Southwest Airlines Community

@PettyIntrigues wrote: I gotta be honest with you, even if pre-board had been half of that, and there wasn’t a separate family boarding, with a high B now you likely would’ve been in the Cs somewhere.    I am on these birds a few times a week, and I have learned that no desired seat is ever guaranteed. I’m A16 pretty much every single time and that’s still often the case.   Your best bet to get a seat (or any type of seat I should say) you desire is to pony for Business Select or even Early Bird. Failing that, there are a lot of other airlines with assigned seating.   (All that said, I’m apt to agree with you and all these threads—it does seem like preboard gets taken advantage of with some minor regularity. It doesn’t bother me personally though as I prefer the exit rows and they can’t sit there, so I usually have few problems grabbing one of those seats.) EBCI is probably not going to solve it as described, that may often be behind the families.     ... View more

You would definitely want to have this confirmed in writing by a Southwest representative prior to purchasing a ticket.  I would also have documentation and correspondence from the Gov't of Jamaica, not just a birth certificate. Since SWA typically requires passengers flying internationally to obtain a paper boarding pass on arrival at the departing airport, this is the stage where a valid passport must be presented, and the boarding pass gets stamped "DOCS OKAY." If you show up with expired travel documents and without some written confirmation from Southwest and the Gov't of your home country you would be setting yourself up for a world of pain and delay. Even then, plan on extra time to obtain the boarding pass because the agent will likely need to get a supervisor involved before issuing a boarding pass.    Good luck and safe travels. ... View more

@floridaguy--no pilot apologies on any on my three flights this year.  In fact, all three flights were only 1/3 full. ... View more

File a complaint to the airline using the "Contact us" button.  If enough people complain, they may change the policy.   ... View more

@parpitt1 wrote: I too was just short of the threshold for A-List preferred in 2022, (2 legs or a few thousand points) I just checked and my account now says I have Preferred status thru 2023.  A very much appreciated gesture on SWA's part.  Same here!   I had been hoping to make a last-minute points run and then obviously didn't.         ... View more

You bring up an interesting point.  You sit in the middle, and if someone wants the seat, you move to the aisle or window and say go for it!   Interesting.  I guess you can do that because you are choosing any open seat.  It is kinda like preboarding.  You are required to "self declare" as a person in need, but you must do this on each flight.  That says that the declaration expires at some point after you make the declaration.   So, I guess you can "self declare" as a person in need, get your seat, then withdraw your declaration.  Interesting. ... View more

So true they definitely bent over so many people  ... View more

@kanikabat wrote:     Two agents I spoke to said the link for making the companion fare booking will be sent within 10 days of completing the travel, this would be 11/21/2022.   The third agent said the link would only be sent my 01/4/2023.       This is the weird part - the third agent is correct, you'll get the promotional pass activated in January.    I'm not sure what the other two agents were thinking of, either they didn't understand the question or there is some other mix-up on the call.     ... View more

Thanks for the link. ... View more

Pre-boarding has been discussed countless number of times.  Federal law gives people the right to "self identify" with a disability and those individuals are allowed to board the plane early.  With Southwest, it becomes more of a "perfect storm" because there are no assigned seats, thus, people who preboard have the best selection of seats.   I doubt that Southwest will change its policy of open seating. ... View more

I 100% agree!   Family boarding is between A and B.   B ppl are early birds who paid.  So what do we get?  The privilege to sit with a kid who didnt pay extra?  ... View more

My suggestion is to always follow the original flight schedule unless the flight is cancelled or you rebook.   Since you were notified of the delayed flight, I am assuming that you have the Southwest APP and I'd encourage you to look at the APP and follow the flight schedule.  Additionally, you should reasonably expect that the flight might not be delayed as far as it was originally thought.     This is a no-win situation for Southwest.  Your suggestion is that once the flight is delayed under no circumstances whatsoever will the flight departure EVER be moved up would dismay others who are sitting there waiting.     My suggestion is to follow the advice above. ... View more

Hello TheMiddleSeat,  Thank you for the links. The strange thing is the SWA app says, "Complete these tasks on the full Southwest site." but there is no link.  I was traveling and did not have access to a desktop.   Sincerely, Hawke  ... View more

I think this is a good feature for people who want to get points. I hear people complaining about them, but nobody is telling you to do ... View more

Definitely use it if you want to.   Perhaps I'm opening a can of worms here but I will say even if only one person on the reservation is A-List I don't see a problem with a family using the priority lane. Nothing has ever been said to me when I've been in this situation so you could give it a try next time you are flying with others.   What's everyone else's thoughts on that? Does everyone using the priority check-in lane need to be A-List?    --TheMiddleSeat ... View more

