nsx

The Southwest/Rapid Rewards FAQ is now in Wiki form in a new location.

As of March 2007 this FAQ will no longer be updated, so it has been un-stickied. Go to the new Wiki FAQ if you want the most current information, or stay here if you want to read about how things were before March 2007.


This FAQ is locked, but I will update it as needed. PM me if you would like to suggest any changes or additions. Here is the current list of questions. The answers follow in numerical order in subsequent posts to this thread.


1. What is "WN"?

2. Why doesn't Southwest offer assigned seats?

3. How do I play the open seating game?

4. Do I qualify for pre-boarding?

5. What determines what boarding letter I get? How do I get an "A"? What if I check in online and miss the flight?

6. Why is there no gate number on my boarding pass?

7. Does no-showing a flight cancel your return reservation?

8. What is the fee to change or cancel a reservation? What are the rules for re-use of funds? Can I re-use funds when making online purchases? Why and when do funds expire?

9. What are the standby rules? When do I have to pay extra to standby for a different flight, and why?

10. What bonus credits are available? What types of changes void the online booking bonus? How can I join SWABIZ?

11. Where can I get a promotion code? What are they good for?

12. What is the Wright Amendment? What is the Texas two-step?

13. How do I get the best fares?

14. What is Ding and how can I make best use of it?

15. How can I use Ding on a Mac or on a PC at work where I cannot install software?

16. How do I check my bags for a connection on another airline?

17. If my flight is delayed or cancelled, will Southwest sign my ticket over to another airline (Rule 240)?

18. Is there an elite phone number? Any other special phone numbers?

19. When will the schedule horizon be extended? Why doesn't Southwest allow me to book 11 months ahead like the other majors do?

20. My Rapid Rewards account is just short of 16 credits. How can I top it off? What is the deadline for doing so? How quickly can I expect my flight credit to post?

21. How can I recover an expired award? How about expired drink coupons? Will expiration of credits be increased from 12 months to 24 or 36?

22. Can I still get a paper award ticket? I want to sell it to someone I don't know on eBay.

23. Will Southwest institute capacity controls on Rapid Rewards tickets?

24. How does the ATA partnership work for reservations and flights?

25. Will Rapid Rewards tickets ever be redeemable on ATA flights to Hawaii and elsewhere?

26. What food will be served on my flight?

27. What's all this I hear about Customers of Size having to purchase a second seat?

28. What is the "pillow trick"?

29. What airport navigation tricks apply to Southwest?

30. Which airports have free WiFi?

31. When there is a flight delay, the departure status rarely lists the delay before I leave for the airport. How can I better determine whether my flight will actually be delayed? Also, how can I determine the intermediate stops of a particular flight?

32. Why doesn't Southwest fly to Hawaii?

33. Why doesn't Southwest fly red-eyes?

34. Why doesn't Southwest offer priority boarding to its best customers?

35. Why doesn't Southwest offer an airline lounge?

36. Do I need 100 flight credits to earn a Companion Pass (CP)? Can use the CP in conjunction with a free ticket? If I can't make good use of a CP, can I trade it for something else?

37. Over what time period are credits counted for renewal of my Companion Pass?

38. How much compensation will I get for being bumped? Can I use a paper travel voucher to buy a ticket online?

39. What are the weight and number limitations for checked baggage? What happens if Southwest loses my baggage?

40. Who earns the credits: the purchaser or the traveler? Can I combine credits from my family members? Do I earn credits when traveling on an award or on a Companion Pass?

41. Can I use an award for two one-way trips?

42. How can I estimate how long the security lines will be?

nsx

1. What is "WN"?

a. (nsx) WN is the IATA (International Air Transport Association) airline code for Southwest. WN is FT geek-speak for SWA. SWA is the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) code for Southwest. WN = SWA = Southwest.

nsx

2. Why doesn't Southwest offer assigned seats?

a. (cabinpressure) Gate agents at legacy carriers seem to spend most of their time dealing with seat assignments, first-class upgrades, and standby requests. Southwest eliminates the first two and gets extra revenue for doing the third one (full-fare only). Eliminating assigned seats also provides an incentive to show up early rather than crush the gate counter at the last minute.

b. (4thplz) The main check-in lines (for passengers with baggage) move MUCH faster because there is no need to choose a seat. Southwest's lines move at least twice as fast as any other airline's. (nsx) Curbside check-in lines may look shorter but the longer lines inside are likely to serve you more quickly.

c. (JS) Seat assignments on multiple-stop flights are a pain to deal with. If you assign seats based on seats open for both flights, very quickly all the seats are "taken", even though there are seats open for both flights, just not the same ones. If you have different seat assignments, you have to get up and move to the other seat during the layover. With a 25 or 30 minute turn, there isn't much time for a bunch of people to play musical chairs between deplaning and boarding.

d. (nsx) People who don't know the system tend to line up as soon as the first one or two start a line. Lines have a psychological attraction "If those people think it's worth lining up for, they must know something I don't know!" The boarding process uses human nature (both herd instinct and competitive behavior) to shorten the turnaround time. The mildly competitive boarding process saves me a total of at least 10 hours per year.

