Southwest Airlines Community

I'm so glad the crew was able to take care of you and hope you are doing well. Don't forget to reach out to Southwest directly so that crew can be recognized! Southwest LUVs to hear great things from customers. ... View more

@Ronshan wrote: Dear SW, Who is the genius that cancels flights based upon a weather forecast for 9-10 hours later? Oh, thunderstorms are forcast for any given city; scattered rain and thunderstorms with possible lightning so let's cancel the flights. Isn't that every destination all summer long? Come on! My notification that my flight was cancelled was at 10:30 AM in NAS, flights to BWI were cancelled that landed at 6:45 PM. Really? Cancelled? Why? Forcasted bad weather? You MUST be joking! What newly educated genius made this call? You should hire several more of these morons so that when your company goes under, you'll have someone to blame. Forecasted storms in the area 9-10 hours later? Better cancel the flights. We don't want to have our pilots and ground crews make any decisions that could jeopardize our bottom line. We'll cancel and call it a weather event so no customer compensation will be necessary.   Sorry to hear about your travel troubles. I'm sure it was pretty maddening. i've had travel days like that, and they are absolutely no fun.   That being said, check the national news this morning about weather on the east coast. A dam in Va may collapse due to the excessive amount of rainfall. So Southwest was likely correct when it cancelled flights due to the expected bad weather.   All airlines opeate in a way that disruptions are managed in a way to minimize total disruption to the system. Planes and crew have to be properly positioned so that f uture flights are not cancelled. That sometimes means that it is better to cancel a flight than to have the flight depart and then divert - putting both the plane and the crew in the wrong place thus jeopardizing future flights. That also puts passengers in the wrong airport struggling even more to get to their final destinations.   No airline cancels flights on a day like yeterday to save money. They do so to try to minimize total disruption to the arline and it's passengers.  ... View more

Well, nobody knows for sure.   I have no insider information on the topic, but since Hawaii service will be a big deal, my guess is that it will be announced with lots of PR and a big media splash - outside of a normal schedule update.   Of course my opinion could be worth what you paid for it -- nothing..,    :=) ... View more

Hello.   My first piece of advice is to remove the confirmation number and ticket number from your post. With those pieces of information a nefareous perso n could wreak havoc upon you.   Second, this is a custome to customer forum, so your request here will not produce the results you desire.   My advice would be to e-mail the company ((click on send us an e-mail -- third item from top left of the following web page): https://www.southwest.com/contact-us/contact-us.html?clk=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-CONTACT-US   The phone number is listed, too.   Southwest's normal  policy is that travel funds must be used by the originally named ticket holder, but your situation is unique. You'll need to contact the company to get a ruling. You'll never know if you don't ask     ... View more

@advlce I agree that the situation you were going through was frustrating, and I’ve experienced it as well. However, you are leaving out the details on what lead to the cancellations. Weather or mechanical? I don’t think the commitment is misleading because it actually makes sense if you look it from a business perspective. If the airline had to put out the cost of hotel rooms for all of their stranded passengers because of any unforeseen circumstance, they might as well park all of their jets and open hotel chains.    My advice to you is to alwaybe courteous and not demanding when frustrated at the gate. In my experience, being concerned, but understanding about my situation actually goes pretty far.      ... View more

@dfwskier wrote: If not, cancelling would just give you more travel funds to use in th future.  Given that, if the old travel funds are due to expire soon, and you are not likely to be able to use them in any other way, that might make sense.   When you apply travel funds, all funds from that reservation now take on the oldest expiration date.   If they cancel the flight, they would need to rebook a new one using only the old funds (none of the new ones from the flight just cancelled), otherwise any leftover funds would also expire soon. So, this works only if the existing travel funds are enough to completely cover the new flight, and/or they plan to travel again prior to the expiration of the newly cancelled flight.     ... View more

@DancingDavidE wrote: @     This is a tough one - I also don't expect that they would be canceling a flight early in the morning, especially if that plane would be planning to be somewhere else later in the day. At the same time, there must be some good statistics on when not to fly to Oakland in the morning, and perhaps this route is prone to cancelation.    Do you know if the plane is a "shuttle" that goes back and forth from LAX to OAK and back? I think that Southwest would have to plan ahead for this route to be subject to fog if that was actually the reason and if it occurs often.   Otherwise I'd have to take it at face value that there were storms in the area or between the cities that prevented a safe route.    I'd recommend to try and leave some time to talk to the staff at the LAX airport to get a better feel for this route if you are taking it once a week and having trouble.             Well, the flight does continue from O akland To Atlanta to Reagan National to Midway. So cancelling the flight puts Southwest in the position of having to find another plane to continue that route out of Oakland. So I doubt Southwest would cancel the flight if it really did not have to do so.   I can only access 2 months of flight details, and Southwest 1073 LAX/OAK has been cancelled twice in the last two months - June 19 and this morning.    Unfortunately, flights do get cancelled. My guess is that cancelling an early morning LAX/OAK flight due to low numbers of passengers is unlikely due to the disruption to the rest of the routing scheduled for the plane for the rest of the day. ... View more

