Southwest Airlines Community

I'll chime in here as well...  I LUV southwest, but this is definately a downside.  I do travel with a USB brick, but that only helps a phone/tablet, not a laptop.  Even so, a USB charging port would be useful, if you can't get the full A/C plug.  Some airlines put them in between the seats (2 per row, not 3), and only every other or every third row.  If you want or need it, you can find a seat that has it. ... View more

I'll echo what others have said...  in DEN, there's often a lot of planes in the same section of terminal, so the device may connect to you another plane besides the one you were on, especially as you get out of range of your plane.   I recently had an experience where I paid for the WIFI, and it said I was connected, but wouldn't let me go anywhere, I just got back to the "connect" screen.  But it wouldn't let me pay again, since I'd already paid.  I finally rebooted my device, and reconnected, then paid again, and everything was fine.  I figured they'd take care of it, but after my flight I contacted Southwest and they refunded not one but both of the charges. ... View more

@chgoflyer it's actually worse than you said...  You said Southwest buys bandwidth from a satilite provider.  The reality is they contract the service to Row44, now owned by a media conglomerate.  I believe Row44 installs the equipment and provides the service, and they get the money -- somebody chime in if I'm completely wrong here.  But that's why the cabin crew can and frequently does offer "make good" with free drinks, but they can't do anything about wifi at all. ... View more

Oh, I don't know, I've certainly had good days and bad days with it.  I've managed to work in terminal sessions over VPN sometimes, and others you can't even get Gmail to load.  Probably depends largely on the day and time, and maybe also what part of the country you're in -- the bird has "spot beams", like a cell tower has a bunch of antennas, that cover different parts of the country.  I bet the northeast is worse than the middle flyover states, and 8am will be worse than 10pm. ... View more

I love this idea.  And since the cost-of-goods for WIFI is presumably much less than for drinks, you could offer them as bonus perks, for example for taking post-flight surveys, or...  Becoming a frequent contributor to the community forums!!!   -Matt- ... View more

I had A-List for 2 years, but lost it for 2016.  I was real close to getting it for this year, but I knew I wasn't quite there.   I also received a "You got A-List!  Congrats!" email in January -- I didn't get my hopes up, and sure enough, it turned out to be an IT mistake (IT gets blamed for everything!!!).  That was pretty frustrating, but again, I hadn't gotten my hopes up too much.   I became aware of the promo you mentioned, if you flew 3 round-trips or 6 one-ways, or got like 9,000 points, between 1/31 and 4/30, you'd get A-List for 2017.  I went on a business trip (Business Select, Yeah!) in early April, and that one trip netted me like 12,000 points.  But there's a catch:  You had to register for the promotion, *before* the flights, and I hadn't even known about the promo until after the trip.  I called and asked, but they steadfastly refused, saying "it's a promo with specific terms, you didn't meet them, so sorry, nothing we can do, buh-bye".  That was *FAR* more frustrating.   The only thing I can suggest is make sure you're subscribed to their marketing emails -- that's apparently where they announce promos and other special deals.  I was getting my RR statement, but nothing else.  Now I'm getting it all.   [EDIT]:  I posted this on 5/4...  In today's mail, I received a letter congratulating me for hitting the promo, and a 2017 A-list card...  Not sure if they're related, but either way, I'm a happy camper.   -Matt- ... View more