Travelers who have not flown Southwest since Summer 2002 will be surprised at how calm and orderly boarding is these days. Passengers line up neatly in 3 lanes. There is none of the crowding that was common in the old days and that is still common on carriers. Southwest's nifty lane dividers are the critical innovation, and keeping the number of groups down to 3 is essential to making this system work and avoiding pushing.

e. (kerflumexed) A few more advantages of open seating: Not having assigned seats in the computer and the IT people to support the software and hardware $$$$;, No seat dupes for the ops agent to resolve; Imagine how long it would take to check bags outside at LAS!: Easier airplane swaps such as 500 or 200 for a 300/700; If a seat is out of service, no problem . Also, the passengers feel like "we are all in this together".

f. (Tino) What I -do- have a problem with is other airlines that have decreed that, one month in advance, the seats are under "airport control", and that you have a very little chance of getting an aisle seat. At least on the Big Orange Bus I always have a chance. That's why I prefer SW over the Little Six for long hauls.

g. (MIKEM) The WN quick turn around system is better for WN. That impacts us indirectly with costs, etc. For a long time this boarding process was an undesirable experience. However, WN has made improvements that negate the need to stand in lines if you know them. Now, if one is savvy, the experience is not undesirable. Thanks to many at this board, I have become educated and no longer deal with hassles I used to hate. I do however, look at most of the WN flyers and think, "why do you stand in that stupid line at the gate for 45+ minutes when you have an A boarding pass." These savvy insights you all have passed on to me have made me an unofficial elite WN flyer. I hardly stand in line at all now, even if there is a huge one. I get my required aisle seat every time. I get over head storage for both my roll board and suitcase every time.

h. (nsx) Many WN passengers have learned how to play the open seating game, and would strenuously object to a change to assigned seating. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

nsx

3. How do I play the open seating game?

a. (Tino) I am always the last "A" to board. If you're not going to get an exit row seat, why waste 30-45 minutes of your life in line to get the same aisle seat five rows ahead of me?

b. (Mr. July) Ask the gate agent how many through passengers are on the flight. Mentally add this number, plus the number of pre-boards, to the length of the A line. If this total exceeds about 70, your aisle seat is in jeopardy even with an "A". (nsx) Another way to get an idea of the total passenger load is to ask the flight attendant as you board how many people will be on board.

c. (kerflumexed) My trick when in C line on a full flight: As you walk down the aisle look for what appears to be a couple in the aisle and window seats. When you ask for the middle, most of the time you will end up with the aisle. Will not work 100% of the time, but is a good tactic to avoid a middle seat in the back. As you scope it out you can usually figure out the couples that are travelling together and trying to protect the middle. Another poster called this the "unite the couple" game.

d. (nsx) If you see a really attractive person of the correct sex, you can stop right there and grab your seat. Uh... let me rephrase that: You can sit down next to him or her. You never know what may happen: I met my charming and beautiful wife on a city bus carrying mostly tourists in Rome. Similar meetings have happened on Southwest, as Colleen Barrett wrote in the February 2004 Spirit Magazine:

"We are truly blessed to have Customers who are much more than passengers; they are supporters, friends, and fans. Those Customers consider Southwest as an extension of their personal and/or corporate family. Our low fares and frequent flights allow them to attend college in another city; to commute daily between home and an office in another city; or to provide clients with a personal visit in lieu of a phone call or e-mail. We also hear from Customers telling us that Southwest played Cupid by bringing them together with their future spouses, whom they met during one of our flights (thanks to our "open seating" policy), and our Employees have even been known to be "conspirators" in helping with surprise onboard wedding proposals."

e. (stormer) More LUV stories at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5444145

f. (nsx) If you need space for your carry-on bag, you will need to board in the "A" or "B" or very early in the "C" group. This is one case in which lining up early (if you have a "C") makes sense. Only flights full of leisure travelers will have enough overhead space for everyone.

g. (nsx) Open seating is great if you have kids on a long flight. During boarding, the kids can find other kids their age to sit next to, leaving both sets of parents in peace.

h. (gregorygrady) At the gate, I know people are just itching to line up, so I get up and rush over to the front of the "A" line quickly and lo and behold, all these lemmings and monkeys rush after me and jump in line. And then I get back out of line and take my pick of the newly opened seats in the waiting area. If you are traveling with a companion and can't find 2 seats together in the waiting area and the cattle call line hasn't yet started, then this strategy works particularly well to get the masses out of the waiting area and free up 2 seats together. Try it some time.

nsx

4. Do I qualify for pre-boarding?

a. (WN LUVS U) You qualify for pre-boarding if you require physical assistance from a WN employee or have a qualified disability. Examples of qualified disabilities include, but are not limited to, Customers who require the use of a wheelchair, mobility device, cane, walker, etc.

b. (dhuey) You also qualify if your party includes at least one child under 5 years old.

c. (nsx) This is a significant and new (as of October 2004) tightening of policy in response to abuse of pre-boarding by people simply seeking a more desirable seat than they could get with their "C" boarding passes.

