Southwest Airlines Community

Southwest sells bags for $17 each.   These aren't required, it's up to you if it is helpful to make sure things don't get scuffed, or if you find cheaper bags somewhere else that's okay too.   If you might be flying 5-10 times or more, the cost of the bag may be reasonable to reduce wear from handling.   From my perspective, for any one trip you aren't expecting much to happen to your item. But now having used our blue bags 30+ times, the bags sure are beat up...glad that cumulative punishment (even if a very little each time) wasn't onto our stroller.         ... View more

I'm not sure how knowing the number of seats left would help with time to make the booking either. Are you trying for 1/3 empty? Grabbing the last seat? That would be a whole different algorithm to solve if you could get the data in the first place. ... View more

I am somewhat surprised at the responses you received regarding your inquiry about being told ( not asked) to change seats under the circumstances you described.    Flight Attendants are people too and they are also representatives of the airline and as such are held to at least the same standard as we all are-common courtesy. The manner in which you were ordered to change seats without explanation and with the added haughty dismissive hand gesture--is unacceptable.     The onus is not on you as a paying passenger to provide a defense to not move in an open seating arrangement and with no valid cause--that is ludicrous.   Yes-an apology for the unprofessional behavior IS in order.       ... View more

Search the message board for a post about password length which was causing some problems where certain portions of the website would authenticate and others wouldn't, possibly due to passwords that were too long. ... View more

What isn't "fair" is that you expect that others shouls have to adjust their seating for your personal financial arrangements.  If a family wants to sit together, they should book and check in together and should cetainly purchase EB.  Then reimburse each other.   Saving seats is just rude and makes others responsible for your personal choices.     ... View more

Here's some details about the latest such service to be shutdown by Southwest:   How Southwest Airlines kills startups that monitor its prices ... View more

I didn't see any follow up, he certainly was arrested - it's a crime to bring that through TSA even if it was an accident, and it sounds like licensing wasn't current.   Pilot arrested for loaded gun in his carry-on luggage at Lambert airport | Law and order | stltoday.com   Howell said he was not sure what the pilot's reason was for having a gun in his carry-on bag. Just the same as everybody else, regardless if an airport employee or a passenger caught with it, 99.99 percent of the time they say, "Oops, I forgot it was in my bag."   ... View more

I found this by accident one time.  I needed 4 tickets for a simple trip up/down the west coast.  I was just fiddling around trying to see which of the 5 LA airports had the most convenient or cheapest points.  Then I somehow noticed that 1 was different than 4 on points.  So I tried 2 and then 3.  I was able to get 3 at the cheaper points level and then just booked a fourth at the higher level.  But if you put 4 in the sytem it went up for all of them.   So now whenever I look for multiple tickets for my parents or in-laws, etc, I try one person first, then check two.  If they are the same I just book it and move on downt he road.   Hopefully Southwest will still LUV me ... ... ... cuz I LUV them! ... View more

Remember you can always buy Early Bird for the reservation that doesn't have a-list.  It really isn't that much if you got the flight on points or companion pass already.  The only thing is that Early Bird is non-refundable, so if there is any chance you're going to cancel / change the booking, maybe wait until later to buy the EB.  Of course it appears that EB are in a first come - first serve basis by my experience, so you can end up with a very high A or even a low B even on an EB that you buy just a couple days before the flight rather than 3 months earlier when you bought the tickets.   Also, if A-List or A-List Preferred applies to the reservation, SWA's reservation system won't even offer you EB purchase, so you'll know you're good at that point.   Luv -- hgm ... View more

So you would get two "regular" bags to check, and then two baby items.   If you get one of the blue bags or buy a third-party bag for the stroller its possible that the car seat and stroller (if it's a snap-in type) can fit in one blue bag.   This you may gate check or curbside check, either way depending if you will use the stroller inside the airport.   Curbside check the pack and play also since you won't need that inside the airport.   For gate check, get the item tagged (put the tag on the blue bag) ahead of the boarding process so you can board at "A61" with family boarding - you don't want to have to run back to the desk to get the stroller tagged and miss your spot in line.   ... View more

I don't think OP was inquiring about carryon, but certainly all good and valid information. I hadn't seen the eBags listing with all the size information.  ... View more

There would be a lot of description of the terms in your confirmation email and in your cancellation email. (I wasn't clear if you had actually cancelled yet, or were considering it.)   Your statement that it is non-transferable is accurate. I don't  think you'll find anything in the fine print that will contradict that.   The second question of "why" we could debate, but that won't be in the terms. Cliff notes version for the Wanna Get Away fares that are offered as discount fares, and I believe that Southwest is consistent with other airlines in making these non-refundable and actually is progressive to allow them to be used with no change fees for up to a year from purchase for the original passenger.   I honestly don't know if other airlines allow re-booking in other people's names or not, but most would have a change fee to make any re-use which would be of the same magnitude of Southwest's original WGA fare price.   If you turn something up, let us know. ... View more

Southwest's software may flag you for departing on your new flight during your current flight resulting in automated cancelation, which could prevent you from using the "hidden city" aproach....definitely best if you can make the change official. One issue will be that to rebook the first leg if the current price is much higher than originally booked, hopefully it is far enough out that the price is similar.   Obviously if you wanted to check bags you'll need to re-book, whether you change the destination w/ layover or if you buy separate one-ways (allow extra time for this to check bags).     ... View more

