Southwest Airlines Community

@05bardic  Thanks for the LUV! When you get a chance, check your Private Messages. 🙂   Thanks! ... View more

The Southwest Airlines Community: A Time to Take Courage     During my two years of frequently flying aboard on Southwest Airlines, I have had some great encounters during my travels. I've met lots of folks while waiting at the gate, on the plane, and at my destinations. Some I've exchanged pictures and shared contacts. Building up community during my trips is a virtue that requires leadership in my opinion, especially within noisy and individualistic urban environments such as SoCal. As I mentioned yesterday, the leadership that drives community building can never be taken away, even if online forums like the Southwest Airlines Community must part ways which takes effect this Monday, September 16th.     But sometimes, the realities of life come up during travel. And some of those realities can involve some very unpleasant surprises that can instill fear, panic, and even anxiety.     I want to share with you two cases. The first occurred last September at San Diego for a morning flight to Vegas. Here's a map of SAN's concourse layout for the Southwest Terminal 1:     Southwest utilizes the gates at both the west and east wings. As you can tell, the two concourses have no post-TSA airside connector. My flight was due to depart from Gate 13, located on the western side.     About 12 minutes away from boarding time, I did a routine check to confirm that I was at the correct gate, went to the drinking fountain to do a refill on my water bottles in preparation for the flight, and then two minutes later, an agent gets on the mic and announces the flight is reassigned to Gate 5, located on the east side.     I and just about everybody else on that flight wasn't too happy about having to go through TSA again about 547 seconds prior to scheduled boarding. Let alone having to discard all liquid beverages either refilled or purchased at the restaurants. We were all a bit ticked.   Unfortunately, I let that fear and anger blind me from what I normally do when I travel: Take a leadership role and build up community regardless of the circumstance; in this case of trouble, failing to even look around to see if any of my fellow travelers needed help getting through the terminal. To make matters worse, when I posted the original trip report to this forum, I never mentioned this. https://community.southwest.com/t5/Inflight-Experience/Sept-23-Photo-Trip-Report-SAN-LAS-with-2x-TSA-Screening/m-p/163651     Usually during trouble, some defining Greater-Good moments in life can occur. Friendships, heroes, and even lifelong relationships could form out of the bad. In this case, it was a selfish moment for me. Those who are familiar with the history of the Titanic probably know the heroes and those who seriously did wrong. Both groups had no clue of what was to come before the iceberg was struck. History documents that the wireless operators of both the Titanic and the SS Californian ships made grave mistakes. Jack Phillips of the Titanic was so busy with his telegram work that when Californian wireless operator Cyril Furmstone Evans informed Phillips of the impeding disaster, his response was foolish and had deadly consequences. Blinded by his overwhelming work, Phillips basically said, "Shut up!". In response, Evans shut off his communications machine, thus missing the emergency distress signal and a key opportunity to save passengers before the Titanic sank. Let's not forget Mr. Ismay's cowardly acts.   But there were the heroes. Upon receiving the distress call, Captain Arthur Henry Rostron of the RMS Carpathia interrupted his scheduled voyage, rerouted and prepared his ship for passengers. That was the ship that took Titanic's 705 survivors.   I knew that Southwest was going to have to hold the plane at Gate 5 until everybody was able to get over to the other side, but I allowed the negative stress to have me instead rush out of the concourse in a panic, back to the east concourse TSA checkpoint. I had PreCheck through Global Entry which meant a quick rescreening, but I still had to wait until everybody else got through which took about 15 minutes thanks to a short standard screening line.     Although certainly nowhere near the level of the Titanic, the panic response lacked leadership. I've missed some key opportunities to look and see if any of my fellow passengers needed help transitioning through. SAN's layout is unusual; I know where its gates are; however, visitors may not. I’ve helped visitors navigate their way through the airport in the past. I completely missed that opportunity with my fellow passengers for this trip, possibly losing a potential lifelong community or even personal friendship.   The flight did depart 15 minutes late but if the story did in fact take a different turn to be newsworthy, history would probably not document me as a hero.     It is hard to show leadership in distressful times in the midst of fear and worry. That's where Courage comes into play, and that is the theme of today's post.   Those who visit this forum regularly can recall the dozens upon dozens of troubled stories posted on the community boards. Big annoyances such as last-second flight cancellations that required not only a rebooking but an unplanned, unbudgeted overnight accommodation, a SW Vacations or SW Hotels booking for a hotel property that in reality turns out to be at a closed hotel resulting in an expensive last-minute Plan-B reservation or finding damaged or missing luggage or stolen property at baggage claim.   Let's not forget about those stories of stolen Rapid Rewards points. It's very easy to allow the fear and anguish of these negative experiences to destroy the overall greater good of a trip. It's never easy to control these angry moments. To be clear, my SAN-LAS trip wasn't completely ruined; there was a positive comeback later. But my response in the terminal could have had some courage during the panic.     Deciding to proactively take that little ounce of courage can make a difference because that leaves no room for the feelings of fear for me. I'll be in a better position to say "No" to all those selfish negative emotions.   I had another pretty serious travel disruption happen to me last summer--not involving Southwest, but aboard SoCal public transit.     Earlier this summer, I was waiting for a commuter train at a station in Lancaster CA headed to Los Angeles Union Station. It was a hot Saturday afternoon. Didn't have my car. Outside temperature in excess of 100 degrees. The waiting area was not an air-conditioned gate with padded-leather seats, but a blistering hot concrete platform with a few hard metal benches. Not a whole lot of people knowing each other. I was a total stranger. It was hot. People were eager to get into that air-conditioned train.     