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

[sandam1]

QUESTION: do flight schedules typically change when the new fare calendar is released?

An interesting thing that I found for my April trip - the flight schedule is actually drastically different for the day we are flying out (Wednesday, 4/17) versus the following day. On Wednesday, the nonstop flight is at 7:15 a.m. and on Thursday, the nonstop flights are at 5:15 a.m. and 11:25 a.m. All of the connecting flights are different times as well.

I don't know if this is a one-off thing, but if you don't like the flight times and you have any flexibility, consider checking other dates and see if there is something you like better.

 

[eticketplease]

Premier is just not a CC you'll see very easily on SWA's website but it exists. It's the one we personally have.

Curious why you have that one compared to the Priority? The Priority comes out to less of an AF after the $75 credit.

Do you value EBCI over the upgraded boarding?

 

[LadybugsMum]

Updated release time

Release Date | Time (eastern)
03/21/24 | 7:09am
02/08/24 | 7:40am
12/14/23 | 7:57am
10/26/23 | 7:10am
09/14/23 | 7:20am
06/29/23 | 7:35am
06/08/23 | 7:20am
03/09/23 | 7:10am
02/09/23 | 7:15am
12/15/22 | 7:15am
10/27/22 | 7:25am
09/08/22 | 7:25am
07/21/22 | 7:20am
06/16/22 | 7:30am
03/30/22 | 7:30am
12/16/21 | 7:50am
12/08/21 | 6:45am
06/10/21 | 7:15am
04/01/21 | 9:10am
12/10/20 | 7:15am
08/13/20 | 9:15am

 

[Chili327]

Just wanted to double check with some SW experts, but I bought the $500 GC from Costco (only costs $429), & used only $175 of it, so I had this card I needed to not lose for future flights, so i booked a trip for $425-ish, then cancelled it & now the balance is on my acct. Any drawbacks to having them store the info for me? (now its not a big deal if I lose the card. lol)

 

[eticketplease]

Just wanted to double check with some SW experts, but I bought the $500 GC from Costco (only costs $429), & used only $175 of it, so I had this card I needed to not lose for future flights, so i booked a trip for $425-ish, then cancelled it & now the balance is on my acct. Any drawbacks to having them store the info for me? (now its not a big deal if I lose the card. lol)

Yes because now the balance is under your name. With a GC you could use that for multiple people. You could purchase some smaller anytime flights and then cancel them as those would be transferable.

 

[Chili327]

Yes because now the balance is under your name. With a GC you could use that for multiple people. You could purchase some smaller anytime flights and then cancel them as those would be transferable.

Not concerned with being able to transfer to other people, but other than that, all good? I just want them to exist somewhere besides the physical card, & any email or other place id have to look for it.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

An interesting thing that I found for my April trip - the flight schedule is actually drastically different for the day we are flying out (Wednesday, 4/17) versus the following day. On Wednesday, the nonstop flight is at 7:15 a.m. and on Thursday, the nonstop flights are at 5:15 a.m. and 11:25 a.m. All of the connecting flights are different times as well.

I don't know if this is a one-off thing, but if you don't like the flight times and you have any flexibility, consider checking other dates and see if there is something you like better.

We did, and we are flying out a day sooner and adding a day to the trip! That’s what I call a win-win

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Curious why you have that one compared to the Priority? The Priority comes out to less of an AF after the $75 credit.

Do you value EBCI over the upgraded boarding?

It's a good question. For us it's largely how we use the CC (which we've had since 2016 when Priority wasn't around so it was the better option over the lower tier at that time). That travel credit would likely be unused for us as we've also transitioned away from using branded CC's to more generic travel cards presently Chase really. The Chase Sapphire Reserve being the best thus far and their travel credit is more useful to us. I believe my husband also got the Chase Freedom Unlimited IIRC (which has no annual fee).

We're finding ourselves now in a sorta bind because we have a Delta SkyMiles CC (obtained back in 2013) and that just got bumped up on annual fee though the travel credit it now provides offsets the increase in fees but we have to use that through their portal in order use it (I think we're going to use it for the hotel by JFK airport this year but next year?? who knows).

The SWA CC is mainly just used by me and smaller day to day purchases rather than a travel card that it was used for when we first got it.

 

[eticketplease]

Not concerned with being able to transfer to other people, but other than that, all good? I just want them to exist somewhere besides the physical card, & any email or other place id have to look for it.

Yup you will be good then you will just need to remember the confirmation code for when you go to book. (It is located in the my account section too)

 

[RedHead0186]

SWA has 3 credit cards

Premier and Plus get EBCI
Priority gets Upgraded Boarding

The PP asked which credit cards get EBCI and how many. The answer to that is Plus and Premier get 2 EBCI per anniversary year of the CC.

Premier is just not a CC you'll see very easily on SWA's website but it exists. It's the one we personally have.

Looks like Premier is a business card, right? I found it on the SW site; it's listed along with Performance as the two Business cards.

So actually SW has four credit cards. Looks like Premier is sort of the 'business card' equivalent of Plus, and Performance sort of the equivalent for Priority (not exactly, just a rough estimate).

Also why do all 4 have to start with "P," that's tripping me up?

