Southwest Airlines Community

Hopefuly, TSA answered your question on the TSA website   https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification#forgotID   I suspect that the official TSA response is the best you can expect on this forum.    As long as she has herconfirmation number she can check in and obtain her Southwest boarding pass -- no id needed.   I believe she can check her bags at a kiosk - again with a confirmation number, although since I've never done that, I am not as certain of the answer  ... View more

I do it all the time, but I buy Southwest Gift Cards. They all work the same. The advantage of a Visa or Mastercard  gift card is that you can spend them anywhere.   Kroger is running a 4 points per dollar on gift cards right now. I'm about to got out and buy a $400 Southwest gift card which will get me 1600 fuel points which will give me a max gas discount of  $56 on two or more gas buys at Kroger- and I am going to spend the money with Southwest anyway. Why not get a $56 discount for doing it?   edit ad Kroger runs their 4 fuel point per dollar spent on gidt cards promotion a least once every month. I presume other retailers do something like that. Tomaximize the value of the deal, wait for the promotion. The regular rate is 2 fuel points per dollar spent.   Oh, and you can pay for your ticket with a combination of gift card sand credit cards. I've done it.    Second edit add: now you can really get creative if you want to. I'll use a discover card to pay for the Southwest card. Discover gets me a 5% rebate this month a grocery stores -- or $20 on a $400 purchase. My cell phone service, Kroger i-wireless, wil give me a $16 discount for the 1600 points.   So the acutal cost of my $400 Southwest gift card will be $400 -($56 +20 +16) =  $308. ... View more

Your e-mail receipt (which shows up the moment you book your flight) shows your name, your itinerary, your dates of travel, and the amount you paid. It's about a 4 page e-mail, but the first 2 show all the information I referenced. Just do a 2 on 1 printing and circle the pertinent information..   Why can't you use this? ... View more

@chgoflyer wrote: In addition to the previous responses: Keep in mind that the expiration actually happens as soon as it technically becomes the expiration date (midnight, when it turns from "the day before" to the "expiration date"), and that all travel must be completed by then.   Example:   Expiration date: Friday, January 15  = Funds expire at midnight on Thursday, January 14. Thanks. I was uncertain about that. ... View more

@candie122472 wrote: I purchased 5 tickets for my family June 4.  They went on sale and we have a travel fund of $40 each but I was told they expire May 31, 2019.     My questions   1.  I read they expire 1 year after purchase so why are mine a few days before   2.  Do we have to travel before May 31 or just book and pay for our tickets before May 31.     3.  If your answer is travel before May 31 and since we will be paying for the bulk of the ticket out of pocket - can departutre be before May 31 and return be after that (sometime in June 2019 ?)   1) If you used travel funds as partial payment, then your expiration date defaults to the purchase date of the ticket that gave you the travel funds. Other than that the expiration date should be one year from the date you paid for your tickets   2) Yes, although I think you have until May 31 to complete your flight. Anything after that won't work/   3) No. Would  purchase of your outbound flight use the entirety of your travel funds? If so, your option would be to use your travel funds for  a one way  outbound ticket by May 31. Then you could buy a separate one way ticket for your return and return any time you want to. ... View more

"1- allow those without carry on luggage to de-plane FIRST. "   How woud you propose that to happen? Ever been on a flight with connecting passengers with tight connections where the airline asks everyone who is just getting off to stay seated so those with connections can get off and make thaose connections? Well, everybody gets up anyway despite the request. This would be no different.   "2- charge for carry on luggage and make checked bags free. People would check their bags more often making boarding and deplaning easier. "   Well first of all Southwest doesn't charge for the first 2 checked bags now. Southwest's philosophy isn't to nickel and dime passengers with fees. Charging for carry on's would be against that philosophy, and put th airline in the same category as Spirit --- not going to happen.   The question is: "is Southwest's boardng/deplaning procedure materially worse than American's or Delta's or United"s?" IMO the answer is no. ... View more

When requesting the refund be sure to specify the that you want a refund (to your orignal form of payment)  as opposed to retaining the amount for future travel. Amounts reserved for future travel have to be used by the original (in this case wrong) ticket holder. ... View more

