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

[Craig Larson]

View attachment 946832do we think the x for changes on basic will mean no longer being able to rebook to get points back?

Wow, that is a crap move too. what the actual F. This may well be my last year booking with SW.

 

[eticketplease]

View attachment 946832do we think the x for changes on basic will mean no longer being able to rebook to get points back?

No the x's are all in the same place but they changed "wanna get away" to "basic" and now flight credits are expiring in only 6 months time but you should get points back like you do now.

 

[MarkNC2Disney]

Sad day they were our preferred airline, flying direct from RDU to MCO. This’ll change how we do things.

 

[eticketplease]

Another thing I just thought of.
Basic flights could really be screwed with the credits lasting 6 months from ticketing date.
If they haven't posted the new flight schedule you could be up the creek with no paddle...

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My loyalty to them is over between this and the change of seating I will be checking out other airlines.

As my husband said this morning "they are killing their brand" which I thought they had already started doing that when they said they were going to assigned seating.

All the posters and people out there that said "I'll book SWA now that they have seat selections"...it's like really? really? because generally speaking people fly with loyalty OR they fly with the lower price. Sure timing comes into play but so does the cost when you're comparing two or more airlines and if you're weren't flying SWA if the price difference is minimal are you really going to suddenly pick SWA when you've avoided them for years and years? I get it people think they'll fly SWA but that IMO was always someone saying they'll fly them once in a great while while sticking with the other carriers they've been flying all along. ***this is for the people who said they've long since stopped flying SWA but would start to fly them again with the seat selection being added.

SWA hasn't really been the lowest priced airline in a while (outside of Spirit and Frontier the budget airlines) and now you've got to factor in a convoluted baggage fee and fare class meaning. The loyalty to SWA was a main reasoning why many people were sticking with them when they are comparable in price to other airlines.

 

[han22735]

Its also going to drastically increase the amount of carryon's...that will be the next thing they start charging for.

 

[mlayman7]

I saw this and immediately looked at the calendar to see if I missed a couple weeks in March and it was somehow April 1st.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Its also going to drastically increase the amount of carryon's...that will be the next thing they start charging for.

It's possible the former WGA would not get one included but could pay for it but others would include it IF they are mimicking other airlines

I'm wondering how they will handle it if say someone is A-list and a CC holder. Does that cap out at 1 checked bag included or would they get 2 (1 per qualifying metric). My gut says it would cap out at 1 but who knows.

One of the things I'm most worried about, especially with the readjustment of flight credits, is will they unbundled the perks that transfer for A-lists on the same reservation. And what does that mean for those on the reservation? For example at least as far as I know this is still the case but we have a Delta Skymiles CC (we hardly use Delta and the CC but yeah). With that comes 1 checked bag up to I think 8 or 9 people on the same reservation. That's excessive to me IMO as far as how many people on a reservation it counts for unless they've already reduced it but will SWA do something similar is my question.

 

[eticketplease]

As my husband said this morning "they are killing their brand" which I thought they had already started doing that when they said they were going to assigned seating.

All the posters and people out there that said "I'll book SWA now that they have seat selections"...it's like really? really? because generally speaking people fly with loyalty OR they fly with the lower price. Sure timing comes into play but so does the cost when you're comparing two or more airlines and if you're weren't flying SWA if the price difference is minimal are you really going to suddenly pick SWA when you've avoided them for years and years? I get it people think they'll fly SWA but that IMO was always someone saying they'll fly them once in a great while while sticking with the other carriers they've been flying all along. ***this is for the people who said they've long since stopped flying SWA but would start to fly them again with the seat selection being added.

SWA hasn't really been the lowest priced airline in a while (outside of Spirit and Frontier the budget airlines) and now you've got to factor in a convoluted baggage fee and fare class meaning. The loyalty to SWA was a main reasoning why many people were sticking with them when they are comparable in price to other airlines.

I'm in in the minority here.

I have no loyalty really for SouthWest and their prices are higher for us.

I fly with them for the convenience factor. They are the only airline that flies non stop routes to MCO from my area and they have a good number of those non stop flights which helps with scheduling.

Not having to worry about tacking on bag fees was nice as well but for me I'm already paying a premium so that I can go direct which is actually a tremendous value when accommodating my DS.

 

[han22735]

I'm in in the minority here.

I have no loyalty really for SouthWest and their prices are higher for us.

I fly with them for the convenience factor. They are the only airline that flies non stop routes to MCO from my area and they have a good number of those non stop flights which helps with scheduling.

Not having to worry about tacking on bag fees was nice as well but for me I'm already paying a premium so that I can go direct which is actually a tremendous value when accommodating my DS.

This is us as well....no loyalty but used for convenience. We fly out of PVD and SW generally has the most direct flights to MCO at the times we want...so this does suck but we prob wont stop flying them.

