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[justafigment27]

So, an update … Day 11 …

Got a call from a friendly gentleman from SWA this morning letting me know that 2 of my 3 bags were at GRR!!! I was so excited!

I drove over to collect them myself and everything was fine until I asked for an update on the third bag. The SWA employee working the computer in the luggage office clearly didn’t want to look up that third bag for me and was downright hostile … she acted like it was MY FAULT that I didn’t have the luggage and basically rage typed my information (pounding on the keyboard) and snapped at me several times. I was horrified! She was SO rude!

And the very best part was when, at the end of the interaction, I asked if they validated parking (it’s $2 for short term parking under 1 hour … between myself and my DH, this was the THIRD 100 mile round trip we’ve made to the baggage office from our home and the THIRD time we’ve paid that $2 fee, so I thought I’d ask) … and she snapped at me, “No we don’t! We have no way of doing that!”

Good freaking grief.

People are getting hundreds of dollars in Luv vouchers for baggage difficulties and I can’t even get a $2 parking fee covered!

So, I left. With my two bags … and a burning hatred for SWA. Basically, I spent 2.5 hours of my time, put 100 more miles on my car and paid $2 in parking fees for the privilege of retrieving 2/3 of the luggage I’ve been missing for 11 days. Thanks, SWA, you rock …

Oh, and my third bag is still in Orlando.

 

[nlenguyen]

I have been on the phone for almost 2 hours to work on this companion pass. I do hope everyone can find a CS representative to help them

 

[teawar]

I was surprised I received a 25,000 bonus point voucher for an interrupted flight on Christmas Eve that paid on cash. I have not received any bonus points for my daughter (my companion pass) or my husband who flew on points. All 3 of us were on different reservations. I’m honestly not expecting anything for them, but if I get bonus points, then great. Fortunately, our flight interruption was a minor delay rather than a cancellation. Just sharing our experience.

 

[BillFromCT]

I have been on the phone for almost 2 hours to work on this companion pass. I do hope everyone can find a CS representative to help them

Sorry to hear you had difficulties. I got my companion email around 8:30am EST yesterday, and was finally able to book without an error around 4:30pm. It was like trying to book a Disney ADR minus Donald ducking out or Stitch eating the page.

 

[nlenguyen]

Sorry to hear you had difficulties. I got my companion email around 8:30am EST yesterday, and was finally able to book without an error around 4:30pm. It was like trying to book a Disney ADR minus Donald ducking out or Stitch eating the page.

1 hour 57 minutes I get someone and they fixed it within 1 minute, phone call done. Good thing all I was doing was packing for our trip

 

[supersnoop]

drove over to collect them myself

Have you tried asking them to deliver the bags? Whenever my luggage has been delayed, the airline has always brought my bags to me. I’d make them drive the 100 miles.

 

[Tiggerette]

Have you tried asking them to deliver the bags? Whenever my luggage has been delayed, the airline has always brought my bags to me. I’d make them drive the 100 miles.

Luggage delivery is often through a third party service. There's a story of luggage being stolen/ mis-delivered due to poor service. I realize one story is like a few grains of sand on a large beach, but I think it's important to consider that it's probably not SW/Delta/AA/United, etc delivering the bags. If one is comfortable with that, then of course having them deliver makes more sense than paying extra for gas, tolls, wear/tear to go to the airport.

 

[Avery&Todd]

I have a question for all you SW experts!

Now that there are 4 ticket levels, Im trying to understand is there a reason (and better than, that's what I've always done) by purchasing the WGA fare vs. the Anytime fare...we always buy flights with points and then I pay OOP for EB



Since the points I use to purchase tickets for DH and I are in my account I dont really care about the WGA+ since I dont care about transferring flight credits to someone else...

Does the EB that comes with Anytime fares better/worse/the same as me purchasing EB with the WGA fare?

and I dont earn points with my flights since I buy them with points, right??

We have a trip to Vegas coming up in October and I'm trying to decide if it's better to just buy WGA and pay for EB or upgrade to Anytime...

and with this flight - I will probably use our 2 free/year upgrade boarding passes since they'll expire in December this year...and all flights we have between now and October are non-stops going to MCO and I can sit anywhere for an hour and a half..

Thanks!

 

[jcarwash]

Does the EB that comes with Anytime fares better/worse/the same as me purchasing EB with the WGA fare?

It's suppposed to be better. From the Southwest FAQ question about "Is there an order in which EarlyBird Check-In boarding positions are reserved?" the answer is: "Yes. Customers who have purchased Anytime fares receive priority over Customers who purchase EarlyBird Check-In with Wanna Get Away Plus and Wanna Get Away fares. Boarding positions are assigned based on the time stamp of the EarlyBird Check-In purchase relative to Passengers within the same fare product."