d. (SWAInflt) Effective August 1, 2005 no Customer who accepts preboarding will be permitted to sit in the Emergency Exit Row. When the first "Non-Preboard" passenger is boarded...the ops agent will scan their boarding card and then return it with the instruction to give it to the "A" Flight Attendant upon boarding. This will signal the F/A that general boarding has begun and passengers may choose exit row seats. Board the flight before that boarding pass comes down and you will not be permitted to sit in the exit row.

nsx

5. What determines what boarding letter I get? How do I get an "A"? What if I check in online and miss the flight?

a. (nsx) The first 45 people to check in get an "A", although a customer of size (see item 27) counts as two. The next 45 get a "B". The rest get a "C". Each boarding pass shows your check-in sequence number, up to 137 (the number of seats on all but the oldest Southwest airplanes) in addition to the letter. If someone is removed from the flight (e.g., catches an earlier flight), their sequence number is put back in the pool. If you happen to check in immediately afterwards, you may draw an "A" or "B" even though the person ahead of you got a "C".

(alliance) On routes where there are many flights (probably won't work for you on MCI-DAL), there is a trick that has worked for me to "upgrade" to an A the few times I've been stuck with a B or C. Starting around 15-20 minutes before a flight before yours on the same route is scheduled to take off (although really you can try it anytime, but it seems like the largest % chance of movement is right before an earlier flight takes off), open up two browsers and in one cancel your boarding pass and in the other re-check-in. If it is a route where there are often many Y tickets purchased, there is a good chance that a handful of people will standby/change to an earlier flight and thereby opening up their (possible) A boarding pass for you to snag.

There is a slight risk that someone else could come in and snag your B or C during the seconds that you cancel and re-check-in. But that has never happened to me and I've upgraded to an A on 2 of the 4 times I've been stuck with a B or C.

Don't try this once you get to an hour before your flight, as you won't be able to re-check-in on-line anymore.

b. (nsx) If you have a ticketless reservation, whether paid or using a Rapid Rewards award, you can normally print your own boarding pass at southwest.com starting 24 hours before the departure time of your flight. (It used to be 12:01AM on the date of your flight, in the departure time zone.) You will almost certainly get an "A" this way, if you do it reasonably promptly (with the possible exception of Orlando, which has plenty of larger groups). You get boarding passes for all your outbound segments when you check in, whether online, at a kiosk, or at a counter. Note that you cannot check in online later than 60 minutes before flight time.

c. (nsx) If you have a same day round trip booked as such, online check is now available for both outbound and return flights. However, you will not get a boarding pass for the return until 24 hours before its departure time. Your best stratecy is therefore to check in twice: once 24 hours before the outbound flight and once 24 hours before the return flight. You may find it convenient to do this second step at an airport kiosk or customer service counter. (If your outbound flight was short, the kiosk may think that you have already checked in for your outbound flight, and not give you the option to check in for the return.)

d. (nsx) If your reservation is for more than one person, you are now able to print the boarding passes online. The former workaround of phoning SWA and ask to have the reservation split into two (or more) records is no longer necessary.

e. (WN LUVS U) If your ticket requires that you are a certain age (senior fare, youth fare), you may not be eligible to check in online unless you have registered as described under item (l) below. Proof of age is required before check-in.

f. (nsx) If you have been tagged for random secondary security screening, you will not be able to check in online or print a security document.

g. (nsx) If you don't have a printer, never fear: you can get a replacement boarding pass at a kiosk or from any counter agent at the airport and it will still have the same letter and sequence number, with an “r” appended. If you plan to do this, you may wish to print a Security Document the day before travel so that you may get your replacement boarding pass beyond the security checkpoint to avoid the baggage check-in line. (WN LUVS U) Ability to print a replacement boarding pass at the airport kiosks was available system-wide as of March 30, 2005.

h. (nsx) Those not able to check in online 24 hours before departure have recently been able to use a web-based service to check in for them. The passenger could then print a boarding pass later as explained in (g) above. In March 2006 Southest decided that these automated services violate their web site usage rules. I expect boardfirst.com, which charges $5 per boarding pass, to shut down by mid-2006. Board-A.com, which was free but accepted donations, shut down on March 11, 2006.

i. (nsx) Kiosks at the airport can print you a boarding pass any time on the day of departure until 20 minutes before departure. If you are passing through the departure airport early in the day, for example on the outbound leg of a day trip, stopping by the kiosk to get your evening boarding pass is a great way to get an A. Another trick is to stop off at the kiosk before parking your car.

j. (nsx) If you have a connecting flight, you will also get a boarding pass for the second flight at the time you check in for the first flight.

k. (EscapeFromSea) If you print a boarding pass and do not show up the agents know this you are a "missed flight" passenger. You can still fly standby that day or re-use the funds after the end of the day.

l. (southwest.com) Southwest Airlines' Senior Fares for Customers 65 years or older and Online Checkin for people traveling on those fares are now available at southwest.com! Once we have verified your date of birth, you'll be eligible for online checkin from the convenience of your own home as long as you have entered your Rapid Rewards account number into the reservation.

