Southwest Airlines Community

I would demand compensation.  Handling your bags is part of the cost of the ticket.   ... 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

@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

Interesting I see what you are saying, the code is taking 25% off of a much higher point fee then if you just look at it without a code;  25% off of 16K pts vs without fee is 12K points.  That does seem a bit suspect. ... View more

I believe that an independent investigation is in order. ... 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

@DancingDavidE wrote: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.   @DancingDavidE Yep, Chase recently ran a promotion to earn CP through 2/28/25. ... View more

but if you are only paying the balance due you are paying an exhorbitant interest rate - far more than the points are worth.   If you carry a balance, you might be better off with a lower interest credit card.     ... View more

Never worked for those I know that tried. Curiouus to follow tho! ... View more

Quick little revival, conclusion and final hail mary of a proposal First - last flight I was on with SWA I was able to get certain wireguard-based connections to work- BARELY, just unusable unless the flight is empty. IPTV boggs down the GEO-SAT based internet SWA switched to slowly around 2016. Given how much BETTER other airlines wifi is (i.e. using ground station 5G based comms instead of GEO (I believe SWA is now all GEO-based comms specifically provided by Viasat).   Before all this mess started happening, SWA was using a similar system that providers like American Airlines uses (4/5G direct to ground receivers eliminating the huge GEO (geostationary earth orbit satellite) latency. Before SWA offered free TV, speeds were great (given the era and the medium), it would die over bodies of water and as much direct testing I could and experienced when SWA started flying to Puerto Vallarta - a route taken by AA usually only, I was able to compare and contrast for a while, AA would cut out just as SWA would as we got into Mexico from DFW if AA and sadly only via connecting flight if SWA (boy I would love if LUV got an international terminal, I will do everything in my power to avoid layovers, which is why I say limited testing).    Then, SWA switch from Business to ‘free TV’ which is when this all started happening. Basically, I figure what happened is ViaSAT sold SWA on a contract of some sort and it wrecked business users so they could advertise free live junk TV without needing DISH.     SWA started having connectivity over Mexico but still very poor AA still doesn’t, but it’s gotten a lot better as 4/5G get’s deployed in Mexico (heck, I get 5G in Puerto vallarta with speeds around 200Mbps / 10Mbps up which is huge compared to just 4 years ago - note ON LAND via mobile not via the airplane’s wifi). To this day I will happily pay AA wifi because I can actually use VPN with RDP reliably. As long as we’re flying over land in the US. Mexico has gotten better so much so that I will buy it now when going down to PVR. (I still hate DFW though, not as bad as connecting in Houston, though).   AA doesn’t have free TV (from what I can recall). I may be mistaken, I think I recall seeing Dish being a provider for a bit. Separate systems.  So SWA being the cost-cutters they are, were likely sold a great deal with ViaCrap who I assume basically told SWA they could provide both wifi and ‘dish-style’ TV without the extra cost and hardware/maintenance of managing 2 systems. What they DIDN’T say was that it would completely bog down the bandwidth because IPTV isn’t the same thing as Dish. SWA may or may not have known the ramifications of this ‘cost saving’ measure, I will assume someone knew but they thought who cares about wifi when you have MOVIES AND TV FOR FREE (marketing department).  I hope ViaCrap contract ends with SWA soon, I’ve honestly been travelling less on SWA just because they used to be tech-focused (was one of the first airlines to provide decent wifi from what I recall as most orginally started with SAT and very expensive at that. But internet connectivity on a 2-5 hour flight is critical. If I want to watch a movie, I will preload it from Plex.  People are going to get sick of the 7 channels on SWA and the sub-dial-up speeds. And as a manner to ‘keep kids quiet’, In my opinion, I think kids these days would prefer the internet over archaic-style cable tv.  Which brings me to my final proposal: SWA, you would change the game for business, wait, everyone, flying SWA if you signed on with Starlink. My team has been installing Starlink for multi-home/business backhauls in very rural areas in Texas in which they previously paid $300+ a month for ViaCrap at each location - now through some nifty WISP-ing 1 business class dish backhaul supplies 10x the speeds, 1/20th the latency and shared saving thousands of dollars. Results were far far far better service from the prior mix of ViaSat and HughesNet. StarLink is a game-changer and I believe the airlines that sign on first will benefit best. I dare you, SWA - DO IT!  https://www.starlink.com/business/aviation     ... View more

Hey @stewarkt, it sounds frustrating to deal with those .ICS file issues when using Outlook on Mac. Editing the file directly is a clever workaround, but it would be much more convenient if the calendar entry showed the correct times instead of defaulting to an all-day event. ... View more

See jhw1015's post above for the solution. Takes seconds.  ... 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

