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

[ngchiro]

Yes, and as a side note companion pass is not near as valuable to me. SW is not competitive right now so the last 3 flights I've found better use of other carriers even factoring in Companion savings for DW

 

[Gitelfor]

With all of Southwest's continuing schedule changes, Southwest set up a page addressing changes to a reservation. What stands out is the policy if the customer wishes to cancel a WGA ticket not booked with points.

If you decide not to travel, our normal cancellation policy applies.

• Business Select/Anytime tickets are refundable. You can choose to either a) receive a method-of-payment refund or b) hold the value of the ticket as a travel fund that you can use to buy a future flight. Learn more about refunds.
• Wanna Get Away tickets are non-refundable. The value of the ticket will be converted to a travel fund that you can use to buy a future flight.

FAQ for Southwest schedule changes impacting reservations

When trying to DM Southwest on social media, the following automated message appears as a reply:

Hi! Thanks for contacting us. Due to the increase in travel, we’re receiving a lot of Customer questions on social media. So it might take us several hours to respond to you, and we might not be able to get to everyone who reaches out. Hang in there with us—thanks for your patience! Do you have a question about Southwest rebooking your flight? We’re sincerely sorry if your travel plans have been impacted. Learn about involuntarily flight changes here: https://swa.is/ScheduleChange (This is an automated message.)

 

[MMSM]

With all of Southwest's continuing schedule changes, Southwest set up a page addressing changes to a reservation. What stands out is the policy if the customer wishes to cancel a WGA ticket not booked with points.

FAQ for Southwest schedule changes impacting reservations

When trying to DM Southwest on social media, the following automated message appears as a reply:

However the points would return if booked with points?

 

[jcarwash]

However the points would return if booked with points?

Yes, you get your points back if you cancel.

 

[MMSM]

That seems crazy. They could change your flight to the next day and they are saying “too bad so sad” if you paid with credit (not points).

 

[Tink3815]

Travelling on points is better. Right now you can buy points at a discount of up to 65% off.

 

[Leigh L]

With all of Southwest's continuing schedule changes, Southwest set up a page addressing changes to a reservation. What stands out is the policy if the customer wishes to cancel a WGA ticket not booked with points.

FAQ for Southwest schedule changes impacting reservations

When trying to DM Southwest on social media, the following automated message appears as a reply:

Looks like they;ve modified their message from 7/26

I sent a DM on twitter to Southwest last week as we had a next day flight with an issue needing to be resolved with precheck. They took about 4 hours to respond and fixed the issue quickly. So same response time as sitting on hold at that time.

 

[ArtistLost]

Travelling on points is better. Right now you can buy points at a discount of up to 65% off.

I'm pretty new to using Southwest points. How do you buy them at this discount?

 

[Gitelfor]

Looks like they;ve modified their message from 7/26

I sent a DM on twitter to Southwest last week as we had a next day flight with an issue needing to be resolved with precheck. They took about 4 hours to respond and fixed the issue quickly. So same response time as sitting on hold at that time.

I am still waiting for a response to a DM sent 20 hours ago. Their online system wll not allow me to modify a reservation that they changed, leaving the first leg completely missing.

 

[zemmer]

I had no luck getting a Twitter or FB dm answered. I finally found that if I repeatedly went in and out of chat (FP refresh skills getting a good practice) that after a few tries I was connected or in the que. The chat was always able to resolve my problem.

 

[bsmcneil]

I'm pretty new to using Southwest points. How do you buy them at this discount?

Try https://www.southwest.com/account/rapidrewards/points/buy-points?clk=6185041&cbid=6185041&int= (I had to log-in)

 

[bsmcneil]

For the 65%, I do wonder - do you all recommend doing this?

Here's a little bit of my situation - I live in the MW but family is all east coast and friends all over except the MW, lol. I've done SW for a while and this year signed up for the card to get the 30K, and CP and something else, I think. Between Covid and traveling, I have a fair amount of travel funds available (which will likely go even higher as I think I'm cancelling 2 trips this fall) and I have about 47K miles. The CP expires 2/28/22 (I'm hoping I can take my 2 boys to WDW before then) and it's me as one adult with 2 kids (usually if I travel, especially with Covid, I go alone - but we're getting to the place where we can all travel more).

Anyway - part of me thinks it might be good to buy some of the miles and just have them to play with whenever I need them (I'd probably buy the least amount to get 65% off) - 412.50 for 24,750 (and I have 47,270 and am earning some each month using Marathon gas as well as the RR Priority Visa, though mostly I earn points with my Chase Freedom card). Also, if I recall correctly, purchased points don't count towards A-List or the next Companion Pass, is that correct?

My A-list progress is: 16,392 out of 35,000 points; and 70,714 out of 125,000 points towards extending the companion pass.

lol - and feel free to ignore this as it's clearly not WDW specific.

 

[CouponGirl]

For the 65%, I do wonder - do you all recommend doing this?

Here's a little bit of my situation - I live in the MW but family is all east coast and friends all over except the MW, lol. I've done SW for a while and this year signed up for the card to get the 30K, and CP and something else, I think. Between Covid and traveling, I have a fair amount of travel funds available (which will likely go even higher as I think I'm cancelling 2 trips this fall) and I have about 47K miles. The CP expires 2/28/22 (I'm hoping I can take my 2 boys to WDW before then) and it's me as one adult with 2 kids (usually if I travel, especially with Covid, I go alone - but we're getting to the place where we can all travel more).

