southwest-maximum boarding passes issued

[tinkamom]

Does anyone know anything about this? Why does it happen? Why wouldnt SW issue all boarding passes online?


Boarding Pass(es) Available at the Airport
The maximum number of Boarding Passes allocated for online checkin have been issued. The system is unable to process your request for a boarding pass. Pressing Continue will issue you a Security Document. If you are checking baggage, you may obtain a boarding pass at the airport at a Southwest Airlines Skycap podium, Ticket Counter, or Rapid CheckIn kiosk or, if you are not checking baggage, then you may proceed directly to the gate to obtain a Boarding Pass.

 

[HoosierDisneyDad]

It sounds like your flight might be overbooked. Better plan on getting to the airport early if you want to minimize your chance of being involuntarily denied boarding.

 

[DebbieB]

Does anyone know anything about this? Why does it happen? Why wouldnt SW issue all boarding passes online?


Boarding Pass(es) Available at the Airport
The maximum number of Boarding Passes allocated for online checkin have been issued. The system is unable to process your request for a boarding pass. Pressing Continue will issue you a Security Document. If you are checking baggage, you may obtain a boarding pass at the airport at a Southwest Airlines Skycap podium, Ticket Counter, or Rapid CheckIn kiosk or, if you are not checking baggage, then you may proceed directly to the gate to obtain a Boarding Pass.

How many hours in advance did you try to check-in? Does sound like an oversold situation. They will not issue more boarding pass numbers than they have seats. Not sure if they hold some for the airport.

 

[tinkamom]

How many hours in advance did you try to check-in? Does sound like an oversold situation. They will not issue more boarding pass numbers than they have seats. Not sure if they hold some for the airport.

It was about 16 hours in advance. I'm kicking myself for forgetting to do it at exactly 24 hours.

 

[ibob52]

keep checking ... it's possible someone may cancel

 

[bumbershoot]

or, if you are not checking baggage, then you may proceed directly to the gate to obtain a Boarding Pass.

Trying to figure out how you're going to get past TSA without a boarding pass..... There's something wonky with that wording, and I know I've never heard of the whole situation before.

Are we sure the SW/AT merger isn't being handled by Disney website IT people?

 

[tinkamom]

Trying to figure out how you're going to get past TSA without a boarding pass..... There's something wonky with that wording, and I know I've never heard of the whole situation before.

Are we sure the SW/AT merger isn't being handled by Disney website IT people?

It gave me a security document lol

 

[sam_gordon]

Trying to figure out how you're going to get past TSA without a boarding pass..... There's something wonky with that wording, and I know I've never heard of the whole situation before.

Are we sure the SW/AT merger isn't being handled by Disney website IT people?

I'm guessing the "security document" gets them past TSA.

 

[tjmw2727]

Trying to figure out how you're going to get past TSA without a boarding pass..... There's something wonky with that wording, and I know I've never heard of the whole situation before.

Are we sure the SW/AT merger isn't being handled by Disney website IT people?

The "security document" mentioned in the response by SWA quoted above is like a BP and will get her through security but doesn't guarantee a seat on the flight. They are also used for lap riders who don't have a BP.

Good Luck OP - I would probably get to the airport early and check in at the ticket counter in hopes of getting a BP there even if you don't have checked bags.

 

[rigs32]

Bumping this thread as it just happened to me. I plan to arrive early and hope I can get on the flight. The next option from my airport gets me to my destination 7 hours later

 

[LisaS]

Bumping this thread as it just happened to me. I plan to arrive early and hope I can get on the flight. The next option from my airport gets me to my destination 7 hours later

How far in advance did you check in for your flight? Just curious how far in advance of departure this sort of thing can happen to someone.

 

[DebbieB]

Bumping this thread as it just happened to me. I plan to arrive early and hope I can get on the flight. The next option from my airport gets me to my destination 7 hours later

They will ask for volunteers first. Many people will jump at an offer to get a free ticket or a money voucher for future flight in return for taking another flight.

 

[rigs32]

I thought I set an alarm for 8:14am to remind me to check in. Apparently I didn't enable it. I remember around 9:45. It took 90 min. Though it is a sold out, direct flight.

