Southwest Airlines Community

It's not a TSA rule, although airline reps will often say that. It's simply a policy that, unfortunately, most -- if not all -- domestic carriers have. ... View more

You earn points that can be used to book flights. That counter drops when you use them and increases when you earn them.   Companion Pass qualifying points use a different counter. It never decreases until the end of the calendar year, when it resets to zero.   Using your points has no effect on your already-earned Companion Pass qualifying points. However, if you use points to pay for a flight, you won't earn any new points (CP or otherwise) for that flight. ... View more

What you're describing is not technically standby.   Standby travel is arriving at the airport earlier than your departure and getting on an earlier flight when space is available. Southwest doesn't do standby in the traditional sense -- other carriers will charge a small fee ($50-$75) for the service, or even give it free to their elites, credit card holders, or in certain circumstances. On Southwest, to change to an earlier flight on a WGA fare, you must pay the fare difference, which is often very expensive. (Southwest did however just begin offering free standby as a perk for their A-Listers.)   What you describe is an unofficial policy, held by most (if not all) carriers, called the flat tire rule. Arriving at the airport within 2 hours after your scheduled departure, due to a delay out of your control, and you will be reaccommodated on the next available flight. On Southwest, you are put on the standby list for that flight if it's "full," or given confirmed seats if it's not, at the discretion of the agent. ... View more

EarlyBird Check-In positions are assigned based on the date of EBCI purchase. The earlier, the better.   EBCI positions will always come after Business Select (A1-15), then A-Listers (A16+).   Southwest places no limit on the number of EBCIs it will sell per flight, meaning that people get B and sometimes even C positions even after paying the extra fee.   EBCI isn't refundable, unless Southwest cancels the flight. But it is transferrable. As long as you use the "change flight" function, not cancel and rebook. As long as the confirmation number stays the same, the EBCI should transfer to the new reservation.   The date of that transfer becomes the effective "purchase date" for determining your EBCI position on the new flight.   Many, many, many people buy EBCI. In 2015, Southwest earned over $240 million on EBCI fees alone. ... View more

Unfortunately, Southwest has known issues with KTN's not populating from a profile to a reservation.   Your best bet is to call and have the KTN manually added for each and every itinerary. Until, hopefully, one day Southwest adresses their system issues that cause the problem.   You may be able to add the KTN yourself using this link -- although I'm not sure if that will work for a companion reservation. (If it does, please come back and let us know.)   https://www.southwest.com/flight/addSecureInfoEntry.html ... View more

No.   In complaince with federal law, gift card balances do not expire.   However: Once you use funds from a gift card to book a flight, those funds are now tied to use by the original named passenger(s) only, and expire one year from the date you made the reservation, should you need to cancel and reuse the funds. This applies to all fare types, even fully-refundable fares.     ... View more

These suggestions are sweet. But naive. 😉   Any "enhancements" coming to the program will likely take things away, rather than give them.   As an example, Southwest has quietly devalued Rapid Rewards points since the launch of the program in 2011. ... View more

Points for travel generally show up a few days following the completion of the itinerary. If you've booked a one-way, they'll show up a few days after the flight. If you've booked a round-trip, they'll show up a few days after you complete the return flight.   Credit card points generally are posted to your Rapid Rewards account a few days after your card statement closing date. This is independent of any payments or balance carried over. ... View more

Frequent flyer miles or points go to the flyer, not the purchaser. Open Rapid Rewards accounts for your family members and they will earn points. Points can then be used to purchase tickets for anyone. ... View more

All Southwest Visa cards by Chase are linked to a specific Rapid Rewards account -- that of the primary cardholder.   There are no "joint accounts," there is a primary cardholder and an authorised user(s).   One person can hold multiple cards (business and personal, for example) and earn points from both.   If you open a Southwest Visa card account and don't already have a Rapid Rewards account, they will create one for you.   Contact Chase if you have any questions about where the points from a specific Southwest card are going. 😉 ... View more

Yes! It's automatic. ... View more

@major wrote: You can give them to me:)))) I will put them to good use for a vacation with the kids! That person left the US in March. ... View more

Right now all planes in the fleet have wifi, except the older 300s and a few newer (used) 700s recently added. Southwest states that, hopefully, by the end of 2017 (after all the 300s are retired), the fleet will be 100% wifi enabled.   In my experience, while the wifi works great for the in-cabin entertainment system (with live TV), it unfortunately doesn't work so well as a paid ($8) connection to the internet. ... View more

