Southwest Airlines Community

  Southwest Airlines is bringing a new level of digital hospitality to meeting planners and making it much easier to manage meetings travel. Today, we revealed a new Southwest Business Meetings experience, complete with industry-leading tools such as utilizing automated proposal processes, complimentary name changes up until 24 hours before departure*, and robust reporting available within Southwest Business Assist TM , our unique portal for managed travel Customers.   With these new features, we’re continuing our focus of removing friction and bringing a new level functionality to managing meetings travel programs that we haven’t had before. The new tools and features are designed with the meeting planner in mind- letting them focus on their event while we focus on their travel needs.   For meetings with 25 or more travelers, planners can now enjoy: Automated proposal requests. Streamlined proposal management and proposal tracking. Self-service name change requests and name correction assistance up until 24 hours before departure*. Ability to book meetings travel in their booking channel of choice (GDS, API/Direct Connect, or through SWABIZ®). View meetings specific reporting within Southwest Business Assist TM .   I invite you to learn more about how we can help with your upcoming meeting at Southwest.com/businessmeetings.   *Available for eligible organizations with this contractual benefit. The itinerary must remain the same in order to not be subject to a potential change in fare. ... View more

  When it comes to finding the right airline for your business travel, sometimes all you need is a nudge from a friend. Today, we’re launching our new Refer a Company program where you can refer your friends that oversee travel programs at companies that have people traveling for their jobs to Southwest Business. Through Southwest Business, companies can more easily manage their travel programs on Southwest allowing them to focus more on their core business needs. The best part: referring someone to Southwest Business means you could earn up to 125,000 Rapid Rewards Bonus Points for each qualified referral. (Full terms and conditions below.)   So, how does it work? Register and refer travel decision-makers for up to five companies in a 12-month period to Southwest ® Business by visiting swa.is/Referacompany and you could earn 25,000 Rapid Rewards bonus for each referral that is qualified, then books and travels using a Southwest Business booking channel. Southwest Business is looking for companies with at least five employees traveling for business needs.   Earning the full 125,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points in a calendar year counts toward earning the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass ® , which allows you to choose somebody to fly with you, free of airline charges (does not include taxes and fees from $5.60 one-way), every time you purchase or redeem points for a flight. Visit Southwest.com/rrterms for a complete list of Companion Pass rules.   We appreciate your partnership and letting Southwest Airlines connect you to the people and places that are important in your life.   1. Register & Refer      Register for this Refer a Company Promotion (“Promotion”) between September 26, 2022 and December 31, 2023 ("Promotion Period"), and on the registration form, fill out the information of the person who is the travel decision maker for the company that you are referring. If the remaining Refer a Company Terms and Conditions are met, then you will  earn 25,000 Rapid Rewards® bonus points for each qualifying referral up to a maximum of five (5) times in a twelve (12) month period for a total of 125,000 Rapid Rewards bonus. Any referrals you submit after you have referred five (5) qualifying companies in a Twelve (12) month period will no longer be eligible to earn the 25,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points.  If the company you are referring already has a SWABIZ® account, a managed contract, or a business travel relationship with Southwest® Business, you will not be eligible to earn the 25,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points. You represent and warrant that you have permission to provide the contact information of the travel decision maker for the company you are referring to Southwest Business and that Southwest Business may disclose to such person that you were the referring individual.   To register for this Promotion, you will need to provide your Southwest Rapid Rewards account number at the time of registration. If you do not have a Rapid Rewards account number, you may register for an account by going online to Southwest.com/rapidrewards to become a Member. Rapid Rewards accounts are free.      2. Earn Rapid Rewards Bonus Points Based on the Company's Path       If the company you are referring does not already have a SWABIZ account, a managed contract, or a business travel relationship with Southwest Business and (i) you register for this Promotion within the Promotion Period, including completion of all required fields, (ii) the company you referred is qualified by Southwest Business, (iii) the company you referred enrolls in SWABIZ within 30 days of when Southwest Business sends an email notifying the company it is qualified for the self-service (SWABIZ) business partnership with Southwest Business, and (iv) within 90 days from when the company you referred has enrolled in SWABIZ (such 90 day period, the "Post Enrollment Period"), the company books through swabiz.com using their company's corporate identification number, and an eligible traveler of the company flies one qualifying revenue round trip flight, you will earn 25,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points. If the company that you are referring has opted out or opts out of receiving emails from Southwest, Southwest will not send an email to the company that you are referring.     