I love flying Southwest.
I love the boarding process, I love how I can change and cancel flights without penalty, and I enjoy the free drink vouchers from time to time.
It helps that we live near Baltimore Washington International (BWI) Airport, a big Southwest hub, and so we can get great prices on flights.
But we’re always looking to save more.
There are the obvious tips – like signing up for the Rapid Rewards program (duh), getting the Southwest credit card to earn points (double duh), or get yourself bumped for vouchers (honest who likes doing this) – but those are boring.
We are in search of the hacks that we don’t already know about or have long forgotten.
Let’s get into it…
Table of Contents
- Join Southwest Rapid Rewards Dining
- Know the Boarding Process
- Early Bird for Big Groups? Split the Itinerary
- Switch Electricity Suppliers to EnergyPlus
- Military Fare Discounts
- Check the Promotions Page
- Recheck Your Flight’s Price During Sales
- Sell Your Drink Coupons
- Promo Hunting on Southwest Car Rentals
- Buy Southwest Gift Cards at Discount
- Buy Southwest Rapid Reward Points
- Give Feedback
- Check Southwest Reservation Window
- Companion Pass
- Check the Magazine for Parking Coupons
- Sit in Rows 1, 9 or 17
Join Southwest Rapid Rewards Dining
I’m a fool for not joining this sooner but Southwest Rapid Rewards Dining is the easiest way to earn RR points. If you haven’t joined, you should. It’s a set it and forget it type of thing.
Sometimes they run bonuses too, for a limited time you can earn 500 points by spending $25 in your first 30 days.
Southwest Rapid Rewards Dining gives you points when you dine at select restaurants, of which there are a lot. We found a local bar with one location, one we happen to go to every few weeks because the kids love it. Dining there rewards us with 3 points per dollar spent; we just have to use the card we registered. If you’re into writing reviews, you get 10 points per review.
When you sign up, you register a card (you can register up to 5 cards), and whenever it sees a charge to a participating restaurant, you get points. That’s it, set it and forget it, easy points.
Know the Boarding Process
This isn’t a huge money saving tip but one that will improve your enjoyment of Southwest!
Southwest has a unique boarding position process. It’s open seating (no assigned seats) but you board in groups, A B and C. Each has 1 – 60 spots, with the first 15 of A saved for Business Select passengers. The Southwest boarding position is assigned based on when you check-in. You can check-in within 24 hours of your flight time.
Even if you check-in immediately, you may find yourself with a later letter because some passengers have automatic check-in, maybe connecting, or you’re just on a super busy flight. Also, family boarding is between the A and B groups.
Usually, if you’re better than B30 you can get an aisle or window seat. Once you get into the later Bs and Cs, you are relegated to middle seats. Boarding position matters!
If you want to board earlier, the key is checking in as soon as it opens – 24 hours ahead of your flight. You can also buy the Early Bird Check-in for $15-25 each way, which is something I do on cross country flights, but it’s usually not necessary. Early Bird Check-in doesn’t guarantee you a boarding position but you’ll usually get a good one.
Early Bird for Big Groups? Split the Itinerary
When you book multiple individuals on one itinerary, getting Early Bird will cost you. Everyone on the itinerary will have to pay for Early Bird.
Our friend Seth (@ASImhoff919) suggests an alternative:
https://twitter.com/ASImhoff919/status/1034414571321286656
If you’re booking a family though, Early Bird may not be worth it. If you are traveling with a child six years and younger, you can board during the Family Boarding phase between A and B groups. You will usually be able to find good seats together without Early Bird.
Switch Electricity Suppliers to EnergyPlus
Energy Plus is an electric supplier available in the Northeast that has a rewards program. Periodically, they run promotions where you get Rapid Rewards points for signing up AND you get points for paying your electricity bill (2 points per dollar, 3 points if you’re a cardholder). Right now they are offering 5,000 Rapid Rewards points for signing up and, if you’re a Southwest Rapid Rewards cardholder, you get an additional 2,500 points. There’s no contract or commitment and no extra fees. Valid for residents of IL, MA, MD, NJ, OH, or PA.
For more information, here’s the partner page for Energy Plus on the Southwest website.
Sign up through this link or call 1-866-964-5672 and tell them offer code SWA-5643-035. You’ll need your Rapid Rewards number and a recent electricity bill.
Military Fare Discounts
If you are active military, you qualify for military fares that can be 10-15% cheaper than the listed rates. These aren’t available online though, you have to call 1-800-I-FLY-SWA to book and you’ll have to show ID.
It isn’t always the cheapest, depending on the flight, so check prices online and then call to find out the military fare.
Check the Promotions Page
Sometimes Southwest will email you when they have a promotion and sometimes they won’t. I don’t know the rhyme or reason but you can always check the active promotions by visiting their Promotions page.
I recently visited it and saw the 1,000 points for spending $25 in the first 30 days for Southwest Dining, unfortunately, I was already a member.