The train pulls up on time for a 2:11pm departure. We boarded. Refreshed from the heat, I go over to the train's drinking fountain to fill up my water bottles. Somebody behind me also needed to fill up his jug. I simply said, "How's it going?". We had a nice 45 second conversation. He was a security guard headed to work near BUR Airport. He then went back to his seat. Train starts moving and then one minute into the ride...bump! Engine unexpectedly shuts down.   After 30 minutes of trying to troubleshoot the issue and restarting the locomotive, the crew decided to slowly move the train back into the station, everybody disembarks back onto the hot platform, and the train departure is cancelled. Next train due out of Lancaster four hours later, not until 6:11pm that evening. Keep in mind, this is no airport terminal. Usually if one is faced with a late flight cancellation, they go to the nearest gate rep for help and will usually wait out the extra time in the terminal or at the nearby hotel. But for this train trip, there was no air-conditioned seating in the waiting area, no in-station restaurants, not even a customer service desk; however, to be fair, there were about three restaurants within walking distance across the street.   At that point, the whole train platform was in a near panic. There was a bunch of "what at I'm going to do?" type of conversations. There was a bunch of anger. A lot of complaining toward the train crew. Mostly everybody wondering what they're going to do. It would have been easy for me to join in the fray. I could have faltered again like I did at SAN. But that time, I remembered it was not a time to lay blame or get angry. It was time to show courage...and believe me, I had to improvise a new travel plan too.   My "No" to giving into the temptation into fear and rant was for me to go over to a quiet shaded area away from the noise to catch a breath and get my mind focused and in gear for my next move. Think of a football team needing to take a critical timeout on the sideline to regroup and plan out their game winning play. When I went to the sideline, it took me about 10 minutes to clear my mind and focus on what I needed to do. Keep in mind I and several others were outside in the high desert with no car.   At that point, with my mind clear, I soon remembered that the commuter railroad Metrolink had a policy that compensates travelers with an Uber voucher code for a free ride up to a $50 max fare in the event of a major at-fault travel disruption resulting in an excessive delay. I logged into Metrolink's website and confirmed the train cancellation was officially announced and there was an active Uber voucher code for the Lancaster station. My trip however was all the way into downtown LA...I could have booked the Uber to go all the way. But I knew that there were others who were on that train. Thus, I booked it to travel halfway down the train route where a 4:13p short-turn departure would originate at Via Princessa.                                                                                                                             Remember the security guard I mentioned earlier? I located the guard and asked him, "I got an Uber ride to Via Princessa and there's a 4:13pm train departure. Want a ride?" He accepted (and was also relieved that he wasn't going to lose 3 hours’ worth of wages). Also located two other passengers going down that way and they accepted. At that point, I realized I probably could have booked the UberXL option so that three additional folks can travel so that six can fit but I assumed that others would have utilized the Uber option as well.   By the time the Uber showed up, one of the other passengers that originally accepted the invite backed out as he received confirmation that somebody else was going to accommodate his needs. But the three of us rode together to the Via Princessa station and got there in time to catch the 4:13pm departure which did not break down this time. The strange thing was I did not see any other Ubers pull up to Via Princessa from Lancaster; we were the only group.     The three of us ended up sitting together in the same car and spent the whole hourlong ride sharing our stories. This small community get-together would not have happened had the original train operated as usual. The encounter would have been impossible without the courage that overran the fear and anger from the train cancellation.   I felt that I responded better in this situation. It took courage to invite three total strangers into my Uber ride. But once we reached our destinations, we built that community, exchanged pictures and contacts. One of them inspires to be a comedy actor; I hope to see him at show in Cali one day for some good laughs.   This was the interior of the train car that we sat in: Metrolink Train Car #194A     I believe that's community building. I believe it took courage to make that train community possible.   Online forums and websites come and go through time. But just like leadership, the virtue of courage never dies. I believe it lasts forever and it drives out fear. I just need to respond to it. I failed to respond to it at SAN during the gate change. I believe I did better in Lancaster when my train was cancelled.   Tomorrow, I will be sharing my final piece of this three-part series: A Time to Persevere.     This will be an important post, probably the most important one that I will publish to this forum. If you look at my profile page, you'll see that I've been posting regularly since February of 2023, about a year and a half. I've shared a bunch of stories and happenings on this board. But tomorrow's posting will likely be the most important.   I've posted nearly 750 times, given people a bunch of information. Our Champions and moderators have spent a tremendous amount of screen time reading my posts. But tomorrow's message I believe will be the most important because it will include my preparation and plans for the September 16th forum closure. You've all spent about 18 months reading my content, but I believe the rest of our lives is what true community is all about. I believe the true Southwest Airlines Community is about what we do out in the field. I think @Artanis described it beautifully in a comment, "I've learned a lot of things here. However, the time comes to get off the computer, go out and meet pretty girl."   I can't really vouch for the "pretty girl" remark, but the user is right in my opinion as far is getting off the machines. The online community building here I believe gets us ready to do greater things abroad and I believe what is true community is what happens outside of our computers and mobile devices. I believe this community message board has helped me build up some great moments and stories during my travels.     I have been a two-year traveler aboard Southwest and my flights that I take now have been great and exciting for me just as they were since I first took them in August 2022 because I take seriously the importance of community building.     That has been my takeaway of this forum and tomorrow I'll share in detail of how I plan to do this after the September 16th shutdown.   Enjoy the rest of your Friday. ... View more

