Southwest Airlines Community

Sorry to hear about your experience.   It is frustrating to feel like you are not getting anywhere.   Have you tried e-mail or twitter? People have reported that they get retty quick resuts by doing that. Here's how you do both:   https://www.southwest.com/contact-us/contact-us.html?clk=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-CONTACT-US     ... View more

@jn4604 wrote: Update.  I spoke to customer relations this morning and they were able to rebook me for the same rate.  It was my fault so I didn't expect much but they were extremely nice and accommodating. Again, thanks everyone for helping.  That's the Southwest I know. ... View more

I believe that all other major US airlines have already stopped poviding peanuts.   Why? Answer: some pople have  a potential life threatening  alergy -- to peanuts. These people don't have to eat peants to have problems, they just have to be near them, smell them or touch peanut oil.   If a passenger on a past flight spills peanuts on the floor, or seat, and they don't get cleaned up, then a passenger on a future flight could have a real problem.   I like peanuts as much as the next guy, but in the interest of safety, Southwest is, IMO, making a good decision.   BTW, I joked with a flight attendant a few days ago about whether Southwet would be having a fire sale on peanuts on July 31. His response was that the company would likely have disposed of it's supply well before 8/1.   So if you want some of Southwest's peanuts, you better get on a n airplane soon. ... View more

Thanks for the suggestion.   I'm sure that Southwest evaluates potential routes all the time -- probably including those you suggested. Maybe they will happen in the future.   'For routes to make sense they have to make economic sense. If they do, Southwest MAY fly them, but not necessarily. If other routes make MORE economic sense, Southwest will fly those first. The company does have a limited number of planes, pilots, flight attendants, etc. so it probably can't fly every route that  it would like to fly. I used to fly Southwest to Branson, but Southwest doesn't fly there anymore for that reason.   You mentioned that Southwest could possibly fly smaller planes on the routes you suggested. Southwest doesn't fly smaller planes. It only flies Boeing 737s, the smallest of which seats 143 people. So for a flight to make economic sense Southwest would need to fill a significant number of those 143 seats on a regular basis.   As mentoned in my profile, I am not a Southwest employee. I am merely an experieinced traveler who provides opinions on this forum.  ... View more

@DancingDavidE wrote:     Southwest (and the other guys too) will try to accomodate someone in what is informally known as the "flat tire rule" - however this depends on your mom arriving at the airport within an hour or two hours of the scheduled departure, or if she won't be arriving at the airport then she must contact Southwest right away.   If she no-shows a WGA fare then the funds are forfeited. No-showing a refundable fare will get you travel funds, or strangely enough a points booking will be returned to your account.   She can calso call up to ten minutes before the scheduled departure to cancel or change the flight, and make pro-active re-booking but this would be at the current fare pricing as opposed to the flat tire rule which as far as I know would be an even exchange of tickets on the next open flight. (Even if it is the next morning.)   I hope it worked out for her and that she was able to arrive at the airport or at least contact Southwest to avoid a no-show situation.     Sorry that I didn't see this yesterday either as I was already on the road for my flight from Midway.   Hope it worked out for your mom.   For others who might search the forum in the future:   David is right, the best thing is to get to the airport even though you've mised your flight, however ...   At the very least, a call to reservations explaining the problem and asking to be allowed to go out the next day would be in order. I know the airport staff can be accomdating, but I'm not sure about the phone people. Cancelling would have eliminated this option and would have  caused you mom to pay the much higher (normally) same day walk up fare.   I used the flat tire rule 4 or 5 summers ago in one of the few times that I allowed more than enough time to get to the airport in Denver. (hours more than normally needed). Denver flooded,   Although Denver is not home, I know Denver pretty well. I tried multiple alternatives to get around cars on flooded roads. Nothing worked. Southwest put me on another flight even though i was using a Wanna Get Away fare and no showed.    In my case it was the "flloded city rule" instead of the "flat tire rule. ... View more

@rtbarron wrote: Getting rid of peanuts? This is heresy!!! If you allow this, what's next?!? Getting rid of the "club" seating area at the front and middle of the cabin? Repainting the beautiful ochre, red and orange fuselage? Not using numbered plastic boarding cards? I feel like I'm losing the Southwest of my youth!!! You forgot to mention free liquor on every flight to anyone over 21, and free donuts and coffee in the morning at Love Field (and maybe elsewhere?)   Getting rid of those things might cause passengers to rush back to Braniff. ... View more

I have to agree with elijah. Try the twitter team.   I suspect that any person (or comuter) can only book fares that are shown in the reservations system. If your fare is not there, I suspect the reservations people's hands are tied.    Your situation will make me consider the question the computer asks after my first attempt to cancel happens:  "are yur sure?" more careflly in the future. ... View more

