Southwest Airlines Community

Actually, Family Boarding is not preboarding, it's between the A and B boarding groups. It's technically limited to one adult traveling with a child six years old or younger, but some agents allow multiple family members to board together at that time. Preboarding is for passengers with a disability that have specific seating needs and/or need assistance in boarding the aircraft. Your best bet in order to board together is to check in right at 24 hours prior to departure and hopefully receive A boarding positions. Good luck! ... View more

There are some known issues with Southwest's system failing to pass along the pre check info from your profile to a reservation. If it's not there, try calling and having it added manually by CS, then reprint the boarding pass. ... View more

Unlike other carriers who often require round trip for a particular fare, Southwest has no such requirement. There are a ton of reasons to book one way on Southwest, mostly related to flexibility in rebooking. There are also a few caveats.   A lengthy discussion of the pros and cons is over at FlyerTalk:   Reasons to book all Southwest travel as one-way rather than round-trip ... View more

Actually, the order is:   Business select is A1-15,  then A list, then those that purchased Early Bird Check In, followed by first come first serve 24hr check in.    Be aware that, if your flight is a continuation of another flight (2nd leg of a connecting or direct itinerary), then those passengers on the earlier flight were able to check in earlier than you were (24 hours prior to their first flight).   A30 and A49 are great positions for t-24 check in. So many people buy EBCI now that even after paying the extra fee some occasionally receive B positions. ... View more

I'm not sure if the original poster is discussing Hidden City Ticketing or someone simply missing a connection.   Hidden City Ticketing is often a way to save money, when the fare to a final destination that includes a connection is cheaper than the fare non-stop to the connecting city.   As a general rule, Southwest accommodates a passenger who misses their flight, but shows up at the airport within 2 hours of their scheduled departure on the next available flight. When applied to a connection, I suspect the gate agen would need to hear a compelling story as to why the connection was missed. ... View more

Some things to keep in mind:   No Change Fees is a great policy, but it comes with a trade-off: Expensive standby. Many business travelers often need to make same-day changes, or fly standby on an earlier flight. Other carriers charge a small fee ($50-$75, often waived for standby) or change nothing ($0) to their elites for same day changes. On Southwest, you pay no change fee but you do pay the fare difference, which -- for same day changes -- can be significant. The difference between an advance purchase WGA fare and the Anytime fare is often an order of 6-8x (or more). Southwest's policy is the clear winner when making changes in advance of flying, but other carriers are better when it comes to standby or same day changes.   You mentioned bag fees: Compare fares (difficult to do, I know, since Southwest doesn't participate in online booking services like all other carriers) and you may find that Southwest is consistently $25-$50 more for the same route. Just like a "free lunch," nothing "flys free." There's a cost involved and it will be paid for somehow. One other thing to keep in mind is that the legacy carriers often allow free checked bags to their elites and/or  credit card holders.   Glad you're enjoying Southwest! While not quite the carrier they were 5 years ago, they still do many things right. ... View more

Unfortunately, Southwest won't allow your kids to board with you if you have an EBCI position and they have higher ones. The official policy is for groups/families wishing to board together to board at the highest number position. They would like you to purchase EBCI for everyone, but that's very expensive. They do offer Family Boarding, but the cutoff age is 6, so that won't help you. Your best bet is to save the money and check everyone in at 24 hours prior to departure, and hope for the best. (Another possible option would be for you buy EBCI for just yourself, board by yourself at thye better position, save 3 seats, and have the kids board at their later positions -- assuming you trust your 12 year old to get the three of them all on the plane together by themselves.) Hope this helps! ... View more

On Southwest, you can change your flight without a change fee, even the lowest "Wanna Get Away" fares. If the new price is less you'll receive the difference as "travel funds" good towards future travel. Those funds are valid for one year from the date you originally booked, for the same passenger(s) only, and all new travel must be completed by the expiration (not just booked). Be careful when using those funds, because when combined with new money to book a new flight, the entire ticket (including the new money) will take on the oldest expiration date.   Wanna Get Away fares can be booked (or changed) online or via phone. Hope this helps! ... View more

