How to Fill Out and Submit the Southwest Cargo Shipment Request Form

The Southwest Cargo Shipment Request Form is the online booking tool at ship.swacargo.com that reserves space for air freight on Southwest Airlines flights. Before you can submit one, you need an active Southwest Cargo account with online booking access, and for anything traveling on a passenger aircraft, TSA Known Shipper status. The form itself asks for shipper and consignee contacts, piece count, weight, dimensions, a commodity code, and a service level, and returns a booking reference you carry to the cargo facility.

What You Need Before You Can Book

Two prerequisites gate the form.

First, the account. Fill out the cargo customer account application on the Southwest Cargo Forms and Applications page.¹ Once that customer account is approved, request online booking access on top of it. Online booking currently covers Next Flight Guaranteed shipments up to 750 pounds, up to ten days in advance.² The booking application is hosted on a third-party platform (Hangar A), and Southwest recommends using the direct link on its Forms and Applications page if the button on the main site misbehaves.

Second, TSA Known Shipper status. Under 49 CFR Part 1544, air carriers must verify that shippers are in the TSA’s Known Shipper program before accepting freight on passenger aircraft.³ You get approved by working through an air freight forwarder or Indirect Air Carrier that submits your company information to the TSA. The TSA uses Dun & Bradstreet records to verify your business history and financials, and Dun & Bradstreet may call your listed phone number to confirm details. Newer businesses without an established transaction record are more likely to be rejected on the first try. Once approved, you receive a unique identifier in the TSA’s Known Shipper Management System and renew annually. Relocating your business resets the status; you reapply through your service provider.

Choosing a Service Level

The form asks you to pick a service tier. That choice sets your cutoff at the facility, affects cost, and determines whether you have a flight guarantee.⁴

Next Flight Guaranteed (NFG): guaranteed on the next available flight or your money back. Cutoff is 45 minutes before departure. NFG shipments requiring more than one connection carry a reduced 50% service guarantee.
Southwest Standard: goes on the next flight with available space, no guaranteed flight assignment. Cutoff is 90 minutes before departure.
Fresh Fast: for perishables like seafood, flowers, and produce. Cutoff is 45 minutes.
With Heart: dedicated service for funeral homes transporting human remains.
Life Sciences: for medical and pharmaceutical shipments with special handling needs.

Those cutoffs are minimums. If a station’s existing cutoff already exceeds 45 minutes, the longer time applies for NFG and Fresh Fast, so check your facility’s page before you head out.⁴

Online booking through the form is available for NFG shipments up to 750 pounds. For other service levels or heavier shipments, work directly with the cargo facility or Customer CARE.²

Size, Weight, and Content Limits to Check First

Measure and screen your cargo before you start typing. Every piece has hard limits set by the 737 cargo doors and bins, and they apply across the Southwest fleet (737-700, MAX7, -800, and MAX8) because Southwest cannot guarantee which aircraft flies a given route.⁵

Maximum weight per piece: 250 pounds including packaging. Seafood is capped at 175 pounds per piece.⁶
Cargo door opening: 48 by 35 inches, forward and aft. Your package cross-section must clear it.
Maximum piece length: 161 inches when traverse cargo nets are installed.
Interline through Hawaiian Airlines: maximum piece length drops to 120 inches due to containerization differences.

Southwest refuses several categories of goods outright. Confirm your shipment doesn’t include anything on the prohibited list before you book:⁷

Hazardous materials, with limited exceptions like dry ice and certain lithium batteries
Firearms
Live warm-blooded animals and poisonous or venomous live animals
Currency, precious metals, and jewelry (costume jewelry is allowed)
Furs and fur-trimmed clothing
Battery-powered vehicles of any kind, including e-bikes, hoverboards, Segways, uni-wheels, and gravity boards, regardless of battery type or whether the battery is installed
Sodium ion batteries (UN 3551 and UN 3552), suspended until further notice

Lithium batteries have their own carve-outs. Southwest accepts lithium ion and lithium metal batteries only when packed with or contained in equipment (UN3481 and UN3091), packaged per 49 CFR 173.185(c)(4) or Section II of the applicable IATA/ICAO packing instructions. Standalone lithium ion batteries (UN3480) are prohibited by Southwest policy, and standalone lithium metal batteries (UN3090) are forbidden on passenger aircraft under federal regulation.⁸ Damaged, defective, or recalled lithium batteries are never accepted.