To get your date of birth verified and to take advantage of these new enhancements on future reservations, please submit a copy of your state's official drivers license or other government-issued identification indicating your date of birth along with your Rapid Rewards account number to: Southwest Airlines Customer Relations/Rapid Rewards, P.O. Box 36662, Dallas, TX 75235.

Please allow 4-6 weeks for age verification. For verification status, please login to your MySouthwest account at southwest.com and visit "account details" to confirm if verification has been completed. You will be notified by letter once the verification process is complete.

nsx

6. Why is there no gate number on my boarding pass?

a. (nsx) As of May 2006, gate assignments are shown on boarding passes printed at airport kiosks, but not those printed at home or at the counter where an agent is supposed to tell you the gate number. All boarding passes now show the scheduled departure time.

nsx

7. Does no-showing a flight cancel your return reservation?

a. (nsx) No. On Southwest, unlike other airlines, you can no-show the outbound half and still keep your return reservation. Furthermore, if you purchased a round-trip fare, you will be able to fully re-use the funds from the unused outbound half of your trip after you complete the return. Southwest is moving away from fares which require round trip purchase, so there should no longer be any need to book a round-trip when you only plan to fly one direction. After your travel dates have passed any segments that you no-showed remain usable for purchasing future travel. If you want the fastest re-usability of funds, book one-ways instead of round trips.

b. (WN LUVS U) If you want to promptly re-use all the funds from a reservation (see item 8), cancel the reservation before the day of travel. If you wait until less than one hour before departure (and especially if you have checked in and then not phoned to remove yourself from the flight), your funds may be locked until the Help Desk can release them for you.

nsx

8. What is the fee to change or cancel a reservation? What are the rules for re-use of funds? Can I re-use funds when making online purchases? What's the advantage of booking a round trip as 2 one-way trips? Why and when do funds expire?

a. (nsx) Southwest does not penalize you for canceling or no-showing a flight. If you bought a refundable fare with a credit card, you can ask for the entire amount to be refunded to your credit card. If you bought a non-refundable fare, the tax portion is refundable. The non-refundable portion is fully re-usable toward another purchase, but buying a refundable fare does not make your non-refundable portion refundable.

My editorial comment: The ability to change your plans without penalty is the biggest remaining differentiator for Southwest over its competition. Another one is getting a live person rather than a machine when you call the 800 number. Walk-up fares tend to be lower on Southwest. Other than these three items, it's hard to see any other area in which Southwest holds a significant edge.

b. (nsx) For example, suppose you buy online a $98.20 round-trip ticket which includes $14.20 of taxes. You no-show the outbound half and fly the return. This leaves you with $49.10 in ticketless funds, of which $7.10 is refundable. If you apply these funds toward a higher refundable fare, $42 of the funds will remain non-refundable and the rest will be refundable.

c. (nsx) Southwest provides bonus Rapid Rewards credit for online purchases at swabiz.com or (sometimes) at southwest.com. Furthermore, the best fares are often only available online. Fortunately, Southwest allows you to apply leftover ticketless funds to your online purchases. This was a very big deal when Southwest introduced it, since many of us were losing bonus credit when we had to make telephone reservations to re-use funds.

d. (nsx) If you book a round trip and then before the travel date you find a lower fare in one direction, you have three options: (1) Use the Change AIr Reservation option in Travel Center at southwest.com or swabiz.com, an option that does not allow you to book a Ding sale fare, (2) Book the lower fare on a new one-way reservation and have a leftover credit on your original round-trip record locator when your travel is complete, or (3) Cancel the entire round trip and rebook both halves, possibly having to pay a higher fare on the unchanged half.

For maximum flexibility to change plans or book a Ding fare, consider booking all your travel as one-way trips. The downside is that if you are not a frequent Southwest flier, booking one-way trips can increase your chance of drawing secondary screening, which is not too bad except that it blocks you from getting your A boarding pass online.

e. (nsx) You can re-use funds from up to four reservations on a single purchase. In the unlikely event that you have many record locators each containing a small amount of funds, you can proceed in stages. Use three of the small amounts plus one larger amount to purchase a new reservation, repeat several times, then cancel these reservations and apply them to another purchase.

f. (nsx) If you expect to re-use funds late at night before a fare sale ends, be aware that the funds re-use system goes down every night for about two hours starting at about 10:30 PM Pacific Time. This glitch catches even the most experienced of us from time to time. Another reason to get your reservations done before 10:30 PM is that sometimes a sale will end an hour early, even if it was supposed to last until midnight Pacific Time.

g. (nsx) Ticketless funds expire one year from the original purchase date. Travel must be completed by the expiration date. (This is a change from policy a few years ago.) When you combine funds, whether you are re-using multiple amounts or whether you are re-using one amount and adding funds, you need to be careful about funds expiration. Southwest's computer system can only carry a single expiration date for all the funds. Southwest has made an uncharacteristically aggressive business decision to retain the earliest funds expiration date. This means, for example, that you probably don't want to combine your $2 credit which expires in one month with $96 of new funds unless you are certain you are going to fly this trip. If you don't fly, the whole $98 will expire in one month. For this reason, my spreadsheet of reservations includes one column for the funds expiration date. You can check your funds expiration date by entering the confirmation number (record locator) and the name on the credit card used (not the passenger's name) in the View and apply Ticketless Funds page in the Travel Center at southwest.com. Southwest is reportedly planning to add online functionality to list all your ticketless funds. For people who travel weekly and have dozens of funded reservations, I expect that the do-it-yourself spreadsheet approach will still be necessary.

