Southwest Airlines Community

The issue of preboarding has been discussed many, many times.  If you do a Google search you will find posts that date back over 10 years about the same subject.   Southwest has unassigned seating, open seating.  That means that it is truly first come, first served.  With preboard, the passenger has the right to self declare and is the first person on the plane.  That's the way it works.   There is somewhat of a "perfect storm" with Southwest since they charge a surcharge to be an earlier boarding passenger and then those same passengers get irritated by preboarding.     A little song has developed and I've heard it a few times at different airports.   ... View more

You can no longer rebook online. I just get error messages. My only option would be to start a new reservation. The problems keep changing and getting worse. The only rebook option is going to an airport gate station, apparently. Phone lines are down.   ... View more

I fly SW every month and have done for almost 2 decades. I had a holiday cancellation back in the 90s due to a flight attendant strike. I last flew on 12/1. My only complaint was no drink service. I booked and rebooked 3x this weekend (a flight reserved a month in advance) and all were canceled, one at 1 a.m. They were missing a pilot. He got there and then a flight attendant bailed. The website is down, the phones are down. The text messages are late and inaccurate. People are walking off the job at SW. In droves apparently. LAX Terminal 1 was a ghost town this weekend after flight after flight was canceled. Something is definitely, terribly wrong because they are a very reliable airline.  ... View more