Southwest Airlines had a ‘big bang’ on May 28th. They started charging for checked bags. They started expiring travel credits. And there are all sorts of Easter Eggs in the negative changes the airline is making, like charging a fee for curbside check-in (a change the airline never announced) after firing all of their skycaps.
It’s unclear whether this is another unannounced negative change, or just that Southwest’s IT systems weren’t up for making their planned changes correctly, but you can no longer change the outbound portion of a ticket without affecting the return and this appears even to impact same day flight changes.
- Changing the outbound portion of a pre-May 28th ‘Wanna Get Away’ reservation will impose basic economy restrictions on the return.
- Even doing a same day flight change to the outbound portion of a trip causes the return to become basic economy, even though those restrictions aren’t supposed to apply to tickets purchased prior to May 28.
- Making a change, even a same day change, means that if you cancel the return your travel credit will have an expiration date instead of the promised credits not expiring that should apply to all pre-May 28th reservations.
- In fact, if you bought your tickets six months ago, and the change imposes basic economy restrictions, you may not get any travel credit at all – since basic economy credits are now valid for only six months from date of original ticket purchase (and not for six months from when the credit is issued).
- What’s more, making a same day change to the outbound of a pre-May 28 Wanna Get Away fare reservation even causes you to lose the ability to make a same day change the to the return portion of the ticket (since it becomes a basic economy ticket, and basic economy doesn’t permit same day changes).
This all hits Southwest Rapid Rewards elite A-List members the most. They’ll lose at least one free back on the return portion of their trip if they make a same day change to the outbound.
It’s a complete surprise to see Southwest treating the return half of a roundtrip ticket as having been changed when a change is made to the outbound. While that may be something other airlines have done in the past, it’s not been Southwest’s practice.
And they never announced that they would be changing this practice – so Southwest’s customers are getting caught by surprise when they learn they’ve lost free checked bags, the ability to make a same day change to their tickets and more just for exercising the options available to them on the tickets they bought.
Surely elite members being told that they could still make same day changes to the cheapest tickets, as long as they were purchased prior to May 28, meant that they would be able to make such changes to both halves of their roundtrip!
This sounds like an IT problem because when a change is made the ticket is being re-issued and the system probably doesn’t know how to distinguish between old tickets and new tickets.
PSA: don’t book round trips. Book return separately.
I have always booked most tickets as separate one-way reservations with separate record numbers. Especially WN, which prices round trip tickets as two separate flights when booking.
I always book one-ways. Easier to control use of credits and so forth. Same price, so better choice.
Southworst becoming more Southworst.
The bean counters have fucked Southwest – and it’s loyal long term customer base. Intelligent people are divesting themselves of ALL Southwest stock. Those of you waiting for things to get better are just fooling yourselves.
That “Everything’s Fine” sticker says it all. Nice find, Gary!
The only things missing are the board members from Elliott (mis)Management on the side with the can of gasoline and matches.
I’ve said “Let. Them. Fail.” lately, because I think management and their enablers are to blame for all this. Again, @American (since he/she/it complained to me last time), I don’t want regular folks to lose their jobs or for passengers to get screwed (that’ll happen anyway), yet I also recognize that this is an atrocious way to ruin a once great brand and company. These blunders will be taught as an MBA case-study.
@Craig Jones — The joke would have been, “They’ve gone from Southbest to Southworst…” unless you never liked them to begin with. I’d say they were a decent, like, actually ‘good’ airline, before they started trashing all their consumer-friendly policies.
@ Gary — The greedy folks over at Virginia Ave have been doing this for years.
Only a small percentage of Southwest passengers are affected but I have been one of the small number of people affected by tax law changes.
If there’s a class action lawsuit, the lawyers will get millions and passengers might get a 2 cent credit that expired in 6 months. Once I got a 2 cent check.
If anyone has discovered a workaround for this, please share in the comments! Clearly it’s not ok for them to do this, but unfortunately being in the right doesn’t necessarily mean you will get what you’re entitled to on the day of travel. Any help navigating this situation would be greatly appreciated!
It has been the industry norm for decades that, if you change the outbound segment on a ticket, it reprices the return even if the fares are one-way and new fare rules apply to all segments. Since WN now uses Amadeus, they are using industry pricing logic.
As others have noted, if you want to make sure your inbound and outbound stay independent, buy separate tickets.
