Southwest Airlines Community

Sorry to hear that you are unhappy with Southwest's EBCI pricing.   Remember you have the option of checking yourself in at T-24 hours, and you'll normally get a decent boarding position and you won't pay any fee..   Only you can decide whether or not other airlines' nickel and diming passengers with fees is less onerous to you than Southwest's one fee for EBCI, which unlike change fees or baggage fees at other airlines can be avoided by checking yourself in.  If you decide to go with another airline, I hope it works out for you. If you later decide to come back to Southwest, I'm sure the airline will be glad to see you return. ... View more

@Wheelsup wrote: I have flown 25 segments last year and will complete 25 this year soon. Now you give A list for four segments. I feel ripped off. I bet a lot of A listers feel the sameway. It makes the perk less valuable in my eyes. And you don’t offer this perk to me. This does not promote loyalty to SWA. You don't need the offer, you already have it from last year, and are already on target for this year?   It's a good strategy to entice people that they for some reason believe are frequent flyers or will become frequent flyers.   Although unpublished, I have a guess that A-list positions are assigned in some combation of A-list "seniority", date of purchase, and other factors so that you may still be positioned ahead of these folks.   The number of people getting (and using) the promotion is going to be very small compared to the existing body of A-listers...this doesn't bother me, and it will only make the airline stronger by adding more regular passengers.       ... View more

I remember they had some sale like this in October last year as I booked my crazy AUS to LBB route to hit A List preferred $103 RT with a few hours to play in Vegas    glad they have it again so I can make an early run towards A List for next year rather than waiting for December like I did last year.    Blake  ... View more

I unfortunately had a similar encounter.  This past Friday I flew with my ESA at ATL airport, which is a 4lbs yorkie that doesn't make a peep as well. I checked in my two bags at the ticket counter, and was never spoken to or asked anything about a letter for my pet.  I also went through TSA with no issues. Now here is where the story gets good.  When I arrived at the gate, my animal was on her leash.  before boarding I put her back inside, and even proceeded to ask the gate agent Ms. Thomas, if passengers with service/ESA where allowed to board early...she then replied "I aint never said that"...Ok so I proceed to sit in the seat closest to the ticket counter with my pet in her carrying bag on my lap. Right in front if Ms. Akesha Thomas.  I boarded the plane sat down, and about 4 min before take off. Two flight attendants approached me, and ask me if I has a dog, I proceeded to say yes, and they then asked me to come to the front to speak to Ms. Akesha Thomas.  When I got to the front of the plane I was basically verbally attacked by Ms. Thomas right in the jet bride in front of the door of the plane where everyone could hear.  She proceeded to ask me in a very loud harsh attitude tone of voice "did you pay for that dog"  I proceeded to tell her that she was and ESA.  She then asked where was my letter,  I let her know that I was unaware of the policy change.  She then told me that I was going to have ot get off of the plane, miss my flight, and come pay for the animal.  Thats when I began to have a panic attack because she pretty much did not explain what was going on, and gave me no time to process what was going on. She humiliated me in front of everyone.  In the middle of having trying to calm myself down, and get my thoughts in order I proceeded to tell her that I would be willing to pay the fee, but I cant miss my flight. (I mean technically it is a miss on SW behalf not mine.) She then got on the jetbridge phone and started talking to someone saying that someone needs to come ans escort me off of the plane, because she has no time for this.  At this point I am pretty much begging her to please let me just pay the fee and get back on the plane.  She then says okay with still talking on the phone with an altitude about everything that was going on.  She gave my card number over the phone but the card didnt work, she then made an announcement to everyone that the card was declined....but i knew I had money, so I asked her to let me just sign into my banking to see whats going on. Even the two flight attendants that were standing by me witnessed my bank account and seen that I had no issues.  She then told me no I gotta go and i was just going to have to miss my flight....Im still in tears at this point. It was so bad, that the captain of the plane came out to see what was going on.  To end my story. One of the flight attendance knew I was having a panic attack, and she also recognized that the gate agent was being rude, so she paid the fee for me, and allowed me to stay on the flight....I am not sure how to end this story, but I just wanted to put it out there because it was alot.  ... View more

Morning    Southwest says that the current app version (5.8.1)  equires android 6.0 or better. So if you have 6.0 or better, it should work. I'd suggest trying again. ... View more

