All About SWABIZ, Southwest Airlines’ Corporate Booking Platform

Southwest Airlines has long been known for its laser-like focus on the customer experience. The airline offers every eligible company no matter how small, a point of entry to its corporate travel program with SWABIZ. SWABIZ is Southwest's free, self-service booking tool, accompanying Rapid Rewards Business, Southwest’s corporate rewards program for businesses of all sizes. When your company is signed up for SWABIZ, your travelers can book business travel on Southwest.com^Ⓡ, on the Southwest app and through your corporate online booking tool (OBT) and travel management company (TMC).

In this guide, we'll teach you what you need to know about SWABIZ, find out how you can sign up for SWABIZ, and help you discover whether the program is right for you and your team.

understanding swabiz and your small business travel program

In this guide, you'll learn:

• An overview of Southwest Airlines' corporate booking platform, SWABIZ
• The differences between SWABIZ and Rapid Rewards Business
• What benefits SWABIZ offers small businesses
• How you can sign your company up for SWABIZ
• How your company can book flights using SWABIZ
• The requirements for joining SWABIZ
• Whether SWABIZ is a fit for your company

What is swabiz?

SWABIZ is Southwest’s free-to-join corporate travel management platform. The airline positions SWABIZ as a business travel program, offering companies and business travelers a convenient platform to manage bookings, track expenses, and access exclusive perks. Designed with the needs of corporate travelers in mind, SWABIZ allows your travelers to track their flights, and manage bookings in one central location.

Businesses can also apply to  Rapid Rewards^Ⓡ Business, which allows your company to participate in a more traditional points program. In order to enroll in Rapid Rewards Business, your company must have an active SWABIZ account and be approved via an online application. 

What is the difference between swabiz and rapid rewards business?

SWABIZ is Southwest’s free self-service corporate booking tool with basic reports and account management, while Rapid Rewards Business is Southwest’s corporate rewards program that awards Rapid Rewards Business points to companies on their team’s Southwest bookings for work. You can read more about Rapid Rewards Business here.

What are some of the benefits of swabiz for my business?

• Your team can book and manage Southwest Airlines tickets all in one place, including Southwest.com, the Southwest app, and over the phone with Southwest’s reservations team. SWABIZ offers the same everyday low fares as Southwest.com.
• Primary Partner Service: The benchmark Southwest Hospitality experience available to all business customers.
• Your travelers can book for themselves or you (or another coordinator) can book for them
• Utilizes a unique “Ghost Card” payment option that allows your travelers to securely pay for their travel without needing to share your card information with everyone
• No fees for transactions, setup or management
• Basic reporting tools to help you track expenses and travel funds, plus duty of care capabilities that include a basic (not real time) traveler tracking report with traveler contact information for day of travel
• Meetings: Invite 25 or more event attendees to book their own travel with discounted fares (whether booking through SWABIZ or your TMC or OBT) and plan group travel for ten or more travelers on the same flight.

How swabiz works

how can i sign up for swabiz?

Enrolling in SWABIZ is simple and straightforward. You or your travel agency can visit the SWABIZ website and sign up for an account by completing the online application. Once registered, users gain access to the platform's suite of features, including booking tools, expense tracking, and account management functionalities:

1. Register with your company details. You’ll need the legal business name, business designation (corporation or travel agency), address, postal code, email, phone number and U.S. federal tax ID number.
2. When you register, you become your account’s Primary Admin. You’ll administer the SWABIZ account as the Company’s representative. 
3. You can add as many Travel Managers as you’d like to help maintain your business’s account. 
4. Once you complete the enrollment process, your company will be assigned a unique SWABIZ Company ID.
5. Employees already enrolled in Rapid Rewards can log in to SWABIZ under the Traveler tab with your Company ID and their personal Rapid Rewards number. There they can easily book travel for themselves, or on Southwest.com or the Southwest app with their SWABIZ-linked Rapid Rewards number.

how can i book flights with swabiz?

In order to book flights with SWABIZ on Southwest.com or the Southwest mobile app, your travelers should log into SWABIZ on desktop using your company ID number, their personal Rapid Rewards^Ⓡ account number, and their Rapid Rewards password. This will link their Traveler account to your company account, and you’ll be able to start booking on their behalf and enable ghost card access. 

Once an employee is registered, they will simply log in to SWABIZ under the Traveler tab with your Company ID and their personal Rapid Rewards number. There they can easily book travel for themselves on mobile or desktop. They can also book on Southwest.com and the Southwest app when logged into their SWABIZ-linked personal Rapid Rewards number, just toggle on the “Book with SWABIZ account.”

Companies and their travelers can also book with their preferred OBT and TMC. Simply share your SWABIZ Company ID with your TMC to be loaded into their system and applied to your whole team’s Southwest bookings.

does my company qualify for swabiz?

Yes! Any business can sign up for free as long as you meet this criteria:

1. Are based in the United States
2. Have a valid federal tax ID (U.S.) or business number (CA) (required at registration)

is swabiz right for my company?

Sure. Whether your company books through an OBT and TMC or directly with Southwest, whether your company books a lot of Southwest or a little, SWABIZ plus Rapid Rewards Business is a good addition to your program.

SWABIZ offers customers booking Southwest flights frequently for their employees a convenient, central location with some exclusive deals through Rapid Rewards Business. SWABIZ also offers more robust reporting tools and expense tracking than most other airlines. However, you don’t get extra miles for the company (that’s through Rapid Rewards Business), and online support is more of the self-service business model, prioritized over phone or live agent support. 

If you’re looking for more flight options, cost savings and benefits than one airline can give you, you may want to consider a travel booking platform like AmTrav. AmTrav can administer your SWABIZ program along with other airline programs and travel partners.

How do amtrav's services compare to swabiz?

AmTrav is a complete software and service solution for managing your travel, offering the robust online tools and expert human service you need to book, control, measure and change all your travel – in one, centralized location. AmTrav clients’ employees love to use our powerful booking platform to book their flights, accommodation and car rentals - all in one place.

With AmTrav you will:

• Get all the benefits of using your SWABIZ and Rapid Rewards Business accounts – nice! Plus, with AmTrav you get an expert, dedicated AmTrav Relationship Manager who helps you set up and get the most benefits from SWABIZ along with all your other corporate programs.
• Book all your flights, hotels and car rentals in one place, with access to the lowest fares and one-click unused tickets to save an extra 6% on airfare. You can change your whole booking online at once, and of course travelers earn miles and loyalty points on every eligible booking with participating airlines.
• Set travel policies to guide bookers to find flights, hotels and car rentals that work for them and for the company, with optional pre-trip approvals. Also manage your user access and invite guests to book themselves.
• Track your spending, your travelers’ locations, your policy compliance, your CO2 emissions and more with AmTrav’s 25+ reports 
• Your travelers can count on expert assistance from AmTrav’s all-employee Travel Advisors who are ready to help 24x7.

Here's the comparison in a chart:

bottom line

If your company books most of your travel on Southwest Airlines, SWABIZ offers entry level access to Southwest’s corporate travel programs, and can help you better track and manage your flights, and  occasionally earn exclusive deals. But if your company needs to book, control and see more than just Southwest Airlines tickets, book a consultation to learn how AmTrav can make managing your whole travel program easier.

About AmTrav: Through one simple technology and services platform, AmTrav helps travelers be more productive and connected, empowering companies and their people to go places, meet people and grow further. AmTrav customers enjoy integrated travel booking, travel spend reporting, traveler tracking, and 24x7 expert human support, reducing obstacles, complexity and cost so they get the full value of their business travel. Learn more or reach out for a one-on-one consultation today.