@Tim Dunn,
I came here to say the same thing. This has been standard for a long time in the airline industry. Nothing shady; nothing that should not be expected.
As others have said – book one way trips to avoid this.
Cheers.
Industry standard for basic fares? Yes. But this is being applied to tickets that were not booked as Basic. Even tickets that were booked before anyone knew that Southwest would introduce Basic!
At which airport is paying to curb check your bag new? That’s ran by a different service and has been for years. Did another location add a set pay to curbside check fee?
I fly Southwest at least 4 times a month, but I’m non-rev so these restrictions only affect overhead bin space for me. I will continue to get 2 free checked bags, so it’s fine.
I feel like this IS the beginning of the end though. 🙁
Every Airline has rules/restrictions and every ticket has terms and conditions!!!!! Bottom line is no one reads them. So stop complaining and take accountability for what ticket you purchase. You buy cheap you get what you pay for-RESTRICTIONS
How soon do they write the Harvard Business case on how to destroy a company and brand loyalty? if Harvard has any funding left.
To those saying to book one way trips, that is not an option for anyone with a pre 5/28 ticket mentioned in the post. You’d obviously just get the same bad result.
Always one way tickets on SWA. Been doing this way before this unannounced change.
Bob is going to fix these systems issues once Southwest upgrades from a Commodore 64 to an Atari 800 with dual 5.25 inch floppy disk drives.
Someone in IT either overlooked waiving the changes for its Elites (for tickets purchased before 5-28), is incapable of loading an exception, or – most likely – SWA doesn’t care.
How to destroy good relationships with your customers.. .. just ask Southsucks airlines! My family and I will never be flying with them ever again after our next trip because we booked our tickets before the 28th and we will never booked tickets after that ever again. I hope that in the future Southwest goes bankrupt.
I thought booking a one way trip triggered a red flag and subjected you to additional screening.
Love Southwest. Hate the culture and profit driven mba changes. There’s no way to express our displeasure directly with SW as their website requires specific flight numbers and departure cities. You would think they’d learn from what’s happened to Tesla/ Musk.
@Tim Dunn it may have been industry norm for years, but that doesn’t make it a good norm, and since Southwest was bucking the norms it makes it just another bad change by Southwest.
Southwest was the anti-airline who put customers ahead of industry norms. Now they are just another airline.
At the beginning of the month I was mulling on getting a WGA+ fare given the price of a 6:25 AM flight was 1/3 the price of a 10:30 AM flight for an August trip I was planning (getting to this airport in time for a 6:25 AM flight *on public transit* is very complicated and not reasonably feasible unless leaving the night before), in that I’d gamble with a same-day change into the 10:30 one and hope there is room.
I called ahead to ask about exactly this and the agent said a same-day change in August would forfeit the bags because a new ticket is generated. Ditto with whether or not adding a companion also gets bags, for the same reason (my promo Companion Pass is valid from August to October; can’t actually add anyone until after the policy was changed, meanwhile I committed to earning it before the policy was even announced). So I stuck with the regular Wanna Get Away fare and sucked it up that I would not be able to make modifications after May 27 if I wanted to keep my bag allowance (and if my companion wants to go, we’ll share my bag allowance).
Got lucky and Southwest on May 22nd cancelled all scheduled early-morning flights between the two cities for the route on the days of travel I booked, so I was able to change to the 10:30 flight for the cost of the 6:25 flight, and keep my bag allowance anyway. I imagine if I get knocked again it still won’t count as a “voluntary” change and I’d keep the bags…but hard to say without rechecking again.
It’s such a mess. Even though I booked using points (flexible and refundable), that shouldn’t be expected to be safe forever since they’ve already announced adjustments to redemption rates (which I’ll expect to be a devaluation), and who knows, maybe they’ll reinstate points expiration.
Between burning my points now or trying to to hold onto them in case Southwest escapes Elliott, I’m choosing the former.
Assuming they’re still able to compete for my bookings; so far, Frontier has already won my next booking where the Elite Gold match fee pays for itself, and can continue to do so for the rest of the year.
I have used southwest exclusively since 1980s
I will be shopping for other flights in the future
Yes, it is the Elliot Investment group that are driving these changes, Elliot really controls the Board. Do NOT let the CEO off the hook he is doubling down on stupid trying to justify these changes – I think he is just a figure head puppet trying to justify stupid. I agree this is a marketing study on how to destroy a brand. I have flown SW for about 30 years because I felt they cared about us as customers. SW is now just another airline – but SW is now at the bottom of my choice list. BTW many of these years I held A- List and Preferred.
