Southwest Airlines Community

A lot of people have had “bad” experiences with Southwest Vacations, but as they say people love to post negative experiences instead of positive ones. I used SW Vacations many times in the past and never had issues with it or their services. In fact, I always thought that booking a flight + hotel in the same transaction was rather convenient.   I also don’t think it’s fair to say that Southwest has “nothing” to do with Southwest Vacations. They are an official partner, albeit a third party one, just like anyone else Southwest does business with to promote their brand. Heck, Southwest Vacations is prominently advertised right on the home page of Southwest.com. Unpopular opinion, but I think we need to stop treating it like a red headed stepchild when the reality is there’s nothing wrong with it or the services they provide.   —Jessica ... View more

I stopped reading for comprehension when I got to the part where your flight was 35% full. This happened in July of 2021? I don’t believe it. I would believe July 2020. Maybe this flight experience is a year old …    But that aside, you have to wear your mask at all times except eating or drinking and they encourage not taking your mask completely off. I don’t like it either.   Ironically, I was just in Vegas for 3 days. I am flying home right now on a MAX. No mask requirements anywhere in Vegas anymore. Saw 3 sold out shows each night (no distancing, packed rows of people) with over 1500 in attendance. A handful wear masks still, and many workers do, but the public does not. But as soon as you enter the airport, 100% masks. Flights with less than 200 people? 100% masks. It’s gotten silly now, but that’s just my opinion. Rules are rules and there is nothing any of us can do about it.    —Jessica ... View more

@SouthWORST wrote:  Where are you getting your info? It's not hard to look up:   https://www.travelpulse.com/news/airlines/airlines-reinstating-change-and-cancellation-fees.html   Airlines Reinstating Change and Cancellation Fees   Excerpt:    American Airlines became the first carrier to resume reservation restrictions when it made its basic economy fares non-changeable and non-refundable. However, the airline is still allowing changes for international flights originating outside North or South America through May 31 (with the exception of Asia).   Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have also tightened ticket flexibility. As of May 1, all three carriers have scrapped their travel waivers for basic economy tickets and will revert back to non-changeable and non-refundable fares. Therefore, customers that worry about a new wave of COVID-19 affecting future travel should avoid booking the ultra-budget fare.   -----------------   Also:    https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/03/08/flight-credit-covid-pandemic-canceled-flight-southwest-american-united/6904547002/   An airline-by-airline look at pandemic flight credits ►United Airlines, which was blasted for its early pandemic refund policies, extended the expiration date of tickets purchased as far back as May 1, 2019, to March 31, 2022. ►Allegiant Air issued a blanket expiration date of two years from the date of ticket purchase for all vouchers issued ►Delta extended travel credit expiration dates to the end of 2022 but only if you bought your ticket by April 17; otherwise, you have a year from the date of purchase. That means travelers who bought a Delta ticket in May and beyond have looming expiration dates. ►American is giving travelers until December 2021 or a year after ticket purchase to use flight credits issued last year, but only if the canceled tickets were purchased by Sept. 30;passengers who bought tickets after that date are covered by the standard one-year expiration date. ►JetBlue is giving passengers 24 months to use travel credits issued by June 30, 2021; credits issued after that are good for one year. ►Alaska Airlines travel credits issued on or after March 1, 2020, are valid through Dec. 31, 2021. ►Frontier Airlines initially stuck with its standard 90-day voucher expiration date but has since extended it to one year.  ►Spirit Airlines extended the expiration date of credits issued from March 2020 to Dec. 31, 2021, but the flight has to be booked by Sept. 30, 2021.    -------------   Southwest was the most generous from the start by going out to September 2022 - most airlines did not offer that much compensation until much later, and because they waited a select few like Delta has gone to the end of 2022 - but very few are doing that, most have expirations in 2021.    --Jessica ... View more

Remove your travel fund # from your post - people could steal it and try to use it.    Do you see your travel fund when you log into your account? On a laptop, it's under "Payment" and on the app there's a section called "My Travel Funds". If you see it, you should be able to use it.    Your funds also should have an expiration of September 2022. Do they? If for some reason it didn't extend and your travel fund was only good for one year, it would have expired in June 2021, a year from when you made your reservation. That could be why it "doesn't exist", but again, your funds should have extended to September 2022 when you cancelled your flight in July.    --Jessica ... View more

Southwest provides vouchers too? Not sure what you are talking about.   Southwest was actually the only airline early on in the pandemic (March-September 2020) to give customers travel funds for cancelled flights that did not expire until *September 2022*. No other airline was that generous with extensions especially during that timeframe.     Other airlines have resumed charging all their fees again like cancellation and change fees, which Southwest has never done in the first place. You are certainly more than welcome to fly any of those airlines if you want to pay more for pretty much everything Southwest already gives you free of charge.   And again: every airline is having problems recovering from the mess of last year and will probably continue to have problems for awhile yet. This is not a Southwest issue. It's an airline industry issue.    --Jessica ... View more

