Southwest Airlines Community

The travel funds from the cancelled flight can be used to purchase multiple flights, $200 credit can be used to buy $70, $90, and a $40 flight or applied towards a more expensive flight, using a credit card to cover the remaining balance, BUT all travel must complete within one year of when you originally purchased the reservation you canceled AND the travel funds can only be used by the passenger(s) that were on the original, canceled reservation. If the original purchase was $100 for passenger A and $100 for passenger B, that's how the travel funds have to be applied to a future purchase.   Hope that clarifies things for you   --TheMiddleSeat Did this or any other comment in the thread answer your question? Please take a moment and click the "Accept as Solution" button on the comments you found most helpful, this will be a big help to any future Community Members who have a similar question! ... View more

Spot on. Now that 2 one-way flights are almost always the same price as a round trip flight, with SWA I've only been booking 1-way domestic flights for several years now and this is one of the reasons why -- especially since SWA doesn't charge a cancellation or change fee. ... View more

@kchilcott, I also like the employee empowerment within Southwest.  I am sorry you missed the level.  Could have been the employee or the day or something unrelated to their work.  Or they may have had to close the door on that rule because of too many passengers making the request.  I once took a short Christmas eve hop to make the Companion Pass criteria.  Not my preferred way to spend Christmas eve, but I wanted to make the CP criteria, so I took a flight (and a good book).  Reading the stories in the SW magazine and here on the Stories board makes me think that, thankfully, they still allow a good bit of flexibility (unless it jeopardizes safety, of course).  I hope you hit the 25 flights this year. ... View more

@SarahGrant84, I suggest checking out the FAQs for service animals here: https://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/unique-travel-needs/customers-with-disabilities-pol.html   The FAQs suggest that you provide them with disability information online or you can probably call customer service at 1-800-IFLYSWA.  To encourage smooth passage, I would suggest dealing with this before arriving at the airport.     So thanks for posting and safe flying. ... View more

YES!!! Exciting!!! Congratulations!!  ... View more

This happened to me as well. I paid to be in the A group. Why couldn't he do it as well? On top of that, three A listers had to leave there front row seat so El Cheapo could be with his daughter. ... View more

After considering your proposal for such an announcement, it seems like fodder for more fighting.  I agree that center people should get the arm rests; however, making that announcement would likely just lead to resentment if people have in their earbuds and do not hear it or if two aggressive people land next to each other and both want the armrest.   When the attendant makes an announcement about using ear buds, I find myself getting more aggravated about the person who is using their iPad without them. I am more likely to dismiss their noise making than if the announcement was never made.    I do not find center sitters to be more passive - a great many are just late to check in (inexperienced) or the late boarders.  I get the center seat when I go standby, and yes, I dutifully cross my arms and close my eyes but that is because I am claustrophobic and prefer not to touch anybody.   I like that you are thinking about what could make travels easier.  I am unfortunately not sure if an announcement would solve the issue or make it unexpectedly worse. ... View more

@FlyoverNurse wrote: ...An additional service to literally push ahead through the line seems ridiculous.   Why don’t they have their own lines? I was rudely pushed out of the way by a full grown man, and it did not make me happy.  I can only commisserate that it was pretty rude to barge through like that, and I'm not "clear" that they are entitled to go to the front of any line anyway, the Fly-By benefit for instance is to get in the shorter line, but not bypass a line.   Maybe they were really late for their flight or some other urgent reason they disregarded common courtesy. I'm racking my memory about that TSA checkpoint though, I'll have to keep an eye out for the Clear station next time, not that it would help the rude behaviour you experienced.   I'd recommend Global Entry for you if you don't have it or PreCheck already to stay clear of Clear in the future. ... View more

The percentages are not that different for all of the airlines in the article, and each would have some mixture of weather and mechanical delays.    Southwest's network of flying through many destinations allows them not to take a big weather hit or be as suceptible to a problem at one airport, but when big weather events hit Southwest does have a more extensive list of destinations to recover.   We'd have to get some data that showed which percentages were mechanical vs weather to get a better idea - right now a favorable weather service area could have a better on-time percentage, or flying from less  congested airports, etc.   Southwest probably had great on-time percentages flying in the literal southwest US and I'm sure it has eroded a bit through expansion to AirTran territory with East Coast airports.   Anyway, the action item at the end of my ramble: you have a limited ability to search the particular flight you are interested in to see if there is something specific to that route that causes delays. However, the flight numbers are re-assigned regularly which wipes out the easy to search for history within Southwest's website. ... View more

It's too hard to run to the restroom in spite of the FA instructions and the seatbelt light with the carts in the way as well, unless you are an Olympic hurdler. ... View more

If you arrive at 4AM for a 545AM flight, you will have plenty of time at Hobby.  I would probably arrive later, but I am TSA-Pre and very experienced.  Gates 49-51 and Gates 4-5 are the farthest to walk to, but unless you have any challenges with mobility, you should be there with 15 min of exiting security.  Safe and fun travels to you. ... View more