For Fresh Fast shipments moving on dry ice, the maximum is 5.5 pounds per package in a ventilated container marked “DRY ICE” with the exact weight. No dry ice at all on international shipments.⁹

Hawaii routes add restrictions. Small animals including amphibians, insects, and reptiles are prohibited under commodity code 0188, and lithium batteries cannot be shipped on Hawaii routes at all.⁷

Filling In the Form

Once logged in, you enter the shipment details field by field.

Contact information goes in first: names, addresses, and phone numbers for both the shipper and the consignee. Double-check the consignee phone number. Southwest sends arrival notifications to it, and a wrong number means your recipient never knows the shipment landed.

For the cargo, enter total piece count, gross weight of each piece, and exact length, width, and height. These figures drive pricing and space allocation. Rounding or guessing can result in billing adjustments or delays at the counter when staff physically measure the shipment.

Select a commodity code describing what you’re shipping, whether electronics, perishable food, documents, or something else. The code determines special handling and flags additional restrictions. If the declared code doesn’t match what’s actually in the box, the facility can reject the shipment.

Payment

Southwest Cargo accepts one form of payment per shipment. Cash and checks are not accepted at any facility.¹⁰ Your options:

Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express
Debit cards, accepted at all facilities
Billable accounts. Add billing to your existing account with the Update Account Form, or apply for a new billable account online. Invoices are paid by wire or ACH only.

Shipments originating outside the U.S. are stricter: all payments must be prepaid through a Southwest Cargo Master Account. Credit cards, collect payments, and cash are not accepted for international origins.

After You Submit: Confirmation, Air Waybill, and Drop-Off

When you submit, the system validates your entries and returns a booking confirmation with a reference number. Save it. You’ll need it at the facility.

The booking confirmation is not your Air Waybill. The Air Waybill is the actual contract of carriage between you and Southwest Cargo, and you’re responsible for a completed one when you arrive.¹¹ Southwest recommends filling out a universal Air Waybill before you leave to save time at the counter.¹² It must be signed by the shipper or an authorized agent.

Find your nearest facility through the locator on swacargo.com. Both the Air Waybill transaction and the physical inspection of your cargo must be complete before the posted cutoff, not just in progress. The person delivering the cargo must present a government-issued photo ID.¹³ Bring the completed Air Waybill, your booking reference, and your payment method. Miss the cutoff and your shipment moves to a later flight.

Tracking and Pickup

Once accepted, the shipment tracks in real time on Southwest Cargo’s tracking page by airline code and eight-digit Air Waybill number. You can watch up to ten shipments at once, or search by account number.¹⁴

Southwest sends an arrival notification to the consignee when the cargo reaches the destination facility. The consignee then has 48 hours of free storage, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays.¹¹ After that, storage fees apply per Southwest’s accessorial fee schedule, and the shipment may be released to a third-party warehouse at the carrier’s discretion.

Declaring Value and Filing a Claim

Southwest Cargo’s default liability for lost, damaged, or delayed freight is $0.50 per pound of shipment weight. For anything valuable, declare an excess value on the Air Waybill at the time of tender. The charge is $1.00 per $100.00 of declared value.¹¹ You cannot declare excess value after the shipment has left the facility.

Claim deadlines are tight:¹⁵

Visible damage or loss: report in writing to Customer CARE immediately when you receive the shipment.
Concealed damage: report in writing to Southwest Cargo at the destination airport within 30 days of delivery.
Failure to deliver: file a written claim within 120 days of the date the shipment was accepted.

If an NFG or Fresh Fast shipment misses its guaranteed service window, request a refund of the shipping charges using the service failure form on the Forms and Applications page.¹

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Southwest Cargo. Forms and Applications
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Southwest Cargo. Online Booking
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eCFR. 49 CFR Part 1544 – Aircraft Operator Security: Air Carriers and Commercial Operators
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Southwest Cargo. Products
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Southwest Cargo. Cargo Bin Capacities
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Southwest Cargo. Packaging
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Southwest Cargo. Content Restrictions
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Southwest Cargo. Lithium Battery Guidelines
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Southwest Cargo. Perishables
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Southwest Cargo. Charges and Payments
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Southwest Airlines. Southwest Airlines Co. Cargo Contract of Carriage
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Southwest Cargo. How to Ship
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Southwest Cargo. Frequently Asked Questions
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Southwest Cargo. Track
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Southwest Cargo. File a Claim