I suspect so, but I have to admit I am not certain. ... View more

You can cancel any ticket up to 24 hours after it was purchased and get a refund. That's what I'd do and then book it with the corect name. ... View more

The promotion told you had to book and fly after a certain date. Did you read it? ... View more

As they say to salesmen "If you don't ask for the order, you don't have a chance to get the order."   Or in this case, "If you don't ask for the refund, you don't have a chance to get the refund." ... View more

"Confirmation numbers are no longer shown in emails when applied to a new booking, making it harder to track them.     ???   The e-mails I received after making 4 reservations on 5/28 sure did. ... View more

"It is trivial to implement if SWA has the will make life easier for their customers."   First of all, you have no idea what the cost would be to implement the change. It might not be trivial.   Second, passengers need to be responsible for themselves. Southwest tells you via e-mail that you have a credit tied to a specific confirmation number. Be responsible and save that e-mail. Now that is a solution that requires virtually no effort. ... View more

The full mount of the dollar value of your old ticket should be available for your use for one year from the day you bought the original ticket.   When booking a new flight, after selecting the flight,  you use the value of yor old ticket to pay for the new one by getting to the payment method part of the booking process, selecting travel funds, and inputting the confirmation number of the cancalled flight and your name.   If you think the system is not providing you the value of the cancelled flight, you should find the "cancelled flight" e-mail that Southwest sent you when you cancelled the flight to verfy the value of the cancelled ticket as well as the old confirmation number.   When you input that confirmation number, the system should automatically provide you with aceess to the full amount of the value mention in the "cancelled flight" e-mail.   Question: could you have already used part of that value in purchasing a different ticket? ... View more

Great story. Thanks for taking the extensive amount of time it must have taken to write it.   Oh, I change in to / out of ski clothes in the Silverthorne, Co. library mens room. My proticol is to put an item of clothing on the floor, and then deposit loose items on to that piece of clothing. I'm afraid of dumping items into the toilet, too. ... View more

I agree with the suggestion about calling customer relations.   If you were dealing with a medical emergency (yours or someone elses) you certainly had other things to think about than your upcoming flight. I'd try that tact in your discussion.   I believe that the phone number is 855-234-4654. I've only caled it once in the 40 years that I've flown Southwest, and in that sample size of one they were responsive.   Good luck. ... View more

 That won't work because Southwest does not keep track of where people sit. They might know about  row 1 where wheel chair bound passengers sit, but not about others. ... View more

Southwest flies more people domestically than any other airline. Lots of 'em fly a lot and earn A List, and lots more buy EBCI.   The easiest way to get an "A" boarding position is to be A List, but you have to fly at least 25 times a year to get it. I don't know it for a fact, but I suspect that Southwest give it's A Listers their boarding positions first and then gives them to EBCIers next.   I mention that because becasue some EBCIers complain that they don't get A boarding positions either. ... View more

I believe that Southwest's winter schedule update will happen tomorow. You should be able to book November travel at that time. ... View more

 I can go to "my account", "my trips," "past,"  and then click on whichever past trip I want to learn more about. One of the options is to print the receipt.   I suspect you can do the same thing.  ... View more

"Does the camera icon take a screenshot?"   I presume that's what it is doing. It looks the same as every other boarding pass that I've saved to my phone.   "What happens when you select the "paper airplane" button? Does it access your email?"   Since I've not used it I don't know for sure. W hen viewing a pic  from the album, it allows one to send the pic as an e-mail, or a txt. There are several options. ... View more

I'm alo running app version 5.4.50. Phone is an android  LG G5.   Same version apps should appear the same on every android phone.   Top line on my phone shows the words boarding pass. Right of that is a  paper  airplane  button I'd use to send the boarding pass to someone. Right of that is the camera button that I use to save to my photo album ... View more

Every Southwest flight does not connect with every other Southwest flight. The system will let you book valid connections, but not every other combination of flights.   For example, I live in Dallas, I COULD book a flight from Dallas to Ft Lauderdale to Chicago if it was a valid connection. It is not, so I can't book it. ... View more

see the other early bird thread for possible exsplanations ... View more