Online Check-in Clock diesn't record the coreect time

[jdjtampa]

For now my fourth time in the past month, I have diligently waited for the precise time of my next day departure and clicked Check-in seconds after the official national atomic time says I am within the 24-hr window.  I had several witnesses watch me attempt to check in for my latest flight seconds AFTER the 24-hr pre-flight departure time, and AS USUAL, received the website notice that I was not within the 24-hr window.  Within a 10-15 seconds, I am able to finally check in, and every time BLEEPING time, I end up deep in group B, which is frankly impossible.  I know darn well that 60+ people are not faster than I am nor purchasing early bird check-in on EVERY flight.   I am about ready to say goodbye to Southwest Airlines, despite being on the cusp of my requisite A-List preferred 25 flights in a calendar year.  You need to get this figured out, and standardize your servers correctly to the official time.  You're about to lose a long-time frequent flyer if you dont.  I am SICK of this.  FIX IT!

[TheMiddleSeat]

While the clocks may not match up as you'd hope they would, keep in mind that getting a B position at exactly 24 hours prior does not mean that 60 people beat you right at that moment. A1-15 are reserved for Business Select tickets and  those positions will go unused if not sold to BS passengers. A-List, A-List Preferred, and EarlyBird passengers are next, automatically assigned a boarding position 36 hours prior to departure. Then that leaves people like you who do manual check in 24 hours prior. It's very possible the people who get an automated check-in take up all the A and the majority of the B positions. 

If you are close to earning A-List I'd suggest you continue so you can enjoy the benefits of automatic check-in. Loyalty and status matters with Southwest and all other airlines. 

[chgoflyer]

It's very common now to receive a B position even after paying the EarlyBird Check-In fee.

[DancingDavidE]

If your flight is a continuing flight, you also will be behind people that originated earlier but get to check in for all of their legs at once, those passengers may be checked in a few hours before the 24-hour mark.

For flights that originate with your flight this won't be a contributing factor.

I agree with the other poster, if you are close to A-list get it! Having the automatic check-in is a huge relief, plus then you can also board at position "A61" during times when you get a poor position for whatever reason (last minute changes, standby, etc.)

[LindseyD]

@jdjtampa, 

We do have a lot of folks who are serious about checking in right at that 24-hour mark, but nevertheless, I'm sorry that the boarding pass situation has been frustrating. We do have some great options available - Early Bird, becoming an AList (and it sounds like you're close!), or upgraded boarding, which is available at the gate. 

Your business is important to us, and we don't want to see you go. While we don't have any plans to change our unique check in and boarding situation, please know that we're always listening to Customer feedback and looking for ways to improve your experience. 

[PDXMusicman]

To LindseyD

I don't think we are all asking for Southwest to change their system, only to have your server's clock synchronized with "official" time.  I always have three check-in screens set-up on my computer (which is synchronized with the NIST clock by the way).  Why do I do this? Because of many previous problems trying to check-in, even when allowing an extra 3 seconds.  This morning I waited an extra 5 seconds and still was rejected on my first attempt.  I immediately clicked on the second screen and then got in.  The result: B39/B40 for our first flight and B52/53 for our second flight.  After I checked-in and scrolled down the page I saw the following statement:

Looking for a better boarding Position?  Claim the best A1-A15 available on eligible segments of your flight - Starting at $60 more per passenger per segment!  So, for my wife and I we can get a highly desired seating position for maybe only $240 (2 people/2 flight segments - remember, the statement says starting at $60).  Look, I know you can pay $25 per person per one way when you book your flight if you are so inclined to pay up front and yes this would certainly be less than getting stabbed $240 after you check-in.  However, I'm not particularly interested in doing either of these in virtually any case.  I only want your clock to be predictably synchronized with NIST time to give me a fair shot when checking in.  This is obviously very frustrating for a lot of people!

[dfwskier]

---

@PDXMusicman wrote:

To LindseyD

 You are responding to a 7 year old post. Do you really expect Lindsey to respond?  BTW, she isn;t around anymore, so she will not be responding to you.

Second, Southwest tries to upsell EVERYONE to buy the A1-A15 boarding spots - including people that lmight already have A16. There's no conspiracy to give people bad boarding spots so that SW can upsell them.

[DancingDavidE]

---

@dfwskier wrote:

---

@PDXMusicman wrote:

Second, Southwest tries to upsell EVERYONE to buy the A1-A15 boarding spots - including people that lmight already have A16. There's no conspiracy to give people bad boarding spots so that SW can upsell them.

---

As I understand it the business is going quite well, definitely no need to do that.

There are too many variables here @PDXMusicman with number of A-List people, EBCI tickets, etc. that even if you were the first one to check in it can vary quite a bit.

You are doing everything that you can and I hope you get good results more often than not with your method.

A B-number may be common on flights with many A-list passengers.