Southwest/lay overs

[SaraJR]

So im flying southwest from buffalo with a lay over in Chicago a couple questions , do I need to collect my bags during the lay over or just go straight to the other plane? and if anyone has experience are there often delays?

 

[Belle599]

Southwest will handle your bags here if you booked it as a connection.

 

[SaraJR]

yea the whole thing is through southwest I just got a flight with a lay over because it was cheaper

 

[minnie mum]

Just go straight to your next plane. Delays can happen anytime on any airline.

 

[PinkMagnolia]

We flew SWA through Chicago on a BUF to FLL flight for a cruise in April and our bags didn't arrive with us. It was a nightmare. This can happen on any airline, just be aware and pack as much as you possibly can in your carry-on. With any connecting flight, be sure to label your bags well and take a pic of them. I learned a few lessons on that trip

None of the flights were delayed though. I love SWA out of Buffalo.

 

[SaraJR]

We flew SWA through Chicago on a BUF to FLL flight for a cruise in April and our bags didn't arrive with us. It was a nightmare. This can happen on any airline, just be aware and pack as much as you possibly can in your carry-on. With any connecting flight, be sure to label your bags well and take a pic of them. I learned a few lessons on that trip

None of the flights were delayed though. I love SWA out of Buffalo.

omg what happened? did you get your bags back??

 

[PinkMagnolia]

We arrived for our cruise the night before it departed. Thank goodness! I was a complete mess. The baggage office, although they did their best to help, had no idea where our bags were. We checked into our pre-cruise hotel without our bags and I was so, so sad and stressed. The next morning, I made a lot of frantic calls to the baggage office, lots of tears (I'm like that - I totally embarrassed myself, but I have a feeling that they went out of their way to really help). The worst was my boys packed their stuffies into the checked bags

Our shuttle driver (who I called to tell him what was going on, and we might need to be picked up later so we could wait for our bags) suggested that we go back to the airport to see if the bags came on the next flight from Chicago. That was the best advice. Instead of waiting by the phone for "someone" to find our bags, we were right there when the next flight arrived.

There they came on the next flight and rolled off the luggage carousel! My boys jumped and cheered! Everyone was applauding - they told the whole crowd we were leaving on a cruise and our bags had been lost. It's a moment of relief I'll never forget.

What I learned was that SW has no idea where your bags are (not like other airlines that scan your bags). Also, the baggage offices seemed to have a VERY informal communication system with other baggage offices. Basically, when you leave your bags, all you can do is "hope" they make it there. We would have received $100 EACH/PER DAY for our lost bags (6 day cruise = lots of $$$) but I didn't care - I had bought a few cute outfits, packed all of our formal wear. I had packed a few outfits in our carry-on, but I would never do that again. On our next cruise flight, I will pack all that we need in our carry-ons (we will all have a legal-sized carry on each) and stuff that isn't so important in our checked bag.

I'm not saying this will happen to you (or anyone else) - Everyone has a lost-luggage story I just think if you are changing planes, make sure you pack your carry-on with enough to get you through several days.

Our cruise was amazing, though. We went on the Carnival Breeze, and after the luggage fiasco, everything just seemed awesome!

 

[starvenger]

That's weird. When I worked at Continental I actually knew the people responsible for working on the baggage tracking system. This was in 2002. Mistakes still happen, of course, and bags still get left behind, but at least they can tell you where the bag is.

 

[kamik86]

Having bags not make your connection and end up on the next plane happens. I had it happen before as well (although in my case due to delays two planes from BWI to ALB showed up within 30 min of each other. A bunch of us that landed on the first plane had our bags on the second.

Advice:
1) Midway is a larger location for Southwest. How tight is your connection? You may have a pretty good distance to move from one plane to another. Now Southwest will hold the flight for connections if your close (meaning your first flight is 45 min late so you landed 15 min before the second was supposed to take off type thing) however they will board everyone else on time. So you may miss your boarding group and board last. If this happens you may be sitting apart, and if you don't have kids young enough to be in a car seat they may not move people for you because at that point the flight is already late and they need you to sit so it can move.

2) As is always possible issues with checked bags happen. Anytime you fly anything you need for the next 24 hours should be in a carryon. That includes

1. Medicines
2. Change of clothes
3. Toys your children won't sleep without
4. Most electronics (for other reasons including that checked bags sometimes sit in the rain)
5. Toiletries (even if we check full size bottles we bring a set of what we would need to go to bed in a 3-1-1 bag, unless we know the area we are going to well enough to know where we can get to a store

3) If multiple people are flying its possible that some of your bags will make it and others will get lost. Due to this do not pack so each person has their "own" checked bag. Mix it up. That way if one bag goes missing you don't have 2 people with all their clothes and one person with nothing.

 

[PinkMagnolia]

That's weird. When I worked at Continental I actually knew the people responsible for working on the baggage tracking system. This was in 2002. Mistakes still happen, of course, and bags still get left behind, but at least they can tell you where the bag is.

This also surprised me. DH and I flew to Australia with Qantas in 2013 and our bags didn't make it. It was such a different experience. They were actually paging us in the luggage area as they already knew our bags weren't there. They were able to tell us exactly where the bags were, and what flight they would be on next. They sent them to our hotel in a taxi, and gave us each a AUS $200 prepaid Visa (as well as cute Qantas PJ's ) for our inconvenience. This is why I was surprised SW had no idea where our bags were. The two lost bag experiences (considering we don't fly that much) were so completely different.

 

[kamik86]

This also surprised me. DH and I flew to Australia with Qantas in 2013 and our bags didn't make it. It was such a different experience. They were actually paging us in the luggage area as they already knew our bags weren't there. They were able to tell us exactly where the bags were, and what flight they would be on next. They sent them to our hotel in a taxi, and gave us each a AUS $200 prepaid Visa (as well as cute Qantas PJ's ) for our inconvenience. This is why I was surprised SW had no idea where our bags were. The two lost bag experiences (considering we don't fly that much) were so completely different.

As much as I liked southwest your right... thinking about that one flight in between the two planes all they knew for sure was that my bags left BWI. They had no idea on what plane however.

 

[Belle599]

Some frequent travelers put a GPS tracking device in their luggage.