All of steps (i) through (iii) described in the paragraph above must be completed prior to booking and commencement of travel. Valid on new qualifying revenue flights booked through SWABIZ during the Post Enrollment Period for travel during the Post Enrollment Period and flown within the Post Enrollment Period.  A qualifying flight for the purposes of this Promotion is a round trip revenue flight, booked through SWABIZ, on Southwest Airlines® from an origin city to a destination city and back to the originating airport or carrier-recognized co-terminal and paid entirely with dollars, Southwest LUV Vouchers®, gift cards or flight credits, and with no portion of the purchase price paid for with Rapid Rewards points or Rapid Rewards Business points. Flights booked prior to the first day of the Post Enrollment Period or not completed by the last day of the Post Enrollment Period will not be eligible to count towards this Promotion. Charter flights, group travel, Southwest Vacations® packages, and Companion Pass® flights booked on Southwest.com®, bookings made via Global Distribution Systems, and reservations made using Rapid Rewards points do not qualify for this Promotion. Valid on Southwest Airlines published scheduled service. Changes made to the itinerary after purchase may eliminate qualification for Promotion.      B. If the company you referred is qualified by Southwest Business for a managed relationship with Southwest Business, you will earn 25,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points with no further action required.  Reward yourself  After the company either completes their required flight activity, or successfully signs a contract with Southwest Business, please allow up to two weeks for your Rapid Rewards bonus points to post to your account. Your bonus will appear on your statement as "Points Adjustment."      This Promotion is non-transferable. Rapid Rewards bonus points earned under this Promotion will not count toward A-List or A-List Preferred status but they will count toward Companion Pass qualification.      This Promotion is subject to change and may be canceled at any time without notice.      Only one referrer per company or Company ID will be eligible to collect the Rapid Rewards bonus points, and this will be the person who enters the first referral Southwest receives for that particular company. You are not eligible for referral bonus points if you use a false name, information, or if Southwest cannot contact you. If Southwest cannot reach the person you are referring, or if the company the referrer works for does not qualify for a relationship with Southwest Business or decides not to engage further with Southwest, you will not be eligible to earn the 25,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points. If the company you are referring already has a SWABIZ account, a managed contract, or a business travel relationship with Southwest Business, you will not be eligible to earn the 25,000 Rapid Rewards bonus points. Southwest Business Employees are not eligible to participate in this Promotion.  Promotion is open to United States residents and for eligible companies based in the United States only.  Southwest shall have the sole and exclusive right to resolve all disputes between two or more referrers who are attempting to refer the same company, and all determinations by Southwest shall be final and binding. Southwest reserves all of its rights and all other applicable Rapid Rewards rules and regulations.  Payments of all applicable federal, state, and local taxes are solely the responsibility of the recipient of the Raid Rewards bonus points.  Such individual may be required to sign an IRS Form W-9 with their full social security number or the equivalent.  Failure to submit a Form W-9 upon request will result in forfeiture of the Rapid Rewards bonus points.  Earnings valued $600 or more will be reported to the IRS in the calendar year in which the bonus points are awarded.    If you are a Southwest Airlines Employee, by choosing to accept the Refer a Company Award of Rapid Rewards bonus points, you agree to the value of the award being added to your taxable income, understanding that the taxes to be withheld will vary by Employee depending on state residency and overall individual tax situation. For federal taxes (income, Social Security, and Medicare), the estimated average tax withholding rate is approximately 30%.  All Rapid Rewards rules and regulations apply and can be found at www.southwest.com/rrterms. Southwest® reserves the right to amend, suspend, or change the Rapid Rewards program and/or Rapid Rewards program rules at any time without notice. Rapid Rewards Members do not acquire property rights in accrued points. The number of Rapid Rewards points needed for a particular Southwest flight is set by Southwest and will vary depending on destination, time, day of travel, demand, fare type, point redemption rate, and other factors, and is subject to change at any time until the booking is confirmed.    ... View more