@pamo1959 wrote: Hi there! I traveled this week from BWI to TPA. I paid for a same-day flight change to get an earlier flight. I need a receipt/invoice to get reimbursed, but I can't find a way to obtain that. Any ideas? Hello! After making a same-day flight change, Southwest normally sends an email confirmation to the email address of the person originally booking the flight. Look for the email from Southwest Airlines with a subject line with Your Name, Date of Flight, Destination City followed by "Your change is confirmed." The payment breakdown should be in the email which should be acceptable for expense reporting purposes.   If you don't have access to this email but have a Rapid Rewards account, the new RR My Account portal now displays a better payment breakdown for past flights which should also work for expense reports. Log into your RR account via the SW website, click on "Trips", select "Past" located above your Upcoming Trips dashboard, and then "View Receipt" for the Past Flight in question.   The new layout displays the per-flight fare and the total amount of taxes and fees paid. Click on "Print" to export the page to PDF or print for expense reporting.   If that doesn't work, I would then give SW customer service a call or a DM via Twitter/X to get this resent.   Hope this helps!   ..........   Follow SoCalFlyer97 after the SW Community Forums Closes: The SW Community Forums will be retiring effective 9/16; see the official announcement in the headers. SoCalFlyer97 is now on FlyerTalk's Southwest Airlines Forum to answer traveler questions going forward and plans to publish future Trip Reports there in their Trip Report forum. Also currently on TripAdvisor and Twitter/X under the same name. Soon on Reddit. See you there! ... View more

@RickinAustin wrote: Was there a consideration to possibly do a COMBO of Open Seating and Reserved Seating?  This would satisfy everyone and hopefully not lose passengers.   I see it like this:  The first 10 rows become reserved seating and those people pay a higher price.  This would be like first class, but not really, because they would be the same size of seats.    The rest of the plane would be open seating.   And, depending on how acceptable this is to the Southwest flyers, it could expand to 15 rows or shrink to 5 rows over time.   Everyone wins and we don't sacrifice the Freedom of Open Seating, and for those people that want to sit next to strangers in Reserved Seating, they have that option by paying more.   Please listen to us.   MANY of us LOVE open seating.   And we miss the Reverse Seats too.   By combining Open Seating and Reserved Seating, you aren't throwing the Baby out with the Bathwater.   Please don't become another Spirit or Frontier or United or Alaska.   Please?   Thanks.   Hola!   Thanks for sharing. As this forum is customer-to-customer, would you relay your hybrid open/assigned seating suggestion directly to SW Customer service in an email or DM via Twitter/X:   https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/email-us   That will help ensure it gets read by the proper SW staff.   ..........   Follow SoCalFlyer97 after the SW Community Forums Closes: The SW Community Forums will be retiring effective 9/16; see the official announcement in the headers. SoCalFlyer97 is now on FlyerTalk's Southwest Airlines Forum to answer traveler questions going forward and plans to publish future Trip Reports there in their Trip Report forum. Also currently on TripAdvisor and Twitter/X under the same name. Soon on Reddit. See you there!     ... View more

