• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 31 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 31st anniversary: Happy 31st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Southwest Airlines will start charging for checked bags on tickets purchased on or after 5/28/25

davidvel said:
Another reason this occurs is if your flight has a lot of connecting passengers. They get to check in 24 hours prior to their 1st flight, and this includes all connections. So if their first flight departs 3 hours before yours, they get to check in 27 hours before yours. Same for Early Bird, it will check them in 39 hours prior to your flight.

This should be a #3 to the OP.
Click to expand...
This is why I like taking the first SW flight out for the day I'm flying.
 
Luanne said:
This is why I like taking the first SW flight out for the day I'm flying.
Click to expand...
It doesn't really matter that it is the 1st flight of the day as long as you are connecting.
 
davidvel said:
It doesn't really matter that it is the 1st flight of the day as long as you are connecting.
Click to expand...
Not sure I understand, or maybe you didn't understand my post.

If I am flying out on the first SW flight of the day there won't already be other passengers on the plane, therefore I will have a better chance of getting a "higher" number. The only SW flights I take these days usually leave somewhere between and 5 and 6 a.m. so I am getting usually around A25 with Early Bird.
 
davidvel said:
Another reason this occurs is if your flight has a lot of connecting passengers. They get to check in 24 hours prior to their 1st flight, and this includes all connections. So if their first flight departs 3 hours before yours, they get to check in 27 hours before yours. Same for Early Bird, it will check them in 39 hours prior to your flight.

This should be a #3 to the OP.
Click to expand...
I suspect this is more of an issue in hub cities like "Second City" aka Chicago.
 
Luanne said:
Not sure I understand, or maybe you didn't understand my post.

If I am flying out on the first SW flight of the day there won't already be other passengers on the plane, therefore I will have a better chance of getting a "higher" number. The only SW flights I take these days usually leave somewhere between and 5 and 6 a.m. so I am getting usually around A25 with Early Bird.
Click to expand...
Well, yes if your flight has no connecting passengers then obviously my post about "if your flight has a lot of connecting passengers." won't apply to your situation. Though with redeyes now on Southwest, even the first flight of the day could have connecting passengers, and they likely could check in 4-5 hours before passengers on that first flight could.
 
Last edited:
davidvel said:
Well, yes if your flight has no connecting passengers then obviously my post about "if your flight has a lot of connecting passengers." won't apply to your situation. Though with redeyes on Southwest, even the first flight of the day could have connecting passengers, and they likely could check in 4-5 hours before passengers on that first flight could.
Click to expand...
I had to read this a couple of times before I finally got what you were talking about.

I am only referring to my experience and we don't have red eyes coming in to ABQ so the first flight out of the day has no one from an earlier flight.
 
dioxide45 said:
I suspect this is more of an issue in hub cities like "Second City" aka Chicago.
Click to expand...
I am sure it is few and far between, and by the time they increase there will be assigned seats. My original comment was not really about the redeye connections though. Not everyone takes the first flight of the day. I have had this happen to me many times then realized when I got on the plane there were a lot more people sitting down then had already boarded at my departure.

I did find an actual example of a redeye connection though:
1747267962700.png
 
davidvel said:
Another reason this occurs is if your flight has a lot of connecting passengers. They get to check in 24 hours prior to their 1st flight, and this includes all connections. So if their first flight departs 3 hours before yours, they get to check in 27 hours before yours. Same for Early Bird, it will check them in 39 hours prior to your flight.

This should be a #3 to the OP.
Click to expand...

Correct, and since I am typically flying out of MDW there are usually a fair amount of connecting passengers unless it is a very early morning flight.
 
Thank God I purchased my SWA tickets prior to this date
 
mountainboy said:
Reads like you CAN still carry & use a power bank on-board the flight; you just can't use it to charge your phone/device in the overhead bins.
Good idea (amongst all their other crazy negative changes)..
Click to expand...
Agreed. Once again, a very misleading headline. SW is simply making people aware of the requirement of having your portable charger accessible when in use (not in the overhead bin, etc.). How in God's green earth does that make "Charging your device ... more complicated"??? These stupid online articles are getting old, fast.

Kurt
 
I never thought people would connect their device to a power bank and then stick them inside their luggage while charging.
 
Just want to thank the OP for the title of this thread.
While flying SWA isn't in our travel plans, our DS will be visiting us again this summer via SWA with his golf clubs but he'd not yet booked flights. With under a week to go before baggage fees will be imposed, I texted him last night that he needed to firm up his dates to be here and purchase his tickets asap.
All confirmed!
 