It's possible the former WGA would not get one included but could pay for it but others would include it IF they are mimicking other airlines

I'm wondering how they will handle it if say someone is A-list and a CC holder. Does that cap out at 1 checked bag included or would they get 2 (1 per qualifying metric). My gut says it would cap out at 1 but who knows.

One of the things I'm most worried about, especially with the readjustment of flight credits, is will they unbundled the perks that transfer for A-lists on the same reservation. And what does that mean for those on the reservation? For example at least as far as I know this is still the case but we have a Delta Skymiles CC (we hardly use Delta and the CC but yeah). With that comes 1 checked bag up to I think 8 or 9 people on the same reservation. That's excessive to me IMO as far as how many people on a reservation it counts for unless they've already reduced it but will SWA do something similar is my question.

What if I have 2 southwest CC's. Do I get 2 bags free?? LOL

 

[pens4821]

I'm in in the minority here.

I have no loyalty really for SouthWest and their prices are higher for us.

I fly with them for the convenience factor. They are the only airline that flies non stop routes to MCO from my area and they have a good number of those non stop flights which helps with scheduling.

Not having to worry about tacking on bag fees was nice as well but for me I'm already paying a premium so that I can go direct which is actually a tremendous value when accommodating my DS.

I also am in the minority. I like southwest but would pay more to be able to pick my seat. Not a lot more but if all things were equal and another airline was under 100 more I’d pay to make sure I’m sitting by my family. The checked bags never factored into my decision.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

To speak to my comment here for those that do it for convenience I think you still fit into the category of the occasional traveler, the once in a while traveler especially if it's primarily you're flying them for a specific route that they service in a way you want. While we primarily fly SWA we would fly another carrier if they serviced a route the way we needed (it isn't often that it happens that way though). Prior to SWA going to Hawaii we flew Delta because that's one of the only airlines that made sense, we flew to St. Lucia on Delta because again one of the only airlines that made sense.

What I was talking about is the people who hailed the seat assignment as something that would lure them back to SWA after they've long since dropped them. That's also why I said generally speaking it's loyalty or price. With SWA not being the lower priced airline anymore you'd be paying even more than a Legacy carrier in some cases. I mean at my home airport Delta is the most comparable and now with SWA I'd be paying for seat selection, now baggage fees, etc so why would I choose SWA over Delta unless I had the loyalty with SWA...see where I'm going there? Of course like I said timing of the flight (I'll expand that to mean non-stop vs stops) matters but again I'm speaking to the people who left SWA and haven't looked back who flipped their scripts when SWA announced seat selection was coming. I seriously doubted that alone would make someone go back to flying them and with enough regularity.

I know this is a Disney board and many are thinking about flying in and out of Orlando but there are also many other places to go so if you flew a particular airline for a particular specific route but flew other airlines for your primary flying you're that occasional traveler who I'm not speaking about.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Just a mention if you look for flights they haven't updated their systems to reflect the Basic instead of WGA

 

[focusondisney]

Its also going to drastically increase the amount of carryon's...that will be the next thing they start charging for.

Well, guess this explains why they’ve been making a big deal about the size & amount of carry ons people have been bringing. Starting to get customers used to the new enforcement.

 

[Mr_Woodchuck]

Just a mention if you look for flights they haven't updated their systems to reflect the Basic instead of WGA

The announcement said it would go into effect May 28th.

 

[eticketplease]

I don't understand why they are changing the branding of WGA to Basic.

Every carrier it seems has a "basic" but only SW had WGA so is this just to be like all other carriers?

With changing it to basic why not drop the + from WGA+ to just WGA as there is nothing to plus up for WGA as they no longer exist.

 

[Craig Larson]

This is us as well....no loyalty but used for convenience. We fly out of PVD and SW generally has the most direct flights to MCO at the times we want...so this does suck but we prob wont stop flying them.

I fly out of PVD and there is Breeze and JetBlue who have direct flights. Pricing has been similar between JB and SW once bags are accounted for. Breeze is slightly lower. Once we have to pay for seating to ensure we sit together and baggage there will be no reason to book with SW unless they slash the base fare, which I don't see happening

 

[Wendysofftoneverland]

The announcement said it would go into effect May 28th.

For ticket purchases or flights? If I purchase tickets now for flights in September, is it the old rules or the new, regarding checked bags and flight credits?

 

[eticketplease]

For ticket purchases or flights? If I purchase tickets now for flights in September, is it the old rules or the new, regarding checked bags and flight credits?

Old rules as long as purchase is before May 28th

 

[Craig Larson]

For ticket purchases or flights? If I purchase tickets now for flights in September, is it the old rules or the new, regarding checked bags and flight credits?

Purchases after May 28.