dcfromva
No horsing around, Christmas is coming!
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2002
- Messages
- 3,281
For our Spring Break trip to WDW, we are using award tickets... A few months ago SWA hadgone from issuing paper award tickets to ticketless award tickets.
As a result, I had a paper award ticket and DH and DS has ticketless awards. A few months ago, when I received my confirmation for the flight, it said to have the paper award ticket in hand on check-in. So, I called the reservation agent and explained I only had 1 paper award ticket and the other two were ticketless. I was told that I didn't need the award tickets for the other two because they were ticketless... (As it turned out, this information was absolutely wrong!
I guess at the time, this was new to everyone.)
I was totally oblivious to any problems, until I found out about the new on-line check in. I called to see if I could get my 1 reservation with 3 on it split into 3 separate reservations...I was told that I didn't need to split the reservation because I couldn't use the on-line check in feature because I had paper award tickets... I pointed out that DH and DS had paperless awards so even if I couldn't use the on-line check in for my paper award, they should be able to use on-line check-in with the ticketless awards... At that point, the reservation agent said he would separate the reservations. I was on hold for about 30-40 minutes while he did this.
The reservation agent said it was a good thing I called. He said award tickets have to specify paper or ticketless on the reservation itself. If the reservation is wrong, the help desk has to be called to get it fixed. He said it takes about the same amount of time (30 or 40 mins) to get it changed at the airport and he said some folks have actually missed their flights as a result. (And that wouldn't be a good start to the holiday...)
As a follow on, I asked if I could change my paper award to ticketless so I could use on-line check in--the answer was yes. They say to allow 30 days to mail it in. (I was told if the award certificate gets lost in the mail, I was out of luck--so, I sent it certified return receipt requested). In reality, it took about 2 weeks for the award to show up on my account--so I could stop worrying about it
. Once it was on my account, I had to call back and change my reservation so that it reflected ticketless. I think I am all sorted now.
Link to SWA.com question about converting paper to ticketless. (It is the 6th question down).
-DC
As a result, I had a paper award ticket and DH and DS has ticketless awards. A few months ago, when I received my confirmation for the flight, it said to have the paper award ticket in hand on check-in. So, I called the reservation agent and explained I only had 1 paper award ticket and the other two were ticketless. I was told that I didn't need the award tickets for the other two because they were ticketless... (As it turned out, this information was absolutely wrong!
I guess at the time, this was new to everyone.)I was totally oblivious to any problems, until I found out about the new on-line check in. I called to see if I could get my 1 reservation with 3 on it split into 3 separate reservations...I was told that I didn't need to split the reservation because I couldn't use the on-line check in feature because I had paper award tickets... I pointed out that DH and DS had paperless awards so even if I couldn't use the on-line check in for my paper award, they should be able to use on-line check-in with the ticketless awards... At that point, the reservation agent said he would separate the reservations. I was on hold for about 30-40 minutes while he did this.
The reservation agent said it was a good thing I called. He said award tickets have to specify paper or ticketless on the reservation itself. If the reservation is wrong, the help desk has to be called to get it fixed. He said it takes about the same amount of time (30 or 40 mins) to get it changed at the airport and he said some folks have actually missed their flights as a result. (And that wouldn't be a good start to the holiday...)
As a follow on, I asked if I could change my paper award to ticketless so I could use on-line check in--the answer was yes. They say to allow 30 days to mail it in. (I was told if the award certificate gets lost in the mail, I was out of luck--so, I sent it certified return receipt requested). In reality, it took about 2 weeks for the award to show up on my account--so I could stop worrying about it
. Once it was on my account, I had to call back and change my reservation so that it reflected ticketless. I think I am all sorted now.Link to SWA.com question about converting paper to ticketless. (It is the 6th question down).
-DC
