Southwest Airlines Community

@jlamendo wrote: I have a Samsung Avant cell phone and when downloading the app is says it is not compatiable with this device.  My daughter has same phone and the old app worked fine, after being forced to update the App hers no longer works either.  We have travel coming up and want this corrected before we leave next week. I'm not familiar with the Samsung devices, but if this is an older phone with the OS software that was noted earlier in this thread, I doubt that it will be updated - the press release was definitive in my interpretation that Southwest is not going to support older versions. My recommendation is to familiarize yourself with web access for some of the key travel tasks since you won't be able to use the app.     ... View more

The percentages are not that different for all of the airlines in the article, and each would have some mixture of weather and mechanical delays.    Southwest's network of flying through many destinations allows them not to take a big weather hit or be as suceptible to a problem at one airport, but when big weather events hit Southwest does have a more extensive list of destinations to recover.   We'd have to get some data that showed which percentages were mechanical vs weather to get a better idea - right now a favorable weather service area could have a better on-time percentage, or flying from less  congested airports, etc.   Southwest probably had great on-time percentages flying in the literal southwest US and I'm sure it has eroded a bit through expansion to AirTran territory with East Coast airports.   Anyway, the action item at the end of my ramble: you have a limited ability to search the particular flight you are interested in to see if there is something specific to that route that causes delays. However, the flight numbers are re-assigned regularly which wipes out the easy to search for history within Southwest's website. ... View more

I was re-reading your response and maybe you already have PreCheck - in that case I'd use it instead of the Fly-by in most airports. ... View more

Clear is a private company, so they will profit the most for sure, I'm sure there is some revenue back to the airports. Not sure if TSA would is involved financially or not.   Curious - were you coming through Terminal 1 C gates or B gates?      I have been using PreCheck, so I'm not sure where the Clear station is exactly, I have only flown to LAS since the time I had PreCheck there so I hadn't used the fly-by.   https://www.clearme.com/cities/las_vegas   Anyway - for $100 I recommend that you use Global Entry and get PreCheck if you have been purchasing Business Select tickets for that purpose, depending which airports you fly regularly. Midway for instance doesn't have Clear as an option, and PreCheck is usually better than fly-by. Sometimes the line is a little longer, but goes faster without the shoes and computers, etc.   There are also some similar discount options if you are interested through credit cards.   If you fly LAS very often, American Express Platinum gets you the PreCheck rebate plus access to their lounge which is very nice, includes food and drinks. The only downside is that it is in the D gates so you have to transfer terminals to get back and forth to Southwest's gates. Annual fee is very high, but worth it if you get the PreCheck and use the lounge four or five times, and $15/month uber credits.   ... View more

CLEAR is a separate service outside of Southwest, an alterntive to TSA PreCheck for instance.   Southwest doesdn't "own" the fly-by lane at the airport although in practice for those concourses they have all of the gates. But technically a CLEAR person would have this access for any airline at multiple other airports.   In Denver I've heard CLEAR is sometimes preferable to PreCheck for line length. ... View more

It's too hard to run to the restroom in spite of the FA instructions and the seatbelt light with the carts in the way as well, unless you are an Olympic hurdler. ... View more

At least a little LUV or some luggage tags @nhjonesy.  ... View more

I haven't been to Hobby that early in the morning so I don't have first hand experience.   An hour early at Midway is fine for that first flight of the day, are you checking luggage or carrying on?   ... View more

Totally understand, I was hoping the gap was where you bill the end-client based on completed travel.   I don't know of a way to self-service the purchase confirmations from the website between the time of booking and prior to flight, I'm only aware of the email confirmation containing the payment detail prior to flight. After the flight the receipt page is available from the past flights, but it sounds like you are looking to download copies of the confirmation email which would have to be requested if the purchaser didn't forward them.    I agree it would be helpful on the current flights tab to have a button to "resend receipt" or something similar, although these would still go to the purchaser and not to a third party unless you have their login information.   ... View more

All US carriers take safety very seriously and Southwest exclusively flies "medium-size" 737 aircraft that have been known for reliablity and are able to provide a smooth ride.     ... View more

One possible explanation @jakez is that if you flew on points 16 months ago that wouldn't have counted for extending the expiration.   If you are sure of the timelime and your flight 16 months ago was a revenue flight, then call the customer service. I do think Southwest will correct things if you can show that the points expired in error and with the timeline.     ... View more

Another issue you might be facing @Hanna is that the price shown is for one (two or three) tickets and the fourth ticket is causing the price to increase to the next bracket.   So when you look at the price it is cheap to add one new ticket, but when you go through the points booking for all four tickets it is the higher rate per flight.   Anyway:   1) Make sure when you are looking at tickets that you have four selected for both - sycnchronizing the quantity may levelize the costs in that case. (Both will be high...)   2) If I'm correct, can you rebook one, two, or three tickets at the lower price and then buy the last ticket at the higher price (whether points or cash)? If you cancel your original points booking you will receive the points back into the original account, save the confirmation numbers to re-use the $5.60 or $11.20 taxes/fees. ... View more

