Southwest Airlines: Travel App
United States
4.84★ from 7,185,408 ratings · version 13.19.0 · 24 of the last 56 written reviews are one or two starsSeat assignments randomly changed or reverted
3of the 24 read13%
App randomly changes selected seats back to middle seats or defaults, reverting customer selections even for elite members.
read 3 of these reviews
“Southwest changed my selected seat! — Not happy with how they randomly changed my seat assignment. We have the highest credit card and they still changed my seat from what I had carefully selected. I changed it back and hope it holds. Do better Southwest!” — ★★☆☆☆“Seat assignment — I got my seat assignment two days before check in and then when I checked it I was changed toy a middle seat. Not acceptable” — ★☆☆☆☆“Over it — I am so disappointed I have been with Southwest as a card member for many years. These changes are terrible. Being a card member had no real benefit to me. We were told we could pick our seat 48 hours in advance. But as I have just found out not anything in the front of the plane which was not disclosed.. I am seriously considering canceling this card and just going with another airline. The benefits here…” — ★☆☆☆☆
App does not save or remember flight information
3of the 24 read13%
App repeatedly asks for flight details and personal information instead of saving them, requiring re-entry every time.
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“Worst I’ve dealt with — Use American and Alaskan all the time. This buggy mess doesn’t save anything and keeps asking me for the info that having the app is supposed to provide. Get your head out of your backside” — ★☆☆☆☆“Charged but no seat upgrade — Doesn’t remember my trip info after I checked in and then logged in with my Rapid Rewards number. Also I paid for a seat upgrade… I got charged but the app said there's a technical difficulty so I don't have my seat upgrade, but the charge is on the card. Now I have to call in and get help clearing it out. App is much clunkier than Delta or AA. Thanks Southwest.” — ★★☆☆☆“App issues — Bad app that doesn’t show my booked flights - have to enter info in every time and not just via signing in” — ★☆☆☆☆
Charged for services not received or applied
3of the 24 read13%
Customers charged for seat upgrades or changes but fees taken without the upgrade appearing or being applied.
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“Upgrade — Took my money but didn’t change my seat option” — ★☆☆☆☆“Charged but no seat upgrade — Doesn’t remember my trip info after I checked in and then logged in with my Rapid Rewards number. Also I paid for a seat upgrade… I got charged but the app said there's a technical difficulty so I don't have my seat upgrade, but the charge is on the card. Now I have to call in and get help clearing it out. App is much clunkier than Delta or AA. Thanks Southwest.” — ★★☆☆☆“Check Bag Price Change between Quoted Price and Check-In Price — At ticket purchase, checked bag price showed $35. Now at check-in the check bag price increased to $45. I will have to bypass the Bag Tag Kiosk and discuss with Ticket Counter folks.” — ★☆☆☆☆
App errors prevent completing transactions
3of the 24 read13%
App shows errors, won't process bookings, throws technical difficulties, or fails to function properly.
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“No longer user friendly — I had to try 4 different times to book. The first two times it said the prices had changed and then there were no seats available unless I upgrade? Why are you charging for every little thing!?! Very frustrating!” — ★☆☆☆☆“The app is going downhill — The app is getting more and limited on what you can do. Even though I’m A List Preferred it won’t let me do same day standby anymore. Just errors out. Also just running into more errors when trying to do anything.” — ★★☆☆☆“Please do better, Southwest — Compared to the major airlines (American and Delta), Southwest’s app is solidly in the #3 spot. That saying a lot because American’s app is pretty bad. Even when Southwest’s app directions are followed to a “T” the app does not update. We are both known travelers with TSA pre-check, but the system will not add my husband after repeated attempts. Clearly we know how to do it since mine…” — ★☆☆☆☆
Checked baggage fees increased or not disclosed
3of the 24 read13%
Baggage charges are high, increased unexpectedly between purchase and check-in, or changed to paid when previously free.
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“Bag charge — Bag charge is why I’m going to cancel my sw credit card and seek out alternative airlines” — ★☆☆☆☆“Too expensive — I used to love Southwest, their pricing and ease of boarding. They’ve since become purely profit driven and squeezing as much as possible out of each passenger.” — ★★☆☆☆“Check Bag Price Change between Quoted Price and Check-In Price — At ticket purchase, checked bag price showed $35. Now at check-in the check bag price increased to $45. I will have to bypass the Bag Tag Kiosk and discuss with Ticket Counter folks.” — ★☆☆☆☆
Constant solicitations for seat and flight upgrades
3of the 24 read13%
App bombards users with relentless requests to upgrade seats, change flights, or pay for add-ons.
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“Worst Pay ever!! — This app is horrible not user friendly at all and super difficult even to a frequent flyer to use it with all the unnecessary updates.” — ★☆☆☆☆“Constant solicitation and no integration — Flying SW for the first time since they changed to reserved seating. The number of solicitations I received to upgrade or change flights or seats was ridiculous. And then I thought I’d try to book a rental car through the app and was extremely disappointed in the experience. Going through the app I would have expected the dates and flight information to be available or…” — ★☆☆☆☆“Online check in — No matter what I do, other than pay for a seat upgrade, I can’t seem to get an early boarding group assignment. Right at check-in, 24 hours prior to the flight, I check in and am in one of the last boarding groups.” — ★☆☆☆☆
Paid seat selection system unfair to loyal members
3of the 24 read13%
New reserved seating system charges for seat choice; elite members and frequent flyers get few benefits or front-row access restricted.
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“Help change seats — My wife and I flying on a trip both received a request to change flights for a benefit. We both tried to do it and one was accepted the other was not needed by then and got us separated. To deal with this we were required to pay additional money to get her on the same flight as me. Completely inappropriate to separate two passengers clearly flying together. Will never recommend SW and will be…” — ★☆☆☆☆“This was not ok — My flight was delayed 1.5 hours. This happens sometimes. What is NOT ok is to hide how late it was going to be. Second, I’m a SW credit card holder, a frequent flyer on SW. How do these things help me? They don’t. One of my employees was on the same flight, and he checked in an hour before the flight. They assigned him seat 1A! I checked in the day before my flight, right when I go the notice that I…” — ★☆☆☆☆“Anniversary Disaster — Stage IV Cancer survivor traveling to celebrate our wedding anniversary and had to pay extra to sit with my wife? This is why we will use up our points and quit flying going forward unless you go back to the old system. It’s garbage. Also hate the ljmit of one power bank pee person. We intent ld to take lots of photos and I have always safely taken more than one” — ★☆☆☆☆
Apple publishes the most recent written reviews, up to five hundred, and that is what was read — not a search for bad ones. Why so many of them are angry. The complaints above come from the 24 most recent negative ones. Newest review 3 days ago (05.09.2026), last collected 2 days ago.