Greetings!   I've set up a FlyerTalk discussion thread entitled "Funniest Moments with Southwest Flight Attendants."     It is on FlyerTalk's Southwest Airlines Forum and has generated some lively discussion. Check it out!    What are your funny moments when the FA's took the mic? Join the discussion there and let's keep the spirit of the SW Airlines Community alive!   https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/southwest-airlines-rapid-rewards/2172016-funniest-moments-southwest-flight-attendants.html   Don't forget that SoCalFlyer is now on FlyerTalk, Twitter/X, and TripAdvisor under the same  profile name and with a soon-to-be presence on Reddit.    ..........   Follow SoCalFlyer97 after the SW Community Forums Closes: The SW Community Forums will be retiring effective 9/16; see the official announcement in the headers. SoCalFlyer97 is now on FlyerTalk's Southwest Airlines Forum to answer traveler questions going forward and plans to publish future Trip Reports there in their Trip Report forum. Also currently on TripAdvisor and Twitter/X under the same name. Soon on Reddit. See you there!   ... View more

@dfwskier wrote: I thought it might just e a cookie problem on my chromebook, but it is now showing up on another computer. Using Chrome on the windows machine, too. I can't believe a chrome error on one machine would affect a different machine.   When I try to use it I get  ""sorry we found some errors - we are unable to process your request"   Other browsers seem to work, but I'm somewhat limited on the Chromebook. Hi @dfwskier    I use Chrome but cannot reproduce this. Low Fare Calendar appears fine.   Are you able to access this page via an Incognito session or with your Extensions turned off? Try that. Sometimes a buggy or incompatible Extension could interfere with a website.   If you still get the error on both machines on Incognito, try connecting again via another network through the Chrome browsers. Let us know if that works. ... View more

@shah1 wrote: Are there any availability of porters at baggage claim terminal 1 to Tom bradley have 8 bags and a family and wondering how to track down a porter at the baggage claim terminal 1 LAX with a cart that can transport our luggage to Tom bradley if not available, any suggestions? Hello- Not sure but I think the best point of contact would be the airline of your international flight to see if they can offer this to you directly.   Alternatively it looks like the concierge service Airssist offers luggage porter service too for those using LAX. Never used them but their Google reviews look pretty solid. I would give them a call. https://airssist.com/   Hope this helps.   ........... Follow SoCalFlyer97 after the SW Community Forums Closes: The SW Community Forums will be retiring effective 9/16; see the official announcement in the headers. SoCalFlyer97 will be on FlyerTalk's Southwest Airlines Forum to answer traveler questions going forward and plans to publish future Trip Reports there in their Trip Report forum. Also currently on TripAdvisor and Twitter/X under the same name. See you there! ... View more

Hello- As a fellow traveler, sorry to hear this happened. It looks like you went through the proper process and got your Seat Reserved document. By rule, the extra seat belongs to you. The document should be placed on the adjoining seat to ensure that it does not get taken. If you placed the slip on the seat and the flight crew had somebody else sit there despite the fact that is was marked as reserved, it's possible there may have been an exception to policy.   SW's policy is to ensures that all Customers onboard have access to safe and comfortable seating. https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/article/extra-seat-policy   If that's the case, I would give Customer Service an email or DM to SW via Twitter/X. https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/email-us   ........ Follow SoCalFlyer97 after the SW Community Forums Closes: The SW Community Forums will be retiring effective 9/16; see the official announcement in the headers. SoCalFlyer97 will be on FlyerTalk's Southwest Airlines Forum to answer traveler questions going forward and plans to publish future Trip Reports there in their Trip Report forum. Also currently on TripAdvisor and Twitter/X under the same name. See you there! ... View more

@regaru wrote: A few weeks back, was flying with my spouse from BWI to HOU on an evening flight, mid B boarding group. During boarding, the flight attendants announced: “This flight is only about 2/3 full, so unless your in an especially close relationship, we expect to see empty middle seats all the way down the plane!” My spouse sat in the window and I sat in the aisle, with the middle open. After that announcement, spouse gave me the side eye all the way home!  The FA's will sometimes place a little bit of humor into their announcements. Just more than a year ago, I had one announce after the cleared-to-take-off ding went off: "We've been cleared for departure...Since we'll be defying gravity for a little while...double check those seatbelts...maybe your shoelaces."   It looks like this post is also on Reddit's SW Forum as of last night and got over a couple dozen responses too.   Follow SoCalFlyer97 after the SW Community Forums Closes: The SW Community Forums will be retiring effective 9/16; see the official announcement in the headers. SoCalFlyer97 will be on FlyerTalk's Southwest Airlines Forum to answer traveler questions going forward and plans to publish future Trip Reports there in their Trip Report forum. Also currently on TripAdvisor and Twitter/X under the same name. See you there! ... View more

