# Has anyone ever traveled on Southwest Airlines?



## RALnGA (May 14, 2014)

I Just book flights on Southwestern Airlines to Nassau in October for $235 round trip from Atlanta GA.This price is the cheapest I have even seen,hopefully I didn't make a bad choice.We have flown Airtran before to the Atlantis but Southwesten bought out Airtran last year.
  I'd like to hear any comments anyone has about Southwestern.One thing I have found out is they don't assign seats,it's like the first one that sits in a seat it's theirs. 

Thanks 
RALnGA


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## Weimaraner (May 14, 2014)

Southwest Air started flying out of our local airport and I was a little apprehensive about the lack of assigned seats. I used the Early Bird option so we could get the A category since .i was travelling with my daughter. I have to say I love this airline. We lined up in order like in elementary school by number and we had excellent seat choices. No charge for our luggage. I have rescheduled flights easily. I cancelled a flight, no problem...I now have a credit. If you really need to have first choice of seats, pay the fee for early bird. Others say they do online checking without it successfully. Enjoy your trip!


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## capjak (May 14, 2014)

SW Air is a great customer service oriented airline you made a great decision. FYI, you can pay extra to be in an earlier group to get to the front of the line, no assigned seats is not an issue and your checked bags are included


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## DavidnRobin (May 14, 2014)

SWA is a great airline.  Make sure you check-in 24 hrs (on-line) in advance and you will have no seat issue (about 1/3 full at that point) - that is if you do not want to pay for early boarding.
We flew SWA to New Orleans a couple of weeks ago - and it was great trip even with a stop on the way there and back.


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## ferndale (May 14, 2014)

Southwest is the airline with the best on time and non cancellation record.  We fly them a lot from arkansas to texas or for other short trips.  Definitely check in right at 24 hours in advance, and then enjoy your trip.  The flight attendants are generally friendly and fun (we have had a few flights where they had made the safety briefing into a funny song, and the lead flight attendant sang us the briefing)!  Bring your own snacks - that is not their forte!


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## pedro47 (May 14, 2014)

I agree SW is an outstanding airline.  Large seats, great service by all staff and two bags fly free.


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## simpsontruckdriver (May 14, 2014)

The only "downside"... no free TV or satellite radio (like JetBlue). Yep, I am biased!

TS


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## momeason (May 14, 2014)

pedro47 said:


> I agree SW is an outstanding airline.  Large seats, great service by all staff and two bags fly free.



We fly them often. The service is good and love the free baggage allowance. I also love their policy to change your flights with no fees. You can even cancel and get a credit to be used within a year. We often drive 3 hours to get to the SW hub because the prices are usually better than Delta and US Air that are 45 minutes away.


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## DavidnRobin (May 14, 2014)

simpsontruckdriver said:


> The only "downside"... no free TV or satellite radio (like JetBlue). Yep, I am biased!
> 
> TS



I had TV on my last SWA flights - watched the Giants game on MLB.
Don't know about satellite radio - I already have tons of music on my iObjects.


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## artringwald (May 14, 2014)

We had non-refundable tickets and had to cancel our flight. SW gives you full credit that you can use for up to a year for the same travelers. I wish all airlines had policies like that.


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## vacationhopeful (May 14, 2014)

Ahhhh ... my last flight on SWA ...

SWA booking with actual flight on AirTran with a change in ATL. Let me say, it was NOT FUN. Mechanical issue (minor with a 20-25 delay after we pushed back from the gate at originating airport). The other 6+ flights with passengers on our delay flight MADE their ATL connections; not me and another 6 or so comrades. We got to go sightseeing the inter-terminal connection train, no time for snacks, last seats on that FULL flight and OUR unplanned sightseeing adventure to change planes AGAIN, with last seats to board and 6 hours late ... yes 6 hours LATE ... to arrive at our destination. Of course, our bags were the LAST to arrive.

So, you figure, you have NO TIME to get any food at 2 airports, 12+ hours travelling all over the Southwestern USA (no food, just pretzel packets) ... happy the luggage did show up BEFORE you left the airport ....

EXCEPT.... you knew there had to be an except (didn't you??) ...

18 hours after you arrive, you get a TEXT message on the cell phone, telling you SWA HAS CANCELLED YOUR RETURN FLIGHT (with lost of your $$$ for booking) for your FAILURE TO TAKE YOUR CONNECTION (the original flights) FROM ATL to where I now am (called the destination after my sightseeing thru a 3rd airport via their plan). 

Spent over an hour on the cell phone with SWA to reacquire my original return flights (SWA sold my "cancelled seats" and I told them to kick those people out of my seats as I already had done my "sightseeing" & wandering the countryside as their guest YESTERDAY .... NOT MY FAULT!. I was waitlisted for my original flights.

