palmetto86

Today, something I've always thought about as a possibility on WN, finally happened to me. The set of boarded passengers didn't match the manifest. After calling several names and not finding the stowaway, the FAs and GAs walked through the cabin and manually crossed off every passenger on the list. Turns out, someone from the 11am flight was on the 1pm flight.

Here's my question: how does WN not have safeguards in place to stop this? Seems like a safety issue if a rando can get on the plane and no one notice. That said, I've been on hundreds of WN flights, and this is the first time it's happened on one of my flights. Has anyone else been in a similar situation?

jeffandnicole

Re-read your first paragraph. You described in detail the safeguards in place that stopped it.

palmetto86

Maybe I didn't describe the procedure in enough detail. They walked through with a printed manifest with every name printed on it. I easily could have seen SMITH on the manifest and said it was me. They didn't check IDs.

Furthermore, even if it were a "procedure" in place, we were an hour delayed by the time they checked all 175 pax on an -800. Doesn't seem like a proper one to me.

The only time that he ever happened to me was on another airline--UA--after a medical emergency was carted off before departure. They couldn't positively identify who they took off the plane. UA deplaned everyone and re-boarded to make sure pax matched the manifest. That was on a 777.

ursine1

I've had this happen to me twice. It's never fun.

joshua362

So, operationally what happened? Mr. 11am get scanned, it doesn't beep but looks sort of right (flight pair) to the GA who lets him pass anyway. Now Mr. 175 tries to find a seat and there is none? Seems if the GA put aside Mr. 11am's BP aside to "figure it out later" it would have been easy to ID him. Mr. 11am not answering the page hoping to fly? That ballsy. Sounds like multiple failures starting with the GA. Had the the flight not been full would it have triggered the matching game? Horrible way to lose an hour and seems totally preventable.

Often1

It is entirely preventable and the agent physically scanning BP's ought to be disciplined. The fraudster ought to banned.

The BP's are bar-coded and and the gate reader is set to the flight being boarded. Thus, if you try to scan a BP for anything other than the specific flight (and departure city), it ought to pop out as an exception.

The flight won't push until the onboard headcount matches the # of passengers boarded (+ through passengers who did not disembark). That number is required for weight & balance.

justhere

It's not really a safety issue. The person would have gone through the same security screening you did. It's a revenue issue more than anything for the airline. They want to make sure that they are getting paid the correct amount for each person traveling.

On any given domestic flight on any given day, you could easily travel using someone else's boarding pass. It doesn't make the flight any more or less safe.
Maybe the agent couldn't scan the BP as joshua362 noted. I had that happen recently and I think they just typed in the sequence number. I wonder if their system would catch when the BP with that same sequence number for the correct flight was scanned?

rsteinmetz70112

I've had bar codes that wouldn't scan before for no reason. They usually just wave me through. I've also have the GA simply mark up my boarding pass.

Why wouldn't the 11AM Passenger qualify for the flat tire Rule?

I suspect this happens more often that Southwest would admit.

BTW perhaps the 11AM passenger was a little late getting to the gate and under the flat tire rule was told to board the 1PM flight.

lougord99

The flight was close to full. He would not have been told to board the 1:00pm, he would have been put on standby and given a new boarding pass when the standby cleared.

They don't just wave you through, they manually check your name off on their screen.

joshua362

Sure, crinkle up that paper enough and it won't scan. But something on it (PNR?) has to be hand keyed in to validate it. Perhaps if ALL the info matches up (date, time, flight no), its low risk to put it aside and hand key at the end (a cancelled BP would be the risk).

My best guess is that 11am passenger didn't know about the flat tire rule (who in the general public really does?), figured he had nothing to lose by trying to board, the GA doesn't look at it closely, puts it aside and maybe misplaces it, then all h*ll breaks loose causing 175 people to be unnecessarily delayed... Those affected should write in for compensation.

Or another IT failure, your choice.

justhere

You don't have to crinkle the paper. I just had a BP that wouldn't scan and it looked exactly like the BP my companion had in that it was folded in half but not on the barcode and visibly you would certainly have expected it to scan. For whatever reason it didn't.

I think, but I'm not sure, they they use the sequence number that's at the bottom of the BP to manually enter it and in my case, the agent did it while we stood there.

In the OP's case, if the agent didn't manually enter it, then sure, shame on them but we really don't know that the agent did anything wrong. I should say I don't know if the agent did anything wrong. I don't know how well you know WN's system and I don't mean to be presumptive. That was my question earlier though. If they use the sequence number, and let's assume that Mr. 11AM had sequence number 50, then when the person with #50 for the 1PM flight went to board, you would think that it wouldn't matter that the first entry was a manual one and that it would still alert the agent to a problem when the second #50 was scanned. But we are talking WN IT so who knows.

cheryl302

Alright, I'll bite - I'm askin. Unless it's some clandestine secret not to be discussed here... what is it?

rsteinmetz70112

It has been widely discussed here that if you miss your flight because you were delayed getting to the gate (for example by having a Flat Tire on the way to the airport) Southwest will often put you on the next available flight. It is an unwritten rule and may not work all of the time. I've never had to use it and the interaction between the "Flat Tire Rule" and the no-show policy is a mystery to me at least.

In this case the original passenger may have been too late or simply ignorant of the "rule".

joshua362

I only know from my readings here, hence my apprehension that its not widely known after 20+ years of business travel.

If you show up at the airport counter within 2 hours of the departure of the flight you were booked on, WN (all carriers?) will rebook you on the next available flight without additional charge.

Others might have better details.

joshua362

Never had to use either but I would surmise that no-show is exactly that while flat tire requires a physical presence at the airport to invoke.