Morning.   I've had the same thing happen to me. It really is not a case of bait and switch. Here's why:   There are a limited number of seats at a given price available on any flight. Once they're sold, they're gone. Thus the fare you are looking at may disappear IF SOMEONE ELSE BUYS IT FIRST.   My guess about what happened is that there was one seat available at the price you were seeing. Someone else was looking to buy a seat at that price the same time you were. They bought it before you hit the buy button. So they got the one remaining seat at that price.   Hope that helps you understand what likely happened. ... View more

Morning.   The TSA Pre line normally moves a lot faster than the other lines because it involves less activity from travelers: people do not need to take out liquids in plastic bags, computers, don't have to take off shoes, do not need to remove all items from pockets,   and in some cases do not even have to take off their light jackets.   People in the fly by lanes have to do those things, and it slows the process down. ... View more

Hi. Sorry you are having trouble.   When you sign up for click and save, you sign up for all of it . Theres not a way to only sign up for pat of it.   To verify your subscription 1) sign on to your Southwest account online' 2) Move down the left side of the page to "my preferences" 3) Click on "communication" 4( Within communiction you should be able to confirm your enrolment, or sign up if you have ot already done so.   edit add: I believe that click and save only gives access to airfare information ... View more

@chgoflyer wrote: Southwest is basically reinventing itself. It's really no longer a no-frills, low fare carrier -- that role has been taken over by carriers like Spirit and Frontier, etc. Now the focus is on offering the best "overall travel value." Interesting . That strategy seems to be working. I regularly follow another airline related blog. There's a discussion about Jet blue planning to add a deep discount  fare(Spirit like service) to it's portfolio. There's discussion about whether or not Southwest will need to do so to remain competitive ( since it seems everyone else is adding the "low" level of service option).   Another blog follower chimed in an basically confirmed what chgoflyer said:   "  I just did a cross country rt this week and chose WN with a connection over AA nonstop. And I'm a lifetime AA gold.  I had really exemplary WN crews on all 4 flights. Really service-oriented FAs. I get points that actually can be redeemed. I had a long connection and walked over to a random WN gate and asked the agent for a standby on an earlier flight and within 10 seconds I got an earlier flight boarding pass with a smile. I like to reward service instead of nickel-and-diming."   " ... View more

Yes, the Wright Amendment is gone now.  Things are finally right with Love Field. (Former DFW resident) ... View more

I sometimes use FlightAware to see where planes are coming from, how delays are affecting the network:   https://flightaware.com/live/findflight?origin=KMDW&destination=KDEN     ... View more

I have always flown SW exclusively but lately their prices are not commensurate with other carriers.  If their prices continue to remain high you won't have to worry about paying for Early Bird because there will be less people flying Southwest.  As an example, bought a United flight for $51 that Southwest wanted $216.  They can't justify free bags anymore with that kind of difference. ... View more

What they said above, with some clarifications.   FYI: Positive Passenger Bag Matching on domestic flights hasn't been required for over 12 years, it went away when all bags started being x-rayed. Airlines themselves have policies about passengers not intentionally separating themselves from their bags, but it's not a federal requirement. It's primarily to help reduce the number of late/lost bag claims filed, which count against the carrier's DOT statistics.   The average passenger can't utilize Southwest Cargo. To do so, you have to be a TSA approved Indirect Air Carrier or a Known Shipper, which requires application and approval. You could however utilize FedEx or UPS, or better yet one of the many golf club shipping companies that provide door-to-door delivery.         ... View more

Southwest employs a rolling update when it updates it's schedule -- it's not all at once. The process takes several hours.   Now two hour after your post, it is likely to have been completed. So you should be able to look at flights to the west coast. ... View more

@LorrieB wrote: Hello,   I recently posted a question asking if drink coupons were available for purchase from SWA.  Thank you everyone for your responses, I really appreciate it.   This got me thinking, does anyone know if you can use a SWA Gift Card to purchase drinks?  That might give me the option I was looking for.   Thanks, Lorrie I'm seeing a new approach for you based on this recent post - if you wanted to avoid using your regular credit card onboard, you could buy a pre-paid gift card and use that, one of the VISA, MC, or Amex gift cards that scans just like regular credit cards?   I don't know how often you are flying, but you could reload it as needed to allow for a beverage or two. If you end up not paying for drinks on a flight or two, then you could still use it anywhere else that accepts credit as opposed to a Southwest gift card.   Does that meet your intent? Sorry we didn't think of this on your prior post, but the suggestion of a Southwest gift card makes me think about the other prepaid gift cards.       ... View more