You sound angry. 😤   Maybe you missed the memo, but every airline in the country is having problems with not only weather (June was especially bad this year), but staff shortages including lack of pilots, various technical issues, and more.   Maybe try to be a little more informed before ranting on a public forum. It's hard to take someone with a screen name like "SouthWORST" seriously.    https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-travel-health-coronavirus-pandemic-business-34a82df567df3f3def46cfca1af601a2    --Jessica ... View more

Technical glitch? Sounds awful to be stranded for days on end. There are plenty of options if you click the big "Contact Us" link below.   Here it is: https://www.southwest.com/contact-us/contact-us.html?clk=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-CONTACT-US    Social media (FB, Twitter) tends to yield a faster response than trying to call.    --Jessica ... View more

I tend to always hear flight attendants mention the credit card and ask people to sign up - but I have to admit it's been awhile since they've done it with COVID. Maybe it's only done on longer flights since there's more time.    That aside - you don't just "get" extra points for signing up for a credit card. There is almost always a stipulation you have to meet, like spending X in Y amount of time. My guess is you did not do that, which is why you did not get the points. This should have been spelled out in the terms and conditions of your offer. Always read the fine print!   --Jessica ... View more

@117383722 wrote: I feel for you.  I was routed through Denver twice during travel only a couple weeks ago.  It's a congested, disorganized FILTHY airport.  Given all of SW's and everyone else's baloney regarding the importance of cleanliness I just wanted a shower after spending time there.   Southwest executives should visit Denver's dump of an airport. Are you kidding? This has to be a joke, right? Congested?? The Denver airport is absolutely enormous - it's the biggest airport in the entire country with over 100 gates. It's the second largest in the world. It's so big you need to get to the other terminals by train. I'm always amazed by how big it is whenever I am there.    If you think Denver is "bad" and "filthy" I'd hate to know what you think of much smaller airports across the country like TUL with only 2 terminals and 21 gates - but maybe small airports is more your style.    --Jessica ... View more

9 for me!   Technically though, aren't RR numbers all the same length - 14 - with leading zeros in front? Somewhere along the way we stopped needing to enter the leading zeros...   --Jessica ... View more

@ldiller wrote: I tried to use a travel fund credit issued in September 2020 and I am being told that I have to use it by July 14th which is ridiculous considered everything just barely opened two weeks ago.  I think you mean "everything just barely opened *to full capacity* two weeks ago."   That is pretty much true. Things have been open this whole time (since summer 2020), but there have been capacity limits, masks, temp checks, etc. A lot of this has gone by the wayside, as it should. What an awful, strange year it's been. I will be more than glad to have it in the rearview mirror going forward.    That aside ... I'm not sure how a travel credit issued in September 2020 has an expiration date of July 2021. My only thought is you reserved the flight in July 2020 to fly in September, but it doesn't make any sense that you would fly anywhere in July *or* September 2020 given your post.    --Jessica ... View more

I will say that it's humorous that people with power (government officials, celebrities, etc.) can get away with not wearing masks when required, but we regular folk cannot. Why isn't this congressman put on the no flying list like so many others have been over the past year? It's hypocrisy at its finest.   That aside, masks are still required to be worn on airplanes until September, but considering how fast the rules are changing, I wouldn't be surprised if this changes too, and fast.   --Jessica     ... View more

@TheMiddleSeat wrote: The 16k hotel points will be CP qualifying, the boost points are uncertain and sound like a horrible deal to me IMO the boost that you pay isn't that much more and you get thousands of points in return -- but if I had to guess, the cost is the same as if you were buying points directly on Southwest.com (including any current point promotions/sales that are running). I did some quick calculations looking up various hotels, and that appears to be the case.    --Jessica ... View more

Yes, I believe all the points should count. The "boost" is simply an offer where you pay  a little more to get more points. I wouldn't consider it a "promotion" per se, as in the terms it says "promotion bonus points" do not count towards Companion. Here you can read what does and does not count:   https://www.southwest.com/html/rapidrewards/eoy-tier-communication.html    It does say that "Partner Hotel Stays" count, and I think the boosted points would too, if you pay for them.    16K points is an amazing deal! May I ask where you are staying and for how long? I take shorter trips, and the most I've ever gotten on a hotel stay is 8K, and on average I get 1-3K offers, and a lot of times I get nothing (the $ you pay is the number of points you get, so a $150 stay would be 150 points).    :edit:   It looks like the longer you stay, and the more expensive the hotel, the more points you get, which makes sense - I put in staying an entire week in various cities and I some point offers were 20,000 and above. With the boost, you're in the 35,000 point range. For one hotel stay! Do a couple of hotel stays a year like that and you'll have a ton of points!    --Jessica ... View more