If the flight is sparse, I head to the back with lots of chances to get at least a middle empty if not all three seats to myself. People sit next to each other in the front no matter how full the plane is.   For full flights, I like to get about 8 rows back. That's where the overheads will be full and all the last people on the plane will have to keep heading to the back, so best chance for a middle seat to be empty is in that neighborhood. I've heard it called "The Hidden First Class" of Southwest.   Also for short flights I forget which row exactly, but you want to be towards the first group to get drink orders in, but not for the front FA who has some extra duties, get the second section. ... View more

My husband and I travel often. We get TSA pre most of the time. What a bummer when we don't. I'm thinking about appying for TSA pre for $85, but so far haven't found the need. We are approved about 9 out of 10 flights. ... View more

Things happen. Just forget about it ... View more

@DancingDavidEwrote: In that regard in the same position when traveling with my wife and young child, we don't gamble, boarding at "A61" has always worked fine for us.   I only get EB if traveling only with my wife since I'm A-list and she can be closer in position to me.   When traveling with baby and we'll be using family boarding, no EB for us, the potential to be moved up 10 or 15 spots isn't worth it, and as you said you might not move up any spots.     I think that’s going to be my new strategy moving forward.    I just wasted $150 this trip on EB since my return flight, our EB positions were B22-26 but we will board after A.  ... View more

@Erinmps, Franktravel is correct.  Southwest does not overbook flights - see FAQs here. They have open seating (pick any seat available), so get your boarding pass right at the 24 hour check in (set your calendar/alarm), especially if overhead bin space is critical.   If you like the price, you'll love the peanuts.  Safe travels. ... View more

So shouldn't your family pay to upgrade? Why should your status insure they get priority boarding?  ... View more

Thanks, @franktravel -- a while ago, it was Feb 8th, so I had not realized it moved to Feb 15th.  Saves me a midnight wake up and being disappointed. ... View more

If this is for a flight you already took, you can go to "past flights" on your account page and see receipts. That doesn't have the high resolution of your confirmation email though with all of the breakdown for fare components. ... View more

I was confident - the A-list terms are pretty clear stating "take flight segments during a year" as opposed to companion pass points which clearly state "when points post" so I was pretty sure you would get it, if retroactively.     ... View more

@ Bamafan3162, it is important to tell TSA about the metal implants before you walk through a metal detector.  They want the people with metal implants to use the full-body (millimeter-wave) scanners - the ones that look like round phone booths.   The security notation on your boarding pass (randomly assigned TSA-Pre check or regular/no notation) typically determines which type of scanner, but you can usually see the difference.  And every now and then, I have seen them shake things up, like with a canine security check but that is not frequent.   If you walk through a metal detector with an implant, they have to do a pat-down search and cannot just turn you around to the body scanner line because the attendant has to address every alarm, and cannot lose someone in the crowd by sending them elsewhere.   Good luck - I know you can handle it.  The carry-on bag(s) - what stays in and what comes out - can be more challenging than the metal/full body scan.  You might want to read up on it here: https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening ... View more

Seen it right after I posted my reply. 😌 ... View more

A great story.  My wife worked for an airline when I met her, but we met on a "blind date"  ... View more

Southwest sells bags for $17 each.   These aren't required, it's up to you if it is helpful to make sure things don't get scuffed, or if you find cheaper bags somewhere else that's okay too.   If you might be flying 5-10 times or more, the cost of the bag may be reasonable to reduce wear from handling.   From my perspective, for any one trip you aren't expecting much to happen to your item. But now having used our blue bags 30+ times, the bags sure are beat up...glad that cumulative punishment (even if a very little each time) wasn't onto our stroller.         ... View more

I never used GetAwayFinder.  How different was it from the "interactive route search tool"? https://www.southwest.com/flight/routemap_dyn.html?clk=GSUBNAV-AIR-ROUTEMAP I can either hover over the city or click on list view, pick a departure, determine whether there are any non-stops by filtering at the top, etc.  Did the old tool show (accurate) prices?  Anything else? ... View more

Southwest's software may flag you for departing on your new flight during your current flight resulting in automated cancelation, which could prevent you from using the "hidden city" aproach....definitely best if you can make the change official. One issue will be that to rebook the first leg if the current price is much higher than originally booked, hopefully it is far enough out that the price is similar.   Obviously if you wanted to check bags you'll need to re-book, whether you change the destination w/ layover or if you buy separate one-ways (allow extra time for this to check bags).     ... View more

I am having the same problems with changing companion fare and also rebooking a different flight.  It's been the last 3 months and everytime the points say this amount and when you go to make the change, a message comes up and says " We are unable to secure the price for the flight you selected and the points are higher than what is listed.  Usually anywhere from 40 - 100 points which is not fare and I have to call in everytime for them to fix it.  Most of the reservation people know of the problem and say they are working on it, but it's been 3 months. I love Southwest, but please get this fixed!!!!!   Maria       ... View more

Lol @DancingDavidE, I'm a slight germophob and read too much about flying. Just google'ing "tray table bacteria" is frightening! Perhaps a little exposure is beneficial for kids, but I'll pass. Being in the middle seat all the time I get more than enough exposure without the tray table.  ... View more