One thing that successful airlines do – all successful businesses, really – is make it easy and frictionless for customers to spend money.
Airlines no longer just charge checked bag fees, they let customers prepay for their bags online or via the carrier’s mobile app. That takes steps away from hurried, stressful time for passengers at the airport. But it also accomplishes two other things:
- It takes up less staff time, which compounds across all passengers on all flights and allows the airline to reduce check-in counter staffing, saving on costs.
- Customers who prepay non-refundable bags don’t always check as many bags as they think they will! The airline gets fees for bags the customers wouldn’t have paid for at the airport.
Southwest hasn’t figured any of this out yet. In their rush to light their business model on fire, with checked bag fees, expiring flight credits, devalued frequent flyer programs and paid seats, they’ve moved quickly to implement changes but haven’t done the work to make those run smoothly or to maximize revenue.
You can’t prepay for checked bags with Southwest, and one mother discovered just how difficult that can make life because her 9 year old daughter would be flying home from summer camp as an unaccompanied minor.
- The camp would be checking her in at the airport, but the assigned staffer might not be in a position to pay for bags.
- Southwest wouldn’t accept prepayment for bags. They wouldn’t take a credit card over the phone at check-in. They’d only take a physical credit card at the check-in counter – but the 9-year old didn’t have one.
- This all happened because the mom, a very average traveler but one familiar with Southwest for years, hadn’t realized when buying the tickets that Southwest’s checked bag policy had changed.
Hi all, my 9 year old daughter is flying home from camp tomorrow. I got her tickets in June and only now realized that they do not include two pieces of luggage as was the case before. (I know, I’m at fault for not noticing the new policy.)
I’ve tried everything to find a way to pay for her luggage, but I’m hitting a brick wall. The last customer service agent told me that I should have equipped to my 9 year old with a credit card when she went to camp. I’m not getting any solutions other than to wire the camp money so that they can pay for the baggage in the airport, but I don’t have a way to get through to them in time.
…I’m not trying to get the fees waived. I just want to figure out how to pay. I even offered to travel to an airport in the DC area and pay physically there but they say it has to be at the airport she’s flying out of.
The mom called Southwest, and reports that the agent ‘made her feel like she was trying to get away with’ not paying. The old Southwest took care of employees (now, they furlough employees and eliminate job functions) and took care of customers. LUV is their ticker symbol, and they led with Southwest Heart which is why customers were so loyal.
One possible solution could have been upgrading the fare. “Choice Extra” fares come with two checked bags. Those are the old Business Select, and it also comes with A1-A15 boarding.
The problem is they only sell 15 of those per flight, then. The mom couldn’t upgrade her child’s ticket to Choice Extra, as that was sold out.
This is a 9-year old without a credit card, whose tickets were purchased days after Southwest’s policy change for checked bags went into effect, and Southwest hasn’t yet done the work to accept payment in this situation. That’s a time to show a little bit of grace to the customer – something the ‘old Southwest’ of about 10 weeks ago would have done without question.
Now they’re finally in a rush to update their business, after falling behind on fleet diversity to serve more cities and feed connecting traffic; on partnerships with other airlines to sell the destinations their customers want to travel to; and on product options that their customers want to buy (they still don’t offer the choice to pay for a blocked middle seat). But they’re just copying competitors, but doing a worse job of it.
They’re now the high fee airline whose travel credits expire, points are worth less, and that provides an inferior product – worse wifi, no seatback screens, few power outlets, and no galleys for hot meals on long flights (and they’re preparing to fly to Europe… in a 737!). They’re also no longer the airline that’s just easy to do business with.
I expect some problems when Southwest starts the assigned seating and people forget that and think they can sit wherever they want.
Charging fees before even building out the infrastructure to allow customers to pay them; Par for the course for the “Under New Management” Southwest. The speed at which the private equity vultures are destroying a once-proud and respected brand is astonishing.
As I said in the other recent kid-traveling-post (“10-year-old”), nice clickbait, Gary, and also, if we go the way of Missouri, child labor laws will be revoked, so kids can work, get credit cards, and lift up those bootstraps themselves! ‘USA! USA! USA!’ (or… hear me out… we can let kids be kids…)
“and they’re preparing to fly to Europe… in a 737!” …wait till you hear what the a321neos can do! Also, does ‘Iceland’ really count as ‘Europe’? Technically, yes, but, like c’mon…
Sadly GK systematically destroyed Southwest Airlines from the ground up and set up the Predator Investment Management Company to finish the job. The employees who are left are under the gun to perform as instructed without regard to Customer Service as this example so clearly shows. Sad beyond words for this once great airline that Herb built. But he is gone and GK is somewhere counting his millions.