Yesterday, I attempted to change a Southwest one way ticket going from MSY to DAL. This is my first attempted change since before May 28. I had originally booked it for 4172 points for that flight and it dropped to 3500 points. In the past I could just make a change and rebook the very same flight for a points savings of 672 points. It would not allow me to do it. I could have changed to a different time and it would have given me the points savings. My other option would be to cancel for a full 4172 points refund and rebook that same flight for 3500 points, however I would loose the ability to carry 2 bags at no charge on this flight. I choose not to change.but
I too am disapointed with the changes with Southwest but time will tell what happens to their company. For me flying out of DAL and the companion pass is still very valuable.
Following the pack is the route to mediocrity and Southwest has collapsed like a cheap table to shareholder pressure. Shareholders come and go and all they are looking for is a quick buck. They will be gone and SW will be stuck with the mess!
@Kevin – the fix is choosing a different airline.
@Nun – not correct. In this case, changing one direction impacted the other. With one-way, only the changed direction is impacted, not the other.
@Scott -not that I’m aware of. We book almost exclusively one-way and this has never been the case. Sure, the occasional random beep (and not in a while). But nothing related to our tickets.
Cheers.
Whether you booked one way or round trip prior to 5/28 doesn’t matter. If you need to change your flight, you will still have to pay for your bags. I changed my one way flight on 5/29 and will have to pay for both my bags. $80. If you change both flights, that’s $160
Time for a travel freindly replacment now, again like AIR TRANS was,till SWA scooped them.up.
Southwest to SouthBest and now on its return to Southwurst . I have flown “Mostly” SWA since AirCal days, SWA inherited systems in place, no incredibly high infrastructure cost so IMo/ in my opinion, also hired cheaper younger staff…energized people/ funny ones too/ bought all new planes ✈️ and NOW they have caught up with real costs that the rest of the industry has paid for years
My suggestions/ it is now again from SouthBest to Southwurst… fly Alaska or Frontier and at least “ shop”
You will be as surprised as I am and the miles and points crap forget it/ it changes more often than Trumps loyalists
I used to put up with the SW Jesus flights* because they had free bags and lacked change fees. But with the recent slew of changes, I’ll never fly them again.
*SW flies Jesus flights where 30 people line up in wheel chairs to board early to get and save prime seats and are miraculously healed where they can stand and walk under their own power when the plane lands. The Jesus flights will likely vanish once SW adopts assigned seating.
I have flown Southwest for years because of no bag or seating fees. At one time U was Alist preferred but my travel with them is less. After I use what is left of my points I will no longer be flying Southwest! It’s ashame because it was my favorite airline. With all of their changes I no longer have any incentive to want to fly with them. They are now no longer any better than any other airline! Such a tragedy that they have allowed this!
I was a loyal SouthWest flyer since the early 90’s when I did a paper in college about their business model. I was impressed. But now they say they are not worried about all these changes because it is nothing that the other airlines are doing. With that mentality I say “now I will fly the other airlines!”. And I hope others will too.
@EC, I believe that one way versus roundtrip does matter. If you booked two one-way trips and changed one direction, you pay for bags for that direction only. If you booked roundtrip, even if you changed only one direction, my understanding from the above is that the *whole* reservation changes and you’d have to pay both ways. In this case, how you booked would make a difference in fees.
Cheers.
The experience of flying has gradually deteriorated over the past three decades. I’ve reached a point where I’d rather spend a few days on a train than endure the airport and airline experience.
The first “rats” to abandon the sinking ship will be the weasels using fake wheelchairs and saving seats. They will find another airline to destroy. And so much for Southwest’s heart logo and the “LUV” slogan.Now they just LUV to screw you over. Insert your peanuts/pretzels where the sun don’t shine.
They told us we would be “Grandfathered” in. Than they said “Oh make any change and it now becomes a new ticket.” I did buy two one ways. Price went down on the way down. Tried to get My points back. They said yes you can have the point difference back. But you now lose free bags and any other perk you thought you had under the Old conditions. Be very careful! Side note you cannot pre buy the bags online you might need. They expect you to pay for them at check in.