 

[EACarlson]

Cost, sometimes the spread between the two can be quite a bit bigger than what it costs for EBCI. I looked and for my route it's 6,200 points each way. If those points are 1.3 cents each that's $80. EBCI is only $25 each way. That's $55 difference.

 

[Avery&Todd]

It's suppposed to be better. From the Southwest FAQ question about "Is there an order in which EarlyBird Check-In boarding positions are reserved?" the answer is: "Yes. Customers who have purchased Anytime fares receive priority over Customers who purchase EarlyBird Check-In with Wanna Get Away Plus and Wanna Get Away fares. Boarding positions are assigned based on the time stamp of the EarlyBird Check-In purchase relative to Passengers within the same fare product."

oohhh...I had NOT seen that! *increases the level of pondering* - however, it does make me more likely for this trip to Vegas to just splurge and get Anytime fares with points..

 

[Avery&Todd]

Cost, sometimes the spread between the two can be quite a bit bigger than what it costs for EBCI. I looked and for my route it's 6,200 points each way. If those points are 1.3 cents each that's $80. EBCI is only $25 each way. That's $55 difference.

Yeah - I just looked at the latest (on the calendar) dates from RDU to LAS and it also looks like the difference in fare points is also ~6k points (x 2 for DH and I ) so that's about an extra 12k points...

to get a better boarding group would probably be worth it to me for the extra points..my DH is 6'4" and his ability to get on the plane earlier and get an exit row (especially for a longer-ish flight to Vegas...

Now, for a quickie non-stop to MCO not so much..

but I didnt realize that the EB linked to Anytime already gets a better boarding group than a WGA and EB....

Also, the last 2 years I had A-List so that also helped with boarding groups and that is now gone..

 

[justafigment27]

Have you tried asking them to deliver the bags? Whenever my luggage has been delayed, the airline has always brought my bags to me. I’d make them drive the 100 miles.

Oh, they will absolutely deliver bags. But the first two trips to the airport were to get information because nobody at SWA (over the phone or online) could give me any information on the status of my bags. The third trip was because I wanted my stinking bags back and IN MY HANDS … the last time I trusted SWA they went MIA for 11 days!

I’ll probably let them deliver the third bag if they ever find it … now on day 12.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I asked if they validate

No we don’t! We have no way of doing that!”

I can’t even get a $2 parking fee covered!

To be fair this would entirely depend on the airport. I don't think it's possible at my airport. Like I don't even think there's any way an airline can give any sort of parking validation. There's nothing to validate. I wouldn't hold this against them here unless your airport has this functionality. I know I know I'm sure in the moment you were just so dang frustrated. You'd basically be asking for the agent to give you $2 out of her pocket. Her demeanor I'm sure made the interaction worse but more than likely there really wasn't any way for her to do what you asked short of getting into her own wallet.

The various options at my home airport do have free parking under a certain amount of time. Like when I went to do my Global Entry appointment in October I could pay to park in the circle parking which would have been free if it was under a certain amount of time or go to Economy Parking also free under a certain amount of time. Circle Parking was full so I had to go to Economy and had free parking because it was under the time allotted but I would have had to pay for it if needed. In my case it took more time to get from Economy Parking lot to the Customs area than the appointment itself.

Oh, and my third bag is still in Orlando.

Ugh I am so sorry about that, if there's any silver lining at least so they say that is, it's there as opposed to missing entirely. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for you here that you get your other bag, I'm really sorry for all the mess you've had

 

[jkelly86]

I have a question for all you SW experts!

Now that there are 4 ticket levels, Im trying to understand is there a reason (and better than, that's what I've always done) by purchasing the WGA fare vs. the Anytime fare...we always buy flights with points and then I pay OOP for EB

View attachment 729993

Since the points I use to purchase tickets for DH and I are in my account I dont really care about the WGA+ since I dont care about transferring flight credits to someone else...

Does the EB that comes with Anytime fares better/worse/the same as me purchasing EB with the WGA fare?

and I dont earn points with my flights since I buy them with points, right??

We have a trip to Vegas coming up in October and I'm trying to decide if it's better to just buy WGA and pay for EB or upgrade to Anytime...

and with this flight - I will probably use our 2 free/year upgrade boarding passes since they'll expire in December this year...and all flights we have between now and October are non-stops going to MCO and I can sit anywhere for an hour and a half..

Thanks!

