Southwest Airlines Community

There have been a few times in the past with companies that I've done business with where I had a customer service problem, where I repeatedly and politely tried to get support through regular channels, and could not get the help I needed. I had to come up with a bit of an 'out-of-the-box' approach.   So, what I've done on a few occasions is to get on LinkedIn, pull up the company, find a few of the highest-level executives that I could, and through LinkedIn, politely, briefly, and in detail explain the situation and asked if they could possibly assist me.   The handful of times that I've done this, it has worked like magic. Senior-level executives in larger companies are not used to getting contacted directly by a customer asking for help with a specific service problem. My experience is that when this does happen, they tend to take personal ownership of the request and quickly light appropriate fires under the right read-ends... in order to appropriately resolve the problem and get it off of their plate.   I start at the highest level possible, because they will always push the situation down the food chain. It's almost impossible to start lower on the org-chart and have the problem pushed up. A few years ago, I contacted the CEO of 1-800-FLOWERS this way and he quickly and directly replied to my request. The problem I had that had been going on for about 12 weeks was resolved within 24 hours.   Best of luck to you and I hope SWA provides you the appropriate resolution. ... View more

I'm really sorry to hear this terrible news. Since points are simply another form of money, as we have with our bank, SWA should absolutely require multifactor authentication for point redemption, account changes, etc. Multifactor authentication would help solve a great majority of this kind of theft.   Additionally, using a password tool like Dashlane, which assigns you a long, varied, and complex password, and allows you to easily change your password at any time or interval, is a good layer of protection that we can do ourselves. I use Dashlane to change my sensitive passwords every 60 days. Also, never use a password, or variation thereof, that you previously used.   Hopefully, SWA will take some ownership here and make you whole. You're looking at a loss valued at around $10,000... and in reality, if you had to pay for $10,000 in travel out of pocket, you'd have to earn a gross income of a lot more than that. Plus, if you have the Companion Pass and travel regularly with them, then those points are worth twice that amount.   Good luck and I hope you come out on the right side of this terrible situation. ... View more

Perfect. Thanks for the information. That's what I thought, but wanted to confirm.    ... View more

Dear dfwskier,   Would you mind explaining what you mean when you say, "I'd be more interested if both the 3 and 9 month windows extended into 2024., but they do not."   What I'm specifically wondering is if I don't meet the $15k requirement until February 2024, will I get the 60,000 points award in March or April? ... View more

"but if using a Wanna Get Away Pus fare, that person can give the funds to anybody."   Are you absolutely positive about this? ... View more

For many, SWA has earned the "I'll believe it when I see it" award.   And may the Force be with SWA. ... View more

If we didn't get a Companion Pass every year, along with more points than we can use, and fly a lot domestically, I'd dump SWA in a New York Minute.    As you point out, this problem is nothing new and has happened multiple times over just the last few years -- obviously not to this level, but it's been bad many times.    Their latest crisis, however, has taken it to an entirely new level. This is the kind of crisis that can permanently damage a company and take years to recover from -- if recovery is even possible. This disaster will be studied as a cautionary tale in MBA programs for decades to come.   The postmortem on this will be quite spectacular. ... View more

I think you mean that flights can be booked for Friday flights... and later.   Whether or not flights actually get off the ground, remains to be seen.   As we all now well know, booking a reservation, and actually getting planes off the ground, are two very different things. ... View more

I think you mean that flights can be booked again for tomorrow. Whether or not flights actually get off the ground, remains to be seen.   This reminds me a little bit of the Seinfeld classic when he goes to pick up his rental car, but they don't have his car available. "You know how to take a reservation, but you clearly don't know how to fulfill a reservation."   Hopefully, SWA turns it all around tomorrow. I can't imagine not having this disaster resolved going into New Years' weekend. ... View more

I'm not sure any price is a good deal if they can't get flights off the ground.   The SWA disaster will be studied in MBA programs for decades to come. ... View more

"Southwest Airlines hopes to restore its full flight schedule by Friday"  Southwest released this announcement today. We'll obviously have to wait and see if they actually deliver. I can't imagine carrying this disaster into New Years' Weekend.   If SWA will give you a full refund, I would suggest taking it if you can book on another airline. Good luck to you and your family, and I hope you make it home tomorrow.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/southwest-airlines-hopes-to-restore-its-full-flight-schedule-by-friday/ar-AA15MmSF ... View more