Recheck Your Flight’s Price During Sales
Southwest runs sales all the time, usually on a Tuesday, and they don’t charge you anything extra to cancel or change flights. ZERO CHANGE FEES.
So don’t wait until an announced sale to book – just book it and check prices when a sale happens. If the price goes down, you get a credit for the difference.
To do this, go to your account and go to “change reservation.” Now re-book the legs of your flight and see if it changes the price in the summary. I recently saved $138 on a flight to Las Vegas and discovered that a direct flight, previously unavailable, was now available. So, I saved $138 and 2 hours of travel time.
You get the balance of the “non-refundable” fare as a credit, with no expiration!
(if you have a Companion linked to your account, you have to remove them first before you can do this- kind of annoying but it is what it is!)
Sell Your Drink Coupons
Did you know those drink coupons are worth cash? Don’t let this drink coupons expire unused!
I like a nice frosty beverage from time to time. Sometimes I get lucky and I fly on one of their free drink holidays (days like New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.) when you get a drink for free! But even if my pocket is full of free drinks, sometimes I just don’t feel like it. Maybe you’re the same way… or you just don’t like to imbibe on the plane.
Sell them on eBay for around $10-$15 for a pack of four.
Boom. That’s cash money.
Promo Hunting on Southwest Car Rentals
Southwest has partnerships with a lot of car rental companies and will often run deals on their Car Rental search page.
The trick (Thanks Erica!) is to search for your rental, find the cheapest price, then come back to the main page and click on the banner to get the added promotional bonus (you still get the miles).
It won’t save you a ton of money, Erica said she recently did it and saved $6 on a three-day rental, but I’d rather keep my own money whenever I can.
Buy Southwest Gift Cards at Discount
There will always be people selling gift cards online – take advantage of their desire to turn their gift cards into cash. My favorite gift card comparison site is Raise and they’re currently showing a small 3.1% discount on Southwest Airline gift cards.
If you’re interested in making the extra trip, you can also buy store gift cards, like Target, and then buy a Southwest gift card at Target. Target gift cards are 6-7% off, so you can get even more savings there. (this is also a good way to turn an otherwise “useless” gift card into something you’ll use)
Buy Southwest Rapid Reward Points
Did you know you can buy Southwest Rapid Reward Points? (you can also transfer and gift them too) It can be a great way to get yourself closer to redemption because the points post within 72 hours of purchase.
There is a minimum purchase of 2,000 points and a combined maximum of 60,000 points, with 1,000 blocks.
Give Feedback
When Southwest first introduced Wi-Fi, I gave it a try.
I found the speed to be slow but worst of all it was cutting in and out. Since it was one of the first flights with the service, they emailed me and wanted feedback. In the survey, I told them about the experience and left my email. About a week later, they emailed me to get more information and followed that up with a voucher and refund of the price. (By the way, their internet works pretty well now)
And, just the other week, I was having trouble (technically, our kids were having trouble) with the TV. It would start and stop. Not a big deal to an adult, world-changing for a child. 🙂
Again, they sent me a survey. I mentioned the technical difficulties and they sent us a voucher! I wouldn’t even classify my response as a complaint, I just mentioned the system was having trouble but since I didn’t pay for it (unlike Internet), it didn’t bother me. They still sent a voucher.
Check Southwest Reservation Window
Your Rapid Rewards points can be used on any flight without any blackout dates, but flights sell out, especially the popular ones.
Get a jump on everyone else by knowing when Southwest releases their schedules and allows booking. It’s always listed at the top of their Travel Tools page.
For Southwest, it’s not a rolling window like with other companies. Dates are released in blocks. Right now, you can make reservations through April 11th, 2016. On October 27th, you’ll be able to make reservations from April 12th – June 3rd.
Keep on top of the rolling windows and move quickly to book those higher demand holiday flights when the window first opens up.
Companion Pass
This one is cheating… because you probably already know about it but GET A COMPANION PASS.
Companion Pass is awesome.
The way we did it was to open a Premier card for myself and a Premier Business card for my business, each netting 50,000 Rapid Reward points after we spent $2,000 (each). That gets you to 104,000 RR points (100,000 by promotion, 4,000 by spending), which is only 6,000 points away from Companion Pass.
I’m currently working on a post explaining what we did and will link that up as soon as it’s ready.
Check the Magazine for Parking Coupons
If you parked near the airport at a non-airport parking lot, the Southwest Magazine might have a coupon in between the ad for America’s Best Plastic Surgeons and the Tilted Quilt.
It won’t be there because frequent fliers know those are always full-page ads. 🙂
Check the Advertiser Directory. Under Travel, there probably will be some parking lot ad with a coupon. The September 2015 issue has one for 10% off The Parking Spot valid until December 2015.
Sit in Rows 1, 9 or 17
They’re usually the first rows to get served drinks. 🙂
Do you have a hack not listed?