It can be confusing. 😉   There's actually only one "bucket" of points -- your Rapid Rewards account. All the points you earn will be deposited there.   You'll earn points for every purchase you make on the Southwest Visa from Chase (1 point per dollar for general purchases, 2 points per dollar for Southwest purchases). You'll also earn points from Southwest after each flight you take -- the amount will vary depending on the fare type and amount.   If you use your card to pay for a flight for someone else, you'll earn the 2 points per dollar for the fare paid, but the traveler will earn the points for the flight taken (if they have an RR account).   You can use the points to book travel on Southwest for yourself or anyone else. Through the "More Rewards" option -- available only to cardholders -- you can buy things like gift cards and book other travel options (international, rental car)... but the redemption rates are very bad, so that's only a good option if you have tons of points and no need for travel on Southwest.   One big note: Do not believe the Southwest advertising that "Points don't expire." They absolutely can and do expire. In order to keep that from happening, you'll need to have point earning activity at least every 24 months. Luckily, that's as simple as traveling on a paid Southwest fare, or making a purchase through Rapid Rewards Dining or Shopping. But don't cut it close -- once the points are forfeited, they are gone forever. ... View more

Unfortunately, the funds won't help you if you need to fly in October again, as they'll be expired before then. I'm not sure if Southwest made any accommodations for Hurricane Matthew, but your best bet is to contact Customer Relations at 1-855-234-4654 (not the main reservations number) and explain the situation. If they aren't able to give you any consideration due to the hurricane, they may still be able to reissue the funds as a voucher (minus a $100 per person fee). Good luck. ... View more

Sure thing -- you can cancel and rebook as often as necessary. The very major point to keep in mind is that when you rebook, the new ticket -- along with any/all new funds added -- take on the expiration date of the oldest funds used. Be extra careful when commingling old and new funds, and be very aware of the expiration date. ... View more

The fee is a deterrent. It's to keep the plane from filling up with pets. ... View more

If you're asking what will happen if he gets off at the connection and doesn't continue on -- that's called "hidden city ticketing," and it's fine on Southwest., unlike other carriers. To do so, he can't check a bag (it would continue on to the final destination), and he won't earn any Rapid Rewards points since the trip will technically be incomplete. ... View more

Does your boarding pass actually say "Early Bird Check In" on it? If not, then it likely dropped off somehow (glitch).   Did you pay for Early Bird when you made the reservation, or later? Positions are assigned in order of EBCI purchase.   If it does say EBCI on your boarding pass, have you made any changes to your itinerary after booking?   Unfortunately, EBCI is a product with diminishing returns. Over time, more and more people pay the extra fee, which devalues the product for many of them. The more people that buy it, the less useful it is. (To passengers that is. To Southwest, it's very useful -- to the tune of $240 million last year alone.) Southwest has already raised the price for EBCI twice, but may do so again if customers consistently get B positions after paying the fee.   They've already changed the script of the customer service reply to say it only guarantees automatic check-in and nothing more -- despite the marketing which still promises earlier boarding. 😞 ... View more

Unfortunately, for the near future (until the conversion to the new booking system is complete), you can expect the site to periodically experience these issues. One hopes they go away once conversion is complete. In the meantime, you can try calling (as you did) but even that may not be helpful. ... View more

Yeah, unless you absolutely need to transfer in order to top off (get enough points to make a particular booking), it's a bad idea. The cost of 1 cent per point negates much of the value of the points. It's better to just use your points to book a ticket for someone else. ... View more

In this case, yes -- just book 2 separate one-way flights, using points for one and cash for the other. (Also, as a general guidenine, it's a good idea to book one-ways on Southwest anyway.) ... View more

Don't bother helping Southwest "troubleshoot the issue." They'll likely just try to convince you it's a problem on your end. The website continues to have significant issues, with access to RR login often unavailable sporadically, especially at night. These are likely a result of the transition to the new booking system. One hopes they'll be resolved once that is complete. ... View more

As of this writing, there are continuing issues with slow loading pages, and time-outs, as well as error messages. This is likely related to the new booking system conversion. One hopes it's fixed soon. ... View more

You can't deduct award flights. Frequent flyer miles (or points on Southwest) are not taxable when earned, and consequently, mileage redemptions do not generate tax deductions. ... View more

Regarding "fully refundable" fares:   Be aware of a recent change that can effectively make refundable = non-refundable.   In an astonishing policy change, if you make any changes to a "refundable" ticket itinerary, you'll lose the ability to cancel for refund at any later point. Any itinerary change will force that ticket to become non-refundable, generating only travel funds upon cancellation, with the same restrictions and expiration as a WGA fare.   Going forward, never change any itinerary that includes a "refundable" fare -- always cancel that itinerary and request a refund, then rebook the new itinerary. Yes, this means that your money will be tied up by Southwest until the refund is issued (sometimes many weeks later) but that's the only way to ensure you won't lose refundability.     ... View more