On iOS I always add it immediately to the wallet so that there is a static copy saved on my phone, valid for the day.   This comes in handy for instance if your flight is delayed for more than an hour and you go back to the app and...voila, you can't get a boarding pass for a flight that was scheduled to depart already.   You'd have to get a paper copy from the gate agent in that case as well.   Pluse you have a record in the short term with confirmation number, etc. on it - probably in addition to calendar events with the information for many but hey, belt and suspenders.         ... View more

There is some unofficial additional room on the window side where the slope of the aircraft body allows extra room for a flexible bag that I can't fit under the aisle seats.   Maybe this is why @TheMiddleSeat is so fond of the central location - extra underseat space? ... View more

  I've heard of this internationally where there is some sort of punch card for traveling around the world and you can take unlimited flights as long as you keep heading in the same direction. ... View more

Maybe reach out on Twitter also if you use that medium, @SouthwestAir. Don't send confirmation numbers to regular twitter, wait for them to request a direct message. ... View more

Maybe check out some of your extensions, there might be a troublemaker enabled. ... View more

@VASHFORDI'm sure that's what they do. It certainly is targeted to those that have had A-list before and came close to achieving again - someone that has been a regular customer for two years, they don't want to lose that regular customer because they didn't quite fly enough in the past year.   I'm sure if Southwest had a way to see someone that came within a few flights each year but didn't achieve it, they also could be offered the promotion to retain/enhance their business, the main difference being that the person in that case might not be expected to retain A-list if they don't fly enough so it could be a one-off, as opposed to "long-time" A-listers missing out due to a slow year. ... View more

@jwelchThe community is a user-to-user forum, so we can commiserate with you and suggest a workaround (use your gmail?) - if anyone did have a solution for changing a setting or other parameter on your/client's end we would suggest it so it is good that you asked.   I don't believe that sort of solution exists for this issue though or we would have heard it by now, so it will have to be through customer service to lodge the equivalent of a bug report.   The moderators will have some opportunity to pass along high interest topics back to the internal Southwest network, I'm sure this is one of those topics. The moderators can respond where they do have answers to common problems - bookings, how to contact customer service, the basics of booking/rebooking/changing/cancelling/etc.   Where you have a specific question about the SPF, or where a customer has an issue with their booking like "didn't receive any confirmation" then customer service will be the appropriate place to document the issue.   Edit: SPF is an IT thing. SDF is Louisville. ... View more

I'm sure I've seen these come on luggage carousels before, but afraid that I don't know the details or whether it would be standard for the ticket agent to be able to wrap it in plastic for you. ... View more

You (they) can download this after the flight in simple format without all of the detail if you go to "past travel" on the account. ... View more

If it will be only you and the two kids, the wording is that two adults can board with the younger child, so I suppose it would be okay to have the 8-yo go on with you?     ... View more

So for @bec102896's example, if he got his card in the mail in seven days, the online processing was probably a few days ahead of that and may have been available on-line...but there will certainly be some amount of time in between when you request a change and when you can book...just beware, in the example it would be enough time as long as seats were still available on your flight. ... View more

Would the items be secured in some way? I don't think I've seen exactly what you are talking about coming through as "bare" items, do you have covers or bags for the beach equipment?   One worry might be if the chairs or umbrella were able to unfold. ... View more

To clarify, you should book your own ticket now if you haven't already - you can add the companion later after you change it after the flight with your friend.   I'm not sure about the time it takes to change the companion. In case there is any hiccup and if you wanted your wife to go with you either way, you might want to book her on points as a backup.   Then when companion pass is ready, you can add companion and cancel the points. If the flight is sold out you will need to call and do this. ... View more

Great! Go ahead and mark whichever of @chgoflyer's posts helped the most as answering the topic.   And still plenty of time to use the rest of the balnace. ... View more

@roburgwrote: Blake -        I fly out next Saturday so I doubt a single ticket will open up this close in, but I hope I am wrong!  I'm checking daily! I would say the opposite, there is often a lot of action on the day prior and day of a flight - at least for domestic destinations. I'm not sure if that's true for international flights though.   I would think mainly cancels and not so many trying to add, but that's just a gut feeling, I don't have data. ... View more

Try it again today and see if everything goes through on the cheaper flight. ... View more

Can you elaborate on the timing  of the purchase and the flight, and which type of ticket you purchased? I'm assuming the graduation was scheduled for this spring and you still have the tickets booked.   If you have business select or anytime these are refundable pretty easily as long as the flights haven't been changed - I assume that you had a Wanna Get Away fare instead.   The WGA fares are not refundable, but you can cancel the flight and use the flight credit on a future flight, within one year of the orignial purchase. If you fly very often this may be a good way to use the funds. You don't need your original card, just the confirmation number and your name.   You could call customer service and ask for a refund based on the USAF memo, but I'm not sure that they will issue a refund since you'll have the flight credit. Refunds are typically only for cancellation on Southwest's part. Call customer service and see if they go for it though.     ... View more

I know one time booking another airline I had accidentally hit the back button and selected the wrong flight. Thank goodness for the 24-hour cancelation rule, that was a flight to a non-Southwest destination so there would have been a hefty change fee. ... View more