Southwest Airlines Community

@dfwskier wrote: Arghhh I inadvertantly hit the solution button instead of the comment button , and I cant find a way to remove the solution -- sorry. Click into the "gear" and there is an option to say "not the solution" which should be available to the champions and also the OP.     ... View more

@Kshallene wrote: I wanted to recognize Petta Gay at Fort Lauderdale airport on April 20, 204 for her exceptional service in helping to figure out why my mother in laws TSA preflight wasn’t printing. The previous airport couldn’t figure out the issue but she took the time to work it out!  Outstanding service!     Glad it was resolved - if you'd like to send the kudo's to Southwest then use Contact Southwest Customer Service or reach out on Twitter so that these can be entered into the system. This is a customer to customer forum so although it is great to hear a good report there's no official channel to recognize staff.     ... View more

@gabelogan99 wrote: I've heard the gate agents say that you need to have the PRBD designation on your boarding pass in order to preboard. But from what I've seen, this is never enforced. I think if you make people get that designation either at check-in or at the gate, fewer people will go out of their way to do it. And I'm just talking about the "scammers" not the people who necessarily need it. I'd say the people that absolutely DO need it have already had the conversation and already have the designation. Companions would need to get the designation as well, and if you tell the gate agent that you have five companions then that's going to be a no.   All I'm saying is use what's already in place and just enforce it. If you do not have the PRBD designation on your boarding pass, you do not get to preboard. Period. This shouldn't violate any laws because you're still allowing those who want to preboard to do so, they just have to take an extra step in order to do it. Counterpoint:   I believe nearly 100% of people that preboard have gotten it marked on their boarding passes, and anytime I've boarded with my mother who uses it we've been checked for having it. One time we didn't have it they still let her on since we were in the wheelchair and it was obvious.   I don't know if that would work for the companions, that may be an area of improvement enforcing only one helper/companion per preboarding passenger. I'm not sure about actually marking the peoples' boarding passed with that designation though since they aren't able to use it without the person who has requested it. If the original preboard passenger didn't fly for some reason or changed flights the helper would still have it on their boarding pass - I'd say no to that, or it would have to be "preboard companion" or some other marking than the same "PRBD" marker.         ... View more

@TheMiddleSeat wrote: Agent is wrong. EarlyBird from Anytime fare will provide a sequential boarding position for companion. Had this situation last week.   --TheMiddleSeat Agent was probably thinking of Business Select which would work as they had described.     ... View more

@kingjf67 wrote: I am trying to book a flight using travel points...I don't have enough, but I cant see a way to use my travel funds to pay for additional points....I'll.still have some cash payment but not as much...is there a way to do this...or should I just calla dnsee if it can be done? One idea would be to maximize point usage by booking one-way tickets then you can use points on one leg and cash on the other.   Otherwise your booking has to be all cash equivalents or all points but not both - that feature is supposed to launched soon to allow points plus cash but not available yet.         ... View more

@Cbara07 wrote: Finding this thread after experiencing the same frustration. I fly to MCO from Chicago at least once a year and my mother does the opposite also at least once a year. Looking for flights for her for June and there’s barely any non-stop to ORD and MDW costs are ridiculous! Between the 2022 holiday mess,  going on 4 weeks now waiting on my refunded priority boarding after they changed our flights out of nowhere and were given C boarding, and now the inability to get a decent flight… really losing faith in Southwest. Midway is widely known to be the cheaper of the two airports, the fees associated with the landing and facilities are way less hence why Southwest has been using Midway for so long to the exclusion of O'Hare until recently. If the fares are high then it's due to supply and demand.    Some gates opened up during the pandemic due to the international flights being so much less so Southwest was able to claim ~4 gates in Terminal 5 at O'Hare. The strategy seems to be offering direct competition from O'Hare to American and United who fly to their hubs so there is definitely a concentration of flights to DEN, DAL, PHX, and then Southwest's "hubs that aren't hubs" BNA and BWI.   ORD can never equal what MDW has to offer as Southwest has 20+ more gates to use at MDW.       ... View more

@cardmary wrote:   is there anything Southwest will be doing to compensate?   thanks   That's very long, Midway can be a longer time frame than some others but usually faster than that for sure.   I suggest to reach out to Southwest either online or Contact Southwest Customer Service and explain your observations and how it affected you - just include the facts. They may be able to offer a voucher, TBD but first step would be to ask.   The other perspective on this would be whether your flight only was delayed or was the whole baggage system backed up? That could signal whether there was a problem in general at the airport or if there was something specific to your flight that got held up.   Who knows about "what someone said" you have to consider for yourself does that person really know or does it make sense? This one doesn't...if the staff had "just walked off" then they were on the way to do something else and it was probably a miscommunication to get the task filled by someone else.         ... View more

