Post all SW questions concerns, etc. here...

[scrappinginontario]

Question: I have flight credits from my canceled May 2020 flight. I originally paid cash for the four of us for roundtrip flights. As the pandemic first started to happen and people got nervous about flying, my flights cost decreased three times and I rebooked and got credits. Then, ultimately I had to cancel and got credit for the balance. So, now we have the total amount of that original flight broken down into four credits. I see online that you can only use "three forms of payment" and one credit is considered a payment. So, my assumption is I can only use two credits and probably a credit card per reservation which means I leave two credits unused. If I book a one way flight instead of round trip, can I use two credits and credit card for each way and thereby use all my credits?

I can't remember all of the details as so much changed last year, but you may wish to verify when your May 2020 credits need to be used by. With SW, travel needs to be completed before the expiration date.

 

[dez1978]

How is the WIFI on southwest flights? My daughter has virtual schooling and I am trying to see if she would be able to log in and do her classes during the flight? I have never had luck with airline wifi having a good signal. Thanks!

Something to consider. Both our school and our in laws kids school will not allow you to connect school issued devices to public wifi. So neither my son's school Ipad nor my nephews chromebook were able to connect to Disney or SW wifi. So if you are using a school issued device it may be a problem.

 

[mickey916]

I can't remember all of the details as so much changed last year, but you may wish to verify when your May 2020 credits need to be used by. With SW, travel needs to be completed before the expiration date.

Thanks! I know it kept getting extended but I believe it's now Sept 2022...I will verify though.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thanks! I know it kept getting extended but I believe it's now Sept 2022...I will verify though.

Great! I only wanted to mention it as once I lost money because I thought as long as I booked travel by the expiry date I could use it. By the time I realized my error and that I needed to have completed my flights prior to expiry date, it was too late. It was a tough lesson to learn and it was a few hundred dollars.

 

[mickey916]

Great! I only wanted to mention it as once I lost money because I thought as long as I booked travel by the expiry date I could use it. By the time I realized my error and that I needed to have completed my flights prior to expiry date, it was too late. It was a tough lesson to learn and it was a few hundred dollars.

It is so confusing! I almost made a mistake last November. I almost booked with those travel funds when I thought I would go this May 2021 but I called to see what would happen if I canceled again and was told that if I canceled it would roll my travel funds back to one year from when I made the reservation (making them then expire Nov. 2021)...so glad I called first before booking that flight since we're not going this May. I just verified my date is Sept 7 2022 so we should be good to use them for May 2022...

 

[Gitelfor]

....

 

[dez1978]

Question about flights for nov/dec. I need to decide between nov 19/20 and dec 3/4 this week. Frontier prices are 670 rt the nov weekend and 170 the dec weekend. I’m guessing bc it’s the weekend before thanksgiving is why it’s so high. Should I assume sw would be similar?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Question about flights for nov/dec. I need to decide between nov 19/20 and dec 3/4 this week. Frontier prices are 670 rt the nov weekend and 170 the dec weekend. I’m guessing bc it’s the weekend before thanksgiving is why it’s so high. Should I assume sw would be similar?

I can't say for sure but I will say for our Sept flight, we are flying home the Friday of Labour Day weekend and our flight is a good bit higher than the 3 weekends leading up to it and the 3 weekends after it. I purchase the moment flights dropped and the prices started off substantially higher than the weekends around it.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

Question about flights for nov/dec. I need to decide between nov 19/20 and dec 3/4 this week. Frontier prices are 670 rt the nov weekend and 170 the dec weekend. I’m guessing bc it’s the weekend before thanksgiving is why it’s so high. Should I assume sw would be similar?

We usually travel in Nov and all airlines (including SW) are higher that weekend than May, Sept, Oct (other months we have flown).

 

[Erica Ladd]

Does anyone ever book one hotel over another because of the large amount of bonus points offered? I’m currently looking at hotels in Fort Lauderdale and some properties offer a large amount of points but are a bit more expensive. Where is the break even point? For instance I found a hotel for 2nights for right under $300 with just a few points and another that’s $365 but offers 6000 bonus points. Should that guide my decision? As an aside I used points to book the RT flight and it was around 5300 points...

