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International connection flight?

atmrmy
Explorer C

Hello, Originally, we booked our international trip in June 2017 from BWI with a stop over for a couple of days in FLL before continuing to Jamaica (MBJ).  Therefore, we booked 2 separate reservations on Southwest: 1) BWI-FLL, 2) FLL-MBJ.  Recently, we had to change our itinerary because we no longer have time for the stop over in FLL.  So now, we rebooked our first flight (BWI-FLL) on the same day as our second flight (FLL-MBJ) with the first flight arriving in FLL at 10:05 AM and the second flight departing FLL at 12:05PM.  Based on these 2 new bookings, we only have 2 hours between the arrival time of the first flight and the departure time of the second. Is that enough time to change planes and is there a way that our luggage can be checked through to my final destination even though I bought the tickets in two transactions? Also, we believe can checking 24 hours in advance for both flights.  Since the international segment is from FLL-MBJ, can we print our boarding pass in advance and just need need to check-in at the boarding gate for our second flight?  Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

 

 

3 REPLIES 3

Re: International connection flight?

LindseyD
Retired Community Manager

Hi @atmrmy,

 

Thanks for posting in the Southwest Community. Your connection will certainly be tight, and, unfortunately, you'll have to retrieve your bags in FLL and recheck them since you are booked on two separate reservations. You will be able to get your boarding passes for both flights 24 hours ahead of time, but with an international connection being that tight, you run the risk of missing your FLL-MBJ flight. You may want to contact Customer Support and Services at 1-800-I-FLY-SWA to see if there's another possible routing for you. 

 

Re: International connection flight?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

If I'm understanding the situation - you kept the original FLL-Jamaica flight, likely becuase it was cheaper or otherwise favorable not to cancel that one?

 

A better recommendation would be to cancel the BWI-FLL flight and then change the FLL-Jamaica flight to become a BWI-Jamaica flight using the cancelled funds to pay the difference, then your luggage would go through directly, etc. (No change fees!)

 

If changing isn't possible due to the cost of the Jamaica flight going up since you first booked, or you are combining points on one leg and paying cash for the other leg then it gets more complicated. I haven't been to FLL before, so I can't comment on the amount of time it will take to retrieve your luggage and go back through security in time to board for Jamaica, but it sounds kind of tight to me. Hopefully you have PreCheck.

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

Re: International connection flight?

uygi
Explorer C


Hopefully you have PreCheck.

Unless something changed recently, PreCheck is not available on international itineraries on Southwest.  It's a different system Smiley Sad