@LeeMKE wrote: SWA is not on the flight search platforms with the competitors.  Hello-   That statement was true not too long ago. Back in the day, one had to search directly on SW's website or app to search for flights and to get pricing.   But not too long ago, SW decided to have flights listed on Google Flights with pricing and more recently Kayak:       The sites link to SW's reservation system and the bookings are all done through SW (not via third-party).   Still did not see listings on Expedia or Priceline as of today. Not sure if their partnership with Booking.com for SW Hotels has anything to do with that but that's where we're at.   Hope this helps!   Follow SoCalFlyer97 after the SW Community Forums Closes The SW Community Forums will be retiring effective 9/16; see the official announcement in the headers. SoCalFlyer97 will be on FlyerTalk's Southwest Airlines Forum to answer traveler questions going forward and plans to publish future Trip Reports there in their Trip Report forum. Also currently on TripAdvisor and Twitter/X under the same name. See you there!     ... View more

@SoCalFlyer97 wrote:   Moving ahead--I'll be exploring the other forums and will offer some personal recommendations after the holiday as I don't think SW is in a position to officially recommend the aforementioned alternatives except for their social media channels and the new Help Center, but just like having third-party flight tracking tools like FlightAware and FlightRadar24, there are in fact other customer-to-customer forums that we as travelers can utilize and support.       Greetings Community Southwest:     As we're entering into the final full week of operations for the Southwest Airlines Community Discussion Board, I wanted to provide some personal recommendations to stay connected that I promised to you all before Labor Day. These are my personal ones and not endorsed SW or any entity.    One of the goals of this board was community-based sharing which was one of the reasons that drew me to this board. "The Southwest Airlines Community is full of people just like you, who enjoy low-cost travel and great Customer Service. This is where they tell their stories and share their knowledge, and we’re inviting you to join in." https://community.southwest.com/t5/Welcome-and-Announcements/Welcome-to-the-Southwest-Airlines-Community/m-p/92953/highlight/true#M25   Therefore, here are SoCalFlyer97's recommendations to continue this great storytelling and customer-to-customer knowledge exchanging:     1. If you want to continue to follow my photo trip reporting of both flights and hotel stays, this will continue. The best place to go would be my newly built Twitter/X account. It is under the same profile name: SoCalFlyer97. As I write posts, they will be posted or linked from there. I'll also be posting reports in a review format to TripAdvisor under the same profile. Twitter/X is also my direct channel to SW Staff; everything related to SW will include their hashtag which ensures their social media staff receives and processes it.a   I also recommend FlyerTalk's Trip Report Forum too. I'm not the only one sharing in-flight experiences!     2. If you're an everyday traveler looking for a customer-to-customer message board desiring to ask or answer other travelers' questions on Southwest travel, I recommend FlyerTalk's Southwest Airline's forum. I found that the knowledge base there is overall decent and that will be the place where I plan to answer questions for this first phase. I've already posted my "intro" post there and got my first 2 "LUV's".     3. Reddit thoughts...Ummm....I did consider establishing a presence on the Southwest forum hosted there. I took a fair look. There was some good traveler-to-traveler discussion there and I'll probably begin posting after I get better established on Twitter and FlyerTalk. It's certainly looks like it is saturated with much user interaction which may be good thing. My only gripe about that forum is they display by default posts that get the most "like's" at the top of the page, which could "hide" other posts. Good or bad? There may be the benefit of finding a "buried" unanswered question and addressing it. I did "reserve" the SoCalFlyer97 label by registering for an account and subscribing to the SW forum but will likely begin interacting there later once I had time to better study it, who the "trusted"  or frequent profiles are, and its audience.     4. And of course, any questions directly related to Southwest Flights, a reservation, or a comment or praise...that still continues to be done directly with SW Customer Service via the "Help Center" link below, a DM to SW's Twitter/X or a phone call or email to Customer Service. Those portals aren't going anywhere.   So there you have it. That is where SoCalFlyer97 will be once this forum retires. I'm prepping a few last remarks for the SW forum and will post them in a few days.   Enjoy your Sunday! ... View more

@bAmbi_2901 wrote: Just curious what is the limit to the size on personal items? I know it used to be 16.25x13.5x8.5, but now it’s not specified. So what is the largest personal item you have successfully put under the seat? I bought a backpack, but it’s 20x14x7. I didn’t realize until I got it in how large it was, and now I’m second guessing it. I’ve never been on a plane before, so I don’t have anything to compare it to myself.        Hello!   For my flights except for my single day trippers, my carry-on luggage consists of the 50L Carofield Travel Backpack which is similar to what you describe. It is 22"L x 15"W x 8"H and if lightly packed, it can be squeezed down to fit under the seat (pictured above) if you're sitting in either at a window or middle seat anywhere generally after the 4th or 5th row. Otherwise if packed solid or if sitting in an aisle seat, or the first few rows of the plane after the bulkhead row where the personal item space is narrower, it will not fit as a personal and needs to go into the overhead bin as the designated carry-on bag.   Either way, given its size, I consider it as my carry-on bag and not the personal item.   Hope this helps.   ... View more