h. (nsx) If your ticketless funds expire, that includes both the refundable and non-refundable part. A phone call before the expiration date will at least get you a refund of the refundable part. You cannot do this online.

i. (nsx) If your ticketless funds have expired, I suggest that you write to Customer Relations and request a travel credit (currently available only as a paper credit: see item 33 for disadvantages). I would be surprised if they turned you down. Given this policy, I don't see why Southwest does not simply retain the latest, rather than the earliest, expiration date of funds being combined. But I am not Southwest's CFO, and there may be sound accounting reasons for Southwest's current policy.

j. (nsx) If you specify multiple sources of ticketless funds when purchasing a reservation, the sequence of funds use is as follows: Funds from your first listed confirmation number are used first. First the computer looks for refundable funds to apply to the refundable part of your purchase. If the first confirmation number has no refundable funds but the second confirmation number does, the refundable part will be taken from the second confirmation number. After the computer finds funds for the refundable part of your purchase, it then looks for non-refundable funds for the remainder of your purchase.

If the non-refundable funds in the first confirmation number are not sufficient, the computer taps the non-refundable funds from the second confirmation number. The same procedure is used for the third and fourth confirmation numbers.

Once all the non-refundable funds are used the computer will draw on refundable funds from the confirmation numbers in the order in which you listed them.

This algorithm replaces an earlier one that tapped only non-refundable funds until they were all used up. That method tended to leave with plenty of confirmation numbers that each contained a few dollars of refundable funds. These were a pain to clean up, requiring the time of customers and CSRs. If you want to maximize your refund and minimize the amount of ticketless credits you are carrying, you can phone Southwest and request refunds of the refundable portions a day or two before you apply these funds to a new reservation. Then you will find that only non-refundable funds remain.

k. (nsx) Award tickets can be changed at will with no penalty, provided that seats area available (capacity controlled seats in the case of a new award) on the new flight. You cannot change the passenger name on an award reservation. To change travelers, you must cancel the reservation (if you do this online before the day of travel, your award will be re-usable almost immediately) and book a new reservation using that award.

l. (Mr. July) You can cancel an online reservation within 24 hours of making it (that's 24 hours, not one calendar day) and get a full refund. I think that's leftover from the industry's own customer service plan from a few years back that pre-empted threatened federal legislation for an 'airline bill of rights' - the idea is that you can either put a reservation on hold for 24 hours or cancel within 24 hours. Other airlines have a similar 24-hour refund policy for online purchases.

nsx

9. What are the standby rules? When do I have to pay extra to standby for a different flight, and why?

a. (nsx) Standbys can be cleared starting 10 minutes before scheduled departure time. That means you are taking a chance of losing your seat if you show up 2 or 3 minutes before flight time. If you get to the gate before all the seats are gone, the gate agent will give you a boarding pass ahead of any remaining standbys. If not, you are out of luck.

Internet check-in has improved this situation. Once you have a boarding pass, your seat is held until the gate agent removes you from the flight (reversing your check-in). I once arrived at the gate less than 3 minutes before departure and a few seconds before the gate agent cancelled by boarding pass. I think she was working in reverse order of check-in, because mine was the very last seat on the flight.

Note that if the flight is delayed and you decide to delay your arrival at the gate correspondingly, you are risking losing your seat unless you already have a boarding pass . Sometimes the gate agents will clear standbys 10 minutes before scheduled departure, and sometimes they will wait until shortly before the actual departure. If you have a boarding pass, you are safe until boarding is complete and the gate agent determines that you have not boarded. Online check-in saves the day again!

b. (nsx) To standby for a different flight, you will have to pay the difference between what you already paid and the full fare that a walk-up passenger would pay. Once you pay up, you are in the same boat as a walk-up passenger. In particular if the normal departure time is less than an hour away, you cannot buy a confirmed seat: not on the phone, by Internet, or in person. You can only standby. But if the flight is not overbooked, the gate agent will probably give you a boarding pass immediately anyway. Otherwise you have to wait until they clear standbys starting 10 minutes before departure.

There are a few exceptions to the requirement to pay full fare to standby:
(1) Your original flight is delayed 30 minutes or more. I have used this when the delay is upstream (at the preceding airport), even if the delay at my airport is not yet posted.
(2) You miss your original flight by 2 hours or less. You may be able to stretch this time limit a bit, but that would be at the discretion of the gate agent. This is called the "flat tire" rule.
(3) The camera crew for A&E TV's Airline "reality" show is filming and you throw a fit. Just kidding about that one, sort of...

