Southwest Airlines Community

I've been through SAN just a couple of times, it is a nice little compact area for Southwest although super busy, the lines for food might be longer than you could bear, especially at the 6-7 p.m. hour.   Fun fact: SAN is the busiest single-runway commercial airport in the USA.   ... View more

I usually stick with the big five car rentals due to their higher reliability.   Even for a discount company where you might find the car not to be as nice, difficult to pickup/return, hard sell on the extras, etc. it goes way across the line to blatantly lie to the customer and I'm glad that they refunded you.   I'm sure there are many others that have heard the same spiel and paid up without complaining though.     ... View more

Especially if it is a full flight it would be nice to forgo your seat at the point you know you won't be flying so they can take standbys or sell some BS fares. ... View more

I can't speak to that specific flight, but many of the "1-stop, no plane change" layovers are fairly brief.   You could look up the arrival LAS-SAN and the depature SAN-TUS and see what the difference is - if 30 minutes to 45 minutes I'd plan on staying onboard.   For longer layovers or when delays hit the FA seem to allow people to deplane and reboard using a driver's license or other ID. Most of these are starting to board as soon as the SAN passengers are deplaned though, in which case the FA will most likely not want you get off the plane. ... View more

I don't know all of the details as I'm only a consumer of the airline industry and not an insider - but if the pre-boarding rules don't distinguish then I think it would be allowable.   The best person to ask would be your "sponsor" since they would likely be accountable if you did anything incorrectly. (See news story from earlier this year about United which held back some nonrev passengers that didn't meet dress code.) ... View more

That is correct. I'd expect either another extension, or for Maine to get with the program in which case you'll need to go for an early renewal when the new licenses are available. ... View more

I don't know where to cite the requirements, but I just transferred through Nashville four times in the past two weeks and I saw a lot of carry on guitars, so I know it is possible. ... View more

Your issue is actually working as intended @kwilliford89 - your husband's ticket booked in his name will show up in his account, and not in yours.   If you've added his RR account information to his ticket it will show up for him on his trips.   Without adding the RR number, it will only be looked up by confirmation number as you are describing.   David       ... View more

Are you sure they aren't messing with you? Those are certainly A-list territory.   The other likely scenario is that someone on the A-list changed their plans between 36 hours and 24 hours, vacating those positions. Early bird (and all the other A-list and A-list preferred) positions would already be assigned, then whoever checked in first would get the vacated spots which turned out to be your co-workers.   If so, good for them, but it was a fluke that those two spots were available and that they were able to get them. ... View more

You can click on the "gear" icon and edit your post to say "gift cards" instead of "tickets" - anyway, hopefully the experts weigh back in.     I'm a little mixed up where some of the requirements are per person, and some are per reservation. 12 gift cards seems excessive for the programmer to allow, but the wording on the one bullet was clear that it is three per person.   May we ask why you want 12 gift cards instead of 4, or could each person book their own travel where the combination of all into one total wouldn't matter? i.e. each one uses their three in separate transactions?   I don't think you can make a "test" reservation and see how far you get, you probably can't add a second gift card until the first one is accepted.   David ... View more

I think the width limitation is practical to get multiple bags into one standard overhead bin, four-wide on a 737-700, or six wide on 737-800. Yours will fit, and if someone else puts a "skinny" bag in there, it will still be four wide, if not it will just be three.   People bring bags that don't fit all the time though and stuff them in sideways taking up extra room, I'd just hate for you to be the guy that gets singled out. Since you have the fragile exception, you'll be fine, and most likely no one will question it anyway.   David   ... View more

@johncardozaI just saw a post by @franktravel on another thread that allows a fragility exception, so you should be good. I accidentally closed that window so I don't have the link. It definitely fits as the depth is the largest of the allowances, you were only over the width specification.   Do keep an eye out if you put it in an empty bin that someone doesn't damage it putting their items on top. ... View more

Check the terms of the rental, if these are bonus points then they aren't always applicable to CP qualification, but you should have them added to your balance of rapid rewards points for booking travel, etc. ... View more

I don't know if you would be asked to check the dimensions, technically over size width - I think your item would fit physically in the bin, one inch wider than recommended but depth is less and height is low enough that you'll need to watch out for people putting items on top of it if it is fragile.   Other than the "will it fit?" boxes at the ticketing area I haven't seen Southwest gate agents running around with tape measures. I'd say go for it. ... View more

