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Mobile Boarding Pass not always available

jlyerger
Explorer C

The basic questions is why 9 of the last 10 flights I could not get a mobile boarding pass and instead had to print it at the airport?    From what I understand from Lindsey's response, if I book a flight with another family member then I give up my ability to get mobile boarding passes.  Is that true?  If so, what does Southwest recommend to solve this so that we can do mobile boarding passes when we travel with family?

24 REPLIES 24

Re: Mobile Boarding Pass not always available

LindseyD
Retired Community Manager

Hi @jlyerger,

 

Currently, Southwest offers mobile boarding passes for reservations containing one passenger. If you'd like to be able to use mobile boarding passes, you can book your family's reservations individually. Otherwise, they can be printed at home or at the airport. 

 

Re: Mobile Boarding Pass not always available

christy15254
Explorer C

That is so weird because I was able to use the mobile boarding pass for 2 on same reservation in December 2016  Checking in today, I cant   When did it all change????? 

Re: Mobile Boarding Pass not always available

chgoflyer
Aviator A

It never changed, it's never been available. You must have had two different confirmation numbers, or perhaps are misremembering.

Re: Mobile Boarding Pass not always available

oriordan
Explorer C

Does Southwest have any plans to offer this capability?

Re: Mobile Boarding Pass not always available

PROwen
Explorer C

I agree. I thought I had been able to recieve mobile boarding passes for 2 of us in the past.

Re: Mobile Boarding Pass not always available

jimcota
Explorer C

I travel almost on a weekly basis. I also have had issues receiving a mobile boarding pass. Sometimes I will get one and other times I only get to check in and receive a security pass. I then have to get a boarding pass at the counter. Why is this happening? Why can't I just get a boarding pass on my phone?

Re: Mobile Boarding Pass not always available

richard_pearson
Explorer C

Thanks @LindseyD,

 

I've reviewed all the various board posts on the this topic and I keep seeing the same themes - customers asking why Southwest has made the deicision to disallow mobile boarding passes for multi-passenger reservations and a response like this, which is just a restatement of the fact that it is not offered.

 

I get that it isn't offered for multi-passenger. What I want to know is *why* was this decision made and *when* does Southwest plan to update the mobile app to allow mobile passes for multi-passenger reservations. Is this a technical limitation in the current implemention or a policy decision? What's driving the policy?

 

There doesn't seem to be a good or clear reason for this limitation, especially considering many (most? all other?) airlines offer mobile passes for multi-passenger reservations. As many others have stated, it's a big hassle dealing with the paper boarding passes now that we know and love the mobile option.

Re: Mobile Boarding Pass not always available

chgoflyer
Aviator A

I doubt this was a "decision," but most likely an IT limitation. The list of issues with the app and website that need to be addressed keeps growing. Some are -- no joke -- approaching two years old now.

 

Southwest is notorious for it's abysmal IT. 😞

Re: Mobile Boarding Pass not always available

lonestarflyer
Explorer C

I agree, I NOW know that our boarding passes were not available because we had 3 people on the reservation.  I would like to understand why the app cannot or will not be updated to display the boarding passes.  I stumbled into this problem this week.  Our reservation was for 3 people but I did not know the app would not show us our boarding passes.  I lost so much time looking and thinking I must have missed something when I checked us in.  On top of that, there was a problem with the toner/ink level at the hotel when we printed our boarding passes so only one of our party had a boarding pass that was scannable at TSA. The other 2 had to leave the TSA line to have their boarding passes reprinted.  It was a new airport to us so they lost a lot of time hunting for the SWA kiosks.  It would have been so much easier to have the boarding passes on our phones.  I guess for the future we have to all make individual reservations?  The weird thing is that 2 of us traveled together this past summer and I could see both of our boarding passes on my phone.  Trying to understand how that worked now.