Hello.    The problem seems to be that Chase was offering two DIFFERENT promotions at the same time.   One offered 10000 points and a $200 statement credit, while the other offered 40000 points.   You are not the first person to be confused by the situation.    Maybe Chase should only offer one deal at a time in the future...    That being said, since it is a Chase promotion, only Chase can fix the problem.  Hope the company treats you right. Good luck   Edit ad: Since Chase is trying to find a way to get you the 30000 points, it would seem that it would also try to get the $200 back from you, since the 40000 point offer does not provide cash back as part of that deal.  And yes, 30000 points is worth more than $200. ... View more

@dfwskier wrote: @swpauly wrote: Hi, I have some travel funds expiring on June 28, 2019. I am planning on traveling on June 26, 2019. I have seen the policy where travel must be completed by the expiration date. This wont be possible as I will be travelling for a week therefore I will be booking a one way flight. This however will leave me with a travel fund balance after booking the one way flight. Is it possible to book another flight with the left over funds? In short, using my travel funds for two different flights the June 26 and an April 2019 booking? Hello, I suspect there's a typo in your post. Did you mean to say April 2020?   Anyway the rule is that travel using travel funds must be COMPLETED by no later than one year from the date the original ticket was purchased.   So, using your travel funds   for two different flights the June 26 and an April 2019 booking would be OK (as long as you don't have a June return after June 28).  I think the question was can the travel funds be used multiple flights, one leg in April 2019 and one leg in June 2019 (before the 28th) - answer is "yes" the approach makes sense in order to use up the funds, which couldn't be used for a July 2019 return leg. And it isn't necessary to use travel funds on one reservation, no reason to hold them for the June/July trip.         ... View more

Every airline offers this type of buy miles get some miles free offer. In some rare occasions they make sense. Here's one of them,   I'm lifetime United 1K ( yeah that is possible - it's a long story), and United just sent me an offer to buy miles and get up to 70%  free (also 35% and 50% for lower levels), so I could purchase 30k miles and get 21K miles as a bonus for $1050.   Because United does not base rewards based flights on acutal fare, that purchase might make sense on United.  Economy RT's (to anywhere in the lower 48) cost 25k miles.   So, a RT Dallas/Chicago departing tomorrow points cost is 25k points - $ cost is about $800. So one could buy 51,000 points and get $1600 in flight value for $1050. Becasue I'm 1k, my only cost for a RT beginning tomorrow would be something like $11,50 for the TSA fee. Someone with no FF status would pay $160 in fees.   It might not make sense  for most advance purchase fares, but it sure would for unexpected no notice departures ... View more

This topic came up in a previous thread:   https://www.southwestaircommunity.com/t5/International-Travel/confused-on-international-flight-schedules/m-p/79603#M1062       There are lots of moving parts involved in setting the systemwide schedule. I can only guess that the return from PVR had to be set to allow connections to other cities, but left DTW a victim. ... View more

@bec102896 wrote: As @DancingDavidE if they didn't reuse the boarding numbers from people who cancelled or no showed or even miss connected because of say a delay then you could end up with more boarding groups and that would confuse people so to keep it simple they just keep it to ABC plus family and preboard. Oh and @DancingDavidE i have actually seen a C63 boarding pass myself back when they had the A List glitch on the monitor it just says C 31+ as I asked a gate agent once as I was curious    on another note I have known people to call and ask to be unchecked in wait a few seconds to re check in to see if they get a better boarding position only thing is someone could check in and take your boarding spot and you in turn have a worse position so that is a at your own risk kind of thing.    That makes sense - so the monitors can show "+" and the boarding passes will actually show higher numbers in the C group?   That's a funny trick for those people unchecking and then re-checking - if you were already C15 then what's the harm to give it a try! I wouldn't do this with an A or B boarding pass though.     ... View more