Rear would be better anyway, there are two lavatories, and you can stand in line to hold your spot, where you can't wait in front if it is occupied. Family boarding at "A61" should be fine for getting a position in the back. ... View more

I wouldn't buy the wifi if you are depending on using a VPN connection. ... View more

At Midway you would hang to the right and get screened at the rear TSA station. Even if you see a longer line at TSA Pre than the general gates, stick with it - you'll save the time with shoes, laptop, etc.   Your mileage might vary at your own airport, but I've found it to be a consistent time saver at some of the larger locations MDW, LAS, MCO.   TPA was one where they let more people try it out, but still usually shorter than the regular line.     ... View more

I don't think so. If you can't get two spots together (aisle/middle) towards the front during family boarding, you can probably get them close to the rear lavatories.   About 30 minutes prior to landing you'll notice the engines back off and a slight attitude adjustment to the plane - I'd jump up and go then regardless of need. ... View more

If you click through to the purchase page @LindseyM, it will show the credit for the points already allocated - I think this may be what you are seeing where the starting page for changing the flight doesn't account for the points already dedicated to the trip.   When you get to the end, you'll see the quoted number of points and deducting the already allocated points, and the two should then be equal.   This is fresh in my mind having changed a trip just this morning and I noticed the same effect.   ... View more

Why only a copy of the passport? The real one would work officially.   He sounds like he is in very good shape compared to people that lose their ID on the way to the airport and have nothing to backup their identity.   Allow some extra time checking in, and probably go to TSA first if you can and then back to Southwest - whatever they give him may work for Southwest, but if you do it in the other order TSA seems less likely to take Southwest's document. ... View more

Last night at Midway I didn't have a checked bag, but ended up waiting 20 minutes for the economy garage shuttle. (And only passed up one Red Lot shuttle during that time.)   That would be game over on the wedding right there! ... View more

Keep mentioning it here, can't hurt. There is also the next step after deciding an aiport is desirable that Southwest would need to get gate access, which might be tricky if they are all assigned already. The current gate holders are probably not interested to have Southwest come in there. ... View more

I'm assuming you have your ticket already booked.   If so, book the companion using your points now as a safety net. Then when companion pass is activated before the 15th, you can refund the points back to your account and book the companion ticket. (Or book the companion from the companion's own points, either way.)   If for whatever reason CP isn't awarded by then, at least you have the ticket for the companion reserved.   If it isn't too late, book the flights in one-way segments so that you could cancel them indivdiually in case you got CP between flights or in the future when you need to make changes. ... View more

This sounds like a pre-board situation where you will be wanting to sit in the bulkhead row. I don't believe that this could be guaranteed for any particular flight since there could be multiple pre-boarders trying for similar positions. You'd be excluded from the exit row seats as a pre-boarder if that was the solution. ... View more

You have 12 months - if you had the card all year then the points from december spending in 2016 that  posted in January 2017 are included towards your 2017 CP qualification. Counting the points from December 2017 would be giving you 13 months.   Southwest doesn't want to get daily updates from Chase on every card holder purchase. There is also the issue of returns soon after purchase to game the system. I don't think this is an IT problem - they most likely don't want to do that.   An earlier poster didn't think the points were equal quality - why would they be? Southwest directly controls the points from flights, which is their core business - these are obviously favorable and reward the more frequent Southwest customers. Points from travel-related partners are also good, tie directly to Southwest's core business, and are relatively infrequent transfers of information (one hotel and one rental car per trip for instance. They can also be booked directly from Southwest's own website.     ... View more

I was confident - the A-list terms are pretty clear stating "take flight segments during a year" as opposed to companion pass points which clearly state "when points post" so I was pretty sure you would get it, if retroactively.     ... View more

I was always under the impression it was the same as the terminal, which is 4 a.m.   We did go early this past Friday for a flight which was at 5:30 a.m., I think we were at the curbside in the 4:45 a.m. timeframe and they were up and running like normal. Bags made it btw.   We made family boarding, I was just walking up to the gate from dropping the car in economy garage when they started the A boarding. ... View more

I would assume that you will, in fact the terms (if you saved them) may require that you carry the card with you when the companion travels.   I've never been asked for it, but carry it all the time just in case.   ... View more

Although you'll be assigned a position at 36-hours, you won't be able to check-in (retrieve) your boarding pass unitl 24-hours...is that the problem? ... View more