Morning.   It depends on the dimensions of the chair. If it's no bigger than 24X10X16 it can be crried on board. If not it should be checked (preferably in some type of box). ... View more

@gamemasterdls68,  I am sorry that this delay happened to you.  Having been a frequent traveler for work for decades, I have been frustrated with many different incidents and airlines.  I was very relieved when the Department of Transportation passed rules and penalties in 2010 which discouraged airlines from loading passengers on a plane and making them sit for 4-5 hours waiting for take-off because I had that happen to me more than once (but my two incidents were on other airlines).  It feels better to endure the delays in the terminal than on the tarmac.   As a tax geek, I have to point out that Mr. Kelly’s income level puts him in a tax bracket that means he is more likely to be audited by the IRS than the average person, and the 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act Section 1203 protects taxpayers from acts of retaliation from IRS employees.   Air travel can be rough and it seems like you had one of those trips.  I hope future travels are smoother for you. ... View more

@dfwskier wrote:   I am NOT completely confident of what I am about to say, but I seem to recall a day in the past where my flight was cancelled and I was able to just log in to my account, go to reservation in my account, and then pick "change flight." You might want to try that.    I'm not sure what enables that option, but I recall doing this once before as well. I don't see any "global" reaccomodation link on the website yet as they sometimes have during major snowstorms or hurricanes.   While you are on hold, maybe try Twitter as well. Don't send any personal information until they ask for a direct message.     ... View more

Sorry to hear about your trouble.  I looks like severe weather on the east coast is causing all kinds of mayhem. Likely hundreds or thousands of people like you are affected.   I am NOT completely confident of what I am about to say, but I seem to recall a day in the past where my flight was cancelled and I was able to just log in to my account, go to the reservation in my account, and then pick "change flight." You might want to try that.    Absent that, regretably, you best option may be just to put up with the phone delays brought on by lots of other people like you trying to get rebooked.   The east coast weather problem has been ongoing for several days , causing lots of cancelled flights, and that makes the rebooking process to be excpetionally difficult. That may be why you were told there were no rebooking options available.   Southwest appears to be struggling. It's likely the same at American, Delta, United, Jet Blue, et all.     ... View more

In short, you will not be able to use your travel funds for your boyfriend. The travel funds will apply to your reservation only. ... View more

Good morning..   Sorry to hear about your travel experience.   That being said, this is primarily a customer to customer forum. In order to obtain a refund, you should contact Southwest directly. You can do so via phone, twitter or e-mail. The upper left side of the following web page explains how to make contact.   https://www.southwest.com/contact-us/contact-us.html?clk=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-CONTACT-US             ... View more

Agree with previous post. Additionally, when a flight gets cancelled or delayed due to maintenance typically SWA passes out LUV vouchers.  ... View more

The travel funds are not transferable, but just as you bought a ticket for someone else that they now "own" they could return the favor.    If that person doesn't plan to fly Southwest for the next year they may not be interested though, it depends on the travel funds having value to them.         ... View more

FYI: When you book the original itinerary, or change / cancel an existing itinerary, an email is sent that lists the expiration date of the funds for that ticket. This can be helpful if you've made any previous changes or reused funds from another ticket, since the new booking will take on the oldest expiration date of any funds applied.   ... View more

@unhappyatswa wrote: chg   Yes, I've used that contact link twice.  The two submissions were acknowledged, but then no follow up.   Even though SWA has subcontracted out the rapidrewards program, SWA is ultimately responsible for the program.   I'll post any followups from SWA. Southwest will only do what Cartera tells Southwest to do -- add or subtract points. Southwest has no information other than what Catera gives it.   I'd suggest that you e-mail SW customer service with a subject something like "Complaint about Cartera's administration of the SW shopping program."  Give details  of where Cartera is not performing as promised. Ask SW to intervene and ask Cartera to get it's act together. ... View more

