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

This is all so confusing! I had a flight in Oct I booked in April, flight was canceled they never let me know that it was canceled just happened to go on the web site and saw it was canceled. Note on flight said I can rebook 2 times up to 14 days before flight with no extra cost or cancel for full refund. I added another day to my vacation! Now I am wondering if that means I have to pay for baggage?!?!
Probably. When your flight was cancelled, did they rebook you onto another flight? If they did, that would have been an involuntary change and your bags would have still been free. Since you made a voluntary change and extended the trip, I believe you accepted the new terms and will be charged baggage fees.
 
Was going to book flights on SW (haven’t flown them in over a year), and I was wondering how I get free bags for myself and family as a CC holder. Do I have to somehow link my CC to my RR account? Or is this a process where I pay for the bags with my CC, and then my card is refunded after the fact?

I should add that this is for July/August of this year, if that matters.
 
Was going to book flights on SW (haven’t flown them in over a year), and I was wondering how I get free bags for myself and family as a CC holder. Do I have to somehow link my CC to my RR account? Or is this a process where I pay for the bags with my CC, and then my card is refunded after the fact?

I should add that this is for July/August of this year, if that matters.
3 word Google Search: (Southwest Bag Policy)
https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/article/policy-changes
 
Was going to book flights on SW (haven’t flown them in over a year), and I was wondering how I get free bags for myself and family as a CC holder. Do I have to somehow link my CC to my RR account? Or is this a process where I pay for the bags with my CC, and then my card is refunded after the fact?

I should add that this is for July/August of this year, if that matters.
The current system is that SW now acts the same as every other major airline. The CC is noted in your profile, automatically, and the fee is waived.
The original statement when this was first announced was that SW was going to charge the card and they you'd get a credit for that amount. That is no longer the plan.
 

Question, currently, if you book a SW flight, you have to pay for EBCI and a bag if you want to check one? So, an additional $70 per person each way. Will be interesting to see how this will effect SW now that the 5/28 free bags deadline has passed. I know I won't, in all likelihood, be flying them with an additional charge of $140 per ticket RT if I want to board in A or B group and decide to check a bag. From my area, their flights were never a real bargain to begin with, they sometimes had better times and with the free bags, it was a good choice. But I have discovered other airlines have lower fees and not so bad flight times, too! I was a SW or JB person, now I am booking Delta, though JB is a contender. Still won't go near Spirit or Frontier.
 
The current system is that SW now acts the same as every other major airline. The CC is noted in your profile, automatically, and the fee is waived.
The original statement when this was first announced was that SW was going to charge the card and they you'd get a credit for that amount. That is no longer the plan.
Thanks so much! The conflicting info out there is confusing to say the least. I have a good amount of points I want to use up ASAP but wanted to make sure I was going to be able to book the reservation properly to get the free checked bags.
Thanks again!
 
Question, currently, if you book a SW flight, you have to pay for EBCI and a bag if you want to check one? So, an additional $70 per person each way. Will be interesting to see how this will affect SW now that the 5/28 free bags deadline has passed. I know I won't, in all likelihood, be flying them with an additional charge of $140 per ticket RT if I want to board in A or B group and decide to check a bag. From my area, their flights were never a real bargain to begin with, they sometimes had better times and with the free bags, it was a good choice. But I have discovered other airlines have lower fees and not so bad flight times, too! I was a SW or JB person, now I am booking Delta, though JB is a contender. Still won't go near Spirit or Frontier.
I miss the “good ole days” of SW with tons of flight options at super affordable fares with free bags. Sigh.
JB doesn’t offer much from my home airport, but I’ve been cautiously optimistic with flying frontier.
 
Question, currently, if you book a SW flight, you have to pay for EBCI and a bag if you want to check one? So, an additional $70 per person each way. Will be interesting to see how this will effect SW now that the 5/28 free bags deadline has passed. I know I won't, in all likelihood, be flying them with an additional charge of $140 per ticket RT if I want to board in A or B group and decide to check a bag. From my area, their flights were never a real bargain to begin with, they sometimes had better times and with the free bags, it was a good choice. But I have discovered other airlines have lower fees and not so bad flight times, too! I was a SW or JB person, now I am booking Delta, though JB is a contender. Still won't go near Spirit or Frontier.
I agree...

Sadly, our local airport has many options (DL, AA, UA, SW, Frontier, and Allegiant) but unfortunately, the competition still does nothing to keep the prices "reasonable" to MCO. Frontier is the only one with regular non-stop service to MCO and Allegiant goes to Sanford, but the prices are still over $250 R/T for their "bare-bones" fares. Southwest's latest release has more non-stop options for the first time in many years, but they are $400+ R/T for the basic WGA fare which includes no bags or EBCI. If you start comparing apples to apples and look at the one-stop options between SW, DL, AA, and UA, the prices are still $400+ and none of those include baggage. In my case, I need an aisle seat in the front half of the plane due to flight anxiety so I also need to factor in the cost of seat selection which adds another $50-$100 ticket, depending on the airline.