If you're an AVIS member and designate airline points rather than Avis points I believe it is 600 Rapid Rewards points on SW per rental regardless of the spend with Avis, usually takes about a week or less to drop into the RR account. ... View more

I agree that Southwest needs to get it together and once a gate is assigned, they need to show the FORMER travel destination and route you to the new gate, not just switch destinations.   All of these airports are different and the "announcement" cannot always be heard just outside of the immediate gate area.   for that reason, I suggest you download the Southwest App which will alert you to gate changes.  I would write to the Southwest CEO and demand a full credit for the cost of the flight.   That is their mess to manage, not yours. ... View more

If you sign in to your Rapid Rewards account with a computer you can actually see exactly which "point types" have been counted to your account. The website allows you to "toggle" between all points, tier qualifying points, and Companion pass points. It gives me a better visual understanding. I haven't really been able to do that on the app   Safe travels. ... View more

The person at baggage check eventually issued the PRBD designation so it was finally over. ... View more

Points never expire I understand you might be mad with SW today but once you get stuck in DFW, PHL,IAH,ORD on those less fun and friendly airlines you could be back so just hold on to them or use them on family/friends  ... View more

@one8t my point is no one here works for Southwest so if you would like to get resolution on this you should contact them directly.  This is a customer to customer forum.   --TheMiddleSeat ... View more

Services at BWI-SWA have been horrendous for more than a few years, although on a positive note, in a recent post I shared the baggage claim turn around time had improved on my last several trips back into town for me to what I will call to normal in comparison to other domestic airports, not fast just normal. I think it's a people problem, and not a shortage of personnel, either. It's an attitude problem. When I interact with SWA employees generally they are passionate and proud of their positions and have a smile when they interact with customers. At BWI, the attitude is often that's not my job and quite honestly this is just a "J O B" and the customer(me) is just another hassle or obstacle to getting home. Some retraining and coaching is in order at BWI. My 2 cents. Safe travels ... View more

Wow what flight Number was it? Sitting 5 hours at 97 Degrees there should be video all over social media by now. Safe travels ... View more

Depending on the Fare type purchased,(BS or Anytime) you will also have the option for cash refund rather than credit. ... View more

@zoah666 wrote: We are returning from a cruise in a few weeks and we bought the wanna get away plus so we can get an earlier flight if seats available on standby. What is the best way to determine if enough standby seats are available? Our booked flight leaves at 8pm but currently has openings for flights leaving between 2 and 3 pm. Call SWA? I'd rather not have to check in early at airport only to learn we would need to take our booked flight. We are not planning on getting any wifi for cruise so I can't check availability till back in port the morning of the flight. I believe it will be available on the app after some recent updates, so as soon as you get back to cell service you can check and confirm your same day change (not standby) as another poster mentioned. It will either be available then or not, there isn't much to do before then other than you can see if the desired flight was already sold out before you depart which wouldn't be a deal-breaker necessarily but I'd work on backup plans for the day.     ... View more

@fsufan wrote: I am coming down to the home stretch for the magic 125K points and qualifying for companion pass.  I am sitting at just under 110K miles and it will be hard to get another 15K before year end.   My question is - I have a RR Chase business card (qualified and started using around mid-year).  Could I still get a 50K bonus sign up for getting a RR Plus Chase card?   I can easily spend $3,000 prior to year-end. I just wonder if I can "stack" the card bonuses. IT would be worth the $69 or $99 cost of the card if it will put me over the top. Totally doable in a number of different ways, and kudos to you for thinking about this in September instead of November when options will be a bit limited.   Credit card: I think so but read the terms that will save if a bonus is excluded for having other Chase cards or only Chase personal cards which you seem to be clear for? Use this link to find other ways - especially if you have any travel left the rest of the year upgrade to Business Select for 12x points, check if you have any promotions, and use Rocketmiles or other method to boost your hotel stay. If traveling for work see if you can book normally and reimburse it, then pay the extra on your own.  https://www.southwest.com/html/rapidrewards/eoy-tier-communication.html Think about how much you'll use companion pass before you spend too much though. There's a right amount of extra spend, and then sometimes you'll be close and it just won't be worth it.   We probably used ours 10x this year so far with more to come, if that's $300 per trip the benefit would be $3,000 so it's worth a $1,000 of business select upgrades to tip it over, but not worth buying $5,000 worth of whatever that you wouldn't already have been buying.   Good luck! ... View more

Interesting as that is the one station that repeatedly gets called out for being slow.  Hopefully this is a permanent improvement.  Thanks for the report.   --TheMiddleSeat     ... View more

Points wise the difference is 12 points per dollar for Business Select versus 6 points per dollar for Wanna Get Away So Double points Safe Travels ... View more

I just preboard.  It is so nice that Southwest lets you get on before everyone else and get those prime seats.   Thank you Southwest. ... View more