Last weekend I returned to San Juan from my cruise. We had a wonderful time with the family and proceeded to the airport to board my favorite Southwest airlines. We arrived at the airport approximately 10am. I was the lucky one who booked a non- stop to Newark for the most economical cost. My sister and brother where both on different airlines and had to pay additional for baggage fees. We all had a departure time of 5pm and all proceeded to our individual airlines to check in. Within minutes my brother and sister was heading towards TSA line. I was left standing at the desk and in shock when I was told by the Southwest ticket agent “Sorry Maam the earliest you can check in is 4 hours before the flight”. Now southwest family what was I going to do for 3 hours dragging my luggage? Why did the other airlines allow them to check in and take their luggage? When I asked the southwest agent these questions he replied “We had had problems with the luggage”. What kind of problems? The same people are behind the wall putting the luggage on the moving belt so what kind of problems is this airlines experiencing that that the others are not? I asked to speak to a supervisor who reinforced the same information. Can anyone tell me what’s with the 4 hours rule and can anything be done to relax this for the customers? I did end up finding a seat outside on the bench in front of Jetblue.