I have the SW Visa but I recently switched to the Capital One Venture card. Of course, that was just before SW announced their baggage fee policy change. I still have enough SW points to cover a one-way flight which always factors in to my choice in airlines. For my trip next year, I will probably be using SW to fly one way (on points) and another airline for the other leg (on Cap One points). It will all come down to the best price/schedule combination, which is how it should be. For the past 5-7 years, that has always been SWA....but I don't think that will be the case going forward.
 
We always booked the Wanna Get Away fare before the May 28 changes. Looking at the fare details for Basic, it says you can cancel (flight credit good for 6 months) but you can't change, which I interpret to mean as you can't rebook if you booked this fare and your flight price dropped. Couldn't you cancel, receive the expiring credit, and rebook? I know there's risk involved there that the flight price could change but we've done that before with jetBlue. Terms and conditions say Basic can "upgrade the fare to Wanna Get Away Plus®, Anytime, or Business Select®." which would essentially extend the flight credit for the price of the fare difference. I'm just wondering aside from the 6 month credit expiry if there's a reason we shouldn't book Basic? We've never purchased any of the boarding options in the past.
 
We always booked the Wanna Get Away fare before the May 28 changes. Looking at the fare details for Basic, it says you can cancel (flight credit good for 6 months) but you can't change, which I interpret to mean as you can't rebook if you booked this fare and your flight price dropped. Couldn't you cancel, receive the expiring credit, and rebook? I know there's risk involved there that the flight price could change but we've done that before with jetBlue. Terms and conditions say Basic can "upgrade the fare to Wanna Get Away Plus®, Anytime, or Business Select®." which would essentially extend the flight credit for the price of the fare difference. I'm just wondering aside from the 6 month credit expiry if there's a reason we shouldn't book Basic? We've never purchased any of the boarding options in the past.
Yes, I think. The SW agent (bot?) told me that I can't just "roll over" to the new fare like I used to, that I have to fully cancel the flight and then rebook it, can't just change it. Still... not sure it'll work. I just tried making a dummy reservation and this popped up: "
1749767142797.png

I don't trust SW anymore.
 
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I'm looking at a flight on SW (PWM-MSY) that has a 50 minute layover in Nashville. No clue where the SW gates are and such. Is 50 minutes enough time to make the connection?
 
Yes, I think. The SW agent (bot?) told me that I can't just "roll over" to the new fare like I used to, that I have to fully cancel the flight and then rebook it, can't just change it. Still... not sure it'll work. I just tried making a dummy reservation and this popped up: "
View attachment 973440

I don't trust SW anymore.
Oh wow, that “may be eligible for a flight credit” verbiage is very disconcerting…
 
I have two flights booked before 5/28 that are now lower in price. I booked Business Select for the boarding position and the wi-fi. Am I correct that there's no disadvantage to modifying in my situation?
 
We always booked the Wanna Get Away fare before the May 28 changes. Looking at the fare details for Basic, it says you can cancel (flight credit good for 6 months) but you can't change, which I interpret to mean as you can't rebook if you booked this fare and your flight price dropped. Couldn't you cancel, receive the expiring credit, and rebook? I know there's risk involved there that the flight price could change but we've done that before with jetBlue. Terms and conditions say Basic can "upgrade the fare to Wanna Get Away Plus®, Anytime, or Business Select®." which would essentially extend the flight credit for the price of the fare difference. I'm just wondering aside from the 6 month credit expiry if there's a reason we shouldn't book Basic? We've never purchased any of the boarding options in the past.
Current belief is that once you book a basic ticket, you can't extend the credits any way, upgrading the fare, would still leave you with the six month expiration. I haven't seen anyone that has tested it yet.
I have two flights booked before 5/28 that are now lower in price. I booked Business Select for the boarding position and the wi-fi. Am I correct that there's no disadvantage to modifying in my situation?
The only downside I see is that the credit you get for modifying will have an expiration date.

Oh wow, that “may be eligible for a flight credit” verbiage is very disconcerting…
If you book a basic flight more than six months out, and subsequently cancel close to travel date, you may not be eligible for any flight credit as the credit would have already expired.
 
If you book a basic flight more than six months out, and subsequently cancel close to travel date, you may not be eligible for any flight credit as the credit would have already expired.

I'm glad I realized this last night as we're booking for December. We decided to book one-way Wanna Get Away+ fares to use our reaming flight credits (about 80% of the total cost) and then used points to book the Basic fair for our return flight. I don't think Southwest will get any more of our $$.
 














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