Ironcally, I was on the 7 pm Midway/Love field flight last night. We delayed so that a connecting passenger could board -- and then waited a bit longer for that passenger's luggage to make it to our plane.   Of course, no one connects in Dallas at 9:15 pm so our delay wasn't going to cost anyone  a connection, although our plane was to turn around and fly back to Chicago. So it also was delayed. No one connets in Chicago after midnight either. So the delays affected no connections, which is why Southwest allowed the delays. The delays only affected the airliine's on time stats.   We were 20 minutes late. No big deal. ... View more

@pinkcars88 wrote: Can I use my AARP discount with booking thru SW?  You are not going to like my answer: sometimes.   For hotel stays booked through Southwest, normally not. For hotel stays booked thru the hotels: normally yes. thru Orbitz or similiar you'd have to see if those sites offer an AARP rate. Hotel sites normally do. Remember that you'll need to give the hotels your RR#   For rent car companies, you'd have to input the AARP rate code into the SW (or any other site) web page. Doing so MAY prevent you from getting any bonus points referred to in my other post. That will depend on whether the bonus points are awarded as a result of the rate code or the coupon code. Note: normally the SW discount is about the same as the AARP discount. ... View more

@franktravel wrote: From an article "40 things your airplane pilot won't tell you"  https://bit.ly/2zA3hBp   "Being on time is more important then getting everyone there"   "The Department of Transportation has put such an emphasis on on-time performance that we pretty much aren't allowed to delay a flight anymore, even if there are 20 people on a connecting flight  that's coming in just a little late.—Commercial pilot, Charlotte, North Carolina" "Commercial pilot, Charlotte, North Carolina"  Well apparently this American airlines (aka USAirways) pilot thinks that, but I've been on lots of flights where the pilot announced that the reason we were  being delayed and were still sitting at the gate was to wait for connecting passengers..   Also, remember that your own flight might have passengers that need to connect. So if the pilot delays too much, then the passengers on your flight might miss their connections. ... View more

@Mawgaw wrote: I feel your pain. I'm going thru the same thing. I think I should be refunded to the card I used to purchase the ticket.  You can buy a refundable ticket on Southwest, and it will be refundable to your card.   If you buy a non-refundable ticket, then it is by definition non-refundable -- just like American, Delta, United, Spirit, et all..    The difference is that Southwest will let you use ALL OF THE VALUE of your non-refundable ticket, while American Delta, United et all will subtract somewhere around $200, and then you can use what's left.   You choose whether the ticket you buy is refundable or not. ... View more

Sorry to hear about your experience   First of all, the issue resides with Chase, not Southwest. Chase buys points from Southwest and then tells Southwest who/how many point to award. Southwest will only award what Chase tells it to award.   If you can't get Chase customer service to understand, call back and demand to speak to a supervisor. If the supervisor doesn't help, then I would send a well worded letter to Chase's CEO.   I would do these things before cancelling the credit card. If all else fails and you want to cancel the card, they'll probably route you to "customer retention" where you'll have one fin al opportunity to ty to get Chas to do the right thing. It costs Chase less to try to keep a customer than to find a new one.   Good luck. ... View more

@trekkienor wrote: This is a big issue for people who want to fly with Southwest who live outside North America. I really don't understand this. I live in Norway. I can access this website (Southwest Air Community)  and I can access their Southwest Vacations website. But when I try to access the offical Southwest Airline website, access is denied.  How can we get SW to understand that this is a big problem and that they need to fix it before they lose customers_ Any ideas? It appears that the Southwest website is availble in some, but not all countries.  I don't understand the some yes, some no situation.   Available: India Australia Germany U.K. Italy Poland   Not available Greece Netherlands Switzerland Sweden Hong Kong Singapore     Those are the countries that I can easily check with https://asm.ca.com/en/checkit.php      .or. https://www.site24x7.com/check-website-availability.html ... View more

@virgiltu wrote: Sadly Southwest is the worst when it comes to receipts.  I fly a lot and my company refuses to accept southwest receipts because they are missing a lot of information. Sadly I am told that we will have to no longer use southwest because of this.  As a company I would say the same thing. Even my uber receipts have more information on them.  Currently their receipts are a complete joke and look extremely unprofessional. It is really a shame to have to deal with this from a business stand point.    The only place this is visible is in the email receipt, that only comes once. Good luck if you remove it.  Missing Information: Flight times Connections Payment method Taxes Fees Payment Date Expiration Date      That e-mail that Southwest send just as soon as you complete a booking contains all of that (except expiration date -- I don't know what that means).   Do a 2 pages on 1 print or print at the 50% level and it all appears on one page to turn in with your expense reports.   If you know that you need that e-mail, why on earth wouldn't you just save it? ... View more

