Accessing the Southwest website from Europe
Feb 28, 2019, 5:58 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 6
Accessing the Southwest website from Europe
Hi!
I am in Sweden, and when I try to access the Southwest website I get
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "xxx" on this server.
Reference #18.b43b3217.1551358395.e1d977d4
(replaced www southwest com with xxx)
I've google a bit, and this problem seems to occurring quite often. Don't they want to sell tickets to foreigners?
I am in Sweden, and when I try to access the Southwest website I get
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "xxx" on this server.
Reference #18.b43b3217.1551358395.e1d977d4
(replaced www southwest com with xxx)
I've google a bit, and this problem seems to occurring quite often. Don't they want to sell tickets to foreigners?
Feb 28, 2019, 6:54 am
#2
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And there is the weekly post about trying to get to WN site from overseas.
Sorry - does not work. Been that way somewhere near "forever".
Sorry - does not work. Been that way somewhere near "forever".
Feb 28, 2019, 7:18 am
#3
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,062
They have pretty clearly enabled Akamai's location-based blacklisting. Note the error message above matches Akamai's documentation for blocked/blacklisted IP's. There's speculation they are doing this out of security concerns (possible account compromises/hijacking), or perhaps tax/regulation concerns (by selling tickets outside their markets). You can get around it by going through a VPN/tunnel that uses US-based IP addresses.
https://community.akamai.com/custome...language=en_US
It's also possible the address space you are using has a poor reputation score. But given the widespread reports, it's seems pretty clear WN is simply using location-based blocks. You can check IP address reputation score and whether it's blacklisted here --
https://www.akamai.com/us/en/clientrep-lookup/
https://community.akamai.com/custome...language=en_US
It's also possible the address space you are using has a poor reputation score. But given the widespread reports, it's seems pretty clear WN is simply using location-based blocks. You can check IP address reputation score and whether it's blacklisted here --
https://www.akamai.com/us/en/clientrep-lookup/
Last edited by xliioper; Feb 28, 2019 at 7:27 am
Feb 28, 2019, 8:30 am
#4
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Blue Ridge, GA
Posts: 5,512
You shouldn't need to re-validate your "reputation score" outside North America.
SWA obviously doesn't regard this as critical.
SWA obviously doesn't regard this as critical.
"We're sorry about the difficulty accessing Southwest.com. We've made the appropriate departments aware of the issue."
Lindsey
Community Manager
The Southwest Airlines Community
Lindsey
Community Manager
The Southwest Airlines Community
Feb 28, 2019, 8:48 am
#5
Join Date: May 2005
Programs: UA Gold 1MM, WN A-List
Posts: 209
Worked in the UK last month
Did work for me just fine to purchase a ticket. I was logged to my RR account.
As others have suggested something like ExpressVPN is a good tool to have for this kind of geofencing problem.
As others have suggested something like ExpressVPN is a good tool to have for this kind of geofencing problem.
Mar 1, 2019, 12:39 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 6
- If it is by design, the error message should be improved to say that.
- How can you know how many tickets you would sell, if you make impossible to buy them?
Mar 1, 2019, 12:52 am
#8
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As someone who frequently deals with security issues on internet facing resources, and has done geo blocking before to deflect denial of service and other attacks, that is almost certainly what Southwest is doing. The explanation given by a social media team has little to do with actual motivation. It's to cut down fraud and DoS risk. Because of that, there's no real value in customizing the error message. If someone needs clarification they'll contact another way, as you have.
Your workaround is to use a US VPN service. There are many and they are inexpensive (some only a couple dollars for a month service).
Your workaround is to use a US VPN service. There are many and they are inexpensive (some only a couple dollars for a month service).
Mar 1, 2019, 7:40 am
#9
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Posts: 23,062
As someone who frequently deals with security issues on internet facing resources, and has done geo blocking before to deflect denial of service and other attacks, that is almost certainly what Southwest is doing. The explanation given by a social media team has little to do with actual motivation. It's to cut down fraud and DoS risk. Because of that, there's no real value in customizing the error message. If someone needs clarification they'll contact another way, as you have.
Your workaround is to use a US VPN service. There are many and they are inexpensive (some only a couple dollars for a month service).
Your workaround is to use a US VPN service. There are many and they are inexpensive (some only a couple dollars for a month service).
Mar 1, 2019, 9:22 am
#10
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Fraud-risk perhaps, but DoS potential is very limited given that southwest.com is behind Akamai CDN (the entity that is generating the above error message). Akamai distributes southwest.com content to hundreds of servers around the globe. If one server comes under attack, they can just shift traffic from that server to another one that is not under attack.
Mar 1, 2019, 3:12 pm
#11
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If Southwest's logic were sound, then why wouldn't every airline that does not operate to <wherever I am right now> block me?
Southwest is literally the only airline I've ever had this problem with. And I am often in one part of the world buying a ticket, looking up an itin, or just browsing fares on the website of an airline that operates exclusively in other parts of the world. Sometimes good-sized carriers; sometimes really small mom & pop operators. It seems to be Southwest and their primitive IT capabilities that uniquely have this problem.
Southwest is literally the only airline I've ever had this problem with. And I am often in one part of the world buying a ticket, looking up an itin, or just browsing fares on the website of an airline that operates exclusively in other parts of the world. Sometimes good-sized carriers; sometimes really small mom & pop operators. It seems to be Southwest and their primitive IT capabilities that uniquely have this problem.
Mar 2, 2019, 6:39 am
#12
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Mar 2, 2019, 8:20 am
#13
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 5
Had the same problems from Europe to book WN flights. Sometimes itīs working if I choose the flight I want from google flights, which is directing me to an working Southwest website. But usually the easiest way to get acess is via VPN. The browser ad-on hola is working fine, is free and had no problem to book WN flights.
Mar 2, 2019, 9:00 am
#14
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Mar 2, 2019, 5:48 pm
#15
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I have the opposite problem as I work for a German based company. When I am VPN'd from my home office, WN.com doesn't work...so I always have to remember to drop my VPN before trying to go to the website when working from home. It's pretty maddening.