Southwest Airlines Community

Air travel has risks, any airline can and has had an occasional meltdown, pick your poison or pick your pleasure. I was impacted, and made adjustments, no worries. If it was life or death I would have booked another carrier, chartered part 135, or flown my own plane. It wasn't, thankfully. Still, Southwest came through rebooking my flights at no charge, extending my companion pass so that I could renew it with points in January, and unexpectedly gave me 50,000 points for my canceled flights. Southwest is not perfect, none of them are, but they're one of the safest airlines, they meet my use case, and they take care of their customers under adversity. I thank Southwest for that and will continue to support them, including two new trips I just booked. Anyone truly not happy with Southwest can book an alternative; but me, I'm staying with them.   PS - I'm neither a shill nor Southwest employee, just a regular customer who's flown millions of miles across the globe with all carriers and by myself. ... View more

The new CEO needs to resign. ... View more

I am currently enjoying a great life in Florida after making a fortune in the financial side of healthcare and owning a car dealership for 20 years.   Yeah', I'm not the brightest bulb in the box.  I only have two Masters', what can you expect? ... 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

Okay, here's the bottom line of the response that just arrived: " Rest assured, I have documented your feedback for our Senior Leaders via our monthly summary."  (See "Raiders of the Lost Ark," final scene as the crated ark is being wheeled into the recesses of the cavernous warehouse: "Top men are working on this project, Indy!")  Oh well, time will tell. ... View more

I don’t mean the Travel bloggers. I mean the Southwest media department which normally puts something out the day of or the day after a schedule release.    Denno  ... View more

Haven't heard anything about MAX 7s since there has been so much focus on the MAX 8 these past few years.    I did find this from June 2021:    https://www.flightglobal.com/fleets/united-views-737-max-7s-as-potential-737-700-replacements/144377.article    The 737 Max 7 remains in flight testing, with Boeing aiming to begin delivering the type in 2022. The company operated the first Max 10 flight on 18 June and aims to hand over the first of that type in 2023. The Max 8 and Max 9 are in service.   --Jessica ... View more

@TheMiddleSeat wrote: I've tried to follow this squabble because I think it's partially an interesting business turf war, but it's also rather comical and childish.  I hadn't seen anything about it for awhile so I did some searching like you may have and came up with zero recent stories about it.  The last news I did find spoke of more delays in the trial.  Sounds like it is still unresolved.   --TheMiddleSeat It is not yet resolved. ... View more

For those that want an interactive route map right now, there's this website that you can use for all airlines: https://www.flightconnections.com/route-map-southwest-airlines-wn You just change the airline and it'll show their route map. It's not as up to date as the individual airline's website, but it does pretty well with keeping up on route changes!     -Andrew E DEN based | Southwest Passenger | Aviation Enthusiast ... View more

Good info, but SWA is not to blame for Boeing’s shortcuts.  If Boeing could not have made the new plane with the same type rating without needing simulator training, that is 100 percent on Boeing.   ... View more

Southwest allows you to search flight status by flight number and it shows all the flights under that flight number from my understanding/experience. ... View more

Basically, Southwest wants to be able to keep their plane available to fly the rest of their flights minus Colorado. The big 3 take the risk, Southwest didn't want to. It is frustrating but it's a business decision to not risk the rest of their flight schedule being affected. ... View more

I've taken several LAS-AUS flights that leave at 8pm arrive after midnight and many times they have been 90-100% full. In March i took a LAS-AUS flight that left at 7:20pm arriving at midnight and it was 173 of 175 plus a few lap children.    I take a lot of late flights from Florida as well and they are mostly full.  ... View more

You might want to look at posts near the end of another thread for ideas.   https://community.southwest.com/t5/Travel-Policies/How-can-I-find-737-Max-route-schedules/td-p/118771/jump-to/first-unread-message ... View more

I guess this thread puts the nail in the coffin on this issue. Officially not supported. What a shame   VPN? (southwest.com) ... View more

Yes, I know Lorren and I also know if she says there's no answer then there's no answer and no need to continue questioning it.    --TheMiddleSeat ... View more

DFwskier, wasn’t that essentially what I just said?  Careful, your chauvinism is showing again.   😉 ... View more

My guess is Southwest is more likely to expand free standby to other people booked on a reservation where one person is A-List, just like they have done with priority boarding.   --TheMiddleSeat ... View more

And even with well thought out flight plans and schedules, they change. I've had 3 this past 3 months that have changed and/or been canceled altogether, including a trip to Cozumel.  Not berating you, but NOBODY should think that anything is going to go as planned at this time.  I live in a state where for the past month on and off 5 times were able to eat indoors, and then not.  Right now not, and only outdoors.  That may even change tomorrow.  It's just the way it is right now.  Yes, we all hope for the best, but deal with the reality of the final result. ... View more

