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February 2020 Website and App Updates

MarkHursh
Employee
Employee

Hi Community Friends!

 

I'm continuing to test the waters to see if you all are interested in learning more about recent changes to our southwest.com and mobile apps.

 

If you find this helpful, please let me know by tapping the heart icon at the end of the post.   Then we can consider posting this for each monthly update.

 

Here's all the changes we recently made this month to our websites and apps:

 

Changes to www.Southwest.com, mobile.Southwest.com and Mobile Apps  

We pride ourselves on on delivering an excellent on-time performance as well as our low flight cancellation rates, but unfortunately sometimes flight disruptions do happen.  Starting on Feb 10, we now provide you with Enhanced Self-Service Rebooking options if you encounter a flight cancellation and we have rebooked you on another flight.  Now, if you have been rebooked on alternative flight, you will receive a text message or e-mail sent to your day of contact travel information on the reservation.  In that message will be a link which will allow you to make a one-time change to the reservation, within a specified travel window, if you would like an alternative flight rather than the one you have been rebooked on.

 

Here is an in-depth look at how this will play out for our Customers:

  • First you will be notified that your flight has been cancelled via Day of Contact communication preference (text, email or phone call). 
  • Once you have been reaccommodated by the system, you will receive a second notification with your new rebooked itinerary.  This message will include a link to select an alternative flight if you so choose
  • Customers will have the ability to make a one-time, free of charge, change via Southwest.com or the Mobile app. This change allows modification of up to 14 days from the date of original travel.  This eligibility duration is subject to change.
  • If you checked your baggage, you will be alerted that Southwest will make every attempt to reroute baggage based on the change, but Customers should see a Customer Service Agent for assistance if their bag does not arrive in their destination.

In addition to this change, our friendly Customer Support & Services Cohearts, accessible via in-app chat/e-mail/phone, can now make similar changes to rebooked itineraries even with checked baggage.

 

This is all in addition to how already we treat cancelled flights that have not yet been rebooked.  In cases where a flight has been cancelled, but not yet automatically rebooked, Customers already have the option to select a new flight, within a specific travel window.

 

Please note, some itinerary types are not eligible for this option, such as reservations purchased via our Group Desk.  

 

Changes to Mobile Web, iOS App, iPad OS Apps, and Android Apps (version 7.2)

On February 6th, we activated Multi-Passenger Mobile Boarding Passes systemwide. This will allow all Customers to access mobile boarding passes at mobile.southwest.com, our iOS app, and Android app.

Prior to this change, you could only receive a boarding pass for the logged in Customer on multi passenger reservations. That added friction to the checkin process and was one of our top Customer frustrations in our App Stores.

Now, for reservations with up to and including eight passengers, simply checkin and you will receive prompts to view and download passes for one or many Customers. We will first show a view pass screen for all Customers and then give you the option to download an Apple Wallet or Google Pay mobile boarding pass on supported devices. In our iOS app you can download them all in one simple tap.

If Customers are spaced out in the line, then a prompt will appear to remind Customers to board in their assigned order. The ability to grab passes for all Customers in mobile web should help greatly in this split line situation as you can access a pass even without the app.

 

You can learn more about this new enhancement in this Knowledge Base article.

 

A few other mobile updates:

  • We have added a digital feedback tool to our mobile apps.  Look for it under the global nav.  We'll be using this to better gauge your feedback on our experiences even more in the future.
  • We're testing enhancements to our shopping pages in our iOS apps.  Not all Customers will see the tested experiences but if you see something new and different, that's why.

 

Changes to www.southwest.com Full Site Only - not yet on our mobile website

 

Starting on Feb 6, you can now edit your Known Traveler Number if already on your reservation on the desktop version of www.southwest.com.

 

You can use this in cases where TSA Precheck did not show as expected on your reservation.  Just retype in your KTN and check-in again to see if that fixes the issue.  If not, feel free to use the in-app chat for logged-in Customers with the app or call or email us.  Precheck eligibility is determined by the TSA so it may not always show even if you provides the correct KTN.

 

We are adding that feature to the mobile website and our apps in the next few months.

Changes to our Inflight Portal

Our inflight entertainment has been refreshed for February 2020.  Check out Kiran's post to learn more.

 

We’re also doing some optimization testing to the inflight portal homepage with copy and treatment of some elements.  This helps us improve the experience for you.

 

Other recent changes

You can now lookup your unusued funds in your account.  Starting December 3, 2019, if you include your Rapid Rewards number in your flight reservation, you will be able to view available travel funds from unused tickets, tickets cancelled in accordance with the No Show Policy, or tickets which have a residual balance.

 

Other things we are working on

We are adding an Unused Funds quick link to our mobile experiences in March.  If you are on a mobile device you can bookmark this link to access it while on the go.  

 

We're working to improve the e-mail us page to be more mobile friendly so it is even easier to reach out to a friendly Southwest Employee.  Look for it to launch in the next few months.

 

We are aware of the desire to bring back an improved route map.  We are currently scoping out those improvements.


We're also working on some fun new enhancements to our low fare calendar coming up soon.  

 

Hope you all enjoy the new capabilities in our Digital expereinces.   Please do let me know if you think this information is helpful.   As always, thanks so much for your support of Southwest!

 

-Mark Hursh

Marketing Director of Digital Customer Platforms

Southwest Airlines

1 REPLY 1

Re: February 2020 Website and App Updates

MarkHursh
Employee
Employee

Hi All,

 

I left one item out from my original post.

 

Starting on Feb 6, you can now edit your Known Traveler Number if already on your reservation on the desktop version of www.southwest.com.

 

You can use this in cases where TSA Precheck did not show as expected on your reservation.  Just retype in your KTN and check-in again to see if that fixes the issue.  If not, feel free to use the in-app chat for logged-in Customers with the app or call or email us.  Precheck application is determined by the TSA so it may not always show even if you provides the correct KTN.

 

We are adding that feature to the mobile website and our apps in the next few months.