Originally Posted by
petralynn
Even more, I hate discovering my bags sitting in baggage claim after waiting 40 minutes for the aircraft I traveled on to unload. Perhaps SW sees this as a convenience, but if customers are not told of the earlier shipment of baggage then they've defeated their customer relations. In any event, it makes sense to me to avoid this airline.
This is not something unique to Southwest, many airlines do this. I've never had it happen to me with Southwest, but I've had this happen on Delta a few times. If I have arrived at the airport early enough that my bags may have made it to my destination on earlier flights, I always look at the bags sitting by the baggage office, and I'm stating this as a general air travel rule for every airline, not just Southwest.