Southwest airline check in?

[jburge12000]

i thought I read on this board a while ago that DCL was trying out onboard check in with Southwest. I received my cruise docs today for our next cruise and they were not on the list of airlines. Does anyone know if they participate?

 

[Shanti]

i thought I read on this board a while ago that DCL was trying out onboard check in with Southwest. I received my cruise docs today for our next cruise and they were not on the list of airlines. Does anyone know if they participate?

They didn't when we cruised this January. We were not able to do onboard check-in for our Southwest flight home.

 

[jdb in AZ]

They experimented with it for awhile but decided against it. They never did say why.

 

[olookasquirrel]

If I had to guess, they probably got a lot of complaints about boarding groups. For a lot of flights, you don't literally click the button at the exact second the 24 hour window starts, you're in a bad group. I can't imagine people didn't blame DCL for being in C group, and I'm sure some people got really heated about my family can't sit together!! How will my 14 year old survive in a center seat a row ahead of me for 2 hours???

I hate paying extra for the preferred boarding but we always fly southwest and I think for our return flights I'll splurge for it on some tickets. Flights from Orlando are packed with kids anyway so it's A group or nothing.

 

[rhinodadz]

Another option might be to sign up for the free 50MB of internet on embarkation day and save it to use to check in on SWA at the beginning of your 24 hour window. Or just use the pay as you go internet for checking in - should still be much cheaper than the preferred boarding cost.

 

[olookasquirrel]

Another option might be to sign up for the free 50MB of internet on embarkation day and save it to use to check in on SWA at the beginning of your 24 hour window. Or just use the pay as you go internet for checking in - should still be much cheaper than the preferred boarding cost.

If you do that, don't forget to compensate if there are time zones involved.... That always gets me when I'm in charge of checking my family in for a trip out to see me in my time zone!!

 

[ChicosWife]

We went to Guest Services in January, while onboard and gave them our confirmation numbers and they checked in for us, for our Southwest flight home.

 

[Partyof4LA]

We went to Guest Services in January, while onboard and gave them our confirmation numbers and they checked in for us, for our Southwest flight home.

We asked guest services about this as well and were told they could not do this. We have a small child anyway, so were able to do family boarding after the A group.
Once my youngest is too old for family boarding and until our kids are old enough that I don't worry about them sitting alone, we will probably pay for early bird check in on the return flight so we don't have to worry about it.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We went to Guest Services in January, while onboard and gave them our confirmation numbers and they checked in for us, for our Southwest flight home.

Were you Concierge?

 

[mmouse37]

Some people have said that guest services checked them in but if you think about it, they do have the internet for guests to use for checking in and if everyone flying SW asked GS to check them in and print out their boarding passes it could get out of hand pretty quickly.

MJ

 

[TestingH2O]

We do Early bird going out of Orlando because family boarding is so crazy.

Actually, family boarding at MCO reminds me of old school southwest where everyone lines up ridiculously early so they can be at the front of the group.

Concierge will do check in for you, but I agree with PP that guest services would be overrun if they tried to do it for everyone.

DCL Internet is probably your best bet if you don't want to do early bird. Also remember that even if an adult is early and a kid is not, both people have to board at the later slot. I see this happening a lot.

 

[LoveTheMouse!]

We few SW on our June 11-18 cruise. We paid for the early bird check-in. It was just two of us traveling and we had direct flights. Completely worth it and in the big scope of what we paid for the cruise, not too expensive.

 

[wcw57]

aaaahhhhhhhh, comparatively cheap. prob the easiest answer, no?

 

[Spicy0ne]

We were aboard the Fantasy in May. Visited Guest Services after dinner (late seating) on the final night of our cruise and they were happy to help with our SWA check-in. The Cast Member helping us didn't give me the impression we were asking for anything out of the ordinary.

*Tip (aka note to self): set a reminder to visit the Guest Services desk at the time your 24-hour check-in window opens.

 

[ChicosWife]

Were you Concierge?

Nope, standard inside stateroom on the Dream.

 

[ChicosWife]

Some people have said that guest services checked them in but if you think about it, they do have the internet for guests to use for checking in and if everyone flying SW asked GS to check them in and print out their boarding passes it could get out of hand pretty quickly.

MJ

We did have that free internet that you get on the first day, but somehow, it was gone by day 1 and neither of us got on the internet. Plus, not everyone flies SW and not everyone would be on the same flight. But, we really appreciate them checking us in. It's too long of a flight for a family of 4 not to be sitting together.

 

[ChicosWife]

We asked guest services about this as well and were told they could not do this. We have a small child anyway, so were able to do family boarding after the A group.
Once my youngest is too old for family boarding and until our kids are old enough that I don't worry about them sitting alone, we will probably pay for early bird check in on the return flight so we don't have to worry about it.

That's a good idea. I can't believe they told you, no! The only reason I asked is because I read on here that this is a service that is provided. Otherwise, I would have never thought to ask!

 

[mmouse37]

That's a good idea. I can't believe they told you, no! The only reason I asked is because I read on here that this is a service that is provided. Otherwise, I would have never thought to ask!

If I was to guess I would say most report that GS said no. It may very well depend on who you ask at GS but it has never been a provided service to check you in or print boarding passes at GS. They do offer that service for those on the Onboard Airline Check In program (and it is a pain that SW does not participate).

MJ

 

[wcw57]

more to my interest: why wouldn't SWA participate? Is there a kick-back program involved or some other form of cash-flow which would make participating deleterious?
It's not like SWA doesn't have enough travelers to MCI thanks to WDW and DCL......

 

[PrincessShmoo]

more to my interest: why wouldn't SWA participate? Is there a kick-back program involved or some other form of cash-flow which would make participating deleterious?
It's not like SWA doesn't have enough travelers to MCI thanks to WDW and DCL......

I doubt that anyone here knows for sure why the test program that DCL and SW did last year didn't work. All that was reported was that the program was not continued at the end of the test period "at the agreement of both parties".

I know SouthWest does have an early check in program with the WDW resorts. But it apparently didn't work out for DCL. Maybe had to do with the fact that those travelers were coming back from a foreign country, and not a domestic transport.