 

[jo-jo]

My DH and I are the only passengers. We have a flock of flights credits. Some are transferable, some not. What is the best way to use these credits? They run from about $10 to $40. Totaling about $140 . A total of 7 credits X 2.

Last trip we booked one way tickets to use the most credits. Use the largest first, use CC last.

Any other tips?

I suppose booking everything separate, but will that cause issues traveling together?

 

[RedHead0186]

My DH and I are the only passengers. We have a flock of flights credits. Some are transferable, some not. What is the best way to use these credits? They run from about $10 to $40. Totaling about $140 . A total of 7 credits X 2.

Last trip we booked one way tickets to use the most credits. Use the largest first, use CC last.

Any other tips?

I suppose booking everything separate, but will that cause issues traveling together?

I know this thread is 713 pages long, but somewhere upthread (not too far up) someone posted about having a bunch of small credits and being able to combine them into one larger, usable credit. I don't recall the details so I don't want to speak out of turn, but I do recall reading it not too long ago, so if you track back a few pages maybe you'll find it?

 

[DebbieB]

I got my early December flights, PIT>MCO. Times were good, prices were high. I only had enough points for the return, I booked the outbound with cash, I had $25 in credits. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go down, it’s happened before that time of year.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Looks like Premier is a business card, right? I found it on the SW site; it's listed along with Performance as the two Business cards.

So actually SW has four credit cards. Looks like Premier is sort of the 'business card' equivalent of Plus, and Performance sort of the equivalent for Priority (not exactly, just a rough estimate).

Also why do all 4 have to start with "P," that's tripping me up?

Premier is a level of credit card. Just think of it as a credit card that came before SWA had the Priority version.

https://creditcards.chase.com/southwest/premier-credit-card

You could always get a business card version of Premier but no it's NOT a business card itself. The reason why it matters to mention the benefits that differ between them all is because people have different versions. Whether you can sign up for a new cc isn't the crux here (I think that's where you're getting stuck).

 

[jo-jo]

I know this thread is 713 pages long, but somewhere upthread (not too far up) someone posted about having a bunch of small credits and being able to combine them into one larger, usable credit. I don't recall the details so I don't want to speak out of turn, but I do recall reading it not too long ago, so if you track back a few pages maybe you'll find it?

Thank you. Found it . Top of page 710

 

[eticketplease]

Thank you. Found it . Top of page 710

If you don’t want to spend more than you have to book them as anytime or business select. You can then refund to your credit card for the portion over the credits you are combining.

Of course if you don’t mind the difference see if you received one of the Chase offers that I received and refund the whole thing to a credit.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Just a mention towards using SWA's RR shopping portal to earn points to your account. Sometimes you get some really good bonus points or more points per dollar you spent. I'm sure many of us are already aware of it but I forget to use it for shopping sometimes (def. missed one large transaction at Macy's one time).

I for the most part use it for Petsmart and don't normally get a huge amount from that per transaction but every little bit can help (was thinking of some posters who had mentioned they were points shy of a flight). In four transactions in 2024 with Pestmart I've earned 535 RR points just as an example (some of that due to extra points per dollar as a promotion SWA was doing).

 

[MinnieMSue]

Bought our tickets with early bird as soon as Southwest opened. Sadly wanna get away because I wasn’t thinking at the time. We are B50&51. By far the worst I have ever had. After family boarding we will probably be almost last on the plane. Luckily we don’t need to sit together but I am pretty sure it is going to be middle seats for us

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

Bought our tickets with early bird as soon as Southwest opened. Sadly wanna get away because I wasn’t thinking at the time. We are B50&51. By far the worst I have ever had. After family boarding we will probably be almost last on the plane. Luckily we don’t need to sit together but I am pretty sure it is going to be middle seats for us

Yikes! Is Early bird a must for 2 people to sit together? What about check-in at exactly 24 hours prior? Or is that just a pipe dream? Prices were already at the top of our budget, don’t think we want to pay the 25 pp each way. There’s 3 of us, but I’m ok to sit alone. Hoping my 13 year old can sit next to her dad.

 

[MinnieMSue]

Yikes! Is Early bird a must for 2 people to sit together? What about check-in at exactly 24 hours prior? Or is that just a pipe dream? Prices were already at the top of our budget, don’t think we want to pay the 25 pp each way. There’s 3 of us, but I’m ok to sit alone. Hoping my 13 year old can sit next to her dad.

Honestly it depends on how busy it is when you are flying. We have once before gotten B1/2 but never gotten this bad with early bird. I figure by the time all the people who need extra time board and group A and Families board we will be the last on. 99% of time we are around A 40 with early bird. If you check in at exactly 24 hours you are after all those groups including those who have early bird. There is a small chance someone cancelled their flight after Southwest does the 36 hr checkin for those eligible and you luck into those earlier spots but it is small. So many people have higher statuses that give them earlier boarding before us lowly wanna get away people it is much harder to get a good position. Anyone who did not have early bird is after us. Our flight has been sold out for awhile including all business class so no chance of upgrading. I always purchased early bird especially when I needed to sit by my daughter. She is now 20 so we don’t care but middle seat is very very very hard for me with my spine issues and having to sit so still squished in the middle. But I’m going to Disney and it’s just over 2hr so I will survive. Just wishing I hadn’t wasted my money this time lol. Hindsight is always 20/20