Hello Dania-   Greetings from your fellow passenger. Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience at the gate. As this forum is customer-to-customer, would your relay your complaint in an email directly to SW Customer Relations if you haven't done so yet: https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/email-us   That would help ensure that this gets properly reviewed. Also, SW Community forum postings are publicly accessible. Are you able to edit your post and remove your flight's confirmation number? If you can't, our staff moderator @CarlyeThornton  should be able to assist.   Also, based on your message, did you speak directly with the agent watching the gate podium? If so, the next time you fly, I would speak to a Customer Service Agent either at the Check-in counter or at any staffed SW Customer Service desk (different from the gate podium). They may be able to better assist you with Preboarding (Board First) or Extra-Time-to-Board assistance (Board in between A & B groups) based on this medical need which should help assure you're sitting together and have access to your carry-on bags.       ... View more

SoCalFlyer97 is exploring some of the other traveler-to-traveler forums such as Reddit, TripAdvisor and FlyerTalk. Also taking a deeper look into SW's official Social Media platforms to share future trip experiences.   I'll share some personal recommendations after the Labor Day Holiday. I'm also archiving all of my Trip Reports, my SW Community Photo Album, and plan to post future reports/reviews in one or more of the other places.   While I'm not at all thrilled of SW's decision (and I don't think they wanted to do it either), I can understand the possible reasoning of why it had to be done.     My opinion is speculative and I don't think it has to do with its current investor relationship, but rather based on the current job/economic market and my background in Marketing, Graphic Design, and basic IT. Unlike SW's Social Media channels and third-party forum websites, managing and maintaining an internal, dynamic, and custom-built message board like the Southwest Airlines Community requires a good amount of internal IT resources beyond having staff moderators (e.g. SW Reps and moderators can easily staff the Twitter/X, Facebook platforms as the social media companies would have to handle anything IT-related whereas SW IT is responsible to maintain the backend of its internal forum).   IT labor is expensive and those with this skillset can make some good money in the market economy. My assumption is SW needed to prioritize its IT resources in other areas of the company that included addressing the 2022 technical flaws that led to the '22 meltdown and more recently addressing inflight Wi-Fi and error code issues, updating the reservation interface to support the new Assigned Seating policy and adding support for the upcoming overnight owl/redeye trips.   Those who post regularly to this board know some of its ongoing "flaws". This included a well-intended spam bot filter that has been known to remove legitimate posts while allowing obvious spam and AI posts to get published (e.g. using the layman's suffix when calling out a 737-8H4 aircraft tripped the bot). The other were addressing imperfections with the bad word filter. Another were users not being able to change their community profile avatars or send/receive private messages. Some of these fixes look simple from the outside but could get complex when working behind the scenes of a custom-built web engine.   Anyway, that is my speculative guess on all this behind the why. I could be wrong.   Moving ahead--I'll be exploring the other forums and will offer some personal recommendations after the holiday as I don't think SW is in a position to officially recommend the aforementioned alternatives except for their social media channels and the new Help Center, but just like having third-party flight tracking tools like FlightAware and FlightRadar24, there are in fact other customer-to-customer forums that we as travelers can utilize and support.   Enjoy and travel safely.   ps. Gonna miss seeing these notifications pop up on my screen throughout the day:   ... View more

@KimKayTay wrote: We left Charlotte this past Sunday with a daunting schedule as we had to fly to Nashville and then to another city before landing in Denver where we live. We stopped to talk to a customer service agent to see if we had any other solutions. Within minutes the amazing SW agent D Vontay found a direct flight that got us directly into Denver 3 hours earlier. He was so kind and helpful and absolutely made our day! Another reason to love Southwest. Thanks for sharing! Great to hear SW staff doing whatever it takes to assist you. As this message board is mainly customer-to-customer, would you be able to fwd your compliment either in an email directly to SW or via a post to SW's Facebook or Twitter/X account. Staff who watch the email and social networks should be able to relay your praise to the appropriate staff. https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/email-us   Glad your experience was great! ... View more

@Wv wrote: I want to apply for the position as a ramp agent at Pittsburgh airport and the ad says you must live in pa or Ohio. I live in West Virginia and I’m closer than Ohio residents. I got an email from a southwest employee saying that they may have requested that so you live within so many miles of the airport. Is there anyway I can get in touch with someone from the Pittsburgh hr so I could maybe apply for job outside of the internet? I would love to work for southwest and have some previous experience with united airlines during Covid and it didn’t work out. Is there a number maybe I could call at the Pittsburgh southwest office? Thanks  @Wv    Hi!   To be clear in response to the other replies, there is no federal labor law that I'm aware of that would restrict SW's job offering of local Ramp Agent Operations of PIT airport exclusively to PA or OH residents only.     @dfwskier is correct where the official recruitment/application portal is via the SW Careers website.   I would sign up for SW Talent Community for now if you haven't done so yet: https://careers.southwestair.com/jointalentcommunity   That way, if a local Ramp Agent job opening in WV opens up, you'll be the first to know. If you think SW would benefit by allowing VW residents to work at PIT airport (as it does appear to make sense given the distance), it doesn't hurt to drop SW an email suggestion: https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/email-us   Hope this helps! ... View more