In my past experience with this type of promo over the last couple of years I did same day changes and still qualified. I think the change may eliminate qualification would be for moving a flight past the promotion fly by date as mentioned by @epcot. one time SW did a schedule change I changed my date still within the promotion travel by date and qualified so you should be good for same day changes    Personally it would be a headache for the airline if they eliminated qualification for same-day changes because some have to be changed due to IROPS and it wouldn’t be fair to those customers to say you no longer qualify because we had to rebook you due to a flight delay  ... View more

Just received my additional ~1,000 RR points today, you might want to check your account! ... 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

A lifetime pass on WN doesn't make sense IMO. It is after all, a LCC that is not aligned with any major airline alliances, it doesn't even have interline agreements with any other airline and it uses its own proprietary reservation system than using the major ones like Amadeus Altea or SITA.    You're right that had you gone with AS, your miles and status would've mattered long term as they're now part of the oneworld alliance. Your lifetime status on AS would've allowed you to use your miles to book flights on JAL, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, etc. and it would've granted you lifetime lounge access to all these airlines as you traveled around the world in your retirement.    But if WN had lifetime status and points, it wouldn't make much difference. At best you can go to Aruba, only on WN, no lounges, no other airline partners, etc. And I don't see WN making any upgrades to their system, starting interline agreements or even joining any of the airline alliances. Maybe they can start their own LCC alliance and team up with RyanAir or AirAsia, but that's another major hassle in itself and highly unlikely in itself also.  ... View more

Got my changes to this morning.   Not really happy since they changed it to one with a 3 hour layover.   I changed it to a later flight and a 2 hour layover.    ... 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

Replying for the update. ... 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

Your payment date is irrelevant, it goes off the statement closing date. Once you spend the $4k there's nothing you can do to speed up the award. They'll issue it automatically after the statement closing date.  ... View more

Thank you so much. We are so excited but a little nervous  ... View more

Thanks for everyone’s feedback! Turns out the proper window seat was on the right side of the plane.  After this experience, I would honestly not recommend doing this due to too many favors in play. I booked my flight last year with Early Checkin and knew things were off to a rocky start when the system auto checked me in and I got B15. I’ve never seen so many pre-boarders and knowing Southwest, like all airlines, they’re not going to probe for legal reasons why you need to pre-board to people were requesting that left and right. I did not request a pre board and by the time I boarded, there was literally nobody left to board. Couple the pre-boarders with the media there, there were literally 30 people who boarded before they even started calling the A groups.  The staff at AUS were friendly and nice. They decorated the gate with some eclipse/stars and everyone got a snack bag with a luggage tag, eclipse glasses, starbursts, chocolate moon rice crispy treat, and a code to pay for an upgrade at Omni hotels to upgrade to their top tier loyalty program. We also got a choice of one of 3 speciality cocktails for free which was served on a branded napkin.  On arrival at Indy, there was a balloon arch to welcome us with a table setup by the airport for popcorn, stickers, and an airplane stress ball.  Seeing the eclipse through airplane windows is a gamble depending on how clean the window is and the position of the plane. I did not get a window seat and opted for an aisle. The pilot was nice and let everyone know when we were close to totality over Dallas and did an angled maneuver to tip the plane to one side for a better view. There was literally nothing on the left side unless you did a Timelapse of the sky changing colors. The best way to see it was lying down on the seats. Most everyone was friendly and left those on the left use their seats to see outside the window. The plane did not go out full.   If I were to do this again, I would opt for another airline with a guaranteed window seat and do my homework for where to look out the window. I would actually recommend not flying through the path of totality and instead taking a flight that flies parallel to the path of totality but at least a few states away that way the sun is not over the plane and you can see the sun and ground out the window at the same time.  Here are some pics that everyone airdropped during the flight.                  For comparison, here was Delta’s gate:     ... View more

@epcot wrote: I don’t think they’ve ever officially revealed, but the easiest for WN to calculate is likely status tier, then fare group (possibly using the underlying fare classes), then time of ticketing. This prevents having to make any external calls to a CRM or such Maybe they could do a quarterly update to everyone's "ranking" I agree it would be an effort to poll the system every day for those positions.     ... View more

@dfwskier wrote: @PDXMusicman wrote:     Second, Southwest tries to upsell EVERYONE to buy the A1-A15 boarding spots - including people that lmight already have A16. There's no conspiracy to give people bad boarding spots so that SW can upsell them. As I understand it the business is going quite well, definitely no need to do that.   There are too many variables here @PDXMusicman with number of A-List people, EBCI tickets, etc. that even if you were the first one to check in it can vary quite a bit.   You are doing everything that you can and I hope you get good results more often than not with your method.   A B-number may be common on flights with many A-list passengers.     ... View more

You are incorrect. This is the story. I requested the police report from the airport because I, too, felt certain I was missing something. I received it last week. The report states the young reporter did not want me removed from the flight and did not feel threatened. This additional information only confuses me more. ... View more