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Southwest App Auto Checkin/ Boarding position

bigjuke93
Explorer C

Hello,

 

Flying Southwest for a couple years( and Being A-List Preferred) I am accustomed to receiving a notification on my phone 24 hrs before my flight to checkin, and then immediately receiving another notification telling me my boarding position (without having to go into the app to checkin)

 

As of Earlier this year, I have not been receiving the notification of my boarding position, without me physically having to go into the app to checkin, which makes me feel like not only am I not being auto checked in/assigned a boarding position, but it is causing me to get later boarding positions (usually A30+, when I am used to getting at minimum A20-A25 flying out of MCI every week)

 

Has something changed?

14 REPLIES 14

Re: Southwest App Auto Checkin/ Boarding position

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@bigjuke93 wrote:

Hello,

 

Flying Southwest for a couple years( and Being A-List Preferred) I am accustomed to receiving a notification on my phone 24 hrs before my flight to checkin, and then immediately receiving another notification telling me my boarding position (without having to go into the app to checkin)

 

As of Earlier this year, I have not been receiving the notification of my boarding position, without me physically having to go into the app to checkin, which makes me feel like not only am I not being auto checked in/assigned a boarding position, but it is causing me to get later boarding positions (usually A30+, when I am used to getting at minimum A20-A25 flying out of MCI every week)

 

Has something changed?


If you have any of your old boarding passes can you check that it showed A-list Preferred on there?

 

Another reason might be if you were buying tickets later than before or your relative status changed (more A-listers flying your route...hard to tell. 

 

But your other issue - my app still performs those functions with the checkins and showing the position so I think you should double check in your control center that Southwest App is allowed to give you notifications. 

 

You wouldn't have gotten A30's without the Alist or A-list Preferred status, so there is at least some level of automatic check-in taking place even without the notification.

 

 

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

Re: Southwest App Auto Checkin/ Boarding position

chgoflyer
Aviator A

To my knowledge nothing operationally has changed (although anything's possible), but do keep in mind that individual A-List boarding positions may get worse towards the end of the calendar year, as the number of A-Listers increases. 

Re: Southwest App Auto Checkin/ Boarding position

bigjuke93
Explorer C
Well I do book my flights later now than before, but logically I would think that would make my flight more expensive than others and should have me even closer to the front(assuming southwest takes into account price paid for fare)
 
In regards to the notifications, I’ve deleted and reinstalled the app before, and to emphasize, I still get the notification telling me to checkin, I just don’t get the follow up notification immediately after that tells me my boarding position(without me having to go checkin myself) so I know my notifications are working. 
 
My only thought is maybe southwest put a restriction in the app to only let you know your boarding position after you’ve checked into the app, I’m not sure if anyone else is dealing with this or not. 

Re: Southwest App Auto Checkin/ Boarding position

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@bigjuke93 wrote:
Well I do book my flights later now than before, but logically I would think that would make my flight more expensive than others and should have me even closer to the front(assuming southwest takes into account price paid for fare)
 


The unknown algorithm doesn't promise to be logical. I'm sure that ticket price isn't the only variable as I have had deeper A-list positions on flights that I booked late but paid more for than flights where I booked early and paid the lowest of the WGA fares. But anyone on this community would just be guessing, most of us are customers like yourself.

 

 


@bigjuke93 wrote:
 
In regards to the notifications, I’ve deleted and reinstalled the app before, and to emphasize, I still get the notification telling me to checkin, I just don’t get the follow up notification immediately after that tells me my boarding position(without me having to go checkin myself) so I know my notifications are working. 
 
My only thought is maybe southwest put a restriction in the app to only let you know your boarding position after you’ve checked into the app, I’m not sure if anyone else is dealing with this or not. 

I don't see anywhere to turn this on/off in the app itself, the only variables I see are that the notifications are enabled including banners and badgess, personally I have location services turned on - maybe there is some trigger for the notification of position based on proximity to the airport?

 

My app is still doing this, so I don't think the functionality is taken away. Are you iOS?

 

Maybe @GloriaL can help.

 

 

 

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

Re: Southwest App Auto Checkin/ Boarding position

bec102896
Aviator A

@bigjuke93

 

As others have said I have not seen any major changes in boarding positions. as an A List preferred customer myself I have still been in the A16-25 range so maybe you just keep getting flights with lots of A Listers. 

 

as @chgoflyer stated as we get closer to the end of the year there are more A Listers flying especially those doing last minute segments to re earn status or earn for the first time plus you add those who earned status on A List trials making more A Listers 

 

i know usually your position is assigned based on when you booked compared to other A List preferred customers so if 10 other A List preferred customers booked before you they would theoretically have a better position before you and you should have a better position than A Listers (non preferred) 

 

about the notifications maybe log out and log back in or delete and re install the app to see if re-enabling notifications helps

 

Hope this helps

Blake 

Re: Southwest App Auto Checkin/ Boarding position

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@bec102896 wrote:

@bigjuke93

 

i know usually your position is assigned based on when you booked compared to other A List preferred customers so if 10 other A List preferred customers booked before you they would theoretically have a better position before you and you should have a better position than A Listers (non preferred) 



So, that's actually not true.

 

The formula Southwest uses to assign positions within A-List is unfortunately known only to Southwest.

 

Frequent flyers on multiple forums have attempted to decipher the algorithm with crowd-sourced data. Prevailing theories are priority based on fare paid, or possibly annual flight frequency. But aside from A-List Preferred ahead of A-Listers, there is no clear methodology.

 

Date of purchase, at least, seems to have been debunked.

 

 

 

 

Re: Southwest App Auto Checkin/ Boarding position

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@chgoflyer wrote:

@bec102896 wrote:

@bigjuke93

 

i know usually your position is assigned based on when you booked compared to other A List preferred customers so if 10 other A List preferred customers booked before you they would theoretically have a better position before you and you should have a better position than A Listers (non preferred) 



So, that's actually not true.

 

The formula Southwest uses to assign positions within A-List is unfortunately known only to Southwest.

 

Frequent flyers on multiple forums have attempted to decipher the algorithm with crowd-sourced data. Prevailing theories are priority based on fare paid, or possibly annual flight frequency. But aside from A-List Preferred ahead of A-Listers, there is no clear methodology.

 

Date of purchase, at least, seems to have been debunked.

 

 

 

 


I think there may be some combination of seniority and date of purchase. My position seems to be a little worse when I book later compared to flights I book earlier, but it seems reasonable that seniority of A-list / preferred status would also weigh in on the assignment. I hadn't been considering cash price of ticket. 

 

 

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

Re: Southwest App Auto Checkin/ Boarding position

GloriaL
Employee
Employee

That’s strange. Thanks for making us aware of what you are experiencing! I will run the issue by my team so that we can investigate. 

Re: Southwest App Auto Checkin/ Boarding position

goodsker
Explorer C

My last two flights the app has not notified me it was check in time like it always has.  Not even getting the emails anymore.  I checked the settings and notifications are turned on.