Tag Archives: Southwest Airlines

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13 Hacks for your Southwest Airlines Flights

When you’re an airline loyalist, you tend to know more than those of us who are airline free agents. I’ve been asking people who are Southwest Airlines aficionados what their best hacks are for Southwest Airlines.  So what are the best Southwest Airlines hacks? Here’s what people had to say!

1. First class seats on Southwest Airlines? Many people think the equivalent of a first class seat on the plane is the second row aisle on either side. This is because your time in getting on and off a Southwest Airlines flight is what’s important, not legroom. Some people DO prefer legroom above other advantages, like deplaning quickly. They say the first class seats on Southwest Airlines are the emergency exit seats on the right side as you walk down towards the middle of the plane. These seats usually go first, but if you see anything open, even the middle seat, take it! They are the best seats on the plane and have almost twice the amount of leg room.

2. Not all overhead bins are created equal. Using a roll-on whose shape tapers towards the top, makes stowing wheels out in the very front overhead bins easy. Have you noticed that the very front passenger overhead bins are slightly less deep than the rest of the plane’s stowage as the plane’s nose begins to curve inward just ahead of row 2? This affects the size of the bins. Behind rows 3 or 4, the overhead bins get even smaller. Continue reading

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Part 3 of the Saga: Southwest Monkey vs. Southwest Airlines

No one likes to be bullied! I’ll let you decide for yourself whether what Southwest Airlines is now demanding of Southwest Monkey constitutes bullying or not. The saga unfortunately continues (part 1 and part 2) as Southwest Airlines now wants them to remove any evidence that they ever existed.  See their latest blog post.

Hard to put yourself in their position, but what would you do?

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Southwest Monkey Shuts Down after Southwest Airlines Cease & Desist Letter

A few weeks ago, I let you know about a great new website that allows us to track our Southwest Airlines flights for price drops. It’s called Southwest Monkey. Since that post went live, I’ve been in touch with Pavel, one of the creators. Why? Because I received an email from Southwest Airlines informing me that they had filed a “cease and desist” letter with Southwest Monkey. Not totally unexpected, right? Big corporation, little monkey :(

I contacted Pavel to see what was going on. Here’s what he told me as of a few days ago:

“As you know, we have been approached by Southwest Airlines to close down the service in a form of a few “cease and desist” letters (I believe you have gotten at least one of them). We had until last Wednesday to shut down, but as you can see, we have not complied with the request. We have posted a blog post on our website — https://www.swmonkey.com/blog/cease_desist/ — that explains what happened. We are trying to raise awareness of Southwest bullying and public information issues.”

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Will Southwest Airlines Add Island-Hopping Flights in Hawaii?

Southwest Airlines heads for Hawaii, but it won’t be a vacation. Once Southwest Airlines starts flying to Hawaii next year, it may well add a compelling wrinkle to its schedule: flights between the islands. Southwest Airlines is deciding whether to include some in-state travel along with its trans-Pacific routes, which the company plans to offer starting next year. Andrew Watterson, the Southwest Airlines executive who oversees revenue and is in charge of cracking the Hawaii nut financially, worked at Hawaiian for three years and knows the market well.

Here’s the Bloomberg article that explains it all. Having lived in Hawaii, I can attest to the greater need for inter-island flights whether you’re a Hawaii resident or like 30% of the people getting off a long-haul flight, you connect to a flight to another island. And competition is good, so like most, if not all of you, I’m ready for Southwest Airlines to start flying to Hawaii!

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Want to Track Southwest Airlines Reservations for Price Drops? Try Southwest Monkey! [Service Discontinued]

ATTN: Southwest Monkey is no longer operational. The service was taken down.


Don’t you just hate it when you leave money on the table? OK, maybe hate is too strong of a word, but would you rather have money in your pocket or give the airlines more money than you need to? We all know that airline ticket prices fluctuate, and so do the airlines! They don’t make it easy for us to catch the price drops and then rebook our tickets at lower prices. That brings us to Southwest Airlines, which has built a community by being different from other airlines.

Southwest Airlines has never allowed other websites to show their fares. They’ve always chosen to be the only sales outlet for their own flights. This means they are able to track and create a uniqueness in the way they serve Southwest Airlines flyers. I’ve read that some industry experts feel that it’s because Southwest Airlines does not always deliver the lowest fares all the time that they prefer to stay out of the comparisons. Instead, they provide an “everyday low price” value proposition. This could likely be the case, though in many markets, Southwest Airlines prices can actually be higher than full service carriers.

Southwest Airlines also distinguishes itself in that if your ticket price drops, both for paid flights and flights booked with Southwest Airlines points, you’ll get back the difference in the fare price. The process isn’t complicated, but YOU have to do the fare price checking and then of course, rebook the flight.

I like the expression “time is money” because I often find it to be true, especially in the miles/points world. I apply my “time is money” thinking to booking my award tickets with Juicy Miles. I often feel like spending some money to save both time AND money is a double win. I’ve had my frustrations with Southwest Airlines rules and regulations that’s for sure. So anything I can do to save me from having to check for price drops on Southwest Airlines is a win for me.

Enter Southwest Monkey. It’s a relatively new alert service available only for Southwest Airlines. Their website is simple and easy to use. You set up alerts on all the Southwest Airlines tickets you’ve booked and if the price drops, you’ll receive an email alert. If the price drops by more than $10, you’ll be charged their $3 fee. You rebook the Southwest Airlines flight yourself. This takes the pain point out of the equation because you no longer need to fuss about getting the lowest fare possible, and secondly it’s no longer necessary to continually check your Southwest Airlines fares for savings.

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