Southwest is like any business trying to make money …oops that’s wrong now. All airlines have rules and conditions know em and follow em and shop for best rates but do fly planes that have reclining seats. I’ll take southwest everyday over frontier or spirit just because seats are softer and have better layout and comfort. Southwest is easy to deal with no chat with 2 hour waits like frontier and spirit an actual person to call how 2025 in the 21st century. Southwest staff are all great other airlines my God – the flight attendants need Midol pills and distemper shots.
I keep seeing the excuse that Southwest is implementing policies that have been industry norms for a long time. The thing is, Southwest built it’s brand on going against the norm. It’s why they had such a good reputation and loyal customer base. Nobody flies Southwest because they want “the norm”. I don’t care if they don’t have an airport lounge, I want free checked bags and no hassle reservations. It seems like Southwest is on a mission to self-sabotage.
Pro-tip: We travel on SWA a lot, my hubby for business weekly. We’ve started booking every trip as separate itinerary one-ways – no more round-trips. And yeah, not booking Basic Economy. We still get 1 free bag due to A-List + SWA Visa card. BUT I just took a short inter-California flight and I can already tell you our push away was slightly delayed because half the C group had to bring their bags back to the front of the plane for gate check. ~\(*;*)/~
The investment group that bought this once wonderful airline is doing what all predatory investment groups do: Rip off & drive away the customers, milk it dry, strip it of its assets, chop-up what’s left, and sell the pieces to the highest bidders. They have no interest in running a business, just an avarice that knows no bounds. We need laws stop these cannibalistic practices.
Southwest has become a dumpster fire in too many ways to count….
Gary, I realize you don’t actually -“fact- check” anything you post, but SWA actually only had a handful of skycaps to begin with. Most SWA airports didn’t have any, and those that did were almost exclusively third party. But I suppose “fired all their skycaps!!” sounds so much more dramatic.
Also, it’s clear that Southwest DID announce that changing itineraries after May 28 would trigger the new rules. SWA had been making announcements about this very thing literally for months saying, “including voluntarily-changed reservations.” Do you even do ANY research before posting?
Fuck Southwest just don’t fly in that airline anymore
Im done with an airline I loved. Breaking up isn’t always hard to do.
@Sean: Why be so disrespectful? I have over 2000 flights with Southwest. I am as familiar with their rules as anyone. Southwest has never in my experience considered a change in half a round trip to be a change in the other half. This is new to Southwest. Southwest’s announcements could have highlighted this crucial fact, but the people writing the announcements were oblivious.
And for what it’s worth it’s being applied to reservations made before the public had any idea that Basic was coming or that WGA tickets would ever be transmuted into Basic tickets.
Southwest Airlines is the new Bud Light of 2025. Good luck with that!
@ Ryan –
Good luck with “Front & Rear” Airlines ….As bad as ” Suckwad ” has become you’ll (if not immediately ) ‘descend’ to a new, lower level of ‘service’…..
Sadly, it’s the lessor of MANY evils as they race to the bottom, but even so, some airlines are even more egregious than others !
Please do update us on your new airline adventure !
I used to fly Southwest exclusively, saying if Southwest doesn’t go there, neither do I. I’ve appreciated the customer service, the friendly and helpful flight and gate personnel, general kindness. 10 years ago I was in the Dallas airport awaiting my connection to Milwaukee. At the gate I got a phone call from my brother’s nursing telling me he was dying (in Sarasota). The gate agents immediately help me reroute my flight to Tampa and I arrived before he died. They couldn’t have been more helpful and compassionate. Meanwhile, my bags went on to Milwaukee, and they kept them for me. Furthermore, the agent holding my bags when I finally got to Milwaukee with a 90 min. drive still to be home and it was 10:00 at night,, gave me her card to call her from the road and she’d keep me company talking all the way home so I wouldn’t fall asleep on the road. In recent years they have accommodated me and my 65 lb service dog. WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT AIRLINE??? To say I’m disappointed doesn’t even start. They’ve lost a very valuable and loyal customer. Shameful.
At least we can choose high speed rail instead. Oh wait, we don’t get that choice in the US.