Regardless of whether or not you pay the full fare on an outbound flight, you get to keep any discount fare you have on your future return flight.

c. (nsx) Of all the differences between Southwest and the other majors, this is one which makes the least sense to most people. But Southwest is just thinking ahead to the consequences. If you were able to standby free for any earlier flight, you would book the Internet Special for the last flight of the day but show up for the peak hour flight. What would be the results?
(1) The peak flight would have far more standbys than could be accommodated. Currently almost all standbys get on the first or second flight. With free standby, there would be chronic huge wait lists. At least until...
(2) Southwest would stop selling cheap seats for any flights on peak travel days. Then...
(3) Flights at off-peak times on peak days would have many empty seats, representing lost revenue relative to the current rules.

This is why changing this seemingly bizarre policy would be a lose-lose proposition. The only reason the other airlines can allow standby for free is that their fares are essentially the same for all times of the day. Southwest gets more revenue and a higher load factor its way, keeping average prices down.

d. (nsx) If the low fare you want is available both earlier and later than your desired flight time, book the earlier time. If you miss the flight you booked by less than 2 hours, you will be able to standby and keep your low fare.

e. (gregorygrady) You can easily book a Rapid Rewards award reservation on the SWA website with a 3 to 3.5 hour connection. Although it won't be a "published" connection, you can use all 3 columns on the reservation page (Depart, Arrive, and Return) to book this via www.southwest.com. For example, to fly LAX-PHX-TPA with a 4 hour layover in PHX, you'd book Depart: LAX, Arrive: PHX, Return: TPA with the layover in PHX as a 4 hours or less amount of time. It will "price out" properly and will use only 1/2 RR ticket and cost $5. Combine this with (d) above, and you might be able to get a layover of up to 6 hours.

nsx

10. What bonus credits are available? What types of changes void the online booking bonus? How can I join SWABIZ?

a. (nsx) You get double credit on all flights purchased at southwest.com and flown between September 22, 2005 and November 17, 2005. Through March 31, 2006, you get an extra 1.0 credit for each one-way trip (or half a round trip) booked at swabiz.com. See item 10(f) below for information on SWABIZ. The southwest.com bonus does not stack on top of the swabiz bonus. The credit appears after you fly, not when you book. The swabiz.com bonus will not be renewed when it expires on March 31, 2006.

(southwest.com and swabiz.com) MySouthwest Bonus Credit Offer: From October 14 to November 15, 2005, purchase travel for yourself while logged into your MySouthwest account and receive 1 bonus credit for each roundtrip. Travel must be purchased for yourself between October 14 and November 15, 2005 while logged into your MySouthwest account. The Member will receive (1) one bonus credit per qualifying roundtrip, limited to (3) three bonus credits per Member. Credits will be posted to the account within (1) one week of the promotion period ending. Please Note: Travel must be booked through MySouthwest after logging in and must be displayed in the "Next Scheduled Flight" section in order to qualify for this offer.

(High on Luv) The MySouthwest bonus is earned by the person logged in if travel is purchased for someone else. Also, a one-way trip purchase will earn the full 1 credit bonus. Credit will be posted by November 22, and travel may occur after November 15. Purchases using existing ticketless funds will qualify for this bonus.

(nsx) Some members were sent an email on November 18, 2005 offering double credit at southwest.com (including Ding) through February 15, 2006. Non-targeted members are not eligible.

b. (nsx) The southwest.com promotion started in 1997 and ran for many years, but was reduced from 1.0 to 0.5 credits for 2004 and the first 3 months of 2005. Then it disappeared entirely without further announcement. Judging from the erratic history of extensions, this appears to have been a perennial matter of internal debate at Southwest. Southwest has now restored the status quo that existed prior to the introduction of the bonus for online booking at the start of dot-com mania. Trouble is that: (1) very few customers remember that ancient history, (2) RR was not competitive back then unless you were a very frequent short-haul flyer, and (3) Southwest didn't fly anything but short-haul then. The long-haul flyers need a break of some sort to make RR competitive. Less frequent customers got a bit of a break in August 2005 when Southwest extended credit expiration from 12 to 24 months.

c. (nsx) In my experience, the bonus credit will post correctly even if you change your reservation, as long as you retain the same record locator. The record locator appears on your boarding stub, allowing you can check it. All changes made at the airport on the day of flight appear to retain the record locator and the bonus credit.

d. (nsx) Further evidence for my theory (bonus credit tied to record locator) is that I once phoned to change an Internet fare to a senior fare (which was not bookable online back then), and the record locator stayed the same. That flight earned bonus credit for online booking.

e. (nsx) During the fourth quarter of 2004, there was a Visa card promotion to get an extra 0.5 credit each way. In case such a promotion ever returns, you may want to favor Visa over MasterCard for your SWA purchases. Prior purchases typically qualify for the bonus if you fly within the bonus period. Also note that SWA Visa card purchases at southwest.com earn double points ($600 per credit rather than $1200).

f. (nsx) If you want to join SWABIZ, you need to convince your regional representative that your business entity can generate sufficient bookings to be worthwhile. Some representatives reportedly require you to have a minimum number of travelers; others appear to accommodate single travelers whose Rapid Rewards records show extensive travel. See the lower right corner of www.swabiz.com for information on how to contact your regional rep.

g. (gregorygrady) College students get double credit (one extra credit each way) until age 24. Once you have a RR account you can not retroactively register for the College program. Rather, you must sign up upon initial application to RR. One of the questions they ask you is if you are a (full-time?) student. If your answer is yes and you are between the ages of 18-24, then you are automatically enrolled for this College Program. I've signed up family members that were in college for RR. The main (and I think only) benefit is double RR credit. These bonus credits are NOT combinable with the SWABIZ bonus.

