Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Golf bag - early shipping?

donljones
Explorer C

I am traveling from Orlando, FL to Norfolk, Virginia (with a connection in Baltimore, MD).  Since I have a quick turaround time once I arrive in Baltimore - and don't want to risk my golf clubs not getting to the Norfolk bound leg of my flight and, hence not arriving on time - can I ship my clubs out earlier to Baltimore?

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Golf bag - early shipping?

dfwskier
Aviator A

The feds mandate that your luggage must be on the same flight you are. Now if the airline mishandles your luggage, the airline can put it on another flight so that it will catch up with you. So to answer your question: no you cannot send your  luggage on a different flight.

 

Now you could ship it as cargo. That would require visitng the cargo location and the payment of a seperate fee.

 

Southwest does a pretty good job of getting luggage to where it is supposed to be - even with a short connectime time. How soon after getting to Norfolk do you want to use your clubs? Worst case is Southwest puts them on the next flight. 

Re: Golf bag - early shipping?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@dfwskier wrote:

The feds mandate that your luggage must be on the same flight you are. Now if the airline mishandles your luggage, the airline can put it on another flight so that it will catch up with you. So to answer your question: no you cannot send your  luggage on a different flight.

 

Now you could ship it as cargo. That would require visitng the cargo location and the payment of a seperate fee.

 

Southwest does a pretty good job of getting luggage to where it is supposed to be - even with a short connectime time. How soon after getting to Norfolk do you want to use your clubs? Worst case is Southwest puts them on the next flight. 


Remember the luggage doesn't have to go as far as you do most likely, and it will still be loaded during the layover and boarding time when you are standing around, while the crew is prepping for takeoff - obviously there isn't a guarantee but if you have 30-45 minutes then on a typical day the luggage would make it with that much time.

 

Reasons for luggage not to make it would be if someone mishandles it, sorts it to the wrong cart, etc. requiring a human error more so than a short time interval.

 

Flight delays making your layover less than 30 minutes would also start to be a challenge. 

 

I think @dfwskier's point is a strong one - for any minor mixup or missed connection that delays your luggage you'd probably have access to it fairly quickly. 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Golf bag - early shipping?

chgoflyer
Aviator A

What they said above, with some clarifications.

 

FYI: Positive Passenger Bag Matching on domestic flights hasn't been required for over 12 years, it went away when all bags started being x-rayed. Airlines themselves have policies about passengers not intentionally separating themselves from their bags, but it's not a federal requirement. It's primarily to help reduce the number of late/lost bag claims filed, which count against the carrier's DOT statistics.

 

The average passenger can't utilize Southwest Cargo. To do so, you have to be a TSA approved Indirect Air Carrier or a Known Shipper, which requires application and approval. You could however utilize FedEx or UPS, or better yet one of the many golf club shipping companies that provide door-to-door delivery.