Let us know in the comments below – I’d love to include it!
One hack I’ve used is probably dicey but I’ve gone through CL and bought vouchers there. There’s some vetting that needs to be done but it works once you know the other party is on the up and up.
Oooh that seems so risky to me – what do you do to make sure it’s legit?
Ginger shared on our Facebook group that she – ” set up a phone call and in person meeting (in public). I then verify while they are there with SW and with their drivers license that the voucher belongs to them. Everything is done in person as far as the transfer/exchange. It is risky LOL But I haven’t been burned. I don’t do it often tho…”
This is great! I love flying Southwest whenever I can. The free bags and the customer service are awesome.
I sometimes forget how generous (and by generous I mean — NORMAL) Southwest is on a lot of things other airlines now charge for, like bags and picking seats.
A few more money-saving things people don’t know about SWA–from a girl who lives on their planes!! 1. If your flight is late (more than 45 min) they will rebook you on another flight for free 2. Instead of flying business select, choose the cheaper fare, then upgrade to that level at the airport for $40 (if available) 3. If you are on a delay due to mechanical issues (NOT WEATHER), SWA may give you cash vouchers towards tickets for waiting for your flight. 4. If you have points, you can use them toward changing your flight or fare class… Read more »
Solids tips, thanks Missy!
Great point on the “constantly recheck your flight’s fares”. We did this for a return flight from Cancun to Raleigh that we booked with points. It dropped from 10,000 points per ticket (x5 for the whole family) to 8,800 points.
We also took the opportunity to change the connecting flight so it was more direct and to book the trip for one day later. That meant an extra day of vacation (51 days instead of 50 days in our case!).
I love Southwest.
I booked a flight to Las Vegas on a “less than ideal” itinerary (it had a layover), when I checked during a recent sale, there were seats available on a better flight for less. I saved over a hundred bucks and 2 hours (no layover). The credit to Southwest is as good as cash money here.
In your case it’s even better, you got an extra day of vacation and saved a ton of points!
Yeah, it was pretty awesome because it was at the tail end of our trip and extended our time in Cancun from 3 nts to 4. And we used Starwood points to get another free hotel night at Aloft in Cancun (an amazingly sweet bargain at 3000-4000 SPG points per night!).
I’d say we’re able to rebook for a better deal about half the time on SW. I think we also did a rebook on a SW flight to Vegas and landed a non-stop instead of a connecting flight and a credit back to us.
Does the rechecking/rebooking apply to “wanna get away” fares? Or only the second and third tier tickets?
Yes, in fact I’ve only ever purchased Wanna Get Away fares. This won’t work within two weeks of your flight because that’s when those Wanna Get Away fares become unavailable.
Oh man, there are so many reasons to love Southwest! In addition to their awesome rewards program, I would have to say my favorite part is that checked bags are free. That’s a huge savings when I fly my family of four somewhere!
It’s always a shock to me whenever we book another airline and have to pay extra for things like checked bags, picking seats, etc.
So is it true that if you book a flights with SW and then have to cancel you lose the money? I know that if you book with points you will get them back.
You don’t lose any money, you get the full value back as credit. I cancelled a flight to NY and my confirmation number acts as a credit (‘travel funds’), I can use it on a future flight (which I did when I rebooked). The travel funds have an expiration date, mine were for sometime next year, but you get a credit.
Yes, the problem is, if you have purchased a ticket for another person and cancelled it, the “travel fund” credits back under that person’s name and no one else can use that money and it expires after one year. If you can get around this issue, let me know.
Ahhh yes, that is 100% correct. Those credits are linked to the person on the original itinerary. No way around it I’m afraid.
Exactly! We are sitting on travel funds that we probably won’t be able to use before they expire. I have heard that you can get SW LUV dollars in exchange for your expired travel funds but it will cost you $100 fee (deducted from your travel funds.)
Rather than buying flights on my credit card, I’m thinking that in the future, I will buy points when they go on sale for 40% off and use points to book travel so if I need to cancel then the points come back with no restrictions.
I am so making sure I sit in rows 1, 9, or 17 now. Thanks for the tips Jim!
🙂
Sometimes they are off by 1 so you might be the 2nd row served. 🙂
You can also cash in your accumulated change through the green change counter machines at the grocery stores now and pick a gift card and therefore don’t pay anything to cash in you jar full of change and guess what… last trip got me a $137.00 non expiring gift card / receipt for your next Southwest Airlines trip to Belize!!!!! Works great!
Loved all the great tips! Thanks for all these!
Ha Coinstar will convert change to Southwest credit? That’s awesome! We don’t use it very often but when we do we always convert it to Amazon gift cards.
Sign up for E-Rewards! I take their surveys a couple times a week and turn my points in for Rapid Rewards points. Last year alone I cashed in for 6,000 points. Free money!
Great suggestion, thanks Lauren!
I don’t see Southwest as a reward partner. How did you get Southwest points?