(EIPremier) I'm a college student, but being a good student of frequent flyer programs, I signed up for my Rapid Rewards account years before entering college. College bonus is only for those who sign up as college students. Oh well.

nsx

11. Where can I get a promotion code? What are they good for?

a.(nsx) Promotion codes are entered on the front Reservation page where you specify origin, destination, and dates. They typically give you a 10% or greater discount if you satisfy the parameters of the promotion. Most (all?) promotion codes issued since early 2004 can only be used once or twice; others allow unlimited use. Promotion codes are rarely issued, and they are typically snail mailed to targeted Rapid Rewards members. If you are a very frequent flier on Southwest, you are unlikely to be targeted for a promotion. If there is a current promotion code that is not member-specific or limited-use, you will likely find it posted on Flyertalk. If you receive one and are sure you will not use it, FTers would appreciate your posting it unless the offer prohibits this.

b. (nsx) No general-use promotion codes have been seen since 2003.

nsx

12. What is the Wright Amendment? What is the Texas two-step?

a. (nsx) When Southwest started interstate service from Love Field in Dallas, the DFW people had a cow. The Wright Amendment was a compromise, prohibiting most long-distance commercial flights from Love Field but allowing the kind of short-haul flights that Southwest offers. See http://www.fact-index.com/l/lo/love_field.html for more.

b. (nsx) Because of Wright Amendment restrictions, travelers who wish to buy tickets from Dallas to points beyond the bordering states or Mississippi or Alabama (added by the Shelby amendment) or Missouri (added December 2005) must purchase two trips: one to the border state or Houston Hobby and another between there and the actual destination. This is the Texas two-step. If your inbound flight is delayed and you miss your outbound flight, you may have to pay the difference between full fare and what you bought to take the next flight.

c. (nsx) If you are traveling on a ticket with zero face value, including Rapid Rewards and Green Passes given to employees, the Wright Amendment does not apply and you can call Southwest to book the complete trip. You can also check luggage all the way through on a free ticket.

d. (sanFF) As long as you do not break minimum connection time rules, you can check a bag through to your destination on a two-step itinerary for which there is no published service. You will not be able to print a boarding pass for step 2 at your step 1 origin, but you can do so at the step 2 gate with no problem.

e. (nsx) You may now check bags all the way through on a two-step itinerary to or from DAL (Love field).

nsx

13. How do I get the best fares?

a. (nsx) Southwest's customers are more likely to be spending our own money than customers of other airlines, so we typically want to pay the lowest possible fare. Most fares are available either one-way or round-trip. Round-trip purchase requirements have apparently been phased out. You can click on the fare basis code to read the rules for the fare, including whether or not it requires a round-trip purchase.

b. (nsx) On February 28, 2005, Southwest introduced Ding, a real-time fare sale notification application for Windows computers. See question 14 for details on Ding.

c. (nsx) Internet Specials are typically released early Tuesday morning and expire at midnight Pacific Time Thursday. You can sign up for email notification of these sales, but those emails tend to be tardy. If you want to be the early bird you should check your favorite origin-destination pair early Tuesday morning.

d. (nsx) System-wide sales tend to last a month or so, replacing Internet Specials for the duration. These typically provide the lowest cross-country fares. These sales are often accompanied by sales in specific markets, e.g., intra-California, Florida, or Chicago.

e. (nsx) Featured destinations are sometimes accompanied by attractive fares to that destination, but not always. If your connecting city is a Featured Destination or has extensive Internet Special fares, you can often build yourself a two-step trip at the same or lower price than a conventional routing. This allows you to double your Rapid Rewards earnings on the trip. As on the Texas two-step, you may be required to pay more (the difference from full fare) if your inbound flight is delayed too much. Ambitious mileage runners sometimes book three-step trips and fly up to 10 segments per day, but if you can handle that you hardly need this FAQ.

f. (sanFF) As long as you do not break minimum connection time rules, you can check a bag through to your destination on a two-step itinerary for which there is no published service. You will not be able to print a boarding pass for step 2 at your step 1 origin, but you can do so at the step 2 gate with no problem.

g. (nsx) Another reason to book a two-step is that WN's software will not sell you an unpublished connection. You have to standby or buy the two segments separately. You can't even book an unpublished routing on a RR ticket unless it's subject to the Wright Amendment restrictions or unless no published routing exists between those cities. This is annoying, but the reason is to keep costs (agents' time spent building unpublished trips) down. It also simplifies baggage handling and reduces misdirected bags (probably the main reason to limit published connections). I once found that the last connection of the day from OAK to STL via PHX was unpublished, possibly due to chronic delays on the first leg. I booked it as two separate tickets at virtually the same price and saved an hour of time, but I was willing to risk getting stuck overnight in PHX.

