southwest.com Privacy Policy
Southwest Airlines is concerned about your right to privacy. When you visit the Southwest Airlines web site, you can be assured that any information you provide to us will be handled with great care according to the standards outlined below.
Information Collection & Use
MySouthwest®, SWABiz Traveler Accounts, and Rapid Rewards Registration
You are not required to establish a MySouthwest® account (also referred to as a SWABiz Traveler account for the users of our SWABiz web site designed for corporate use) to use this web site. If you would like to take advantage of the conveniences available to you with special MySouthwest® features, you must first complete the MySouthwest® registration form and create an account number and password. During registration, you are required to provide contact information (such as name and email address). We use this information to contact you about the services on our site in which you have expressed interest. It is also necessary for you to provide date of birth. We use this information to help ensure the security of your account.
Additionally, you have the option to provide demographic information (such as whether you are a college student age 18 to 23) and travel preferences to us; we encourage you to submit this information so we can provide you a more personalized experience on our site and deliver valuable travel offers.
If you do not already have a Rapid Rewards account, you can easily establish one as part of the registration process. Electing to establish a Rapid Rewards account will enroll you in the Southwest Airlines frequent flyer program and give you the opportunity to earn free award travel by flying with Southwest Airlines and/or doing business with our Rapid Rewards Preferred Partners.
Purchases
If you purchase a product or service from us, we request certain personally identifiable information from you during the purchase process. You must provide contact information (such as name, phone number, e-mail, and mailing address) and financial information (such as credit card number and expiration date) in order to complete a purchase.
We use this information for billing purposes and to fill your orders. If we have trouble processing an order, we will use this information to contact you.
Social Security Numbers
We do not require your social security number to create a MySouthwest® account or make a purchase. You do have the option to provide the last four digits of your social security number when you establish a Rapid Rewards account. This information will help us to better maintain the security of your account.
Contests or Surveys
From time-to-time we may provide you the opportunity to participate in surveys or contests on our site. If you participate, we will request certain personally identifiable information from you. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and shipping address) and demographic information (such as zip code).
We use this information to update contest participants, notify contest winners, and award prizes and improve the site experience for our Customers (in the case of anonymous information collected in surveys).
We often use a third party service provider to conduct these surveys or contests; these companies are prohibited from using our users’ personally identifiable information for any other purpose. We will not share the personally identifiable information you provide through a contest or survey with other third parties unless we give you prior notice and choice.
Customer Communications
Post Purchase e-mail Communication
When you make a reservation with us, we will send you a confirmation e-mail that includes the details of your purchase if you provide your e-mail address during the purchase process. If you provide your e-mail during the purchase process, we may also use this information to contact you about service-related information in connection with your purchase, to request your feedback on our service and/or your specific travel experience, and to send you pre-trip promotional information about your destination. We will not use this e-mail address for other promotional purposes without your consent.
e-Mail Special Offers and Updates
As a Member of MySouthwest® and/or the Rapid Rewards program, you have the option of opting to receive the following e-mail communication either during the MySouthwest® registration process or from your MySouthwest® account preferences. The default option is not to receive the e-mail communication, so you need to proactively indicate you desire to receive the communication if you are interested in the associated news and special offers.
| e-mails | Description | Subscribe | Unsubscribe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Click 'n Save e-mail Updates/My Southwest Offers | Weekly updates on special offers and promotions. | Subscribe | Unsubscribe |
| Rapid Rewards e-mail Updates | Rapid Rewards news and offers for Members only | Subscribe | Unsubscribe |
We also provide you with the option of subscribing to our Click ‘n Save e-mail updates without establishing a MySouthwest® account. If you are no longer interested in receiving Click ‘n Save e-mails and you do not have a MySouthwest® account, you may unsubscribe from the service by clicking on the unsubscribe link above.
Other e-Mail Communication
| e-mails | Description | Subscribe | Unsubscribe |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWABIZ Corporate Travel Manager e-mail Updates | News related to SWABIZ, Southwest's Business Travel web site. For registered Corporate Travel Managers only. | Contact your Area Marketing Manager. | Contact your Area Marketing Manager. |
| SWAMEDIA and Investor Relations e-mail Alerts | Southwest Airlines news releases and investor information. | Subscribe | Unsubscribe |
Promotional Mailings
As a Southwest Customer, MySouthwest® Member, or Rapid Rewards Member, you may receive periodic promotional postal mailings from Southwest Airlines and/or our select marketing partners. If you do not wish to receive such promotional mailings, you may call Customer Relations Rapid Rewards at 214-792-4223 (option 2).
Informational Newsletters
We currently send non-promotional e-mail to our Rapid Rewards Members to make account and award status notifications, communicate program updates, and to communicate other program-related information. You may opt-out of these communications, which are informational in nature, by electing to provide only a postal address without also providing an e-mail address.
