Southwest Airlines

Had a confusing situation with Southwest and wondering if anyone else has experienced this. Our itinerary was Burbank → Denver → Colorado Springs, with the return being Colorado Springs → Las Vegas → Burbank. When we landed in Denver, we asked a Southwest gate agent if we could...

Flew out of MIA and had a weird experience at the bag drop. My Samsonite hit exactly 50 lbs on the scale. I was actually proud of that. Gave my wife a high five. Then the agent pulled out a tape measure and checked the dimensions too. It was right at the max. She basically said...

Heads up for anyone booking work travel through systems like Concur. Because those bookings generate separate confirmation numbers, a lot of your benefits don’t seem to carry over the way you’d expect. I used to book with points and just add EarlyBird for $25 each way. Now to...

Flew TPA to DCA yesterday. Not a full flight. Guy behind me was in a middle seat and, after boarding was complete, slid over to the empty aisle seat next to him to give a little space between himself and the window passenger. Seemed harmless. FA walks down the aisle with her...

First Southwest flight since the switch to assigned seating and honestly… it felt bizarre. DCA to Kansas City. Maybe 50 people on the whole plane. I’m in 3A, extra legroom. There’s a disabled elderly woman a couple rows back on the other side. First two rows completely empty....

Had a Southwest flight from Las Vegas to Denver last week where they made an announcement I’d never heard before. They told everyone not to put anything in the seatback pockets during takeoff or landing for safety reasons. They repeated it several times and even walked through...

Maybe just bad luck, but all four of my flights were completely full. I’m ALP, CP, and a cardholder. Got Group 2 on every segment. Boarding order was preboard, priority and military, then Group 1. Pre and priority were about 15 to 20 people, Group 1 around 30 to 35. By the time...

I was A List Preferred for years and yeah, the open seating and free bags were great. But let’s be honest, a big reason a lot of us flew Southwest was the pricing. It used to be reasonable, even last minute. Lately though? The fares feel crazy. Flights that were around $240 a...

This honestly should have been the plan from day one. Cramming all the basic fares together in the back even when the plane is half empty never made much sense. Especially for an airline that used to be all about open seating. Good to see they’re automating it instead of making...

Upgraded my seat and paid with my Southwest credit card that I’ve had for years… and still ended up in the last boarding group. By the time I got on with one carry on, there was zero overhead space near my seat in the first ten rows. My bag had to go toward the back, which is...

Just got an email from Southwest with a “unique offer” to switch my flight in exchange for a travel credit. The catch? The only option is to move it two days earlier. And they don’t even say how much the credit is unless you click through. I’m not planning to change anything,...

With the activist investor gone, maybe this is the moment to just admit the whole thing was a mistake and go back to what made Southwest different. Open seating. Two free bags. Simple. If they really feel pressure to show investors something, fine, make it one free bag instead...

Has this happened to anyone else? I had a flight booked for a wedding and purposely chose the timing to make the rehearsal dinner. Two days before departure I checked my itinerary and saw I was now arriving 6 hours later. Turns out Southwest had sent me a $30 flight credit offer...

Recently flew Southwest for the first time in years and the experience was pretty rough. Had a drunk passenger on one side and on the other side a person coughing loudly and saying they were sick but didn’t care because they wanted to party at the destination. Before takeoff,...

On a Southwest flight right now and the seating rules are honestly confusing. One guy was the only passenger in an emergency exit row and moved from the aisle to the window seat. A flight attendant made him move back to the original seat even though the row was otherwise empty....

Just pushed back from DEN. That’s two on time departures for me today. Three pre boarders. No priority circus. Group 2 boarding. And somehow… no carry on chaos. On a 700 series. How is this even possible? Did I enter an alternate timeline?

I came across an explanation from a Southwest employee about why they are strict about people not moving seats anymore. The short version is their system now assigns seats and calculates aircraft weight and balance ahead of time using multiple cabin zones. Because of that, if...

Had a small but funny moment on a recent Southwest flight. I was assigned a middle seat, and when I boarded I saw a pretty large guy already sitting in the window seat. I figured it was just one of those flights and sat down anyway. Right after I sat down, a flight attendant...

Been flying Southwest a lot as an A-Lister, mostly for business, and like many people I had figured out how to work their old policies pretty well. Things like refunds, price drops, and same day changes made it easy to adjust trips without much stress. Now that so much has...

I saw a post from someone flying Southwest after the recent policy changes and honestly the whole thing sounded like a mess. They said boarding took about 30 minutes longer than usual and even people sitting near the front had their bags end up way in the back. On top of that,...

Flight from Austin to Chicago Midway on March 4 and the plane was only around 40% full. But somehow the last 10 rows were completely packed while plenty of seats in the front and middle were empty. Passengers could pay about $40 to move to a better seat, but it felt like people...

I saw this post from a Southwest flyer and honestly it made me laugh a bit. They said when the bins are full near their seat but clearly nobody sitting there owns the bags, they’ll start asking whose bag it is. If nobody claims it, they’ll pull it out and tell the flight...

So Southwest switched to assigned seating on Jan 27, 2026 and wow… what a miracle. All those mysterious preboard miracles we used to see? Gone. The folks who used to limp to the gate like they’d run a marathon at 5am are suddenly walking just fine. The giant crowds forming human...

Flew WN1466 OAK to LAX tonight. Supposed to leave at 6:55pm, pushed back after 8pm. Paid almost $700 RT for this route. I was in 14D on a MAX 8. 14A, B, C and E were all empty. Honestly most of the cabin had space. When I boarded, I asked the overwing FA if I could slide over to...