@BoulderBill wrote: That's been my experience as well. I've never had the opportunity to use a voucher and I have purchased at least one drink on my flights prior to COVID. The open secret is that you need to fly 10 one way flights in a year to receive drink coupons in the mail.    --Jessica ... View more

The flight cancellations have certainly been due to a) weather and b) technological issues, as reported here:    https://community.southwest.com/t5/Check-In-Boarding/Southwest-in-process-of-resuming-normal-operations-after/m-p/122076#M8096    And here:   https://community.southwest.com/t5/Check-In-Boarding/Airline-and-bank-websites-go-down-in-another-major-internet/m-p/122277#M8118    The problems have not been unique to Southwest.    --Jessica ... View more

@bwallet wrote: Is alcohol really a money maker for Southwest? I always figured that most drinks were bought with vouchers of one form or another. I don't have any stats, but I see more people actually purchasing them than using coupons in my experience. Considering alcohol is the most expensive thing to purchase at around $7-$8  and the little bottles of alcohol probably cost $1 (or less) to buy in bulk, I imagine Southwest makes a nice margin on alcohol sales.   --Jessica ... View more

Also: at one point I believe it was mentioned that drink coupons with an expiration date of 2020 would be valid through the end of 2021, so that's something to keep in mind if/when they reinstate alcohol on flights in the fall (and IMO, I don't see why they won't, since more and more drinks are being added back into service as time goes on).   --Jessica ... View more

I get promotional e-mails every single day from Southwest regardless of what flights I'm taking or what the status of those flights are. I am not sure what the issue is. Did you expect Southwest to not advertise flights when you had a cancellation?   --Jessica ... View more

If you want an actual Southwest cup / mug / tumbler there are plenty in the Southwest Store!   https://www.swathestore.com/swathestore/shop/accessories/drinkware   --Jessica ... View more

Every airline and airport for that matter is dealing with increasing demand and - like most other industries in hospitality - a lack of workers for varying reasons. No one can “know” or predict anything regarding the pandemic or demands for flights. That’s like saying Southwest can predict the weather. They can’t.   p.s. If your flight was cancelled, how did you lose your bags?  — Jessica ... View more

@DancingDavidE wrote: If you had downloaded the boarding pass to your phone's wallet then it is static from that point forward (including frequently changed things like gates) but also including cancelations or changes.  Do you mean dynamic? When I download my boarding pass to my wallet on iPhone, it continually updates in real time whenever there are any changes, including gate changes, delays, etc. One of the last flights I took had a gate change and I watched the gate update in real time on the boarding pass in my wallet.    That aside, in your profile on Southwest.com there is a "Communications" area where you can list your preferred method of contact for flight notifications. I believe there is a step during checkout where you can enter a preferred notification as well, but if you did not do either of these things, that's why you weren't notified about your flight.   --Jessica ... View more

Doesn't A-List Preferred have a dedicated phone line just for them? I would hope that number wouldn't be as slammed as the normal SWA phone number has been.   --Jessica ... View more

Awesome!!   --Jessica ... View more

I'm sorry for the delays - I wouldn't want to spend 2 nights in the airport. I know it's inconvenient but I'd book a cheap hotel close to the airport so at least you have a place to stay and can shower, sleep, etc. There are plenty of hotels just a few miles from the airport.    --Jessica ... View more

This is the #1 confusion with Early Bird - despite automatically receiving a boarding position 36 hours ahead of the flight, you still have to "check in" at the 24 hour mark to receive your boarding pass and save it to your phone / print it / etc. You can check in any time in the 24 hours before your flight, and that's the true benefit, because your boarding position was already assigned to you ahead of everyone else trying to checking in at < 24 hours.    --Jessica ... View more

@TheMiddleSeat wrote: If you are vaccinated, another person's vaccination status does not matter to you. So why exactly are you so bothered?   --TheMiddleSeat Precisely. And the old adage applies: if you are afraid, stay home ...   --Jessica ... View more

@gwinnettrental wrote: If you are under staffed or unable to insure your   flight schedules then do not pretend to be about customer service.  Have you ... been under a rock for the past 15 months? We are in a worldwide pandemic where flights literally dropped to zero for months on end, and people are just now starting to feel safe flying again. Schedules have been turned inside out and upside-down since *last* spring/summer. Most flights I have taken have been changed by the airline. It's the "new normal" as far as flying goes and something you have to deal with and adjust to. Also: I'm not sure what overpriced airport food or expensive Ubers have to do with Southwest.    --Jessica ... View more

That's amazing and great customer service, thanks for sharing your story!   --Jessica ... View more