I really like your sense of humor. Very funny stuff here.   Virtually not remotely helpful right now, given the SWA crisis which is changing by the second, but definitely dog-gone funny. ... View more

Re. “a guy bleeding from his leg sitting in a wheelchair”   If the guy was literally bleeding from an open wound, from an infection control perspective, this is commonly and technically known as “bad” – especially if someone is boarding a crowded plane for a well-contained flight.   First of all, if the guy bleeding has an open wound, he himself is way open to bacteria and significant risk of infection, particularly in a crowded, closely contained, not very clean, commercial airplane environment.   Secondly, if this is an open wound, those who might come into contact with the guy, or his blood from a surface, are at risk of contracting anything he may be carrying. This could be any type of blood-borne illnesses like hepatitis B or C, staph, or any other virus the person may have. Blood is a fabulous transmitter for illness.   Additionally, bloodborne viruses can live outside the body and still cause infection. For example, the Hep B virus can live for as long as a week outside the body in dried blood, and Hep C for up to four days.    One might also think there is a decent chance that a guy boarding a plane with a bleeding open wound is not in the best of health or under the best of care. To allow a passenger to have an uncovered, bleeding wound, while boarding and flying on a plane is staggering to me.   And people usually look at me funny after I sit down, pull out my Lysol wipes, and clean every surface around me that I might touch.   Southwest – Apparently you have a new protocol to implement, and/or further training to provide your employees. ... View more

Yeah... that's a way unnecessary comment. We have enough divisiveness in this world as it is. I don't need more it coming from the flight attendant. ... View more

" the system automatically starts offering you only the higher priced fares"   I'm not sure if that's for certain with SWA, but I've seen some odd things occur in this regard. When in doubt, I simply delete my browser history   At times, it's definitely made a difference. ... View more

Unbeknownst to me, my Global Entry card had recently expired and therefore I did not receive Precheck on a 2 out of 4 flights last week.   I had pretty much forgotten what a major-league difference, and pain in the neck, going through the standard TSA line is like. I am more appreciative of Precheck than ever.   I applied for renewal and thankfully one of my credit cards is covering the $100 fee. It took about 4 business days and I was back in TSA Precheck action! I’ve now got a calendar reminder set for 4 years and 10 months from now, so I renew it ahead of time in 2023. ... View more

I would be very interested in learning how many dollars in passenger airline credits go unused each year. The gift card industry has made a fortune off of unused and lost cards.   It would not be difficult for SWA to solve this issue and set up a wallet feature, like Alaska and many others have, since SWA already captures and owns all required data.   In the meantime, I’ll continue to treat SWA airline credits like any other form of currency I have but manually track SWA credits very closely. ... View more

When my wife and I fly together, we almost always bring our 2 small dogs (under 9 & 15 lbs) and we pay $200 roundtrip per-dog ($400). They stay in their carriers under the seat in front of us. They almost never see the light of day until after we are off the plane. They are well behaved and 99% of people never know we have our dogs with us.   However, if we were to scam the system and go the ESA route, our dogs would fly for free (saving us about $2,800 per-year), get preferential boarding, sit on our laps, and apparently we could let them lick the seat back tray (which, of course, we'd never dream of doing). We won't go the ESA route, but we can all see why people scam the system.   And people look at me funny when I pull out the Lysol wet wipes and wipe down the daylights out of the seat tray, seatbelt, armrests, headrest, and anything else our hands will be touching on the petrie dish, aka. airplane. ... View more

Liza, I think nearly all of us can appreciate why you are highly sensitive to this subject... as you should be. However, I hope it is clear that the problems being discussed are not, and certainly never should be, directed at responsible Service Animal owners like yourself.  Most SA owners I've met along the way are usually very responsible and conscientious. From my experience, most of the traveler frustration with pets onboard flights is primarily with Emotional Support Animal owners. As a person who flies quite a bit, I think we can both appreciate the issue due to the abuse we have all seen.   Best regards to you and your wonderful friend and Service Animal.     ... View more

