didn't realize that a person of color could actually BE a pilot.  Being a product of the inner city, I would have loved to seen something like this in our middle school.  What a fantastic program!   3:00 p.m. to about 4:30 p.m.--I stroll around Headquarters some more and talk to a lot of nice people.   4:30 p.m.--Party time!!!!  I meet ALL the incredible bloggers!  What a fantastic party...after a few fajitas and beers, I'm doing pretty well, thank you very much! Somewhere about 7:30 p.m to about 11:30 p.m.--I go out for a night on the town in downtown Dallas.  Very cool place, and I  get some dinner and go to a concert.  At about 12:30 a.m.--I crash and burn; out like a light bulb; stick a fork in Paco, and I am done....I'm toast.    5:30 a.m. (Central Time) to 10:35 a.m. (Pacific Time)--I get up, get ready, and get hyped-up to head back home.  It was a wonderfully crazy evening, and I'm ready to get home and finish out the day.  I get my boarding pass, and I'm gone.  After a quick stop in Austin, I head up to an exit row seat to stretch my legs out, and start chit-chatting  with the person who sits in front of me.  It turns out that he builds music studios.  Tech talk ensues, and we discuss mixing boards, condenser microphones, and all sorts of other random musical footnotes for the next two hours.    There's no sleep for me when I get home due to the fact that I have to work from 4:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. that night, but I'm just glad to be home. Jedi Blog Master signing off.......... ... View more

So the next time you're flying on our wonderful airline, check the seat back pocket in front of you and you'll most likely find two things (other than someone's newspaper from the flight before you and the, uh, "bag"): Southwest Airlines Spirit magazine and the SkyMall catalog.   Spirit gives you fantastic articles, interviews, and great vacation ideas that you can accomplish in three days to selected cities.  Personally, I've read every one cover to cover since I've been with the Company, and I have not been disappointed--even though, I'm more of a crossword person rather than a Suduku person, but that's another post for another day.   But I'm not here to toot our horn, since the magazine toots for itself.  I'm talking about the SkyMall catalog!  If you think that you've seen it all, heard it all, or even thought of it all, I can guarantee you that this catalog will change all your preconceived notions of things you think haven't been invented yet!  Mother's Day, Father's Day, Secretary's Day, Just Because Day, you name it, and there's a gift and an idea for each one of them!   Some examples of the "wish I'da thought of that" are:  Be the life of the party with a Popdrive!  It's a combination 1GB USB flash drive and bottle cap opener!  Play music from a PC AND crack open your favorite frosty beverage at the SAME TIME!   Create mp3's from your old cassette tapes!  The Plusdeck2 mounts in one of your 5.25" drive bays and coverts your old cassettes to MP3s.  They also have a USB turntable to convert your records to mp3's.  Plays 45's and LP's (sorry, no 78's).   Then there's the SnacDaddy.........wondering where you can put your chicken bones after you're done your wings?  Wonder no more as the SnacDaddy has that covered with a tray designed to hold chicken wings and hide the bones in the center hole.   Want a great book?  Try The Lost Art of Towel Oragami!  You'll never fold a towel the same way again!   And...for the ULTIMATE in luxury, check out the deluxe golf carts:  The Cadillac Escalade and the Boyd Coddington model! 15" Rims, Alpine AM/FM/CD player with speakers, chrome tilt steering wheel, and billet grille.   And after you're done shopping, be SURE to read the Southwest Spirit magazine! Jedi Blog Master ordering the USB Cubicle Missle Defender as we speak...... ... View more