Correct me if I'm wrong but if you pay in just cash/credit card on "wanna get away" prices and rebook at a cheaper price don't use just get credit for flights for up to a year? You don't actually get your money back?

That is correct. The difference in fare would be issued as a travel voucher to be used within 12 months.

I find them pricey for the flights I usually want to take. Have to fly at 6am or 11pm for a good fare or stop twice.

Wife and I booked a flight to Cancun not long ago for a wedding.

Not two days after purchasing I got an email from SW saying the flight schedule changed and our flight was no landing late in the afternoon (past when we needed to be there). No biggie I'll just change to an earlier flight and may have to stop somewhere.

Turns out the earlier flight had a fare difference of $100 a ticket.

I called SW to see what my options were and was completely ready to fight for a refund so I could book with United to get there on time and $200 cheaper.

Well after talking to the lady for a while and explaining everything she kindly said she understood and agreed that we shouldn't have to pay the extra fare difference when it wasn't our plans that were changing. She worked some magic in the computer and waived the fare difference. Made it all right in about 10 mins with absolutely no hassle.

Yes SW is not the cheapest, but for me paying a bit more for their service is an easy decision. Flying and airlines overall suck, but they do the best they can to alleviate that. It makes it worth it for me.

On a separate note, if I have an unused voucher can someone else use it? I canceled a leg coming back from BWI last year. Don't think I will ise it before it expires

I'm personally not as opposed to SWA like I am Spirit and Frontier. However, I'm not to keen on the cattle call boarding process and yes i realize you can pay extra to be closer to the front. The routes I typically fly out of OMA are never any cheaper than the legacy carriers. Also, I prefer to build up my miles so I can take an international first/business class trip, something not available through SWA.
The only time I ever fly on SWA is when I'm flying to DCA for work since it's the GSA city pair out of OMA. I do have to confess the SWA staff is typically on a whole different level when it comes to friendliness, customer service, etc. Especially the flight attendants.

Ag_07 said:

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Wife and I booked a flight to Cancun not long ago for a wedding.

Not two days after purchasing I got an email from SW saying the flight schedule changed and our flight was no landing late in the afternoon (past when we needed to be there). No biggie I'll just change to an earlier flight and may have to stop somewhere.

Turns out the earlier flight had a fare difference of $100 a ticket.

I called SW to see what my options were and was completely ready to fight for a refund so I could book with United to get there on time and $200 cheaper.

Well after talking to the lady for a while and explaining everything she kindly said she understood and agreed that we shouldn't have to pay the extra fare difference when it wasn't our plans that were changing. She worked some magic in the computer and waived the fare difference. Made it all right in about 10 mins with absolutely no hassle.

Yes SW is not the cheapest, but for me paying a bit more for their service is an easy decision. Flying and airlines overall suck, but they do the best they can to alleviate that. It makes it worth it for me.

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Pretty sure most airlines will do the same thing, I personally have had schedule changes on both DAL & UAL and they've waived change fees and fare differences as well.

SW is light years ahead of the other airlines when it comes to this exact thing, i.e. changing itinerary or a change in plans.

However, they are not, for the the most part, the cheapest option everyone makes them out to be. Also, they don't fly enough places for me to consistently give them my business. I'd rather pay a couple bucks more, or risk a $75 cancellation/change fee, to not have a layover on my should be 2 hour flight.

10andBOUNCE said:

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I find them pricey for the flights I usually want to take. Have to fly at 6am or 11pm for a good fare or stop twice.

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That's weird, cause it seems the nonstop flights are usually cheaper than the layover flights. Makes sense; it's clearly cheaper for them to fly you on one plane from A-B than it is on 2 or 3 planes from A-B-C and then possibly D.

The first and last nonstop flight of the day are rarely more than the other nonstops, but often they are equal at SOME point in time, you just have to check often.

Delta is by far my favorite, flew them a ton when i was in KC along with southwest on the few occasions it was cheaper.

Now in Denver it has been a cluster so it completely depends on where i'm going. AA usually wins to see the family in fort worth, occasionally sw is cheaper, but if my brother is also flying in, its usually easier to both end up at dfw. The worst part is I haven't been able to gain points for a specific airline as as easy since the price difference by airlines can swing huge enough to not care about loyalty and I don't fly enough for status. Luckily my amex card has good rewards so i just book on it and still get some savings.