@bballflyer wrote: I have transferred points a couple times, and that is when the other person just needs 1000 or 2000 points to be able to use the rest of their to complete a flights and I don't have enough to book it for them.  (for example, recently there was a 30% sale to HI and my daughter had 14000 points but needed 15000 to go to HI so I transferred her 1000 points so she could book the flight)  That is the only time I have transferred, and yes the cost is very high comparatively.  (and in hindsight I probably could have transferred from my Chase card for free)  This is great advice - transfer or buy points only to top off another account where they otherwise wouldn't be used.   Even then consider if the fees are going to be too high and you should just buy the flight, there will be some breakeven point where buying or transferring points will cost more and it would be better just to leave the points for a later opportunity to be used.     ... View more

@bballflyer wrote: It took me a wile to understand their postings;  You are getting the points, it is just that they have two lines one for tier qualifying and one for the points that are available for you to use toward a flight.  The 8K points are the credit card points you see in your total to use toward new flights, in addition that entire amount also counts toward companion fare.  You will also get 1500 for every $5000 CC dollars spent, so it has different row that shows 0 additional points because you do not get these as additional points available for use to fly because that was included in the 8K line:  This $0 line is to increase your tier qualifying points only.    It is broken out a little different than your flight that shows both in the one line; you will always have some portion of a paid flight go toward Tier status, but you may not have a portion of your credit card;  For example if the CC was only 3000 you would not get the tier status allocation because you did not reach the 5K required.   To simplify - the TQP are "theoretical" for your status and in this case they don't equate to having actual rapid reward points to redeem and they do not equate to having more CP qualifying points either.   Most points you earn from flights will show up as TQP, CP, and RR but these 1,500 point bonuses are only contributing to TQP.         ... View more

@rlabardi wrote: Southwest is misleading passengers when they call it Early Boarding! Don't worry - the lawyers have read that and it is called "Early Bird Check In"     ... View more

*And then keep booking one-ways in general as it is often helpful in cases like this. You could probably call and get this done, but then you'll lose the ability to self service changes to the itinerary. ... View more

@05bardic wrote: You would not be able to book a companion on the 3/2 return flight. If you book two separate trips instead of one round-trip. you can at least use the companion pass for the 2/23 flight.  This must be some promotional pass? I'm not sure how you got February of next year but assuming the date are correct this is the best advice to book one-ways and then you can use CP on one leg and pay for the other.     ... View more

@cpavalock wrote: If I do not pay my ENTIRE balance on my CC, do I lose my points? Or is it only necessary to pay the balance due? Balance due ... View more

@SoCalFlyer97 wrote: This location for the second consecutive time assigned me a room that turned out to be an 'upgrade' to their King Suite at no additional charge. I get the 'news' upon entering the room...nothing mentioned at the desk. Not sure what the causes this perk but...Free Upgrade...Nice!    Perhaps IHG knows I'm an A-Lister and wants to give me some extra perks--just kidding. I think the hotel wasn't able to rent out these suites and decided to place the single-nighters into the suites so they can rent out the remaining available standard rooms for those staying longer--my guess as I don't work in the hotel industry; I could be wrong. I think you are right - if they don't feel like the suite is going to sell go ahead and offer it to a returning guest to keep you coming back, at the same time opening up a standard room for last-minute bookings.   I'm not an insider so I'm just speculating as well. Better to surprise a returning customer than a last-minute bargain hunter that may never return.         ... View more

@rsinghvi89 wrote: but why would the price change , notice how the price of ticket is different in points with and without code, irrespective of the fee? Sometimes a sale is applied globally but in this case you have to enter the code, if a prospective customer showed up that didn't have the code for whatever reason then the ticket is current price without the discount.     ... View more

@bec102896 wrote: I like the cheese it as well maybe they can cut the bread thing I don’t mind the pretzels but I want more cheese it’s  Bruce eats everything except the garlic breads.   He does prefer the cheez-its.     ... View more

@Jmh0523 wrote: Whoa, yeah the amount of points for a stay is way too inflated. Darn it. See another post earlier today - the points on WGA fares are like getting up to 12% back if they are redeemed at $0.015/point value which would be primarily for flights, other redemption methods are likely to be less valuable.     ... View more