Assuming you bought a Wanna Get Away, a non-refundable, non-transferrable ticket: No.   This is the same on all carriers. At least on Southwest, when you cancel, you get travel funds good for the same passenger for one year from the date of purchase, without a change fee.   ... View more

I also rarely use my drink coupons because I'm traveling for work and can be "under the inluence" or it is too early to drink. I have often wondered about WIFI though I understand your response. How about a special snack or flavored water? ... View more

The notification about not receiving a boarding pass should have directed you to print out a "security document" instead, which would have allowed you to pass security, and indicated to you that you should go to the gate to get your boarding pass. Did it not?   ... View more

The US government tracks statistics on this....Southwest's involuntary denied boarding rate is super low (.99 per 10,000).  They are VERY GOOD at knowing exactly how many people will and will not show up for a particular flight.       They do overbook, but anytime I've been on an overbooked flight and they're concerned about running out of seats they ask for volunteers first.  If you volunteer to take a later flight and they have to use your seat they typically refund what you paid for that flight, get you booked for the next one, and give you a credit for future travel.  Depending on whether they get any takers, the offers tend to increase in value.   On one flight that was the last one for the night I ended up volunteering with 2 other passengers.  They refunded our tickets, got us free hotel rooms (with shuttle to & from) and gave us credit for future flights.  There was definitely no screaming :).   In all the traveling I've done with southwest I'd say only about 10-15% of flights with them have even been ones where they asked for volunteers, less than half of those actually ended up needing the volunteer's seats, and I've never been on a flight where a person (other than a crewmember flying standby) had to involuntarily give up a seat.   I'm shocked that nobody on that United flight on the news was willing to volunteer their seat for money...but I guess if several hundred bucks was a big deal to those passengers they wouldn't be flying United in the first place :P.   ... View more

General advice: Ticket prices are often very high when the schedule extension is first released. Then they drop a bit. The "sweet spot" seems to be about 6 weeks out. After that point, they start rising again, as it gets closer to the travel date.   This of course varies widely, depending on you location/destination, and date of travel. Prime travel periods (Spring break, around the holidays, etc.) tend to not drop as much from their initial price.   Southwest's fares fluctuate often, so it's best to check often and re-fare if it's dropped since you booked. ... View more

Unfortunately, Southwest allows seat saving -- including full rows. There is no policy for or against seat saving, so FA's do not want to get involved.   So telling the FA would do no good.   Seat saving is a contentious issue, and is often a topic of heated discussion here. In fact, the most recent thread was closed by the moderators, after they noted that Southwest has no intention of creating a policy against seat saving anytime soon.     ... View more

You can go back at anytime and check for early bird on your receipt, there will be either a square outlined in green saying EB or something that looks like a sun rising.  Make sure you have checked each traveler when purchasing the early bird.  I book my flights, and then go back in to add the EB.  I hope you have better luck in the future! ... View more

Were you applying for the card using the offer that includes the "statement credit," shown as part of the total of your Southwest website purchase? There are better offers out there. Like this one:   https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/southwest/osam40kplus   People frequently complain that the "statement credit" offer doesn't complete. Southwest will only refer you to Chase. 😞   ... 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. ... View more

You'll need to call -- you can't do that online.   ... View more

I know this isn't much comfort to the OP, but it's probably a good idea to avoid SFO for a while. I generally prefer OAK, even without the SFO runway work, because SFO also often has delays due to fog. ... View more

Thank you!   ... View more

I suffer from ignorant people that sneeze, hack and sweat all over while sitting next to me. Is this acceptable ?  A cat is contained in a carrier. No worse than a person that has cat hair on them from their furry friend back home.  ... View more

You may want to delete your confirmation numbers, for security reasons.   On the website, next to the passenger name, there will be a small sunrise icon under the "Extras" column if you have EarlyBird Check-In.   ... View more

Unfortunately, Southwest has some issues with KTN's properly populating to an itinerary. While they'll tell you that "PreCheck is never guaranteed," you should be getting it 95%+ of the time. If you've called and had them add the KTN and Pre is still not showing up, you should 1) verify that the KTN is correct, and 2) verify that the name on your reservation exactly matches the name on your Global Entry (including middle name or initial). Good luck! ... View more

I have had quick responses with twitter. ... View more