I tried calling the 1-800 number and the woman I spoke with told me there was a seat for me, but wouldn't discuss whether the flight was over sold.

Then I remembered that I know a SW gate agent that works at my home airport. He was able to confirm for me that while the flight is full, it's not oversold, so I will have a seat even if it's a middle in the last row. That is all I wanted to know, so crisis averted.

I poked around on the flyer talk forums and found that SW will hold back about 10% of the seats for getting boarding passes at the airport.

 

[LisaS]

So it sounds like 90% of the boarding passes were allocated within 90 minutes of the 24 hour window opening. Wow! I guess between A-Listers, passengers with EBCI, and those without but who remember to check in at 24 hours out, there isn't much room for error here! Thanks for the update.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

We love it when flights are oversold and we ask if there is a chance the flight is over sold so we can volunteer to get the free flight money.

Just get there early they will tell you how oversold they are. Just because someone has checked in and got a boarding pass does not mean they will show up for a flight. They can have car trouble, miss a connection or decide to take another flight. Or there might be people like us who will volunteer to give up their seat in exchange for more flight money. There is hope you will get on.

You can always try again to check in. Maybe there was a glitch in their system. I know the other day I was looking for flights and the system was done.

 

[rigs32]

We love it when flights are oversold and we ask if there is a chance the flight is over sold so we can volunteer to get the free flight money.

Just get there early they will tell you how oversold they are. Just because someone has checked in and got a boarding pass does not mean they will show up for a flight. They can have car trouble, miss a connection or decide to take another flight. Or there might be people like us who will volunteer to give up their seat in exchange for more flight money. There is hope you will get on.

Not sure if you're replying to me or the OP. In my case, this is the only direct flight to Tampa from my city tomorrow. The next option requires a layover at BWI and will get me in 7 hours later. That's a big difference. I would be less concerned about it if there was another direct flight or an option that would make me lose, essentially, the whole of one day of my vacation.

 

[NotUrsula]

SWA normally doesn't oversell by too much; each route has a calculated no-show probability that normally holds true over time. The exception is a situation where there has been a long ground-stop somewhere that causes delays to ripple through the system; that causes missed connections that in turn causes overbookings to stack up the following day.

Except out of Baltimore, Chicago. LGA or LAX (where there are more spendthrift road-warriors), most SWA flights less than 36 hours out have about 10 seats that have not been allocated BP's, but cannot be checked in ahead of time, because of the Business Select reserve. (The first 15 "A" boarding passes are reserved for Business Select passengers, and they are held until just before boarding if there are not at least 15 of them already on the manifest, because if one of those folks walks up last-minute, or if someone buys an available $40 position upgrade, they still get one of those slots.) If those fares have not been sold by the deadline, then the number of open seats remaining is added to end of the C boarding group and distributed. Only after those leftovers have been distributed with there be a call for volunteers to accept a bump.

IME, at airports other than the four I listed, calls for volunteers are pretty rare unless there has been a recent weather situation.

 

[bumbershoot]

We love it when flights are oversold and we ask if there is a chance the flight is over sold so we can volunteer to get the free flight money.

Agreed.

Just because someone has checked in and got a boarding pass does not mean they will show up for a flight. They can have car trouble, miss a connection or decide to take another flight.

Or they are flying SW for business and (this has happened, more than once, to my SIL who is an attorney) is in line to board and gets a call telling her the deposition has been cancelled.

 

[DebbieB]

One time I had a flight in March and was scheduled for an early morning flight, got my boarding pass. I woke up at 2:30am to see it snowing heavy. I knew the plows would not be out in my plan by the time I had to leave around 4:00 or 5:00, it was a Sunday morning. I had it booked on points, so I went online and found a one stop through BWI that left around 11:00am. I got a boarding pass like B58 but lucked out and there was a middle seat open in the exit row. Changed seats at BWI.

 

[rigs32]

When I got to the kiosk at the airport, it gave me C27. I paid the $40 to upgrade to A4 and got the exit row seat without a seat directly in front of me.