I presume the rules for non-motorized scooters are the same as those for bicycles.   https://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/baggage/special-luggage-pol.html#baggage_special_luggage_pol_tab_list_tab_16   Best if packed in a hard side case, or at a minimum in a softsided or cardboard case, but if in softsided/cardboard, SW would accept only limited liability for damage.   If it has to be in a case, it would sure make sense to me to check it before getting to security.      ... View more

Business select fares are  refundable either in full or in part.. ... View more

This would seem pretty unfortunate. I've never run into this situation.   I can't imagine all opassengers for the flight would fit on one bus.   Thus it would seem to make sense to me to take all a-listers out on one bus, then b-group on another bus, and then c-group on another bus, with a final bus for any late arrivers.   Another rule of thumb probably should be to sit as close as possible to the bus door, so first on the bus could be first off the bus.  ... View more

Well Rae, flight costs have gone up -- for all airlines due to the cost of jet fuel among other things.   As elijah said, you shoud consider the entire value proposition: Cost of ticket Add on gotcha fees What happens to your ticket cost if you have to cancel. Seat width Seat selection -- will the airline select a given seat for you or do you send $$$ to choose. What happens if your flight gets cancelled (especially for Spriit, Alegiant, Frontier) as they       ........ normally have few flights during a day or even a week.   If you balance everything out and think another airline fits your flight better, by all means go with the ther airline   I've evaluated the alternatives, and found no airline better than SW --- but that's just me. ... View more

@Acrostar007 wrote: Same thing happened to me.  Total BS..   Used to really like Southwest but again service not there.  What harm is it to allow some people who should have received it to get it.  I'll be choosing other airlines now in my personal/business travel.   Alleigiant here I come...     Sorry to hear that you are unhappy.   Southwest told you the rules for the promotion (in order).    1) Sign up for the deal 2) Book your llights between the start and end date 3) Fly your llights between the start and end date   The IRS tells you you have to file your income tax by a certain date. You have to renew your car license by a cerain date.   You have to follow those rules. What makes you feel that you can ignore rules that are clearly stated by Southwest?   I've signed up for prior promotions and failed to get them because I did not follow the rules.  I WAS RESPOSIBLE for screwing up. So I didn't blame someone else. ... View more

Sorry to hear about your situation.   Remember that Southwest is not totally in control of the situation. If the cleaning crew didn't spot your phones, then they could have continued on to the next destination (or next or next) of the plane. Other passengers could have simply picked them up and pocketed them. Southwest flew almost 158,000,000 people last year and it will be more this year. There are lots of moving parts to coordinate when you fly lots of flights for that many people.   In any event, here's the form you need to complete to get the ball rolling:   https://live.nettracer.aero/southwest-paxview/lostandfound/landing.do?clk=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-LOST-FOUND   Finding lost items is a time intensive process, and if just 1 in 1000 passengers lost something last year, then Southwest would  have had to search for 158,000 items.   Hope you get your phones back.   ... View more

The only way to insure you get TSA pre every time is to register for it and pay the fee.   TSA does occsionally give travelers TSA pre-check free of charge. It does not happen every time someone travels. The process appears random, but I'm sure that TSA has some type of algorithm that decides when a traveler gets the freebe.   https://www.tsa.gov/precheck ... View more

I can confirm that points earned through the dining program do count towards companion pass eligibility, but strangely do not count towards A-list eligibility -- at least on my account. ... View more

@bgubs14 wrote: I believe you can just call southwest customer service and they should be able to fix it. I don’t think you can do this online  If you can't do that, remember that you can cancel any ticket within 24 hours of purchasing the ticket (be sure to ask for a refund as opposed to having the funds becomming travel funds for future use). Then you can buy the ticket again using the correct name.   That assumes you didn't use travel funds to buy at least part of the fare on the new ticket. ... View more

Regretably, what you ran in to  was a policy that has been in place for as long as I can remember.   Did you try to explain your situation to the gate agent? Many times they can be quite accomodating to passengers.  ... View more

@bellascap wrote: Hi,  Recently in April I traded my dates for a flight and got money back as redeemable credit, now I cannot find that credit and do not know where or how to access it. If anyone could help me, that would be greatly appreciated.  If you are saying that you changed your reservaton and took different flights, BUT YOU DID FLY, then your confirmation number for the flight you did take is the same one as the one you are searching for to get access to your travel funds. Toi find it, access your online acount; click on my account; click on my trips; click on past, and the trip you took (with confirmation number) will be there.   If you cancelled the flight, then Southwest would have sent you an e-mail as soon as you cancelled. If you didn't delete it, search your e-mail for an e-maill that starts with the words "cancelled flight reservation" as the first words on the title line. The e-mail will have everything you need to use your travel funds.   Likewise if you changed flights, Southwest would have sent you an e-mail enetitled "updated travel reservation". ... View more

You probably should contact SW customer relations with your suggestion, as this forum is a customer to customer set up. Going directly to SW customer relations will likely be more productive as you would be dealing with SW employees.. ... View more