As I have mentioned in the past, I’m not really a fan of aggregators.  Unfortunately, many companies make you book your travel through providers such as Egencia, American Express, or Concur.  I’ve used Egencia for the past several years with my employers.  Since Southwest isn’t aggregator friendly, the experience isn’t always the best but it has improved some.  I’d prefer to be able to book my travel directly through SWABIZ, but I haven’t had a company let me do that yet.

Depending on how your company has set up Egencia, Southwest rates may or may not show up in the general rate search.  If they don’t show up, the trick is to choose them manually in the Airline selector before you request the rate.

Select Southwest in the Airline list on Egencia.

TSA Precheck

When it comes to TSA Precheck, the first step is to add your TSA Known Traveler Number to My Profile -> TSA Secure Flight.  Unfortunately, this does not work with reservations booked with Southwest right now.  What happens is that this number gets written into your reservation number as a TSA Redress Number instead.  That doesn’t help you.  As a result, when you go to check in and print your boarding pass, TSA Pre will not be on your boarding pass.

So how do you get TSA Precheck to work when this happens?  Unfortunately, you have to call Southwest (1-800-I-FLY-SWA).  Give them a call and ask them to add your TSA Known Traveler number to your reservation.  Many agents will just add it for you.  Some will ask you to provide the number to them.  That sucks I know, but that’s about the only solution right now.  It beats going through the regular line though.

Setting this value in your profile works with other airlines such as American, Delta, and United, etc.  However, as you Southwest flyers know, they just got TSA Precheck a few months ago.   I suspect, it will work eventually through Egencia, but who knows.  I submitted a request through the Contact form, I’ll post updates as I hear them.