@Einhander wrote: Wow! Thanks for putting it so simply and beautifully. 12 percent back now sounds like a heck of a lot! 1.5 percent cash, not so much. The cash you can use for anything, which is good. But if you are flying fairly often then the benefit in points value could be more.   There are other ways to redeem points which may not yield the $0.015 estimated value, flights are the best option for keeping the value high.         ... View more

@Einhander wrote: I’m having a hard time understanding the points but if you had to do a very general estimate, how much money am I getting back (for flights) for every $100 I spend?   And how would you compare that to the Apple Card cash back? I believe I get back a buck and some change in cash for every hundred I spend on my Apple Card.  As @dfwskier mentioned you get about $0.015/point to make it a round number - so 1.5%.   Then when you buy WGA flights you get 6 points per dollar.   If you use the Chase RR Visa you get a bonus of 1 point per dollar of all spending, and 1 additional point per dollar from Southwest.com.   So for $100 WGA fare you'd get 600 + 100 + 100 points worth $0.015 = 12% back on your $100.   If you bought Business Select obviously the same $100 fare would now be $400 for instance which would be 12x points plus 1x plus 1x . 21% back on your $400.   If you don't use the Chase RR Visa then remove the 1x and 1x points.   So for flights you get back more value than a 2% to 5% cash back card would provide. It benefits Southwest at the same time although the value to you is the full amount if they provide you a flight for points it doesn't really cost the airline the full amount so it's win-win.                 ... View more

@1HeathG wrote: So a couple of weeks ago I booked my mom and I’s flight from St. Louis, MO to West Palm Beach, FL with a layover in ATL. Well a couple of days ago our whole itinerary got changed to a layover in Baltimore, MD. My mom and I don’t want to fly there because it would be silly to do so. I was wanting to change our arrival airport to Orlando and I for some reason can’t and it only gives me the options of West Palm, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami. I don’t want to fly into the other two and I kinda just want to get a non stop flight to Orlando but I can’t without paying for it. Would be possible to change to Orlando on the website rather than the app? Thank you in advance! I don't think Southwest considers Orlando as equivalent (they use the word "co-terminal" with the Miami area airports.   If there was a major weather disruption they may allow people to swap between these on an emergency basis but for a basic schedule change like this I think they expect you go continue with PBI, FLL, or MIA.   If you decide to call in you can give it a try, and who knows if you can find a fare that's equivalent you can change it yourself with no change fee, only have to pay the difference in fare.   BWI is quite a bit bigger of a Southwest operation than ATL so I'm curious if you are worried about the distance in the terminal? It's a pretty good airport for connections as there is a high frequency of service in case of delays and O'Brycki's is one of my favorite airport places to eat.   BNA is also a good connection option if that's a choice, plenty of food and beverage outlets, music, and on a more direct line of travel for you.   Maybe MSY not as frequent for service but keeps the path straighter.             ... View more

@Felixbball wrote: I recently booked a RT fight to qualify for the companion pass offer to be used between Aug and Oct. Today, the flight I used to qualify was delayed so I got on standby for an earlier flight. Would that void my eligibility for the companion pass?  I can't say officially I'm just another passenger like yourself, but my guess would be that it is okay. The changes that we heard about before that void the opportunity are changes where you are changing dates, airports, or rebooking in advance including changing your payment.   Unfortunately its vague as the terms don't describe what may or may not qualify in detail.         ... View more

This is the post I was referring to @CarlyeThornton - didn't recognize the URL at first but it does link from Southwest.com     ... View more

If you navigate to the regular hotels booking section does it offer a points option there?     ... View more

@dfwskier wrote: The reason tfor that suggestion is that SW can do the cancel and add of your companion in real time -- minimizing the risk that someone else could grab the last seat on the plane - thus leaving your companion without a seat.   Other than that, you can cancel and then book your companion yourself. Agreed - try to "buy" tickets for the flight now and you can see if it is sold out or nearly sold out (or blocked for any other unknown reason).   You may be able to self service on it by canceling only your husband's ticket, or if it won't let you make that change online for whatever reason then call in and the phone agent can make the swap.           ... View more

@PDFelter wrote: They adjusted schedules last night because my flight changed from a non-stop to one with a layover in MDW for our early morning flight.  Bummer because now there is only 1 non-stop during the day and it is late afternoon!  We like the early flights but need non-stop and we lose a full beach day by taking the later non-stop....  ugh.    Last night's update got us too. ... View more

@bpacker wrote: So if my payment date is May 1, what if I pay my entire balance (over $4,000) tomorrow? Will that speed up the awarding of companion pass and 30,000 rapid rewards points? Or do I still have to wait for May 1? It is based on the statement balance and not affected by your payment, other than your account needs to be current.         ... View more