@hmkorn wrote: I received a notice that my flight was cancelled as I was in the car heading to the airport. Contacted Southwest and was told it was a maintenance issue and they would rebook on the next flight. However, when they rebooked, my boarding position went from A to C for both the new flight and the new connecting flight, and they said they couldn't do anything about that. It seems they should offer an A1-15 at no charge or at least allow me to board when the families board after the A group. They said I would have to address this with the ticket agent at the airport. By then there could be dozens of others trying to do the same thing. Just as the others said, the A positions are already assigned A16-A60. They won't give out the A1-15 spots since those are for business select that pay a much higher ticket price, or pay for the extra position.    As was mentioned, and when you talk about "dozens" of others going for the same thing - some number of each of those dozen will already be A-list customers who had the A16-A60 numbers on your canceled flight - they will board at "A61" exactly as you described without taking any other action.   If you had an A-number on the previous flight you could ask the gate agent about boarding A61 also.           ... View more

@Smivy wrote: I’m sad to say that I had a laptop stolen out of my backpack today. I got some food between gates B10 & B12 at around 6:05pm. I sat down at a charging station before quickly gathering my phone and phone charger and headed towards my gate to catch a flight #653 to Dallas. I realized I had left my backpack at the charging station between gates B10 & B12 and rushed back to that spot at 6:10.   I was happy to see that it was still there. I noticed some of the same people sitting in the area, let out a sigh of relief, and headed back to catch my flight.   I looked into my backpack and noticed that my work laptop was missing. I ran back to the same spot and saw the same people and called 911, who transferred me to the airport police. An officer showed up at 6:15 and wasn’t very helpful. I filed a claim and asked him to check the security footage. He said that is done by another department and couldn’t request for it to be reviewed.    I have my suspicions of who took it, but I had a flight I was going to be late for if I waited around for a sergeant to come. I ran back to my flight and barely made it.   Can someone please point me in the right direction on how to handle this? Again, this happened at Chicago MDW at the charging station between gates B10&B12 at around 6:00-6:15. I’ve filed a police report but that isn’t going to go anywhere unless I get some help from Southwest.   That's a tough situation, I would have been tempted to continue following up and miss the flight depending how hard it would be to catch another one to Dallas later.    That said, keep following up with Midway and Midway police remotely, I don't think Southwest will be able to add much other than checking their own lost and found. If you were on a connecting flight at Midway and used your computer on the inbound leg, file a lost item report in case it was left on the inbound aircraft.   I wanted to double check, only because I have seen this happen before: Did you have the computer out at the charging point? If not, think where else it might have gone missing between the time you noticed and you last remember handling it - for instance it might be in the lost and found at the checkpoint if it came out there. If you were at a hotel call them.  If someone knabbed it and then decided after looking at it that it was too secure to hack or that it wouldn't be worth it to them, they may have ditched it where it could be found by custodial staff. If someone snagged your laptop out of your bag while you were getting  food, they may not have waited around while you came back, I'd be less suspicious of anyone that was still sitting there in the same positions...but you mentioned having some suspicions, you'd need to convince the officer to a high degree before he'd be able to search anyone for it.   I hope that it is found successfully. ... View more

In addition to what the other poster said   1) Try to activate the phone's find me feature. 2) Call the number to see if someone answers. 3)Be aware the Southwest does try to reunite lost items with their owners. Sometimes it takes a while for that to happen. There's a post somewhere on the forums from a person who lost some photographs. They were finally found three weeks later. ... View more

It would be interesting to see if any one is actually booking round trip flights to PVR from DTW  in Jan. or Feb.  can't be done now ! I think SW is loosing out by not adjusting some flight schedules by 1 hr. at least a couple per week so a round trip flight could be booked. SW needs to do there home work and step up there coustomer service. Its like bookig flights only 6 moths out.  People planning a international trip with time shares , or a crusie book airfare most of the time a yr. in advance. ... View more

Thank you! Yes, they are pretty sturdy boxes and they are within the dimension guidelines of normal checked baggage. And even though she has a lot of stuff in there, they are way under the weight limit. Think it is because boxes weigh next to nothing when empty, so that's always a good start! I think the shoes box is the heaviest, LOL! ... View more

If you’ve done this and are already in the position I would suggest boarding as soon as you get there ! Just a couple minutes can make a difference and I’ve dodged my way through airports because I knew I was cutting it close ! Remember if you’re a-list you can board in between a and b and if you’re early bird 🦅 even if they’ve passed your number  you can go up and don’t have to wait at c60 or something to board 🙂  ... View more

Thank you! Appreciate your response ... View more