I have flown on a wide variety of airlines over 40+ years of travelling, and Southwest still ranks dead last, even compared to the likes of Spirit, Frontier, Wizzair, and easyJet (still haven’t tried Ryanair yet, the reputation alone has made me always go with another alternative)
My first and only experience on Southwest was a short one hour hop between so Cal and the Bay Area, roughly 20+ years ago. I somehow got stuck with three other larger folks in two rows of 2×2 seats that faced each other (like you would see on a commuter train, except with so little room, all eight of our legs were basically entangled the entire trip). I do congratulate them for bending the laws of spacetime as that one hour flight somehow seemed longer than an 8 hour transatlantic flight in regular economy.
I’ve probably purchased more Southwest tickets than any others despite working for another airline the past ten years. Yes, there were that many pros to buying Southwest when I did buy tickets instead of using my flight benefits. With all the recent changes I will be shopping around when I need to buy tickets, and Southwest will be low on my list of desired airlines. It’s the end of an era – I flew them almost exclusively prior to working in the industry – and I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that it makes me sad. I’ll miss the great airline they used to be. I hope they can weather this mess.
@bossa I’ve taken my fair share of Frontier flights leading up to this one, including ones where I traveled only with the underseat personal item (for sub-$40 roundtrips within California, that I booked with airport agents where I would have paid double that online (a hack in its own right), or even sub-$40 when booking online outright, I know what I sign up for and have put up with what that entails with no issue), and that was before Frontier went after Southwest’s customer base with cheaper/free Economy Bundles (carry-on bags, seat choice, and no change/cancel fees), their free checked bag offer, or Elite Gold status for having a Southwest account. No Southwest elite status prerequisite required, but a shameless “registration fee” for Elite Gold that can still pay for itself after even one trip. I have also happily taken Spirit on nonstop redeye transcons for 1/3 the price of the next option, as well as other airlines like United, Delta, JetBlue and Breeze for varying types of trips.
For this particular trip (a bit farther than just intra-California), Frontier’s price was $102 (booked at the airport after I arrived on a Breeze flight, thus no need to separately trek to the airport) which included seat choice, bag, and no fee to change/cancel (even a regular Economy Bundle in lieu of Elite Gold includes this, and they can either cost $0 or $20 per way; the Elite Gold includes those, plus opens Preferred seats at booking, and Premium and UpFront Plus seats via upgrades). Frontier also surprisingly has alternative itinerary options on this specific route that do not add a huge amount of time in the event the original itinerary is disrupted from IRROPS.
The next options were American at $145, Southwest at $157 (or equivalent in points), and United at $169, all Basic Economy fares which mean restrictions on changes/cancels and no free seat choice in all cases except Southwest’s open seating (at least for now; the randomly-assigned seating for Basic fares as of 2026 will be the last straw for me), while United in particular doesn’t even include more than the personal item. Main Cabin/Wanna Get Away Plus/Economy fares for all of these are over $230, and what amenties they do have over Frontier’s are simply not worth that difference in price for me personally. $157 for Southwest under the old policy of included bags and itinerary flexibility was great value in comparison, even against Frontier, but they are no longer standing out in that fashion.
With Frontier (and Spirit and Breeze for that matter), I’ve come in with low expectations and have come away with an impression of great value for the price paid. With Southwest, they had built a reputation and a perceived value over years, where leading up to this point I had booked more reservations with Southwest than any other airline. Now that they have destroyed their unique distinctions and value by adopting restricted Basic fares (and surprise surprise, their fares didn’t reduce in light of the changes to compensate for what was cut, not unlike almost every airline’s implementation of Basic Economy), they are not competing for my business.
Screw Southwest, and their new greedy Wall Street owners. They have completely ruined the brand which the airline spent so many years to establish. I had used Southwest Airlines extensively in the past, but no more. I will never fly them, and plan to go elsewhere, even if it means paying a higher fare.
The promise they said of the credit not expiring applies to a credit never applied to a ticket. For example if you have a credit from 2024 it will never expire. But if you applied that money to a ticket bought BEFORE May 28 and then try to change that ticket or cancel that ticket, it now has an expiration date. It was written in the rules and folks are not reading that rule and understanding it correctly. Its written in the rules that any changes you make to those ticket bought prior to May 27 will now have an expiration and that date reverts all the way back to the original date that you bought the ticket. Now folks are seeing how the rule works.
I’ve been a loyal SWA customer for 30+ years, yet they dropped my A List status like a hot potato – as my travel dwindled during COVID. In addition, my 40 tickets were no longer usable – why I ask? I earned those! These new policies recently imposed has me now looking at other options.