Delta is rarely cheap unless im going to a hub like when i went to detroit for a wedding. This makes me sad.

I refuse to fly united, and most of the time for being a hub isn't particularly cheap and by far has the worst general economy plan.

Southwest never seems to be cheapest, I have enough points for a free flight but haven't found the right trip to use them on yet. I hate the not having your own seat, and have never needed to change a flight so i've never run into benefit from that. If i'm flying with golf clubs, they're my first choice though. Will basically only fly on price.

Frontier has been great for quick weekend trips. I've never run into issues yet with them yet. If its a trip I can just take a backpack on, it's my go to. It's a million times better than spirit, which i took once and refuse to ever do again. If it's a trip I need more stuff and the price levels out, I'm not going to take it to take it. It's strictly price, but since denvers its hub, it goes to tons of places making me more likely to consider them for the right trip.

The Lost said:

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Now in Denver it has been a cluster so it completely depends on where i'm going. AA usually wins to see the family in fort worth, occasionally sw is cheaper, but if my brother is also flying in, its usually easier to both end up at dfw.

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You can try spirit or frontier flight.. den to dfw is almost always cheap. But only 1 flight a day, so that carries some big risks. I wouldn't do it for a wedding/etc. Just a leisure trip.

The Lost said:

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and have never needed to change a flight so i've never run into benefit from that.

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The idea is you can benefit by rebooking if the fare drops; not that you change your plans.
Any other airline, you buy at $x, and when it drops $100, you can't do anything about it since the cancel or change fee is $100+.

The Lost said:

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Frontier has been great for quick weekend trips. I've never run into issues yet with them yet. If its a trip I can just take a backpack on, it's my go to. It's a million times better than spirit, which i took once and refuse to ever do again. If it's a trip I need more stuff and the price levels out, I'm not going to take it to take it. It's strictly price, but since denvers its hub, it goes to tons of places making me more likely to consider them for the right trip.

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Spirit and frontier both have phenomenal rates out of denver on tues/wed/thurs. We've done both airlines a few times from DEN.. I'm not sure either one is a clear better choice. They've both been on time, and both been late. They both are same pricing model; bare bones, no frills, everything has a fee except using the john. The customer service on both sucks (I've unfortunately had to deal with both)

I flew my family of 4 DEN to IAH on frontier for $27/ea on a Wed in June. We checked one bag for I think about $40, which was refunded.. It was a 9-midnight flight. We were 2 hours delayed, and then our bag didn't show up. No two ways about it, that SUCKS when you have a 2 and 4 year old.

But, they delivered our bag to us at the 48th hour mark (to my parents house like 60+ miles from airport, at 3 am), and when we made the claim after we landed, they told us to go buy what we need and they'll refund us. It took 6 weeks, but they did refund us, all $500 of it. So we actually got some more clothes for the kids and ourselves out of the deal and I got my family to Houston for $108. They offered a $100 voucher on future flight, but I literally had just booked our cancun flight on frontier a week before. She wouldn't apply it to that flight. Had it been southwest, I could have canceled with no fee then used the voucher to buy again.

I'm loving the SWA points system. I just booked a flight from Dallas to Midland and I have been adding up the reward points:

Flight ~5,300 points (based on the last few trips)
I used the SWA Visa card so I get 2 points for each $1 spent - 542*2 = 1084
I also booked a SWA companion hotel that offers 5,000 points for booking

Total - 11,384

If I'm reading the rules right, the flight and card points count towards A-list and companion pass, I think the hotel points might count towards companion pass, but not entirely sure.

I need 10,500 more points for A-List and 40,200 more for companion pass, it looks like A-list will be taken care of with this trip, but companion pass will take a couple more trips or a lot more card usage. The 40,000 point bonus for the new card really helped, but bonuses only count for companion pass, not A-list.

It's not just rates, because you really can no longer say SW is almost always the cheapest (although its not uncommon that they are). But their policies and customer service really are the best.

Tree Hugger said:

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If I'm reading the rules right, the flight and card points count towards A-list and companion pass, I think the hotel points might count towards companion pass, but not entirely sure.

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"Fly 100 one-way revenue flights in a calendar year. With each flight you purchase, you are earning qualifying points for every dollar spent. You can also earn qualifying points with our Hotel, Rental Car, or Ground Transportation partners"

https://www.southwest.com/rapidrewards/tiers-more-companion-pass