I recently wrote about booking my first Southwest flight in years. Ironically, I’ve had to book another Southwest flight just this week, and it’s for travel next week – before what was to be my first Southwest flight since 2012. Being a business trip, this one was booked by my company travel agent. Unlike every other airline, you can’t pre-add your frequent traveler number when company travel books a Southwest flight, they advise you to call. Not believing that there wasn’t some way to do this online, I searched around Southwest.com, looked at the “My Account” page, and found a quick link menu which had the option to “Add Rapid Rewards Number”.
That was easy enough, but my primary concern was getting my Known Traveler Number (KTN) attached to my reservation. My Rapid Rewards profile contains my KTN, but unlike the other airlines I fly most, Delta and American, you can’t see that your KTN is attached to your reservation online. I decided to pick up the phone and give Southwest a call. As I suspected, my KTN did not transmit from my company travel provider, and adding the Rapid Rewards number did not bring it over either. The agent kindly added it, and we were good to go.
After some judicious “Googling” I found Southwest’s website page on PreCheck, as well as this thread on FlyerTalk. The Southwest site explained pretty clearly that I’d need to be logged into my Rapid Rewards account for their system to pick up my KTN, and the FlyerTalk thread contained helpful info on the Southwest PreCheck experiences of fellow travelers. The conversation from others who use corporate booking tools to arrange their Southwest travel was informative as well.
My first lesson in flying Southwest again came before I even get to the airport. I’m sure I’ll be learning more in the next few weeks.
-MJ, February 12, 2015
[…] I’m not surprised that American scored well. They seem highly engaged on Twitter hand have been good about responding to my own questions the handful of times I’ve broached an issue via Twitter. I can’t really speak to United. Delta, on the other hand, will engage at times but that usually comes from the @DeltaAssist team as opposed to the main @Delta handle. Southwest’s Twitter team, while not mentioned in the article, recently responded to a blog I wrote, reaching out to help with an issue I raised. […]
Come on, MJ, can’t you just “add” your FF number, rather than PRE-adding it? Or is that Southern speak?
It’s southern speak for sure. 😀
Hi Marshall,
Just wanted to chime in here because I am a corporate travel agent. You absolutely can add both your KTN and Rapid Rewards number at the time of booking. Your travel management service should be doing this everytime before they issue the ticket through Southwest. That being said, if the KTN was not added or not linked to your Rapid Rewards number during the initial booking process then this would necessitate a call to Southwest as they are the only ones who can add it at that point.
@Mike,
Thanks so much for your comments. After running it down, getting the Rapid Rewards number and KTN in for WN bookings is an issue unique to my employers booking tool. Even though the traveler can enter it on the booking site, the information does not transmit to WN. The problem is on our side, not there’s….at least that’s what I’m told. For the time being, the only solution is to call….for me. ^MJ