 

[Gitelfor]

Does anyone ever book one hotel over another because of the large amount of bonus points offered? I’m currently looking at hotels in Fort Lauderdale and some properties offer a large amount of points but are a bit more expensive. Where is the break even point? For instance I found a hotel for 2nights for right under $300 with just a few points and another that’s $365 but offers 6000 bonus points. Should that guide my decision? As an aside I used points to book the RT flight and it was around 5300 points...

You may already know that the hotel rates through the Southwest booking portal are inflated over booking directly on the hotel sites, especially if you can use a discount, such as AAA. If you have not looked carefully at each listing’s cancellation policy for the rate you are considering, be careful to look and confirm the policy, if that is important to you. I have noticed that you have to go into detail, sometimes, to see that some of the higher points rates have no-cancellation policies.

The current value of RR points for booking flights is 1.4 cents per point (post devaluation value). So, 6,000 points have a value of $84.

BTW, that’s a great fare you booked. Southwest has a sweet spot for fares, right now, for travel around mid-late May.

 

[Erica Ladd]

Thanks! I’ve been going back and forth on a few hotels and I double and triple check multiple sites, like the brand site plus travel sites. So far they’ve been all about the same but it helps to know how to value points accurately. And yes after last year I always look at cancellation policies - very important!! I guess I’ll just go with whatever hotel I like best then find the best price regardless of points

ETA- I hope they put out fares like that for June too!’

 

[disny_luvr]

Does anyone know if SW is currently offering the ability to change to a more expensive flight for free? I’m not sure if I’m explaining myself correctly, but I know a few times during the last year people were booking cheaper flights and being offered the ability to change that flight to any flight for free.

TIA!

 

[dez1978]

Dumb question. I had flights to Orlando for 7 that I rebooked for cheaper a few times so I have 7 ppl that each have 75$ worth of credit. Can that only be used for the person for who the flight was for? Or since I paid for them and it’s on my sw acct, can it I use it for a flight for myself?

 

[DisneyZB]

This Southwest noob needs help. I just realized I have enough points for a round trip. Can I purchase one round trip ticket with points and another with cash in the same transaction?

 

[zemmer]

This Southwest noob needs help. I just realized I have enough points for a round trip. Can I purchase one round trip ticket with points and another with cash in the same transaction?

Yay for enough points!

No, but you can book one way for 2 people with points and the return one way with cash.

 

[zemmer]

Dumb question. I had flights to Orlando for 7 that I rebooked for cheaper a few times so I have 7 ppl that each have 75$ worth of credit. Can that only be used for the person for who the flight was for? Or since I paid for them and it’s on my sw acct, can it I use it for a flight for myself?

The credits can only be used by the person the flight was for, not the person who paid, unfortunately.

 

[DisneyZB]

Yay for enough points!

No, but you can book one way for 2 people with points and the return one way with cash.

Thanks, zemmer! That sounds like a plan. Just trying to keep things as simple as possible.

 

[Gitelfor]

Does anyone know if SW is currently offering the ability to change to a more expensive flight for free? I’m not sure if I’m explaining myself correctly, but I know a few times during the last year people were booking cheaper flights and being offered the ability to change that flight to any flight for free.

TIA!

You are referring to the red change banner that is visible when viewing your reservation on the app or gray banner when viewing on Southwest’s website. You can check to see if your reservation is affected by opening your reservation online, as if making a change. If there is no banner when viewing the details, the option to change your flight with no change in fare is not available for your itinerary. Check every day. You have three days from when the banner first appears to make a change. The new flight must be within 30 days of the original and show seats available, as well as have the same city pairs.

Southwest currently is allowing changes on June flights, thru a little more than mid-month.

 

[LadybugsMum]

Next set of schedule openings will be dropped on June 10 and will go through Jan 5.