Anyway - part of me thinks it might be good to buy some of the miles and just have them to play with whenever I need them (I'd probably buy the least amount to get 65% off) - 412.50 for 24,750 (and I have 47,270 and am earning some each month using Marathon gas as well as the RR Priority Visa, though mostly I earn points with my Chase Freedom card). Also, if I recall correctly, purchased points don't count towards A-List or the next Companion Pass, is that correct?

My A-list progress is: 16,392 out of 35,000 points; and 70,714 out of 125,000 points towards extending the companion pass.

lol - and feel free to ignore this as it's clearly not WDW specific.

I’m sure someone else would have some additional thoughts, but I’m not sure in your situation why you would spend on the points? It’s my understanding your travel funds will expire in a year, so you would want to use those up before you lose their value. And you already have points saved up as well (you can check out how many points are needed for your particular destinations). FWIW, they frequently have sales on points so this isn’t a get it now or never be able to get this deal again situation.

 

[vetrik]

I really believe this is due to shortage in staff. I hope December all is good. With Sept 6th coming soon, maybe they cancelled some October flights because they wanted to make sure enough people were back and trained.

I'm also keeping my fingers crossed for no changes to December, although I'm nervous! My friend and I are going on a short girls' trip and we were booked on Jet Blue. I check our flights frequently, and noticed today (with no email or notice) that our PVD to MCO flights were changed to times that basically made us lose 2 full days of our 5 day trip (Monday flight to Orlando changed from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm, and Friday return changed from 8:00 pm to 1:34 pm). Apparently those are now the only flights each day, so there were no other time options to change to. We rebooked with Southwest at good times (higher priced, but I was able to use points to make it equivalent to what we paid for Jet Blue months ago), but I really hope they aren't cancelled or changed!

 

[Gitelfor]

In a continuing saga, a Southwest CSR just told me the reason why the first leg of my connecting flight itinerary was missing, was that they had not yet completed ticketing on the reservation they changed (emailed change showed the complete itinerary, including the first leg, with a ten minute later departure, than the original; my account shows only 2nd leg). Then I was told the reason ticketing was not yet completed was that the originating flight that they moved me to was non-existent. She said they are working on alternate flights, and I have the option to change the flight(s)/travel date to within 14 days of original departure date. I also was advised that the one-time change can be made up to 10 minutes of scheduled departure. Apparently, though the banner may disappear after three days of the email notice, you can opt for the no fare change up till departure date. Even if you are changing a WGA ticket, they will rebook you on a flight only showing BS availability and just move that BS seat over to WGA inventory.

 

[EACarlson]

That seems crazy. They could change your flight to the next day and they are saying “too bad so sad” if you paid with credit (not points).

That policy only applies to customer initiated cancellations. Per DOT regulations, if there is a "significant" change in your scheduled flights or an addition of a stop they are required to offer a full refund back to the original form of payment.

 

[Lsdolphin]

I’m trying to figure out if current points offer is worth doing....someone recently posted current value of points but I can’t find that post now....

 

[MarBee]

I’m trying to figure out if current points offer is worth doing....someone recently posted current value of points but I can’t find that post now....

As a general rule, buying points is only a good idea if you need a few points extra to book a reservation.
Pick a flight that you would potentially fly in the future. How many points does it cost versus how much would you pay in cash? Then calculate how much it would cost to buy the points for that reservation. Every time I’ve ever done this, it was always more to buy the points than to pay with cash, even when there were sales. YMMV but it’s never worked out mathematically for me.

 

[Gitelfor]

I’m trying to figure out if current points offer is worth doing....someone recently posted current value of points but I can’t find that post now....

The cash value is about 1.4 cents per point.

 

[belle032]

In a continuing saga, a Southwest CSR just told me the reason why the first leg of my connecting flight itinerary was missing, was that they had not yet completed ticketing on the reservation they changed (emailed change showed the complete itinerary, including the first leg, with a ten minute later departure, than the original; my account shows only 2nd leg). Then I was told the reason ticketing was not yet completed was that the originating flight that they moved me to was non-existent. She said they are working on alternate flights, and I have the option to change the flight(s)/travel date to within 14 days of original departure date. I also was advised that the one-time change can be made up to 10 minutes of scheduled departure. Apparently, though the banner may disappear after three days of the email notice, you can opt for the no fare change up till departure date. Even if you are changing a WGA ticket, they will rebook you on a flight only showing BS availability and just move that BS seat over to WGA inventory.

This sounds like what happened to us - our flight changed and had both legs of our flight overlapping. When I called (CSR was laughing), she basically said the same thing. They hadn't finished completing all the flight changes so we were on the first leg of one flight and the second leg of another. I almost recommend calling instead of trying to use social media to contact them right now. I finally called after no answer on FB Messenger and I only waited about 15 minutes. You can have them call you back once it's your turn in line.

And after all that I ended up cancelling our flights (SW & Delta) and rebooking for an airport closer to home after I saw the SW price drop. Paid a bit more on Delta, but it evens out.

Bottom line: airlines are a bit of a mess. Check your flights often!