Southwest Airlines Community

I’ve noticed this for close to a month now. I’ll admit it is rather inconvenient since I fly out of multiple airports in my home state and like to keep tabs on the nonstop routes available from the nearby airports. I imagine, however, that the feature was temporarily disabled due to the abnormal high amount of route changes, discontinuation, and suspensions (and expedited additions in Hawaii) stemming from the max 8 grounding.    Take heart, I’m sure the interactive route map will be back soon once all remaining routing adjustments have been finalized. ... View more

I know I may be a little late to the party, but I figured I'd drop a little nugget for discussion. Please note that although you may be very disappointed with the apparent lack or slight of concern for pax from EWR, SWA still very much cares for its passengers. EWR is one of the main hubs for a major legacy carrier which means that carrier receives preferential treatment for gate usage and runway take off slots. In the world of aviation, everything is very much time- and money-based. When an airline establishes a hub, all other carriers in and out of that hub are subject to the various restrictions imposed either by the influence or even by the direct authority the main airline maintains on its hub.   I imagine that EWR management is required by its lead carrier to adhere to strict usage restrictions which in turn forces SWA to either curtail operations seasonally or perhaps even permanently suspend them. Bottom line: SWA may not have been the one that wanted to eliminate nonstops to MCO from EWR. They may have been forced into that position by another carrier, by airport management, or even the municipal, state, or federal government. ... View more

Good morning!   Allow me to start by saying thank you for your service. Southwest Airlines and all of its passengers, I assure you, are forever grateful for the daily sacrifices you make for our country. That being said, I feel it is important to provide a little business context behind why SWA doesn't offer pre-boarding to service members.   I work for another major airline which does offer pre-boarding to active duty military; however, this other airline provides seat assignments to each of its passengers prior to boarding, as do all other major airlines in the United States. Southwest Airlines is the one notable exception. They offer people the flexibility of choosing their own seat once onboard the aircraft in lieu of prepaying for seat or of subjecting themselves to the mercy of what few less-than-ideal seats may be available at time of check-in upon arrival at the airport.   Because of this feature, SWA technically loses millions of dollars every year by not charging passengers for prepaid seats. They make up potential losses, however, by allowing passengers the opportunity to pay for Early Bird Check-In ($15 - $30 per one way), pay for a Business Select ticket (often $500+ per one way), or pay nothing at all if they wish to live adventurously and try to check in as close to the 24 hour mark as possible to aim for a good boarding position.   Because of this practice, SWA has made the decision to not offer pre-boarding for non-uniformed military personnel, largely to preserve the integrity of the current anciliary product they offer their passengers. Other airlines typically offer priority boarding coupled with the purchase of a better seat, but rest assured there is still a monetary transaction included behind that.   I'm sorry if you felt disrespected. Please understand, SWA did not make this decision lightly. They wish to extend their true sense of LUV to every passenger on board each of their flights. On a happier note, as an active duty Military Passenger, you are exempt from the two-piece baggage limit and will not be subject to excess, oversize, or overweight baggage charges, provided that none of the pieces of baggage exceeds 100 pounds in weight and 80 inches in size (L+W+H). This policy also applies if you are traveling with permanent change of station orders.   I hope you've had a safe, pleasant flight. On behalf of the entire community, we all hope you give SWA another chance to impress you with their Warrior Spirit, Caring Heart, and Fun-LUVing attitude.   And again, thank you for your service!   Adrian ... View more

Hello, I totally agree with the previous commentor: attempt contacting SWA customer service. Who knows what they may consider doing?   I work for another major domestic airline; however, my personal travel loyalty remains with Southwest, due to SWA's constant commitment to providing high quality customer service and assistance to passengers. That said, having a group with 29 wheelchairs is extremely rare. As a previous commentor stated, rarely do you have so many preboarders, even on a Southwest flight. The airline I work for has never had more than a dozen preboarders on any one flight out of my station, even on our Airbus flights.   As previously mentioned, EarlyBird Check-In is always a gamble; however, if such a large group was booked on the flight, then definitely try contacting the SWA Team. One tenent of their service ethic is to never inconvenience any of their valued passengers. If indeed the 29 wheelchairs were a part of a pre-designated group, then SWA may be able to offer at least small token of goodwill to you. Never hurts to ask.   Hope the rest of your flight experience was enjoyable! ... View more

Hello! I'm sorry to hear about your inconvenience.   I'm thinking the most likely answer to your quandary is simply that yes, the SWA app is experiencing a slight glitch. If you discover that the app still does not retain your digital boarding passes, even after reloading the app or restarting your mobile device, unfortunately your only safe option would be to have paper passes printed at the nearest gate.   I flew SWA a few weeks ago from RDU to MCO and my flight was delayed by nearly 3 hours two minutes before I checked a bag at the counter in Raleigh. I had already completed mobile check-in the night before and had paid for EarlyBird Check-In, but my app reflected the new boarding time almost instantly. I never noticed an issue with disappearing passes.   I use an Apple iPhone, so I realize my phone does update on a different schedule than Android smartphones; however, I noticed that the latest SWA update on iPhone dropped about a week ago. If this issue persists, I wouldn't be surprised if we see another update released within the couple of weeks with the note that says "We squashed some bugs," or another similar phrase. ... View more