Service-related Announcements
As a Member or subscriber of one of our Customer programs, we will send you strictly service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our web site is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an e-mail. You may not opt-out of these communications, which are informational in nature.
Customer Service
Based upon the personally identifiable information you provide us during the MySouthwest® registration process, we will send you a welcoming e-mail to verify your interest in becoming a Member and to validate your account number and password. When you elect to become a Rapid Rewards Member and complete your first activity to earn credits, we will send you a new member kit. We may also use this information to communicate with you about select Customer service issues.
Customer Profile
Site Usage Profile
We store information that we collect through cookies and log files to create a “profile” of your preferences. We do not tie your personally identifiable information and your purchasing history to information in the profile. We also do not share your profile with third parties.
Supplementation of Information
We may on occasion supplement the personal information you submitted to us with information from third party sources.
Address Verification
We use a third party to verify your address in order to ensure we maintain the accuracy of our database.
Enhancement of Profile Information
We purchase marketing data from third parties and add it to our existing user database, to better target our advertising and to provide pertinent offers in which we think you would be interested. To enrich our Profiles of individual customers, we tie this information to the personally identifiable information they have provided to us.
Information Sharing and Disclosure
Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)
We share aggregated demographic information about our Customer base with our partners and advertisers. This information does not identify individual users. We do not link such aggregate user data with personally identifiable information.
Personally Identifiable Information
We share personally identifiable information from our MySouthwest® and/or Rapid Rewards registrations with third parties as follows:
Company-Agents
We use outside companies to fulfill orders for Rapid Rewards credits, select travel products, and payment processing companies to bill you for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any other purposes.
Product and Service Suppliers
Third party service and product suppliers may fulfill your travel reservations or product purchases. We do not share your email address with these suppliers unless they need it in connection with travel reservations you have made on southwest.com, and we restrict their use of this information to that purpose. We do not limit our suppliers' use or disclosure of your other personal information. Therefore, we encourage you to review the privacy policies of any supplier whose products you purchase through southwest.com. These suppliers also may contact you as necessary to obtain additional information about you or to deliver against your travel reservation.
Rapid Rewards Preferred Partners
Occasionally, we provide personally identifiable Customer contact information of our Rapid Rewards Members to our Rapid Rewards Preferred Partners. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any purpose other than approved marketing offers.
Other Third Parties
We also use third parties for professional services that help us to serve you better. Although we occasionally disclose your personally identifiable information to such third parties, they are not permitted to use the information for any purpose other than to provide services to the Company.
Legal Disclaimer
We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process.
Log Files and Cookies
We use a third-party tracking service that uses cookies and log files to track non-personally identifiable information about visitors to our site in aggregate.
We do not link automatically-collected data to personally identifiable information.
Log Files
As is true of most web sites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data.
We use this information, which does not identify individual users, to analyze aggregate trends, to administer the site, to track users’ movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.
Cookies
A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. We use cookies on this site. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site.
We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. We use session cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our site. A session ID cookie expires when you close you browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser’s “help” file.
We set a persistent cookie to store your account number, so you don’t have to enter it each time you want to log-in to your MySouthwest® account. Persistent cookies also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.
If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some areas of our site will be limited and we will not be able to provide you with the most convenient experience.
Links to Other Sites
This web site contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by Southwest Airlines Co. Please be aware that we, Southwest Airlines Co., are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites.
We encourage you to be aware when you leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies only to information collected by this web site.
Bulletin Boards/Chat Rooms/Photo Galleries
If you use a bulletin board, chat room, or photo gallery on this site, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums.
Personally Identifiable Information Changes
If your personally identifiable information changes or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct or update the information from your MySouthwest® account or by contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below. If you want to deactivate your account, please contact us at the contact information listed below.
Your Online Password
Your MySouthwest® online password is unique to your account and is designed to protect your account from unauthorized use. Southwest Airlines will not be responsible for any lost, stolen, or otherwise disclosed passwords. Additionally, Southwest Airlines will not replace or reinstate any flight credits, partner credits, or program awards that are generated or redeemed by unauthorized password activity. Accordingly, your password should be guarded and not provided to anyone.
Security
We use Network Security Services (NSS) to protect your billing information. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypts information and keeps the data private and confidential between your machine and Southwest Airlines. This technology makes it safe to transmit your credit card number over the Internet.
Look for two security icons, the "s" after "http" in the address line and the lock in the top menu bar and bottom status bar of your browser in Netscape (or in the bottom status bar only in Internet Explorer).
We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it.
Business Transitions
In the event Southwest Airlines Co. goes through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your personally identifiable information will likely be among the assets transferred.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please click here (http://www.southwest.com/help/luvbook.html) to contact us.
Updated: April 12, 2007