If you're a risk taker you could always show up at the check-in counter on the day you meant to fly and say "oops, I didn't realize I booked another day", but that's a BIG gamble and you could either be added to the flight as standby (if seats are available) or get stuck paying for all new tickets at very last minute fares ($$$ ouch!).   It's frustrating to have to pay the additional $500, but very good that you caught the mistake before it was too late. Change fees on other airlines can be $200 per ticket plus the fare difference.   --TheMiddleSeat ... View more

@DaijP wrote: If I wanted to cancel my flight and unfortunately I have a non-refundable ticket, is it possible for me to get my money back and not credit. I’m not a traveler and I never traveled before this was gonna be my first time and I would really hate if it goes to credit cause I didn’t plan on traveling anywhere else. After the travel funds expire a year from the original date of purchase you may be able to pay a fee (currently $100)  to have the travel credit exchanged for a voucher.    If your credit was more than $100, then once you had the voucher anyone could use it in case you have a family member or friend that flies more frequently. Make sure of what the expiration would be for the voucher that someone you know would be able to use it before paying any additional money.   Keep an eye on the sales, maybe you'll see a fun opportunity pop up to use all or most of your travel fund credit that you weren't expecting.   Depending where you are it could maybe even be used for a day trip to somewhere like Minneapolis where you can take the light rail into town or Mall of America...sight see, and head back to the airport same day.   Chicago is obviously a good one in that regard. A few other cities are also setup well to see a few sights and get back to the airport easily.      ... View more

Best Boarding Experience In A Lifetime On the 7/19/18 flight #2363, the 1st Officer came out of the cockpit and helped me get  my wife out of her wheelchair at the plane door. I've flown for over 50 years and have never had this experience. Unfortunately, I was unable to get his name. Please let him know my apperciation ... View more

That's cool! I guess I wouldn't call it a "partner airline" exactly, but I stand corrected about there being a way to book international travel with points.   I wouldn't do that myself, the points are too valuable using companion pass, but I guess that might make sense for some people to redeem them in that way.     ... View more

Yeah sometimes there’s no drink service due to weather or timing of the flight! But you should be Able to use them in August ! ... View more

Hi.   Here's informtion from Southwest about what to do about the lost laptop.   https://live.nettracer.aero/southwest-paxview/lostandfound/landing.do.   When you realize that Southwest wll fly something more than 160 million people this year, lost and found becomes a fairly time consuming process. If just 1 in 10,000 people loses an item, that means that Southwest will have to try to find 16,000 itmes this year. There are procedures that employees follow, and I'm sure there are data bases to update.   I can only suggest that you give Southwest a bit of time to try to sort things out. Yes that is frustrating, but it takes time to let the process work. ... View more

I totally agree with you; excuse after excuse and constant neglect or concern for the passengers. However, don’t be surprised with the gooey responses from people who don’t speak up regarding lack of customer service from a company, and offer some shallow advice. ... View more

Thanks for the information! I was directed to fill out the report on the website, which I did immediately when I got home. ... View more

@dfwskier wrote: Morning.   Well, the first thing to do, if haven't alreay done so, is to conatct  SW directly . Here's how: https://live.nettracer.aero/southwest-paxview/lostandfound/landing.do   As for the likelihood of getting the items back, it will be a function of who finds them, and how honest that person is.   Good luck Hopefully someone who is interested in a drink or two, and not 16 - I'd be fairly hopeful on this one since your identifying information is there, so that the cards at least could be returned or re-issued fairly easily.   @If you use twitter is might be worth reaching out to see if the coupons could be replaced and initiate a re-issue of your cards, atlhough I haven't actually been asked to provide these on past flights the terms are that you'd have them. You can message to @SouthwestAir, don't send any personal information until they ask for a direct message to confirm your identify.         ... View more

@vernneal wrote: THIS IS RIDICULOUS. I fly every week. What we need is a SIMPLE ONE PAGE with flight INFO & PRICE WE PAY .   PERIOD   NOT 4 pages Good morning.   The irst two pages contain everything you need. You can print  the first two pages at 50% and you'll have everything you want on one page .OR. you can print the first wo pages side by side on one page.  Either solution gets you what you seem to want: a receipt on one piece of paper. ... View more

This is a known issue -- you have to log out / back in on the app for your current point total to update. It's odd to me that it works this way, but I do know that if you try to make a purchase using points that the app thinks you have (but that you don't actually have, per the correct total shown on the website) it will generate an error when you try to make the payment. ... View more