Glad to hear your are not a BOT OR a Southwest Employee. And you are correct about what happens when one ASSUMEs. Please accept my apology. It was interesting that one of the comments on this string also ran into the same problem. Once our holiday is finished I WILL contact Southwest directly and find out how they prioritize bumping in this situation. I was very surprised the algorithm Southwest uses didn't kick out the last people to check in...and instead bumped Companion Pass people. I can only guess that the system was trying to prioritize higher paying passengers and because a Companion Pass has a different confirmation number the system didn't realize that two people were traveling together. Have a happy holiday.
... View more
Thanks for sharing....makes me feel that I am not alone 🙂 Glad your mom got on her flight...as did MY Companion. Given what I have been reading today...we are the lucky ones on this community board. Yes we had a bit of stress...but it all got worked out. For many on this board they have had to deal with much more. Enjoy your holiday and thanks for commenting.
... View more
Thanks to "The Middle Seat" for responding. Can I assume you are either an AI BOT or a paid employee of Southwest Airlines? We were certainly not even close to the last to check in. We checked in about 24 hours in advance. The question really is: Why would they move somebody who was already checked in with an A-18 Boarding spot to standby.....EVER. Why would they move only a single member of a travel group to standby...EVER. And why would they target a high status A-List Preferred Member for such treatment...EVER. I have qualified for A-List Preferred and for a Companion Pass each year for almost as long as the programs have been in place. Someone needs to review the algorithm used for this type of situation. It just doesn't make "walking around sense" to me and it is not good for Southwest to have such a loyal Southwest customer (since about 1980) so upset...without understanding what system failure caused this.
... View more
12-26-2022
09:21 AM
12-26-2022
09:21 AM
I am a high status A-List Preferred Member (I always get A-16 or A-17...today I had A-17) and was traveling this morning (12-26-2022) from STL to LV and on to Hawaii with my Companion Pass wife who had been checked in with A-18. When we presented her A-18 Boarding Pass to get on the plane the Southwest attendant told us that my wife had been moved to standby. Apparently due to weather problems and the crush of passengers Southwest had changed our plane to one that had fewer seats and somehow my wife had been bumped....but I had not been bumped. As I stood there at the gate another Companion Pass was also bumped. His wife and three infant children were let on but he was not. That family was going on to Hawaii as well. At this point anyone that had a Companion Pass started to worry so several other Companion Pass flyers mentioned this as they presented their Boarding Pass but no others were changed to standby. We were fortunate because my wife was allowed to board as a standby (the final person to board our flight) but the other Companion Pass flyer did not get on the flight. Obviously this was very upsetting for all of us but it brings up a number of policy questions: 1) If Southwest needs to bump people off of a flight because the plane is smaller, it would seem that they would bump somebody who was checked in with a much lower number (in the C group). Why would they bump someone who had already been checked in with an A-18 Boarding number; 2) Southwest obviously knows that a Companion Pass holder is traveling with someone else in their party; why would they break up a traveling party like this?; & 3) If Southwest's policy is to bump Companion Pass holders...which seems like a bad idea...but if that was their policy, why did someone with such high status have their Companion Pass holder bumped when many other lower status Companion Pass holders much later in the boarding process were not bumped to standby?
... View more