h. (nsx) If your outbound flight date is too soon to qualify for the best fare but the return flight would qualify, consider booking the outbound as a one-way at the high fare or using a Rapid Rewards award. Book the return as a round-trip if necessary to get the low fare. After you fly the return, cancel the remaining segment and you will have a travel credit you can use later.

i. (southwest.com) In case you were worried about getting caught breaking the rules, read this. The Customer Service Commitment document posted at southwest.com states "SWA does not prohibit or penalize what is commonly known as 'hidden city' ticketing, nor does it prohibit or penalize what is commonly known as 'back to back' ticketing. 'Hidden city' and 'back to back' reservations and tickets are authorized from travel on SWA." The two-step and similar variants are perfectly OK to 'fess up to on Southwest.

j. (nsx) If you are buying tickets for more than one person and the lowest fare is not available, go back to the initial reservations page and change the number of passengers to 1. If the lower fare shows availability, go back and increase the number of passengers by 1 until the availability disappears. Book the low fare for as many passengers as you can, then book the other passengers at the higher fare. If the lower fare opens up later, you can change that reservation with no penalty.

A more sophisticated strategy is to open two or more browsers at the same time, either on the same computer or different computers. Check availability and select as many seats as you can at the low fare on each browser. Fill in all the billing information but do not click the “I Want to Purchase This Air Travel” button. When you have completed this on all the browsers, click the “I Want to Purchase This Air Travel” button on each browser within a few seconds of each other. If you are lucky, you will get more low fare seats than you could otherwise. Please post your results on the Southwest forum at flyertalk.com.

k. (L Dude 7) Ding fares (see next FAQ item) sometimes show availability only for one person, but I was able to book one ticket then another at the same fare. And Ding still showed availability of a single seat. So availability may not be as limited as it appears at first.

l. (nsx) If you buy a nonrefundable ticket online and change your mind within 24 hours (exactly 24 hours, NOT one calendar day), you can phone Southwest to get a refund, and you can do the same online. This is a Southwest policy to mitigate Internet glitches.

nsx

14. What is Ding and how can I make best use of it?

a. (nsx) Ding is a program for Windows PCs that provides real-time notification of fare sales. I have successfully installed it on a Windows 98 (not even Second Edition) computer, contrary to the stated system requirements. You can download a copy at http://www.southwest.com/ding/

When you Register, be sure to enter your Rapid Rewards number. You only get that one chance to do so. There was a 2-credit bonus for installing Ding by March 15, 2005, and a second bonus period in June 2005, but you might get a bonus anyway if you provide your RR number. Bonus credit is posted after you have had Ding installed 30 days.

b. (nsx) Ding sales tend to appear 2 to 3 times per day, except that one weekend day may have one sale or no sales at all. Each sale tends to last 6 hours. If you miss a particular sale, that market will likely go back on sale within a week.

c. (nsx) During Ding's first week of operation, many (all?) of the Ding sales contained a hidden “Daily Double” (à la Jeopardy). One of the markets (a different one for every sale) was available at a lower price than the one listed in the main sale page. If you selected a date and clicked Book Now, you would see the lower price. In most cases, the Daily Double was a $44 fare between Chicago and some distant point, generally on the West Coast. These hidden fares have only been seen sporadically since the first week, so nobody knows whether they are errors or intentional "Easter Eggs", but it can’t hurt to look for them. Please report any discoveries on the Southwest forum at flyertalk.com.

d. (nsx) Ding has the capability, used once per month in August through November 2005, and more frequently starting in December, to target sale offerings to particular home cities. Actually Ding has latent capability to target offerings to individual users. This is because Ding identifies your installation when it polls Southwest’s server every half hour for sale headlines, as explained in item 15(c). In a monthly sale targeted to users' home cities, Ding will list a huge number of sale fares originating and terminating at your home city and nothing else. These sales tend to have the lowest fares recently offered and they last most of the day, sometimes more than one day, rather than the usual 6 hours. The targeted sales offered in December 2005 appeared to be subsets of a typical untargeted Ding sale, offering only a couple of markets in a 6-hour sale.

e. (Mr. July) Here's how to get the targeted sale list for somewhere other than your normal home city. Use the DING icon to open up the window that you then click on to get the list of specials - at the top is a very small "Update Registration" - use that to change your home airport. A new mail icon should pop up within 10 minutes or less. DING will give you an error message until then, though, so book what you want out of your home airport first.

f. (nsx) You can use the preceding home city changing trick to construct a two-step itinerary (see FAQ 12) to save money and double your credit earnings. for example, if you want to go from ISP to LAX you could check Ding fares through "home cities" of MDW, BWI, BNA, ABQ, or PHX.

g. (nsx) There's some work involved to set it up, but you can if you like have instant access to multiple home city sales. The procedure is given in FAQ 15(d), but you'll have to read of all of FAQ 15 for it to make sense.