Southwest Will Suffer The Wrath of a failing Economy. It Will Be Sad To See Ir Demise!
I have primarily used SW for multiple trips a year and did not price shop. No more. I will be price shopping.
Just another reason to not fly on Southwest Airlines.
I currently fly SW at least two round trips a month, and they have been my #1 airline the entirety of my life. I loved the flexibility they offered and always encouraged to travel with SW when it came to group trips with family and friends.
-Sadly, sometimes the divorce is not one you wanted, but your partner is no longer the one you married…
An outbound change to a round trip ticket has always resulted in a change to the return flight on southwest. I have only purchased one ways on southwest for the last 5 years + because of that.
Making the shareholders happy is the important issue. They just better hope that there are enough of them to buy a lot of tickets now that regular passengers no longer have any reason to do so.
Everyone in our large family has ALWAYS chosen SW over other airlines to fly from Florida up north to visit with parents, children and grandchildren and vice versa…
We appreciated the two free bags and friendly curbside service that the airline always offered us.
Unfortunately, for the new greedy changes that have been implemented, our extensive family and many thousands of other friends will now be forced to shop around for the best airline that will meet our travel needs. Or we’ll even utilize another form of travel. YOUR LOSS…
Even if they’re $5 cheaper than the other airlines they’re mimicking, its not worth supporting the anti-luv.
Was the above rant by Ryan one long run on sentence? If you are going to complain, use proper sentences. It will make it much more effective prose.
I enjoyed flying Southwest. It was and could remain a great airline. It is full of great people. They have been our airline of choice for over twenty years. This move by the new owners has destroyed the loyalty of its long term customer base. It will be interesting to see if Southwest even survives. The last 8 flights we flew with Southwest (all within the last 2 weeks) all were 1/2 full. The new marketing plan seems to be a flop.
There’s no discount to buying a Southwest round-trip ticket. Always buy two one ways. The price is the same and you do not have to deal with these restrictions.
I’m a frequent flyer on Southwest but now that the best parts of that airline service is gone, there’s no reason not to check out other airlines’ specials. I would never have done that before. Do we still get points we can use for future flights??
I “get” that most people don’t want to take the time to book one leg at a time, but I can’t recall the last time I booked a RT on ANY carrier. There has always been this industry myth that buying two one-way tix was more expensive but I’ve never found that to be true, and it is the #1 way to prevent a return leg from getting “screwed up’.
Plus long ago all carriers started displaying things pricewise as one-way purchases; since you can clearly see what’s available, and in every category of tix you’d think people might consider doing a little more examination of how they book if cost savings is the goal.
They are the only major airline I don’t have status with. I don’t usually check bags, so this change wouldn’t affect me. But if I were to check a bag, they would now be the absolute last choice for me since I could check bags for free with everyone other airline they compete with.
What the hell are they thinking? I guess $$ is more important than continued success! & getting rid of the sky caps?!? Wow! They have families to support too! So what greedy company bought SWA only to destroy it! Job well done guys! You destroyed a great airline! Go celebrate your soon to be failure with your shareholders!
You will lose ALOT OF CUSTOMERS because of the way you took everything that made this brand STAND ABOVE THE REST you destroyed! Good job !!
SWA sucks now!! CONGRATS!
Bye Bye southwest cattle car airlines. Only reason to fly sw was free bags and “cheaper” fares. Not anymore.
It’s more like Southwest Airlines company learns the hard way. They are losing customers.
@Freesia
There are sentences separated by periods. Believe it or not, there were fewer periods and even longer sentences before I went through it a few times to cut out or cut into pieces.
Someone responded, therefore I addressed their points.
@Barry Graham — I also usually do not check bags. I have a packing list and am able to say, “Do I really need this?” Compression cubes also help reduce size. (Friendly reminder if checking a bag — compression cubes reduce volume, not weight.)
However, the change is probably going to affect us in a bad way:
1) More carry ons to avoid baggage fees. Increased probability of having to Gate Check your bag.
2) Empty bins but still required to Gate Check. (See link below.)
3) They are going to get rid of the lines and go with NINE boarding groups. Stupid idea. This will lead to:
* A shapeless amoeba and people trying to be the first on. (To avoid having to Gate Check.) People call Southwest’s boarding method a cattle call. It is the most logical and orderly way to board. Now that is going away.