When I returned home from my "stressed out" trip, I spent a good hour on the phone with SWA customer service .... WHINING and BITCHING.

Was not my problem that SWA and AIR TRAN still aren't making nice with their computer systems ... and yes, I was happy that everyone was making sure the airplane equipment was working right BEFORE we were flying in the air .... but to CANCEL my return trip for my alleged failure to make my connection WHEN you all flew off without holding my plane and you HAD gate passes already printed in my name as I came off the "first" flight .... And to ruin my vacation days (2 out of 6 days) and had me waitlisted to go home ....
Ahhhhh!

The SWA people (powers to be in the escalation department) decided I needed a $450 future flight credit (good for one year). It took 7 weeks for the credit to go from the AirTran computer to the SWA computer .... 

PS The first offer was for $200. My original ticket was PHL-ATL-PHX; my sightseeing adventure was PHL-ALT-Las Vegas-PHX. My return ticket was a PHX thru MDW onto PHL.


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## lizap (May 14, 2014)

If you don't travel a lot internationally, and don't want to fly first class, Southwest has the best frequent flyer program in the airline industry today. We switched all of our business over from AA to Southwest about a year ago.  Had been a member of the AAdvantage program since almost the beginning and was executive platinum with AA.  It became too difficult to get a milesaver award with American.  With Southwest, if there is an empty seat, it's yours as an award seat.  Love their no cancellation and no baggage fees polices.  Love all the nonstops out of New Orleans. Love our new Chase Saphire card.  Cancelled our AA Citibank card.


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## RALnGA (May 16, 2014)

*Thank you all for the input*

Thank you for the replies...
The flight is just over 2 hours each way..nonstop...by all your comments I think we will be just fine...

Again thank you ..
RALnGA


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## okwiater (May 16, 2014)

It's *Southwest Airlines*, not *Southwestern*.

And yes, their prices seem to be far lower than their competitors' for flights to Nassau. Not sure why they are so much lower, but I'm not complaining. The only other direct flight I could find was JetBlue and that was over $700 per ticket.

Also, bags fly free and they are generally pretty friendly. I hate the non-assigned seating but we deal with it if we have to.


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## lizap (May 16, 2014)

I wish they would change the non-assigned seating policy, but they have so many direct flights out of New Orleans, it is not a significant issue to us..



okwiater said:


> It's *Southwest Airlines*, not *Southwestern*.
> 
> And yes, their prices seem to be far lower than their competitors' for flights to Nassau. Not sure why they are so much lower, but I'm not complaining. The only other direct flight I could find was JetBlue and that was over $700 per ticket.
> 
> Also, bags fly free and they are generally pretty friendly. I hate the non-assigned seating but we deal with it if we have to.


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## DavidnRobin (May 16, 2014)

Denise or Mod - if this thread is not going to end - it should perhaps be moved to the Travel forum as it is not SVO related...


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## Janann (May 16, 2014)

If you want to be one of the first people on the plane, you can pay $12.50 per flight for Early Bird Check-in.
http://www.southwest.com/flight/early-bird-retrieve-reservation.html?clk=HOMEICON1EARBIR140513
I love the fact that there are no change fees on Southwest.  If you change flights you'll still have to pay the price difference in the event of a price increase, but there is no fee just to change it.


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## VegasBella (May 17, 2014)

okwiater said:


> It's *Southwest Airlines*, not *Southwestern*.




Yes. Thread title should be changed.
I clicked in wondering "is there some new airline I'd never heard of before copying Southwest? Or Is this an internet scam selling flights that don't exist?" Turns out it's neither. OP just made a mistake.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## RALnGA (May 17, 2014)

Sorry about the title I was mistaken about the airlines name should read Southwest ...and be moved...
I was going to ask a question about Harborside but chose instead to start another thread...


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## Rose Pink (May 17, 2014)

Another fan of SWA for all the reasons stated by other tuggers.


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## Dori (May 18, 2014)

We are huge fans of SW! We travel from Toronto to Buffalo to fly with them when we travel in the US. They are friendly, so easy to book with, and you always have the option of cancelling and rebooking with no penalties. Their FA's are great.  Customer service is excellent!

I really like the way they board passengers, with no great hordes of people milling about the gate. 

Accumulating points is easy if you get a SW credit card. because I am Canadian, I don't qualify, but my Choice Privileges credit card allows me to transfer points to SW.

Dori


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## Rent_Share (May 18, 2014)

Janann said:


> *If you want to be one of the first people on the plane, you can pay $12.50 per flight for Early Bird Check-in.*
> http://www.southwest.com/flight/early-bird-retrieve-reservation.html?clk=HOMEICON1EARBIR140513
> I love the fact that there are no change fees on Southwest. If you change flights you'll still have to pay the price difference in the event of a price increase, but there is no fee just to change it.