  At Southwest Airlines, we’re continually investing in our products and services and striving to make it easier than ever to manage business travel on Southwest. Today, we launched our newest product, Southwest Business Assist™, a self-service tool enabling Corporate Travel Buyers, Travel Decision Makers, and Travel Management Companies to manage their Southwest Airlines business travel programs better. Southwest Business Assist™ brings unique dashboards, reports, contractual benefits, Customer Service requests, and much more under one roof.   The new tool brings a variety of new features to the business travel industry including: Travel funds management Enhanced insight into contractual benefits, account performance, and dashboards Automated sustainability reporting Increased automation with real-time capabilities and service These tools are some of the top requested items from Southwest Business Customers, and we’re thrilled to put this data at their fingertips.   More features are planned with additional updates in the coming months. To learn more, visit southwestbusinessassist.com.   ... View more

  Today is a very special day for all of us at Southwest as we reached a milestone. This morning, we announced that Southwest is now taking booking through industry-standard business travel bookings systems. We joined forces with Travelport as our launch partner to bring our everyday low fares with Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) ticketing and settlement to its Global Distribution Systems (GDS).   Simply put, this allows for Corporate Travel Managers, Travel Management Companies, and business travel decision-makers to conveniently book and modify reservations, as well as better manage their organization's travel with just a few clicks. As you know, we pride ourselves on owning the entire Customer journey. This process has proved incredibly successful in our nearly 50-year history. However, for managed business travel, we’ve seen this become cumbersome and prevent some companies from choosing us over our competitors.   This is just another step forward in our journey to build the best business travel-focused Team in the industry. Later this year, we’ll add similar capabilities to Amadeus’ GDS’.   As you might recall, last year we announced a major investment in our Team, which included investing in these industry-standard processes, adding more account managers to work with more organizations across the nation, standing up a new Travel Management Company Relations Team, and re-branding our Team as Southwest Business. I’m proud to report that we are making waves in the industry and people are taking notice.   While we are all working through the impacts of COVID-19, please know that all of us at Southwest and Southwest Business are thinking of you. While we don’t know when things will resume, we’re ready to work with you to help manage your return to whatever the new normal will look like.   To learn more about how we can help you and your organization manage travel, please visit Southwest.com/AboutBusiness. ... View more

Today is one of the most exciting days in my professional career, and as Vice President of Southwest Business. Earlier today, we announced a major evolution that’ll prepare our Corporate Sales Team for the future as we officially begin a new era as Southwest Business! Much of the changes outlined below are a result of listening to you, our valued Customers. You’ve told us a lot about hurdles that prevent many of you from doing business with us and we’re here to tell you that we’re removing them! We ultimately want to take the work out of work travel.   Southwest Business, the Team formerly known as Corporate Travel, is focused on bringing a new suite of services and travel solutions to Corporate Travel Managers, their travel management companies (TMCs), and business travelers across the United States and showcasing how Southwest can help them grow their business while managing travel expenses. It’s taken a big village to get to today’s announcement and I couldn’t be more proud of our growing Team. I invite you to take a look at our new website, Southwest.com/AboutBusiness which highlights where we’ve been and where we expect to go.   Here’s a quick look at some of the changes we’re introducing in the coming months:   The Booking Channel of Your Choice As Southwest Business evolves, the carrier announced today a new agreement to bring industry-standard processes through the Travelport and Amadeus GDS channels including allowing corporate travel managers the ability to book, change, cancel, and modify reservations. The carrier anticipates the new functionality to be ready for bookings by mid-2020. By increasing the carrier’s participation within these channels, more travelers will have access to the airlines’ fares and flight schedules. Southwest is also partnering with ARC to implement industry-standard processes to handle the reporting and settlement of tickets booked through the GDS’.   We’ve also expanded our partnership with ATPCO and SITA to including an API via NDC Exchange, offering Southwest content via a dedicated direct connect channel. Through this channel, we’ll now be able to offer our award-winning Hospitality to more business travelers.   And, you might have noticed several new upgrades to SWABIZ®. Our Team has put a lot of thought and resources into this channel to make it what it is today and offer products and solutions that you’ve been asking about.   So, what does this mean to you? It’s all about being in the booking channel of your choice.   Organizational Growth Southwest Business is designed around taking the work out of work travel and making it easier to do business with us. Throughout the past two years, we’ve been laying the foundation for today’s announcement and continued growth within the organization. More account managers, a new Business to Business Partner desk (for qualified accounts), and a TMC Relations Team to support your agency needs highlight the emphasis we are putting on making it easier for business travelers to choose Southwest for their business travel needs.   Let us know if we can help you with your managed travel program. Simply visit Southwest.com/AboutBusiness to get started. ... View more