Aside from the better boarding position, I was on a flight today with a passenger who had his flight canceled last night due to weather on the west coast (his plane never made it to BWI). He could only be reaccomodated today in the fare class that he had purchased (WGA) so he ended up paying more to get on an almost sold out (then fully sold out) flight this afternoon. He would have otherwise ben required to wait for the next WGA fare available to his destination. He also had to pay for the BWI hotel out of pocket since it was a weather related cancellation. He looked into other airlines out of Reagan but it would have been even more $ plus an expensive Uber ride. This was enlightening to me about the fare class! I almost alway book WGA.

 

[EACarlson]

Aside from the better boarding position, I was on a flight today with a passenger who had his flight canceled last night due to weather on the west coast (his plane never made it to BWI). He could only be reaccomodated today in the fare class that he had purchased (WGA) so he ended up paying more to get on an almost sold out (then fully sold out) flight this afternoon. He would have otherwise ben required to wait for the next WGA fare available to his destination. He also had to pay for the BWI hotel out of pocket since it was a weather related cancellation. He looked into other airlines out of Reagan but it would have been even more $ plus an expensive Uber ride. This was enlightening to me about the fare class! I almost alway book WGA.

I'm going to assume that passenger was mistaken. That would be a violation of DOT regulations, carriers are required to rebook passengers on the next available flight to their destination in their class of service. Not their fare class. Since SW only has one class of service it should be last seat availability.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Aside from the better boarding position, I was on a flight today with a passenger who had his flight canceled last night due to weather on the west coast (his plane never made it to BWI). He could only be reaccomodated today in the fare class that he had purchased (WGA) so he ended up paying more to get on an almost sold out (then fully sold out) flight this afternoon. He would have otherwise ben required to wait for the next WGA fare available to his destination. He also had to pay for the BWI hotel out of pocket since it was a weather related cancellation. He looked into other airlines out of Reagan but it would have been even more $ plus an expensive Uber ride. This was enlightening to me about the fare class! I almost alway book WGA.

I was reading this trying to figure out what was actually going on.

If he voluntarily changed his flight the person would have to pay the fare difference between his original flight that he booked and the new flight with just WGA.

If SWA cancelled and rebooked him on another flight there would be no charge involved.

If I had to guess this was a miscommunication between the gate agent and the passenger. I could see the gate agent trying to explain Boarding Position and maybe trying to explain either purchasing a Business Select fare ticket or Upgraded Boarding while they accomplish the same thing (getting Boarding Positions A1-A15) they are very different pricing. Upgraded Boarding would only be available on the flight the passenger was booked on whereas purchasing a Business Select fare could have been for a different flight entirely. This is the only thing I can come up with based on what you've mentioned and with you saying a nearly sold out flight.

Regardless it wouldn't be true that he would have had to wait until another flight with WGA fare class tickets still available, that isn't how SWA works.

 

[EACarlson]

I was reading this trying to figure out what was actually going on.

If he voluntarily changed his flight the person would have to pay the fare difference between his original flight that he booked and the new flight with just WGA.

If SWA cancelled and rebooked him on another flight there would be no charge involved.

If I had to guess this was a miscommunication between the gate agent and the passenger. I could see the gate agent trying to explain Boarding Position and maybe trying to explain either purchasing a Business Select fare ticket or Upgraded Boarding while they accomplish the same thing (getting Boarding Positions A1-A15) they are very different pricing. Upgraded Boarding would only be available on the flight the passenger was booked on whereas purchasing a Business Select fare could have been for a different flight entirely. This is the only thing I can come up with based on what you've mentioned and with you saying a nearly sold out flight.

Regardless it wouldn't be true that he would have had to wait until another flight with WGA fare class tickets still available, that isn't how SWA works.

I wonder if SW automagically rebooked him on the flight two days out and he paid to change it after he'd already accepted the re-route? That could have put the fare difference back into play. Or SW IT is still really bad and this passenger didn't know to call in?

 

[jkelly86]

I'm going to assume that passenger was mistaken. That would be a violation of DOT regulations, carriers are required to rebook passengers on the next available flight to their destination in their class of service. Not their fare class. Since SW only has one class of service it should be last seat availability.

I think you are correct. But, I'm really not sure! He said he didn't mind spending the extra points to be able to get to his destination today. It concerns me for future bookings!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I wonder if SW automagically rebooked him on the flight two days out and he paid to change it after he'd already accepted the re-route? That could have put the fare difference back into play. Or SW IT is still really bad and this passenger didn't know to call in?

I actually wondered that myself..that he was put on a flight and then changed that flight himself.