Southwest Airlines: Travel App

Review by eFreeware

Booking a trip usually means juggling several tabs: one for the flight, another for the hotel, a third for the rental car, and a confirmation email somewhere in between. The Southwest Airlines app, from Southwest Airlines itself, is an attempt to fold that whole process into a single place, and it has been doing so for a long time, having first appeared back in November 2010.

It is a free download in the Travel & Local category, and it covers more ground than a simple flight-booking tool. Flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises and full vacation packages all live inside it, along with the day-of-travel details that matter once you have actually booked something.

The app has been installed more than 10 million times and holds a 4.4 average from over 166,000 ratings, which suggests a large, fairly settled user base. The developer describes a recent update with a refreshed look, tidier navigation and a reworked day-of-travel experience, so the current version is not simply the one people downloaded years ago.

Built for Southwest regulars and package bookers

The clearest audience here is anyone who already flies Southwest and wants their bookings, boarding passes and flight details in one app rather than spread across emails and screenshots. If Southwest is your usual airline, the app is effectively the front door to your account, your trips and your points.

The second group is travelers who like to buy a vacation as a bundle. Getaways by Southwest lets you put flights, hotels and rental cars together in a single package, and the in-app widget searches packages across more than 30 destinations, with Las Vegas, Hawaii and Cancun among the examples the developer gives. Someone planning a resort week rather than a bare flight has a reason to keep the app installed between trips.

Rapid Rewards members get a further nudge. Points can be earned and redeemed on qualifying Southwest purchases, flights, hotel bookings and vacation travel, and if you forget to add your number while booking, the app lets you attach it afterward so the trip still counts.

I would not treat this as a general-purpose travel search tool for comparing every airline and hotel on the market. It is built around Southwest's own inventory and its loyalty program, and it makes most sense to people who are already inside that ecosystem.

Booking flights, hotels and rental cars in one place

The core of the app is booking and managing air travel. From the My Trips tab you can book a flight, adjust or cancel it afterwards, and pay for add-ons like Priority Boarding. That tab is where the app keeps the practical detail of a trip: gate information, boarding position, flight status and the rest of what you need on the day.

Hotel booking sits alongside the flight side rather than behind it. You can book a hotel through the app, check in to it there, manage the reservation and browse deals for destinations you might visit later.

For packages, the developer lists a notably generous change window: travel can be changed or canceled up to 10 minutes before the originally scheduled departure, subject to the terms attached to the Getaways program. That flexibility is one of the more distinctive things about booking a bundle here, though the refund mechanics depend on how far ahead you act and on supplier penalties.

Boarding passes, flight status and day-of-travel tools

The app's strongest practical case is the travel day itself. It works as a mobile boarding pass for everyone on your trip, available 24 hours in advance, which saves you from printing anything or digging through a confirmation email at the gate. Boarding passes can also be saved to Google Wallet, so they stay reachable without opening the app again.

Flight status is handled in the same place, along with travel alerts, gate information and your boarding position. Your flight and booking references, when you board, your status level and TSA PreCheck information sit in one place instead of being spread around, which helps when a gate changes and you are on the move.

The developer has also reworked the day-of-travel experience in a recent update, alongside a new look and improved navigation. That is the part of the app most people touch most often, so attention there is well placed.

Inflight entertainment and connectivity limits

Once you are on board, the app acts as a route into the Inflight Entertainment Portal, where free live TV, on-demand episodes and movies are available. It is a nice bonus for a flight of any length, and it costs nothing extra beyond having the app on your device.

There are conditions attached, and they are worth reading before you count on them. The entertainment is available only where it is offered and only on WiFi-enabled designated aircraft. On international flights with WiFi, licensing restrictions mean free live TV may not run for the whole flight.

Messaging on board is narrower than people often assume: it covers iMessage and WhatsApp, and both need to be downloaded and activated before you connect to the onboard WiFi. If your usual way of keeping in touch is something else, plan around that before you fly.

What the app costs and where the ads fit

The download is free, and the app does not offer in-app purchases. It does contain ads. I would set expectations accordingly: this is a free app rather than a paid product with a clean, ad-free presentation.

Money still changes hands inside the app, of course, because that is what booking flights, hotels, cars and packages involves. Those are travel purchases rather than app purchases, and the Rapid Rewards program has its own rules and terms that apply to earning and redeeming points.

For anyone weighing it up, the honest framing is that the app itself costs nothing. Whether that bothers you depends on how much time you spend in booking screens versus how quickly you want to reach a boarding pass.

How it compares with other ways to book

The obvious alternative is booking directly through a browser on the airline's website, which gives you a larger screen but loses the convenience of a boarding pass sitting on your phone. For a simple round trip booked at a desk, the website is perfectly adequate; for a trip you are managing while moving, the app has the edge.

Another option is a general travel platform that aggregates many airlines and hotel chains in one search. Those are better if your priority is comparing carriers and properties across the market, whereas this app is built around Southwest's own flights, hotels and packages. The two approaches answer different questions.

A dedicated hotel booking service or a rental car company's own app will go deeper on that one category. The case for Southwest's app is breadth within a single trip and a single loyalty account, not depth in any one travel category.

Finally, there is the paper-and-email approach: book online, print what you need, and keep confirmations in your inbox. It works, but it is precisely the friction that a mobile boarding pass, saved to Google Wallet and available 24 hours ahead, is designed to remove.

A worthwhile install for Southwest travelers

The Southwest Airlines app is a free, ad-supported companion for people who fly Southwest and want bookings, boarding passes, flight status and points in one place. It covers flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises and vacation packages, and it handles the day-of-travel details that make the difference between a calm airport experience and a scramble.

The caveats are straightforward. Ads are part of the deal, the app is centered on Southwest's own inventory and loyalty program rather than the wider travel market, and the inflight entertainment and messaging features come with aircraft and app-specific conditions. None of that undermines the core booking and boarding-pass functions.

If you fly Southwest with any regularity, or you are putting together a package vacation through Getaways, this is an easy app to keep on your phone. If you rarely fly the airline and mostly compare options across carriers, its focus will feel narrower than you need.

What's new in version 13.20.0

We’ve updated our app with a fresh look and feel, optimized our navigation, and introduced a new enhanced day of travel experience.