Greetings Southwest Community:     With Labor Day not too far away, I felt I should really be wrapping up this Summer 2024 Trains-to-Plane series. With that, this final post of my June Mission Trip experience to AUS will cover my two Southwest Hotels stays in Austin, some of the food I enjoyed while abroad, a few words on the mission trip itself, and my return flight back home via LAX.     We pick the story up from the AUS Amtrak station where I take care of a few things and explore a few places in town which included a visit to the historic cathedral and a meet-up with a longtime friend.   From there I check into the first of my two hotels both of which I booked through Southwest Hotels with no trouble. Here's how the pricing lined up (Free Cancelation benefit and all taxes and fees included in the price totals):     Hotel #1 La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Austin (2 nights) SW Hotels: $337 / +2,000 CP-Eligible Points Direct: $322 w/ Loyalty Trivago Lowest Price: $361   The $15 mark-up for the 2,000 points from direct was good trade-off in my opinion; thus, went with the SW Hotels option. Regarding the fairly new Redeeming-Points-for-Hotel options, unfortunately, I can't recommend although the hybrid one involving paying the least amount of points and most cash wasn't terrible:   Redeem Points Options / SW Redeemrapidrewards.com: All Points: -49,300 ($740 point-value Cost - Poor trade-off, not advised) Hybrid: -12,300 + $229 ($389 point-value Cost - A so-so trade-off)     The local La Quinta had what one could expect at a typical business-oriented hotel which I'm thankful for: A modern contemporary interior, comfortable bed, commons space in the lobby, and free hot breakfast in the morning.     It also had an indoor pool with a non-functioning water heater which didn't really matter. That's because it was hot during my time at AUS. The cool waters were quite refreshing.   After the 2-night stay, I went to a local church in the Austin area that provided the shelter and worship space for the whole duration of my mission trip. I spent the next six days and five nights there "camping" as part of the community service trip as an adult volunteer.   Youth from all over the country came together for the whole week to live, eat, play, serve and volunteer with ministries and nonprofits in the Austin area. Sleeping accommodations were dorm-style separated by gender in the church's meeting rooms with shared bathrooms. The church also had showers. The trip included spending quality time in service during the daytime hours at a few of the local organizations which included nursing homes, a veteran's community center, and assisting in the background such as doing a few grocery runs at the local Wal-Mart for the campers and the team. Unforgettable experience!     Following the mission trip, I spent one more night near the AUS airport prior to departure back to Cali. I've shared beforehand that I've managed to find and lock in great deals at some luxury hotels on SW Hotels. Well, SoCalFlyer97 found another one! This time, it was the Cambria, a top-tier Choice Brand Hotel. Here was the offer:     Hotel #2 Cambria Hotel Austin Airport SW Hotels: $148.18 / +2,000 CP-Eligible Points Trivago Lowest Price/ Agoda: $177.00 Book Direct: $156.90 (Non Refundable) SW Hotels clearly wins it!   Redeem Points Options / SW Redeemrapidrewards.com: All Points: -19,200 ($288 Cost - Poor trade-off, not advised) Hybrid: -4,800 + $89 ($161 Cost - That was not bad in my opinion)   Believe it or not, I actually found a fair cash+points redemption offer for this hotel via SW Redeem-Rapid-Rewards which was only $5 more than booking direct. Notice that when the trade-off is fair, SoCalFlyer97 considers buying. Paying with cash and receiving points via SW Hotels had the better deal though.     Hotel Cambria appeared to be a boutique, luxury business inn with a music themed interior, lots of common space for casual gatherings, its own bar and grill, and a spotless classy contemporary room. It had a "no worries" type vibe.     Cambria's in-hotel restaurant dubbed Backstage Bar & Grill offered a variety of contemporary classic Texas dishes. The food certainly looked great but the "class" of the food was a little too high for my liking. They certainly put a bunch of focus on presentation with a bit of a price tag. I opted not to dine there as it was just me and needed something more simple for dinner, but for that special meal with that special someone, I would give it a try.     I found that across the Ben White Highway from the Cambria is a good old Denny's with it's own version of Texas Country Fried Steak, right there on the Diner Deals menu! Thus got the grub from the home of the Grand Slam breakfast.   Here are a few other eateries that I enjoyed throughout the trip: Jack Allen's Kitchen - Fresh & Delicious Spirited Texan Cuisine Salvation Pizza Kitcen & Bar - New Haven style pies Tacos Mana's Food Truck - Yes, Texas had good Mexican food! La Quinta's Free Hotel Breakfast - SoCalFlyer97 never says no to Free Food! Also had one of my dinners at a local Chili's and enjoyed many homecooked meals during the Mission Trip from the church's kitchen! Let's not forget the all the Amtrak food and Juanita's burritos for the journey in!   And to wrap it up (excuse the pun), a pair of breakfast burritos from Jo's at AUS Airport which was located directly across the gate for my return flight home...and here's how that went:     Return Home Flight: AUS to LAX Plane: 737-8H4, N8612K Full Flight, On Tme Preboards: 11   I'm not going to be able to share the point redemption rates for this trip because I repriced it twice during two separate sales following the original reservation. Here's a rundown of the re-pricing experience. All fares WGA: $189 ('Spring Break $49 Sale' 2.2024 - Original Booking) $160 ('Spring is in the Air $49 Sale' Repriced 3.2024) $120 ('Our $39 Sale is Taking Off' Repriced 4.2024)   After April, the price pattern began to shift upwards. $120 was as low as it was going to get. Gotta LUV No Change Fees! Here were some of my favorite shots from the window:       Being a slightly longer haul, got a variety of snacks and a full-portion OJ.   The plane arrived at the LAX gate 22 minutes early...no delays whatsoever. Missouri One even greeted us!   I utilized the LAX Flyaway to get into town. Fare was $9.75 paid for electronically when boarding (or prepaid with a scannable ticket). It's aboard a comfortable coach bus that nearly filled up by the time we left the airport. All bags including carry-ons go into the bus' cargo hold. I opted to pay the fare with Google Pay but encountered a little glitch as I boarded.   I also have a local LA Metro transit fare card loaded on my phone which Flyaway also took. That created a situation where I paid the fare with Google Pay but as I pulled the phone away from the fare reader, it immediately tried to run the fare card and returned an error; the driver didn't see my Google Pay transaction but saw the error and had me tap my phone again. The following Monday, I noticed I was double billed but a phone call to Flyaway fixed that. Will likely pay with a regular contactless credit card until they get this fixed.     Before I close this series, I wanted to share a nice LAX feature that was brought to this airport not too long ago: Direct Airside connectors to/from the SW Terminal 1 into the Tom Bradley International Terminal B.         If one has a long layover or long wait at LAX, this grand international Terminal is certainly worth a visit. It looks like you've stepped foot into a upscale mall with lots of places to eat and sit down.     Next up, SoCalFlyer97 took a day tripper to SAN-SMF.   Stay tuned! ... View more