@Iowagirl1 wrote: The check in system is not as represented. I fly biweekly on Southwest, and each time I set my alarm to check in precisely 24 hours before. I often get b30+. I find it hard to believe that the entire plane checked in within 2 minutes of the check in process opening.    Well, when you check in you have A-List Peferred, A-List, and Early Bird purchasers in front of you. SW automatically gives them boarding spots at t+36 from flight time. That's potentially a lot of people who already have boarding posiions befoe you check in.   Also, almost everyone nowadays tries to check in at t+24. So if you are 30 seconds or a minute late, there are other people that checked in before you   You sid said you fly SW bi weekly. Why afren't you A-List? ... View more

@denno wrote: Will Southwest ever offer the means to book multi-city itineraries (like other carriers do) without having to book a separate reservation record?   Dennis G You mean like this?   https://www.southwest.com/air/booking/?cacheDiagnostics=Cache+Binary+Session+Size+%28bytes%29%3A+%3D7146%3Cbr%2F%3ECache+pointer+disc%3A+%3Dsdc%3A067771C180764444894DEACBEC949170&redirectToVision=true&clk=GNAV-FLIGHT%2F%3Fsrc%3DPREMSCCMAIN000000071816&leapfrogRequest=true ... View more

Interesting. I am with you in that it seems strange. It could be that SW needs the planes in a certain place first thing in the AM. It could also be that folks will do what it takes to get home; for me, if I can get a full days work in and still not have to stay a night in a hotel, I’m game.  I would rather get home well after midnight than get up at 3:30am to make a crazy early flight. But that’s just me! :cathappy: ... View more

Potential agreement on the way: https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2019/03/17/southwest-mechanics-union-reach-tentative-deal-labor-dispute/amp/ ... View more

When it's winter and I'm skiing, I'm on a 12 days in Colorado and 9 days in Texas regimen - Catching a DAL flight early Monday morning so I can ski on Monday, and 12 days later catching a late flight Friday  out of DEN so I can ski on  Friday . Rinse and repeat all winter...   So I ski 10 out of 12 days (never on weekends and holidays) and then rest for 9 days    not this year due to back trouble..  oh well.... ... View more

I don't think so! But I know Alaska took over Virgin's domestic flights as they already shared a lot of things before Virgin stopped domestic sevice.. I wouldn't be surprised if Alaska took over other airlines it has similarities like this with ... View more

The economics of in-flight wifi are complicated.   Southwest doesn't actually generate profit from it's wifi fees. Satellite bandwidth is very, very expensive. Those $8 fees basically help offset what Southwest pays their internet service providers (along with partnership agreements, where companies pay money to advertise on the in-flight system). It costs Southwest money to provide the internet connectivity (and in-flight entertainment), but they see it as a service they need to offer in order to be competitive. Because it's a cost center and not a profit one, upgrades are slow to roll out, and quality of service is fairly abysmal when compared to what other carriers offer. Row44/Global Eagle would love for Southwest to upgrade to their latest and greatest technology, but that costs money.   Most other carriers do make money off their wifi. Services like Gogo provide the connectivity, charge hefty fees for access and/or membership, and then cut some of that profit back to the carriers -- even at a risk to their profitability. Because they are the provider, it's in their best interests to offer good connection and upgrade frequently. So the connection is more reliable.   JetBlue writes their internet provider a big check so that they can offer free wifi as a differentiator. It's a marketing cost.   When/if Delta actually offers free wifi, it will be because they believe trading the income they receive now for a new cost is worth it from a marketing standpoint. As a business-focused carrier, wifi is important, and free wifi is a huge benefit. Another factor (for all carriers) is the costs in initially installing the systems into each plane. Sometimes the carrier pays for this fully (often amortized over time), sometimes it's partially paid for by the provider, sometimes it's a rental agreement. One possibility I've read with Delta is that they may have reached the point where the installation costs have now been fully paid off, which changes the economics and allows them to shift what were those costs over to cover the service they now offer their passengers for free, with no overall change to the bottom line.   As I said, it's complicated. 😉 ... View more

Without knowing the actual passenger numbers in the market, it's anybody's guess why Southwest is cutting flights. However, looking at the number of daily flights and aircraft flown in the market, it appears that there may be too much capacity and Southwest is simply reducing flights to better match demand. I looked at a few flights in October vs December and it appears that Delta is actually cutting their daily DEN-ATL flights from eight (on Mon. 10/8) to six (on Mon. 12/3). United is holding firm at four daily flights, but one of those flights is on a smaller regional jet and the other three flights are on either 737-800s or A319s, similar in number of seats to Southwest's 737s. So, even with three flights a day, Southwest is in line with United in terms of capacity. Delta, is actually reducing flights (I can't say whether they are reducing capacity because I didn't see what aircraft they were using). ... View more