Delta Hog

Where else can I rant about this stuff.....is it just because of SO MANY early check-ins and spots being held?

STL-MCO-SJU tomorrow. STL-MCO 24 hours in advance, early Cs, that's understandable. MCO-SJU is 30 HOURS in advance, yet I'm still all the way down at B20. How is that possible??????????? I know how it's possible but it still amazes me.

DIFFERENT ISSUE.

My son is companion fare. He has a fairly unique name, but not the most unique ever. Let's call him...Kelly Green. Fake name but same commonality. Kelly Green.

When I added him as my companion it did not give me an option to add his SW #. I am telling you, it didn't. The field was grayed out. I could not add. So I just added his name. After doing that, and then adding him to the FLIGHT, it said Kelly Green was added and his RR Number was there. Except it WASN'T HIS. It was some other RR number that I have no idea who it is. Is there another Kelly Green? Who knows. Maybe.

So I call RR assistance and they say it doesn't matter because he won't get credit for this flight anyway. Well I know he won't get credit. But as it is, the flight does not show up in his app and he can't check in. They said, "just use the Confirmation number and his name the day of check in. You don't need RR." Yes I know I don't NEED RR. But I am worried the other Kelly Green will notice something. Well anyway the RR assistant said they could not, now, correct the RR number. Couldn't be done.

I don't believe that, but now we're 24 hours in advance and without being logged in to any SW account, I was able to check him in and print boarding passes. Hoping when we show up tomorrow, the "fake" Kelly Green won't also be there, trying to get on the flight. He has the inside track because his RR number is on the reservation.

So weird.

dlaue

re: your Orlando/Puerto Rico flight.....lots of leisure travelers on that route = lots of early bird purchases (especially lately since the 2 free annual early birds on 2023 WN credit cards expired 12/31/23) = T-24 hour check-in yielding bad boarding positions. Instead, use the $50 upgrade to A1-A15 immediately upon checking-in at T-24.

re: the name issue...your companion's ticket is available to you on your reservation (an "associated" reservation) and can be checked in through your login. But, long term, I would write WN and send them the details of the confused accounts.

joshua362

FWIW, paying airfares with the same credit card number used to do some wacky things to me in the past. A colleague of mine used to travel together and shared the same cc number and at the airport machines it would pull up his trip at times and vice versa. Memory is fuzzy as I don't know why I would by inserting a cc into the machine in the first place, I don't think I did.

dmbolp

Also re: MCO-SJU...there are other 1st legs from various airports that depart before your 8:35am central (9:35am eastern) flight that were therefore able to check in to the MCO-SJU before you

NoStressHere

Post was confusing until I read again and two different topics.

As to adding companion. Just went through it again with a new companion pass. It is beyond my sense of logic that you can not add the new companion via their RR number? It worked this time based on the data entered for my wife. But WHY do they make this such that it can screw up so easily?

Delta Hog

Excellent point...yes all over the East Coast would be earlier than 9:35a to MCO. But I also think many of them would have direct to SJU so wouldn't need to go to MCO anyway.

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dmbolp

BWI is the only east coast airport that has a non-stop to SJU (other than FL airports). Heck, looks like less than 8 nationwide airports based on the route map, and that doesn't even take into account seasonality: https://www.southwest.com/route-map/...V-AIR-ROUTEMAP

Double-heck, the route map shows non-stops from the following, but none have a non-stop tomorrow: STL, BNA, MDW, HOU, AUS.

If you're going to SJU tomorrow, you're going thru MCO/TPA/FLL; I can't find any non-stop outside FL (other than BWI).

mrkymark

Regarding naming your companion on a companion pass, I had the same problem.

When adding online it asks for name, dob, etc to try to match it with an existing account RR account or else it just creates a random Customer ID that not a real RR account but is associated with and identifies the companion. There is no option to add by RR number.

You can either use the number and give it to your son to use as a separate account and associate a password with it, basically just creating a separate RR account only for CP purposes.

Or you can call WN and tell them to reassign the companion pass to your sons real RR account. They basically do entire companion change but they so make a note in the computer that it should not count against your 3 allowable person changes.

I did the latter and voila, success.

Earlier historical posts identified this shortcoming years ago and there has been no fix. It's just the way they do it. So the recommendation was to always designate your companion via human phone agent and never online to avoid these snafus.

And yes if you do a whole companion change, you have to cancel all your existing companion bookings and rebook them with your "new" companion.
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FindAWay

I've run into the issue of WN's system not correcting linking the accurate RR# when designating my companion online before.

If you designate your companion by phone, the phone agent can correctly associate the accurate RR#. So, now, I always call to designate/change a companion.

Delta Hog

Thanks all. Yes I will definitely call from now on.

Delta Hog

I get my nonstop SJU-STL on the way back: Saturday 1/27. Love it.


This is comforting. Yes I think that is what happened. The unknown RR number is a lot longer than the standard format...so maybe a randomly generated number and not actually another Kelly Green.

pinniped

I would worry that if the system allocates some other Kelly Green's RR# to the account, will it not inherit that other Kelly Green's birthdate? I'm thinking of those airports where you don't show your BP to TSA - you just hand them your ID. I assume behind the scenes it's syncing with a PNR and passenger info, and birthdate. Would it cause an error....or is this not an issue?

pitflyer

I noticed the same thing that you can't specify the RR of your companion and Southwest apparently looks it up by what you enter when you select your companion online.

Dunno if it helped any but I had my companion also a designated traveler on my account (where you can enter an rr number) and then just went with the companion designation and it picked the right account and shows on my companion account.

Unfortunately a common problem and hope that SWAMark and others take it as an action to resolve in the future.

SoCaltravel

I had the same experience when adding my spouse as a companion for the two month period. She also qualified for a companion pass and added me. I am A list preferred and she is A list. The space to add our rapid rewards number was greyed out as noted by several posters for both of us when we were able to add the companion on 1/8. We added each other and I thought it was unusual that the trips were not reflected in our profiles (as a companion). We were taking a trip this weekend using both passes. I called Southwest and was told that the dummy rapids rewards number was generated on 1/4 for both of us. I said we couldn’t designate the companion until the 8th. What this did to me when I was the companion is I was unable to use the free internet and did not get the drink tickets in my reservation. We also both had to manually add out KTN to ensure we had TSA Precheck. The only way as noted above to fix the problem is to call in but Southwest’s agents were unaware of this being a problem.

My wife is also designated as a traveler in my profile and the system did not pick her up when I added her as a companion.

synergistic

I'm not sure what you're saying here - that maybe this happened because he accidentally mistyped his son's birthday when he added him? If he entered the birthday correctly, the way I understand the system, it could only link to another Kelly Green that is a complete match including birthday, or it would invent a new Kelly Green with the same birthday.

Edit: I haven't ever done it online, perhaps it doesn't ask for a birthdate and I'm talking in the wrong direction