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

[disneyjr77]

You can book outbound flight separately from return. I would watch for fare reductions. Southwest usually announces fare sales on Tuesdays, so look for sales. If you have enough points to book your daughter’s friend’s flights, I would book with points. That will guarantee that there will be no loss, if the friend does not make the trip, with the points being returned to their account and taxes being refunded to original form of payment. If everyone in your traveling party will have EBCI and the flights are booked separately (as you need to book paid flights separately from points bookings), but you book the paid flights immediately after/before the points bookings, your boarding numbers should be consecutive or very close to each other.

Thank you! I was hoping this would be the case

 

[mickeynut1]

How are you all feeling about the safety of flying, ie Covid concerns? Hubby wants to take a trip to Disney in a few weeks. My only reservation is flying, in a confined space, with others.

I have no reservations about it, but I agree with scrappinginontario that it really is a personal decision. DH & I just returned from Vegas and while it looked like the plane was pretty close to full, there were quite a few middle seats empty (we were one of the lucky ones having the middle seat empty going out as well as coming back). This was our 3rd time flying since Sept and things were fine, but everyone has different comfort levels. Good luck with your decision.

 

[LadybugsMum]

How are you all feeling about the safety of flying, ie Covid concerns? Hubby wants to take a trip to Disney in a few weeks. My only reservation is flying, in a confined space, with others.

I've decided to cancel our flights for the first week of Jan. With the planes being packed now, I just don't feel comfortable flying. Delta is still keeping the middles empty, but the direct flight from RDU to MCO has a small plane and all of us couldn't be on the same row (single parent to small kids, so not comfortable being split up). I did get tickets for our April trip and hope that the "illness" (nod to Pete W) numbers are going down so we can fly then.

 

[EACarlson]

How are you all feeling about the safety of flying, ie Covid concerns? Hubby wants to take a trip to Disney in a few weeks. My only reservation is flying, in a confined space, with others.

I'm feeling ok about it. I've been much more concerned about the places I'm going to than I was the plane to get there. SW has been very proactive about making sure everyone is masked. On my October MCO-MDW they woke up the guy in front of me three times to tell him to put his mask on correctly. I might be hesitant if it was going to be a full plane and my group wasn't going to take up the full row. I've flown twice, once to MCO in October and to DEN in November. My wife is going to WDW in February.

 

[FCDub]

DD's bestie is probably coming with us in August (depending on grades and all that fun stuff). We are going to use cash and points to pay for our flights. Currently, only our arrival day is available for booking and i don't know when our departure day will open, aug 20. What is the best way to book the flights? I'm 99.9% sure her friend will be able to go but just in case she can't, will we be able to cancel? I want to book them all at the same time because we get early bird. Thanks!

You will want to book the friend alone on points in case you have to cancel. If you pay cash for the friend's ticket, only that name will be able to use the travel credit if there's a cancellation. Points don't depend on the name and instead just go back into YOUR account.

 

[teawar]

We just flew back today, Christmas Eve on the 5:35pm flight from MCO to BHM. The plane was completely full and due to turbulence, water and snacks were not served (which was fine by me). Mask compliance was good and TSA only took 5 minutes.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Are planes filling up at this time? I was hoping travel would drop off after holiday...we are supposed to be flying BWI to MCO end of February but if planes are full and it does appear that SWA is significantly reducing flights, we will cancel. I’m not flying with someone I don’t know sitting in the middle seat!

 

[teawar]

My family flies out of Birmingham and SWA has greatly reduced the number of flights, especially direct flights. I feel that has lead to the increase of people on the plane because flights have been condensed together. They obviously canceled some of the flights due to lack of passengers booked.

 

[AngieInOH]

Are planes filling up at this time? I was hoping travel would drop off after holiday...we are supposed to be flying BWI to MCO end of February but if planes are full and it does appear that SWA is significantly reducing flights, we will cancel. I’m not flying with someone I don’t know sitting in the middle seat!

I was asking about the covid situation a few posts back. Seems SW is filling planes if they can. I wouldn't count on an empty seat. For this very reason we are booking with Delta. SW has always been my airline of choice but I can't go with them this time. Delta is keeping open middle seats through March.

 

[EACarlson]

Delta is keeping open middle seats through March.

Not quite true, it depends on what the airplane configuration is. On widebody aircraft, Delta is blocking the two seats in the middle of the center section but nothing on the sides. On RJ aircraft, they are blocking the B seats but nothing on the C/D side.

