Southwest Airlines Community

@chgoflyer I think we interpreted the OP differently! I initially read their post as saying that they booked a flight with points, and wanted to change their return flight home prior to travel, and it was a 21,000 point increase (hence paying for the difference in fare, change fee info, etc). But re-reading it, it sounds like they were trying to change it on the day of travel itself, which is a different situation. I'm not nearly as familiar with same day standby rules, so thanks for explaining it! It makes sense now why there was such a large point variation.  --Jessica ... View more

If Southwest has any 'flaw' at all, this may be it. It's unfortunate that unauthorized access to your account resulted in points being used without your knowledge.    I've been reading several of these threads, and ironically, I received an e-mail from Southwest just a few days ago titled: "Action needed - unauthorized account access." Southwest deactivated my password due to my account potentially being accessed without my consent. The day before, a Southwest rep helped me book a flight with points - so could these actions have been related? Or was someone else trying to access my account? Unknown, but I had 2 things in my favor: my account has less than 2,000 points currently, and I don't store any payment information on Southwest.com. If someone *did* try to hack my account with the intention to steal points, I bet they were pretty disappointed 😉    But if I was in a scenario where thousands of points *were* stolen, I'd try everything possible to get them back. It would be pretty obvious to prove that the flights were not booked by me if the flights left anywhere other than PHL since PHL is my primary airport,  and I don't fly out of any other location. If they tried to redeem points for *stuff* (RR Shopping), I could make the argument that I have never once used RR Shopping (although I should probably take advantage), but that would obviously be more difficult to prove. Good luck, and I hope you get a satisfactory resolution to this if you haven't already.    --Jessica ... View more

@Psturgell60 wrote: Booked a flight with my points, then tried to get on a earlier flight the day I was coming home that had availability and they wanted to charge me 21000 points to do this!!!!  Makes no sense to me . Theres a available seat why not allow your loyal customers to just take that empty seat.  Airlines are getting sooo greedy  Literally no airline on earth does what you suggest. Every airline makes you pay the fare difference AND an outrageous change fee, *except* for Southwest. They only make you pay the fare difference (and not even that, if you are an A list member, I have just discovered).    It's pretty hilarious that you think that once you book an airline ticket that you can change it for free and not pay for any differences with either dollars or points. Maybe your reasoning is because you purchased a flight with points using the Rapid Rewards program, you can change your flight at will since you are a RR member.   Nope.    Although I'm quite curious what flight you are changing to that has a whopping 21,000 point increase. I just changed a flight booked with points for about 300 more points. I live within my means 😄 21,000 has to be the equivalent of several hundred dollars. It probably wasn't a Wanna Get Away fare.    --Jessica ... View more

@TheMiddleSeat wrote: A-List flyers can switch to an earlier flight for free if a seat is available, it's a great perk for the most loyal customers.     --TheMiddleSeat Oh I didn't realize this, what a great perk!!   --Jessica ... View more

Looking for a job is fun (not). I've always wondered how people actively look for another job while employed and are working full time. That's a skill I don't possess, and I don't think many do, which is why so many are stuck in jobs that they don't like. They don't know how to look for a job while employed and are too scared to just quit their job with no other job on the horizon.    It's different when you are between jobs though. Then you have all the time in the world to look for employment and you are essentially available 24/7 for interviews. I have been there!   --Jessica ... View more

"We can confirm from our investigation that there was never a camera in the lavatory."   Seems like a non-issue and non-story - just someone making up an harrassment story for attention. Time to move on.    --Jessica ... View more

I also think @gsking that in the past there was such an insistence on having your phone in "airplane mode" prior to take off and landing that people must think that the plane will crash straight into the ground if someone has their phone off of airplane mode while on a plane. While having phones "on" might have potentially interfered with an airplane's sensors / nagivation in the past (read: 10+ years ago), I don't think it's that much of an issue now.   --Jessica ... View more

@rdurrell wrote: Dear Jess,  I take it you do not have children.  The Family Bank would be an optional enrolment.  Also, enrollment would be contingent on suppling Brith Certificates, and ONLY for familes comprised of as least one (1) adult, WITH children UNDER THE AGE of 18.  I'm sure, like most "entitlements" there are those on the other side who would try to take advantage of this program.  Rather than share your negative thoughts, why not add positive constructive comments to help achieve this goal which would be a huge help to familes. Interesting - these details about needing birth certificates to apply and needing children under the age of 18 were left out of your original post. In your original post, you said that both of your sons have over 10K RR points each, so that must make them over 18. Unless you have other children, you would be disqualified from joining your own program!   My thoughts aren't meant to be negative, but realistic. As @gsking mentioned, if you have enough RR points yourself, you can purchase tickets on behalf of someone else, and you can transfer RR points from one account to another as well. So if you wanted, your sons could transfer their points to you and then you could have one giant pool of your families points and redeem all your tickets from your account.    So, in a way, what you are looking to do already exists, there are just a few other steps needed to implement it and have all of your families points under one account.    --Jessica ... View more

Personally, as wi-fi becomes more and more standard I would hope that putting phones in "airplane mode" will soon become a thing of the past. And, as long as people have headphones it doesn't matter to me what they are watching or listening to. It's the people that stream music or videos or games LOUDLY without headphones with no concern as to who's around them that bother me the most. Parents with kids, I'm looking at you.    --Jessica ... View more