I don't think they do this. One reason would be that you could cancel the second flight while your bags go on to the destination airport. It's not desirable for people to be able to do that for a number of reasons.   So given that you'll have to re-check the luggage, the issue is that you have to retrieve them at baggage claim, and then go check them at ticketing which takes some extra time. By the time all of that happens, your 40 minutes on the flight schedule is now reduced to 25-30 minutes.   When the ticket is on the published route the baggage doesn't ever come upstairs - must faster to transfer between planes without all the extra handling.   You could try late check and see what happens, but there may be a cutoff at some point where the ticket agent won't accept a checked bag since they basically know the chances are so slim. I've certainly checked in late and been fine before, but these were in the 45 minute range at MDW and maybe 30 minutes at a smaller regional airport.   Let us know what the solution was. ... View more

@tbate2426 wrote: Keep in mind Southwest doesn't refund or credit the Early Bird purchase in case you cancel the flight. They credit the ticket but not the EB. So, only buy it at the last minute when you are sure about your trip. Be aware that EBCI positions are allocated based on date of purchase. Meaning that buying it "last minute" is a Very Bad Idea, since you'll be given a position not much better than those checking at t-24.   Yes, EBCI is not refundable if you cancel. A work-around is to not cancel, but instead "change" to any other flight that's the same or lower cost at some distant point in the future. Then, when you're ready to book the flight you'll actually take, change the "dummy" booking to the real one. Your EBCI position will be based on the date that you've changed to / booked the new flight. ... View more

@DancingDavidE wrote: I think I had one when I first made A-list about five years ago, but that one is lost, it would be handy to have a new one or two. Southwest has previously sent bag tags as a customer thank-you, but those tags provided no priority bag handling. They were just bag tags. ... View more

Hopefully it went well @jpack.   With a 30 minute layover to change planes, obviously you would not plan to be lined up for the numerical order, but that's plenty of time to get on the flight.    That would be tight at ATL in the case of changing airlines - the other concourses are 5-15 minutes by train or walking underneath, and it could be 2-5 minutes to get to the end of a concourse if needed, so there isn't much leeway for deboarding and grabbing a snack.   ... View more

I wouldn't normally call it a redeye either, although my eyes may be red at 2 a.m.! ... View more

Southwest doesn't seem to price flights with round trip discounts, so I haven't seen much downside to booking all Southwest flights as one-way tickets in general which keeps things simple if any changes are made to the travel plans.   Depending how much you fly, you may want to lock in both legs now, and then re-book if prices drop. In that case you would have travel funds to use within a year of the original purchase as a refund of the fare difference. This is pretty safe option if it is likely you'll fly again with a chance to use the travel funds.     ... View more

If the flight is a through flight with the same flight number over multiple cities you can Google the number to see flight status in any prior cities for delays. Hopefully everything turned out okay in the end.     ... View more

It's sweet that you think Southwest values anything as much as the bottom line these days. 😉   While I wish that were still true, evidence continues to indicate that it's sadly not.   Of course, I'm could be completely wrong, and Southwest will prove me so by implementing any of the great suggestions made in this thread.   Do let me know when that happens. 😉 ... View more

When a friend applies through the refer a friend link, will the system automatically know that the California resident will be getting the companion pass just by their address? ... View more

I would definitely call the resort and have them explain the room types. They may be able to correct the booking information by requesting from the website manager if it isn't up to date.   Maybe also look using a different rewards website to cross-check the information there for similar value and room types.     ... View more

What are your airports?   Here's a sale right now: https://www.southwest.com/html/promotions/promotions_click_n_save_sale_171114_offers.html?clk=381000 ... View more

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:   And to clarify refundability in this case, if the original purchase was WGA then it's non refundable to begin with. If Anytime was purchased, it's refundable, but when "upgrading" you're better off not refunding and having funds held as travel funds so they can be used immediately towards the purchase of the BS fare. If there's an actual refund they would go back to the travel system and the flyer would be back at step one.   Mixing non refundable and refundable money makes all the money non refundable so if the original purchase was WGA, the new BS ticket would be non refundable.   This isn't completely correct.   This situation is complicated by Southwest's recent policy change regarding "refundable" fares, combined with the passenger and purchaser being two separate entities.   Anytime fare: If the original fare was Anytime, and you change the flight to Business Select, you will lose the ability to get a refund at any future date. An employer would likely be upset to learn that they can't get their funds back if necessary, when they had purchased a refundable fare in the first place for exactly that reason. The funds would now be locked into the name of the passenger.   If you cancel the Anytime fare, hoping to upgrade to BS, the refund would be sent to the purchaser. Meaning that this avenue of upgrade isn't possible in this scenario.   Wanna Get Away fare: If the original fare was WGA, and you change the flight to Business Select, the original portion of the fare will remain non-refundable (locked in the name of the passenger), but the new funds added to purchase Business Select will be refundable (assuming no further changes are made to the itinerary), back to the form of purchase used for the "upgrade."   If you cancel the WGA fare, hoping to upgrade to BS, you can use the funds from the original booking towards the BS one, and everything essentially works the same as above.   NOTE: If you upgrade to a Business Select ticket from a Wanna Get Away fare that you currently have, the original Wanna Get Away portion of the ticket will remain nonrefundable. Any new funds that you apply to make up the difference will be refundable, as long as you make no further changes to the itinerary.   The absurd "refundable" policy change has unnecessarily complicated things. One hopes Southwest follows through on their promise to address the system limitation that allegedly caused this strange policy change to be put in place. And soon.   ... View more

Lol @DancingDavidE, I'm a slight germophob and read too much about flying. Just google'ing "tray table bacteria" is frightening! Perhaps a little exposure is beneficial for kids, but I'll pass. Being in the middle seat all the time I get more than enough exposure without the tray table.  ... View more

If you mean Baby Bjorn or similar apparatus, I believe the restriction is for take-off and landing, but you could use it in the airport for sure, and I've seen others use them during mid-flight, in fact just yesterday. I think this would be fine for boarding, etc...just not during the actual take-off period.   ... View more