* People trying to board with an earlier boarding group.
Link to article about forced Gate Checking despite completely empty (or almost empty) bins:
https://viewfromthewing.com/the-carry-on-con-why-airlines-keep-forcing-passengers-to-check-carry-on-bags-for-no-good-reason-roundup/
I have been flying Southwest for the past 25 years and will fly one last time with them in July. I had this flight booked since February.. I will no longer use this carrier as I feel they no longer stand out as an economic means to fly. Other reward programs offer better incentives. So much for taking care of their loyal customers. Very disappointed!!
I live in Europe and to avoid the huge baggage fees, I take only carry on. I still used to fly Southe West most of the tim in the US because it was the cheapest. I always get the Wanna Get Away ticket as I don’t see why I should pay twice as much for a flexible ticket when foirfeiting a ticket fee would stilll save me a lot in the long run even if I miss a flight. So whatever is cheapest is what I’ll go for.
I have used Southwest exclusively for the past 10 years. Since they have eliminated the things I liked best, I’m mad enough to never fly with them again.
Bye bye southwest. As a customer who only flew southwest and it was often seeing as I live across the country now and fly home to visit friends and family. My older kids went back home to go to college….now my teenagers fly to visit grandparents … There’s a LOT of flights happening through out the year. We even stuck with you and went with our the TV. But now? You have nothing going for you. Not only that but you don’t even fly into the airport by me. Wes drive two hours to the next airport for you. So see ya. You are just like spirit and frontier now. Something no one will ride unless they’re desperate. Smh.
I’ve loved SW but recently learned i had lost credit for flights THEY CANCELED back in Jan of last year. So now I want to use them and Gone. I’m canceling my July trip esp hearing about the problem changing return flights. Ok , we live, we learn. Someone can do better. The people working SW have always been fantastic. Sorry to have to choose another. It feels like a break up.
Southwest has destroyed the passenger culture they spent years creating. This seems to be a direct outcome of adding investment bankers to the board and a focus on quarterly earnings statement.
Now just another so so airline.
Culture eats strategy for lunch everyday.
@Freesia
That said, point taken and I can always cut down more going forward.
I have flown Southwest exclusively wherever they fly. No more. I’m upset of many of the changes, but perhaps the one that is the most upsetting is firing the sky caps. What a convenient, hassle way to check in. Of course no thought was given to these people. So representative of the greed that is pervasive in the US today. People need to remember the 1920’s and what followed for the next 39 years.
I wonder what kind of insider information Elliott Investment Management has, or how much money are they investing elsewhere, so that when Southwest tanks, because we are all leaving them, they will reap some fantastic benefit, because what they are doing makes no sense. How do you suppose you are going to make a profit if a big chunk of your loyal customers are leaving? Makes me want to hire a private investigator so they can get screwed like they deserve….
If only the southwest CEO didn’t sissy out when pressured by the new owners. Stocks go up and down. The old (and better) way would have been fine. Oh, and laugh as you want. I always travel with one bag and check it. Never had to go scouring around for an overhead bin or wrestle with the bag in or out…. never will.
So sad. Too bad. Bye, bye SWA.
@Ryan Your post was fine. It was just too complicated for simple minds, like Freesia.
@Freesia Why not read the post instead of complaining it was a “rant” (it wasn’t) and “one long sentence”? (it wasn’t) Some real situations have stupid details, and including everything gives the reader a better idea of the situation. Learn to improve your attention span, or stick to tik tok.
South West airlines contract with Meridian Medical Technologies includes free bags for company travel.
Meridian Medical Technologies corporate travel director bragged on a recent flight to MCO how her corporate travel contracts were negotiated to include free bags.
Southwest is giving the epi pen overcharging company free bags.
Can’t agree more book tickets separately always and that way you can easily change modify or cancel
If only
I am glad I booked a JetBlue mileage ticket roundtrip because when JetBlue changed my return flight to about eight hours earlier I was able to cancel the entire trip and rebook it starting earlier so the time at the destination wasn’t reduced so much. It also cost fewer miles when rebooking and I no longer had an early morning flight (swapped for a better red eye) so it was a win all of the way around. I booked the round trip even with the notification from JetBlue that separate tickets were advisable.
Southwest has alienated me from ever flying with the ever again unless they have the lowest price.
And we’ve flown Southwest forever.