I am not going to sign in or pay for NYT to see that article.

I am not a plus person but I would definitely love to buy the seat between Rick and me for our comfort. SW won't let us do it. Rick could stretch out a bit, we would have a place to put things during flight that we would otherwise have in the seat back, on our tray tables or at our feet. But nope, they won't let us buy that seat. Rick is taller and likes more leg room. He isn't extremely tall but tall enough that SW is tolerable.
 
rickandcindy23 said:
I am not going to sign in or pay for NYT to see that article.

I am not a plus person but I would definitely love to buy the seat between Rick and me for our comfort. SW won't let us do it. Rick could stretch out a bit, we would have a place to put things during flight that we would otherwise have in the seat back, on our tray tables or at our feet. But nope, they won't let us buy that seat. Rick is taller and likes more leg room. He isn't extremely tall but tall enough that SW is tolerable.
Click to expand...
Why wont they let you buy it?
 
WorldT said:
Why wont they let you buy it?
Click to expand...
Southwest policy (at least currently) only allows purchasing an extra seat if you are a person of size or need it to accommodate a disability. Their website goes on to say:
You can only obtain an extra seat if you physically occupy the space in some way and would otherwise be unable to access our aircraft. The purchase or use of more than one seat for the sole purpose of ensuring comfort or additional personal space is prohibited.
Click to expand...
However that blurb is under the section for 'Southwest flights with open seating (those departing on or before January 26, 2026)' so not sure if there will be different policy for flights after January 26, 2026 that have assigned seating.
 
We usually fly Southwest if possible. Lots of points saved up haven’t traveled much this year, hope to be able to use our points before the expiration dates come into play. Might be time to look into Jet Blue?
 
sponger76 said:
Southwest policy (at least currently) only allows purchasing an extra seat if you are a person of size or need it to accommodate a disability. Their website goes on to say: You can only obtain an extra seat if you physically occupy the space in some way and would otherwise be unable to access our aircraft. The purchase or use of more than one seat for the sole purpose of ensuring comfort or additional personal space is prohibited.
Click to expand...

I never thought about not being allowed to buy an extra seat especially for an airline that does not charge extra for bags and such. How does it benefit the airline or affect other passengers if you buy two seats?
 
silentg said:
We usually fly Southwest if possible. Lots of points saved up haven’t traveled much this year, hope to be able to use our points before the expiration dates come into play. Might be time to look into Jet Blue?
Click to expand...
I am cancelling both my SW credit card and my Jet Blue credit card. Jet Blue only has one flight out of a local airport, ABQ to JFK. When we were going once a year it was worth it as the fee covered the checked bags. I could earn enough miles to get free flights and their flights were usually more reasonable (and nonstop). But we haven't gone to NYC the past three years so I'm paying for nothing at this point.
 
We got the “upgraded” comfort seats on our way to Maui. Nice and roomy. Third row. Open middle seat between us. Flight had about 20 open seats. Have the basic CC and both of us checked a bag no extra charge.
 
JohnnyO said:
We got the “upgraded” comfort seats on our way to Maui. Nice and roomy. Third row. Open middle seat between us. Flight had about 20 open seats. Have the basic CC and both of us checked a bag no extra charge.
Click to expand...
My older daughter has flown SW from San Jose to Maui to join us, she's done this for quite a few years. But no more. In all their wisdom SW has decided to eliminate the nonstop from San Jose to Maui. So she'll be flying another airline that still does that route. SW has made too many changes for me to still be a loyal customer.
 
silentg said:
We usually fly Southwest if possible. Lots of points saved up haven’t traveled much this year, hope to be able to use our points before the expiration dates come into play. Might be time to look into Jet Blue?
Click to expand...
Don't look too hard. JetBlue is struggling. There was rumors that Alaska was going to buy JetBlue as that would be one of the few airlines that would get approval to buy JetBlue due to anti-trust issues. However Alaska is busy digesting Hawaiian.
 
WorldT said:
I never thought about not being allowed to buy an extra seat especially for an airline that does not charge extra for bags and such. How does it benefit the airline or affect other passengers if you buy two seats?
Click to expand...
:shrug:
I think it's weird too. I can understand them not wanting to give an extra seat for free, but one would think that the airline wouldn't care if the seat is unoccupied as long as it is paid for and the boarding pass is scanned during boarding to show that the passenger showed up to claim it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top