 

[jkelly86]

We flew (as a party of 3) on 12/23 and 12/30 between BWI and TPA and TPA and MDW. On both dates, the middle seats were almost completely filled. What's more, the BWI and MDW airports were packed with people. Social distancing was not possible. We did receive an e-mail from SWA before our flights warning us that the middles seats would be filled (specifically on those flights) and offering us an opportunity to change to less full flights within 3 days of our booking.

 

[Lsdolphin]

We flew (as a party of 3) on 12/23 and 12/30 between BWI and TPA and TPA and MDW. On both dates, the middle seats were almost completely filled. What's more, the BWI and MDW airports were packed with people. Social distancing was not possible. We did receive an e-mail from SWA before our flights warning us that the middles seats would be filled (specifically on those flights) and offering us an opportunity to change to less full flights within 3 days of our booking.

Well even if they say there will be some empty middle seats that doesn’t mean there will be an empty middle seat next to you as people can sit wherever they want....

 

[Ninjagrrl]

Quick question that hopefully some savvy SW flyers know the answer to.

I have a flight booked that I want to change to a different flight that is more expensive.

I have like 5 or 6 travel funds of smaller amounts that all together, would cover the change cost, but they only let you use 2 at a time.

If I book a cheap flight using these funds and then cancel the flight, do the funds get all lumped together into one new travel fund? That I could then use to cover the cost difference on the flight I want to change. I really don't want to pay out of pocket when I have these funds sitting here that are due to expire in May.

 

[npatellye]

Quick question that hopefully some savvy SW flyers know the answer to.

I have a flight booked that I want to change to a different flight that is more expensive.

I have like 5 or 6 travel funds of smaller amounts that all together, would cover the change cost, but they only let you use 2 at a time.

If I book a cheap flight using these funds and then cancel the flight, do the funds get all lumped together into one new travel fund? That I could then use to cover the cost difference on the flight I want to change. I really don't want to pay out of pocket when I have these funds sitting here that are due to expire in May.

Yes, they do.

 

[Gitelfor]

Quick question that hopefully some savvy SW flyers know the answer to.

I have a flight booked that I want to change to a different flight that is more expensive.

I have like 5 or 6 travel funds of smaller amounts that all together, would cover the change cost, but they only let you use 2 at a time.

If I book a cheap flight using these funds and then cancel the flight, do the funds get all lumped together into one new travel fund? That I could then use to cover the cost difference on the flight I want to change. I really don't want to pay out of pocket when I have these funds sitting here that are due to expire in May.

You can book and cancel to consolidate travel funds, but in case you are not aware, all funds combined will always inherit the expiration date of the oldest fund with which they are combined.

 

[Ninjagrrl]

You can book and cancel to consolidate travel funds, but in case you are not aware, all funds combined will always inherit the expiration date of the oldest fund with which they are combined.

Good to know. The earliest expiration is May and these are for a March flight, so it will still work.

 

[Gary2T]

Looks like some price drops today. Rebooked my July PHL-MCO trip and got back 768 points on my flight to Orlando and 6 points on my flight back to Philly. Family of 4, so 3,096 points returned to my account. Both were originally booked on schedule release day.

 

[Ninjagrrl]

And my March PHL- MCO went up $65 in the hour or so I originally posted here today.

 

[Gitelfor]

For those who have recently flown Southwest (since all seats are available for purchase and middle seats no longer blocked), how has mask compliance been? Are the FAs making sure that passengers are correctly masked, when not actively eating or drinking?

I have seen photos and complaints on social media of unmasked/improperly masked passengers on Southwest flights. Of course, isolated incidents can happen, but I am wondering if anyone has personally experienced any episodes.

Also, has disembarking been organized, or has it been the same mass exiting, as pre-COVID?

 

[Lsdolphin]

On flight from MCO to BWI on 12/9 the young man seated directly in front of me prob around 16 yrs had his mask off the entire flight neither his mother or the FA told him to put mask on. He was leaning over to watch a movie with a sibling for most of the flight and I did feel he was uncomfortably close I spent entire time keeping my head as close to the window as possible. Also, Prior to the flight there was a man sitting in gate area who was not wearing a mask for at least an hour prior to boarding the plane he did wear mask to get on plane.

There was no social distancing durning disembarking.