@BrettJ25 wrote: Both my child and I have separate SW accounts and both have Rapids reward #s. When I book a flight under my account for the two of use my receipt says "EST. POINTS EARNED" (then the amount) under her name, however I never see it reflect on her account. What am I doing wrong????? I see my points accumulate but not hers Hello-   To be clear, RR Points earned from taking flights (for any reservation with no portion of the booking paid for w/ redeemed RR Points) are awarded after the whole itinerary under the confirmation number is finished with all booked flights taken under the reservation. The points are not deposited at the time of booking. Not sure why or how you saw your points "accumulate" following this booking. I would double check your RR account activity to be sure. Likely that you got these points from a different flight or another means.   Hope this helps! ... View more

@coasterad wrote: Hello Everyone,       I was on a couple trips this past week and have had problems connecting to the inflight entertainment.         I have a Galaxy S24 and when I click the SouthwestWifi it sends me to the "get connected" page where, instead of saying, "access portal" it says, "copy portal link". However, when I do so, nothing comes up in my browser. Secondly, when I try to "use network as is" it says that it has connected to the wifi but nothing will load. Also, it seems that I am able to watch live TV but movies will not connect no matter how much I try.    Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks! Hello!   Re: Initial Connection...Did you place your phone into airplane mode before attempting to access the portal? When I first used the portal, I initially had trouble accessing the in-flight portal upon boarding flights on a Samsung Galaxy S20 but later found that the phone needed to first be in airplane mode before accessing it. Attempting to access the portal link https://getconnected.southwestwifi.com without first going into airplane mode redirected me to the info page: https://www.southwest.com/inflight-entertainment-portal/   Haven't tried the "Use Network as is " option but for my device, if a Wi-Fi network has no internet connection, it will automatically use the cellular data network to connect, thus the portal "sees" that I'm connecting via my cell network and bounces me out if I don't go into airplane mode first.   Re: Being able to watch Live TV but no movies: The designated supported browser for this feature is Chrome and not the stock Samsung Internet browser. If you're already using Chrome, make sure that it is up-to-date, you're not in incognito mode, and no network VPN's are in use in the background. See the Technical Help tab in the link above. ... View more