SWA used to be my goto airline for domestic travel- sadly not any more. They have turned into a vulture like the rest of the airlines.
Southwest was my main airline due to free bags. Well, since they are now just like all the others, Southwest will no longer be my main airline. Airlines have gone down hill and gets worse as time goes by. Gone are the days of reasonable fares, no luggage fees, spacious seats that recline and have leg room, meals, snacks, drinks were all “free”, and great service. No rub downs, security lines, restrictions, etc. customer service gets worse and worse. Sad.
Why fly a cheaper airline that is no longer a cheaper option. Plenty of other better options now since the prices are comparable.
@Kristy worry about yourself. Our opinions belong to us not you. One of them people that try a change others.
I understand what companies need to make changes. Everything needs to be explained and outlined before the change is made if you carry a southwest Visa credit card you should not have to pay for check bags and still should be able to get lower rates for carrying and reward card I think sometimes these companies forget that the customers is what makes your success. When you lose your customers, you lose your company bye-bye Southwest the people has the power to take you down.
A-List preferred member for years – their added value got all my flight $ unless they didn’t offer where / when I needed to go. Now they won’t get another dollar from me.
Any “investment “ firm can buy any company for 10% and then proceed to ruin it? I see them crashing the airline and selling off the pieces like the pirate venture capitalists they are.
This version of capitalism is the stupidest version.
Paying more for a Wanna Get Away Plus fare before May 28th is what I did in order to change my return flight (same day). I had to pay for my bag! I was upset! I have a Rapid Rewards CC and I was never informed for this increase. I watched a video last week on what happened to SWA. The equity firm that has majority stake is forcing these changes. This will be in death of SWA.
Never flown anything but NW. Probably won’t any more unless I absolutely have to. You’ve cut your own throats.
When I was in college I took an economics class (many years ago, I don’t know if they still teach this) that taught the concept of caveat emptor, or in the vernacular, let the buyer beware.
It doesn’t seem to be in American DNA, but the issues people are running into here is actually quite predictable. Even my son did not make a change to his reservation for fear of what happened here (basically the airfare dropped bit he didn’t want to modify the reservation since the lost of free bags and other things were more than the airfare drop).
I suspect the majority of people who ran into this problem probably think in terms of how things should (or how they think things should work) rather than how things really work.
Even the people who claim this is an IT problem aren’t thinking in terms of how things really work. Sure, it was possible for them to code the system to accommodate the people who made reservations pre-May 28th, but if you think( about it, what’s the return on investment? They’re trying to get away from the old model. You can’t even argue “goodwill” in this case. Southwest already tossed the goodwill perspective out the window when they switched to this model.
@HS: Well stated. There’s no brand image left worth protecting.
A perfect business school case study on whether it makes sense to destroy a brand and how to do it.
This looks like an opportunity for another airline to adjust their program to match the old SW program. If they can make it work economically, and make some kind of guarantee that they’d stick with it, perhaps they can pick up major market share from SW.
Just flew a few days ago and I had several SW employees apologize to me for SW lying to me without my saying a word. Employees are embarrassed. I use curbside check-in and did a double take when they charged me for it! The guy felt bad and was going to waive it for us. I said I’d go with the program and pay. We always take care of all service people with gratuity and I doubt the curbside charges go to the service people. I agree that someone saw quick profit by squeezing every last penny out of their loyal customers over the next year or two and selling off assets as they destroy yet another airline. SW with TWA, Braniff, the other Braniff, Eastern, Continental, Pan Am…
Common sense. Its says in the rules you can NOT change a ticket after May 28 if you have a WGA ticket, you have to cancel and rebook. You cant make changes to a WGA you booked before May 28 because that fare class no long exist. You booked a r/t WGA and now want to change it. Well the rules state you can’t. You can’t have a r/t that is half Basic fare and half WGA because WGA does not exist anymore. The whole don’t expire means the credit you are hold now will not expire but once you use it to book a flight it activates a expiration rule based on the fare and fare rule you book.
It makes sense. You bought a WGA R/T. WGA no longer exist so if you make a change to either half of the ticket, it now must become a Basic ticket because you bought it as one fare class that they no longer offer. How hard is it to understand that! The non-expiring means the funds you got before May 28 will never expire till you use it to buy a ticket. Then if you change that ticket it has an expiration dates. I talked to two SWA Reps and they is how both of them explained it