just back from BLT my RAC/SWA experience

[lionqueen]

hi all! just back from a fantastic 5 night trip and thought I'd post my experience using southwest airlines and the RAC at BLT. I've never used it before and had a lot of questions which I tried to research on the disboards. I thought I had it figured out and 1.) i really didn't have it figured out or 2.) someone there didn't do something right. At arrival to the airport I received a sheet from ME saying that I was already checked in for my return flight home, no need to do anything so I went on with my 5 day vacation thinking everything would be handled and they would check me in at the 24 hour mark at southwest. I had a 11:00am flight return home with a ME pick up time of 7:55 am. I thought maybe I'd get my boarding documents hung on the door like others have said but i did not. I went down to RAC and it's a great service but are they SLOW! I was third in line and it took over 30 minutes to get through the line! After they checked me in they said they couldn't print my boarding passes and to go inside to the concierge. I went there and they said that the computer said the documents were printed too many times and that I'd have to get them at the airport. They checked in back and there were no documents. When I got to the airport I was a dreaded "C"!! So no one checked us in at the 24 hour mark. I'm not sure if this is the norm or not. If someone could let me know that would be great as we are going back in the summer and don't want to go through the same problems. hopes this doesn't add to the RAC/SW confusion!!

 

[gigi1313]

it's my understanding that RAC *only* applies to luggage transfer... not boarding passes...
we "almost" used it at ASMo in november, but missed the check in by about two minutes... when they say luggage has to be there three hours before, they don't mean two hours and fifty seven minutes before, they mean three hours!!!

 

[dburg30]

hi all! just back from a fantastic 5 night trip and thought I'd post my experience using southwest airlines and the RAC at BLT. I've never used it before and had a lot of questions which I tried to research on the disboards. I thought I had it figured out and 1.) i really didn't have it figured out or 2.) someone there didn't do something right. At arrival to the airport I received a sheet from ME saying that I was already checked in for my return flight home, no need to do anything so I went on with my 5 day vacation thinking everything would be handled and they would check me in at the 24 hour mark at southwest. I had a 11:00am flight return home with a ME pick up time of 7:55 am. I thought maybe I'd get my boarding documents hung on the door like others have said but i did not. I went down to RAC and it's a great service but are they SLOW! I was third in line and it took over 30 minutes to get through the line! After they checked me in they said they couldn't print my boarding passes and to go inside to the concierge. I went there and they said that the computer said the documents were printed too many times and that I'd have to get them at the airport. They checked in back and there were no documents. When I got to the airport I was a dreaded "C"!! So no one checked us in at the 24 hour mark. I'm not sure if this is the norm or not. If someone could let me know that would be great as we are going back in the summer and don't want to go through the same problems. hopes this doesn't add to the RAC/SW confusion!!

I really think the problem is when your flight is. If your flight is within 24 hours of when they print the info to hang on your door, and you havent checked it yourself RAC would be 'checking you in'. I think that you'll still need to either check yourself in, have someone back home check you in, or do early bird to get the best possible position.

 

[TJA]

We just did the RAC at Poly for SWA and we got a print-out when we checked in that said something about if your flight departs prior to noon, they will not print boarding passes and hang on our door. If our flight departs after 12:00 noon, then they will print our boarding passes and hang on our door. Our flight happened to depart at 11:00 AM, so I went ahead and had our passes printed at the concierge desk at Poly at our 24 hour mark and we were A's. Then the next morning, DH took our luggage down to RAC and was back in our room in 10 minutes. He said it was slick and easy, no problems.