This is great news! But I have one thing to say: PHX-to-LIH.   Thank you. @kknox wrote: As you may recall, last week Southwest announced our initial four airports in the Hawaiian Islands: Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu (HNL), Kahului Airport on Maui (OGG), Lihue Airport on Kauai (LIH), and Ellison Onizuka International Airport on the leeward side of The Island of Hawaii (KOA). Today, we have more news about Southwest’s intended service plans for Hawaii.    The initial gateway cities that will offer nonstop service (pending required regulatory approvals) to Hawaii are:    Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) Oakland Metropolitan Airport (OAK) Sacramento International Airport (SMF) San Diego International Airport (SAN)   While we aren’t yet ready to share specific nonstop routes or other flight details, please know those details will be reflected in the flight schedule that would publish following our ETOPS authorization from the FAA to operate Hawaii service.    Southwest President Tom Nealon made these announcements this morning at a community meeting with Hawaiian tourism, civic, and government leaders. He shared Southwest’s eventual interisland flights would come following the initial ramp-up of operations across the state’s four principal airports.   “Our plan for Hawaii requires us to share these initial details now so that our facilities in the airports will be ready for all that we intend to offer,” Nealon told a gathering at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki.      ... View more

This is more like a torturous tease-announcement 😉  GIT 'ER DUN!   I can't wait for you guys to get this launched! We have family on Kauai and are looking forward to flying SWA, courtesy of the Companion Pass, to get there.   And we'd really appreciate it if you'd give us Phoenician's some non-stop flights to the islands from PHX -- and yes, I know that's unlikely to happen, at least anytime soon. ... View more

If they only let you carry on say... 9, I'd be glad to help you out with the other 9.   Anything I can do to help 😉 ... View more

If they belong to a Trusted Traveler program like Global Entry, you can enter this information as well when you make their reservation. ... View more

Spot on. Now that 2 one-way flights are almost always the same price as a round trip flight, with SWA I've only been booking 1-way domestic flights for several years now and this is one of the reasons why -- especially since SWA doesn't charge a cancellation or change fee. ... View more

I thought I would also mention that if you have a business that's doing some reasonable revenue and has typical expenses, using the SWA business card and putting everything you can on it until you hit the annual spend to get the companion pass is a great way to go. Also, not only do you get points for every dollar you spend with the Visa card, for every $10,000 of spend placed on the SWA Premier card,  they also give you a bonus of 1,500 more points which actually go toward A-List status. Not to mention there's an annual bonus of either 3,000 or 6,000 points, depending on the SWA card(s) you have.   For us, thankfully that means we will likely qualify for the 2019 Companion Pass at about the end of this May. So, what we're also going to do is get the Chase Ink Business card this month. They are offering an 80,000 point sign up bonus. Plus, we do our business banking with Chase and our banker is giving us an additional 20,000 points -- for a crazy total of 100,000 points. You have to spend $5,000 on the card in the first 3 months, but the value of this is worth about $1,250 when redeemed for travel - or $1,000 when redeemed for cash. You can also transfer points to SWA on a 1:1 basis. They've also got some other nice perks like free cell phone insurance which will save our business about $1,800 a year right now (instead of paying about $11 per-month, per-phone), primary rental car insurance, 120 day purchase protection, + more. The annual fee is $95.   All that to say, if you have a business and manage your money reasonably well, these are exceptional deals. I should mention, however, this is all predicated upon you fully paying off your credit card each month -- so if you're not going to do that, forget about this program... all bets are off. However, if you do pay your Visa bill(s) in full each month a couple days before they are due, it means that you're effectively floating the bank's money for 30-60 days. How often do we get to stick it to the bank like that?   Ps. I promise I get nothing from Chase for sharing this information. I just realized that I could be sounding a bit like a shill for them 😉 ... View more

Note to others that if you applied for two of these at about the same time, you'd have to hit the minimum spend on both so you might want to stagger depending on your purchasing plans.   Great point. I forgot about that critical detail. ... View more

Not sure if things have changed since August 2017, but back then my wife applied for, and received, an individual Chase SWA Visa ("Plus") and got the 60,000 points.   About a week following the approval of the card above, she then also applied for, and received, a business Chase SWA Visa ("Premier Business) and received another 60,000 points. We then immediately qualified for the Companion Pass which we received within 30 days.   So, in our experience, the answer your question is "yes". However, this could have changed so probably best to contact SWA. Sorry not to be able to be more specific to your situation. ... View more