 
 Guaranteed you will get a better seat than on a traditional airlines, seat blocking/assignment algorithm. 1/3 are Aisles {C & D} and 1/3 are Windows {A & F} and you are only competing against 1/3rd of the passengers for those seats.

 Although SW's FF flyer program is one of the easiest ones to actually book award flights, however use them or lose them . . . .  After playing the combine and/or extend $ game I booked two R/T tickets for DW & DD to Orlando from LAX   Outbound 1 Stop - No Plane Change Return 1 Stop with a change of planes.

 Used to hate them during the actual cattle drives where you were assigned A B or C  and your seat selection was based on your ability to make a line wider not longer along with the other 1/3rd of the passengers in your boarding group, there may even have been a time when it was the whole plane load.

 Spent time commuting from Ontario to Sacramento, and they were the only option. After flying enough to book 5 free round trips I became comfortable with their business model and embraced it for what it was.

 As to the Poster who has a credit, I do believe you can request a refund to the original method of payment, but you must request it, it won't come automatically


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## vacationhopeful (May 18, 2014)

Rent_Share said:


> ..... As to the Poster who has a credit, I do believe you can request a refund to the original method of payment, but you must request it, it won't come automatically



If you were referring to my credit - the original ticket cost less. And I fly SWA all the time - and will continue to fly them. The PHX destination outbound had mostly the old AirTran routes - but I knew by booking via the SWA site, I would get the 2 free bags included. Flying back was on SWA flights with gate assignments - except due to the rebooking, I had a confirmation CODE which would NOT allow me to get my boarding pass until I was at the airport - either 2 hours early at the counter or if there was still an open seat after everyone else was boarded.

I knew the "signs" as to the re-route - just not the "YOU CANCELLED MY RETURN FLIGHT" message. And my sister who had flown in from Houston (another airline) she only had my text message I was being re-routed & delayed. The other joke was, my brother who joined us on the trip, drove 1.5 hours each way to bet "The NCAA Brackets" in Nevada --- told him during the trip, "Should have called me as I came thru Vegas"  --- like I had any extra time transiting thru either of those airports (got no food as NO TIME).


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## larryallen (May 18, 2014)

SWA is the best by far!  Been traveling on them for over 20 years now.  Like any airline they have an occasional glitch but in my experience FAR better than the "big" airlines.


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## mdurette (May 19, 2014)

simpsontruckdriver said:


> The only "downside"... no free TV or satellite radio (like JetBlue). Yep, I am biased!
> 
> TS




Dish network has been providing free TV for a while now on SW - but not aircrafts have it or wifi for that matter.


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## mdurette (May 19, 2014)

Janann said:


> If you want to be one of the first people on the plane, you can pay $12.50 per flight for Early Bird Check-in.
> http://www.southwest.com/flight/early-bird-retrieve-reservation.html?clk=HOMEICON1EARBIR140513
> I love the fact that there are no change fees on Southwest.  If you change flights you'll still have to pay the price difference in the event of a price increase, but there is no fee just to change it.




Any what is more impressive is that if the price for flight goes down, you can change to the cheaper cost (same flight) and get the difference as a credit for use in one year or your points refunded.  Our last trip, as crazy as it sound, I changed our outbound 6 times and our return 2 times - no issues, no cost, nothing.  Try doing that with any other airline.

As for the unassigned seating.   I love it, I just make sure I check in a T24 or buy EB.   There is nothing better than the option of choosing who you sit next to.


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## uop1497 (May 19, 2014)

I just wonder if you book ticket on Southwest using point ( from Southwest credit card), what will happens to the point if you can not make the trip and cancel your fly. Will the point return to your account or you will lose the points which use to book air ticket with Southwest. Thank you


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## vacationhopeful (May 19, 2014)

Points return with any damages to your FF account.


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## Luanne (May 20, 2014)

If you cancel a trip and have paid for Early Bird, you will get everything back except the money you paid for Early Bird.  So, it's better to change the flight it you can.

Also, I think Early Bird has now gone up to $15.00, rather than the $12.50 quoted in an earlier post.

All said, SW is still my preferred airline.


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## LannyPC (May 21, 2014)

RALnGA said:


> I'd like to hear any comments anyone has about Southwestern.



We flew on WN once and that was over 10 years ago.  It was a direct flight from FLL to SEA via BNA.  Nothing special but it did the job for a decent price.  No complaints either.

But, again, that was over 10 years ago and I'm sure things have changed since then.


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## Jimster (May 23, 2014)

*Has anyone ever flown on southwest?*

I don't think any one has flown on southwest


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