"starting to look at other airlines"   You can put me on the very back of the plane and I'll still take Southwest any day with their free checked bags and *no change or cancellation fees* - if you want to pay hundreds more on other airlines only to be "assured" a specific seat, then by all means, they will be more than happy to take your money.   --Jessica ... View more

Replying again ... thanks to the recent Southwest sales, a flight became available in my point threshold with a better time for just 363 more points. Interestingly, when I tried to change my flight, I got a strange error that said "Expected pricing not matched" with a long alphanumeric string. It told me to try re-selecting the flight again, and I did, and the flight price was the same as before. Going through the process again, I received the error message again when confirming the rebooking change. Feeling desperate (there were only 2 flights left at the sale price), I DMed Southwest with all my info and the flight I was trying to change. They rebooked it for me in less than 5 minutes! Southwest rocks!!!   So, if you are ever having trouble booking or rebooking flights, message Southwest on Twitter. They are super helpful!   --Jessica ... View more

@TrophyWife wrote: they allowed the back of the plane boarders to board first.     A little confused by this phrasing. "Back of the plane boarders"? What does that mean? Southwest does not have assigned seating, so I am not sure what this may be referring to.   --Jessica ... View more

This is something you would have to contact your internet service provider about, as Southwest does not create or maintain e-mail addresses. I am curious, however, what issue your original e-mail address might have had on the Southwest site.    --Jessica ... View more

2 stop itinerary is likely due to the MAX grounding earlier this year. I have seen several nonstop routes change to 1 or 2 stops for effeciency since 10% of Southwest's fleet is currently grounded and cannot fly. They have to make cuts where they can. Hopefully planes will return and routes will be restored once the MAX grounding is behind us.   --Jessica ... View more

@4speedfunk wrote: Its not any sort of "clarical error" or "misunderstanding" on our behalf.  Chase is deliberately screwing Southwest customers thru their credit card application process.  Period.  Quit trying to blame it on confusion or fine print.    Problem is, these things are almost always due to customer misunderstanding and not reading the fine print of the offer. Always.    I can't view your screenshot so I can't read the terms of your offer. Is it possible you mailed the offer back after the terms of the offer expired?    --Jessica ... View more

Great article!! ❤️    --Jessica ... View more

Ah, well if that's the case @ronnyradio, then that is a different situation ... that would be 'upgraded boarding'. Assuming he paid the $40 at the gate to get an A1-A15 position, did he in fact get that? If so, he would have gone on the plane ahead of most everyone else ...    --Jessica ... View more

There's quite a bit of name dropping here, but I did several Google searches using "Chicago Tribune" "Southwest" and "Nina Metz" and could not find the 'article' in question in the first few pages of search results. Could you provide a link to your source? Here's mine - searching for "Southwest Airlines" on Chicago Tribune's web site brings up no such article: https://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/southwest-airlines-ORCRP014240-topic.html    That aside - are you saying you were escorted off of a Southwest plane in the past? Do provide details of your experience. What happened? Why were you escorted? Southwest very rarely escorts passengers off of planes, so for anyone to be taken off, there has to be a pretty good reason for it.    --Jessica ... View more

In a word: nope.   --Jessica ... View more

Pro Tip: never put expensive items in checked bags, even 'locked' checked bags. Although this does beg the question what employee (could have been anyone with access to your bag at any point in the processs) has the time to notice your bag had a lock, unlock your bag without a key, go through your belongings and take the laptop?    Checked bags can get searched by the TSA, and a locked bag might have prompted an automatic search regardless of what you had in it.   :edit:   I stand corrected, apparently TSA has a 'master key' where they can open nearly any lock without having to 'cut' the lock:   "Locks: TSA has been provided universal "master" keys under agreements with Safe Skies Luggage Locks and Travel Sentry so that certain branded locks may not have to be cut to inspect baggage. These locks are commercially available, and packaging on the locks should indicate they may be opened by TSA officers. TSA has no position on the validity or effectiveness of these product as a security measure and will be forced to remove these products if necessary during the inspection."   So that answers that.   Source: https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening     --Jessica ... View more

Also, here is the recent article in question:    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/21/boeings-737-max-troubles-deepen-taking-arilines-suppliers-with-it.html   --Jessica ... View more

@dfwskier wrote: Interesting speculation about Alaska and JetBlue   https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2019/10/21/southwest-airlines-acquisition.html?ana=yahoo&yptr=yahoo Fascinating. It would be very interesting to see if Southwest aquires another airline ... and there'd probably be tears from the JetBlue faithful in particular if it were to happen lol (I have one friend who flies JetBlue exclusively and would probably die if she had to fly on Southwest planes with no first class and no assigned seating ... lol)   --Jessica ... View more

A seat is a seat, of course anyone would prefer an aisle or the window, but I've been in the middle before and as long as I can get on the plane to my destination, I don't care 😄    --Jessica ... View more

@ronnyradio wrote: “whereas the OP at least PAID to board A1-15..." Early bird doesn't guarantee you A1-15 seating. Heck, it doesn't even guarantee you A seating. And therein lies the rub. You can pay for early boarding if you want, I have in the past, but there are no guarantees you will get A boarding.    --Jessica ... View more

No. I see where you were going with this, but these are 2 separate flights on two separate days, and thus require 2 separate check ins.   If every flight was connected by layovers, then you would only need one check in.    --Jessica ... View more

Who takes off their shoes on an airplane???   --Jessica ... View more

Southwest issues ID cards for retirees? What possible benefit would that serve?   --Jessica ... View more