If Southwest would upgrade its Commodore 64 then it might be possible to prepay online for bags, regardless of fare category.
Simple, give her a prepaid credit or debit card with just the amount needed on it.
The once great Southwest airline is now known as Southworst.
Re: “Simple, give her a prepaid credit or debit card with just the amount needed on it.”
Yeah, because most 9 year olds are incredibly responsible with money, never lose things, there is no theft at camps of cash equivalents by the many other kids sharing a cabin, and its easy for busy parents to figure out prepaid cards without terms and conditions denying use my minors and taxes and fees in other states. IF the mom had known about this long ahead of time, a southwest gift card might have been the best option
I’ve heard this nickname in the past, usually said as a joke, not because they were really the worst, but because the people using it preferred airlines that let them select a seat and pay more for a better one. Now they really seem to be living up to that nickname, which is sad for a great icon in the history of airlines, even though I rarely use them.
For me though, the lack of seatback screens, that others find to be problematic, is a selling feature. With the abundance of risque content that is presented by airlines that do offer seatback entertainment, this is the reason why we DO select Southwest for our kids that have to fly alone. Even for myself, I don’t want to be have some of this stuff visible, and it’s distracting to have 4-5 different movies playing within my field of view.
@Ron If she can’t wire money to the camp in time, can she Fedex a card to them in time?
It’s really a shame 9-year-olds cannot get credit cards. Think of how that would grow the audience for this blog. Their comments would probably be just as thoughtful and intelligent as some of the regular posts here. But unlike a few of the people who cannot resist posting their opinions on every single article, many 9-year-olds are busy living their lives each day. Summer camp and grade school are much more worthwhile activities.
Gary conveniently did not update the post with the following from the original Reddit post:
Update: RESOLVED thanks to your recommendations! THANK YOU to the users who suggested to contact SWA over twitter, which proved to be the solution! They answered my message over night and said they would contact the airport station and request that the luggage fee is waived. The rep Dakota was extremely kind and empathetic in her message, which I really appreciated.
Ahhh yes, Southwest, the NEW Spirit-Jet Blue Airlines, seemingly WORSE!
@Doc423 — Hey now, don’t knock jetBlue; they got Mint, IFE, free WiFi, and ample legroom in back. I wish SWA would become more like B6. Please.
Gary…
If this is still an issue …what city is the young lady departing from? If it’s my airport I will be happy to drive to the airport and pay the bag fee for her.
Picard
The new luv at southwest is fascinating. And, FWIW, it’s time that lazy slacker of a nine year-old start pulling their own weight. Those bag ain’t gonna bag for themselves to travel.
Hubby flies WN for biz nearly weekly. On a recent trip, he was chatting with a flight attendant about the upcoming seat assignments and asked her if she’s stressed out even thinking of what’s coming. She replied, “I already put in for a 3 week vacation right around that time!”
All they’re doing is creating a more expensive version of Spirit. Hubby is planning to migrate back towards United (I keep suggesting Delta but he has no business near ATL).
I’ve been his Companion Pass for 8 years. Last year we squeaked through. This year, we’d have to spend $135k on the SW visa or hubby has to fly 150 flights. He’s not even A List Preferred anymore due to the points devaluation.
There’s a lot more places we can go using UA points anyway, so Adios SWA!
Gary–this is definitely a problem….Southwest has not figured out how to make paying for bags ‘frictionless’–even for customers with the best intentions. Our daughter was returning from sports camp just this weekend and ran into this very scenario–she has a credit card (authorized user on my account), but did not take the physical card with her (yes, of course we had reminded her…and thought it was packed)…but she uses ApplePay nearly everywhere and had been paying for items for the entire week using ApplePay (and even used Priority Pass from her Apple Wallet too!)…so no one realized the issue until 90 minutes before takeoff. Once her group arrived at the airport, Southwest told her ‘physical card only’….she called us and we all tried to figure out a solution–agents made no attempt to help, no attempt to find a resolution…just “tough luck kid…figure it out–and fast.”
She turned to a friend who happened to have a physical credit card and thankfully paid for the bag (we reimbursed her promptly upon landing)….this is a complete 180 from our usual positive experiences with Southwest–seems the usual upbeat, friendly demeanor of SWA staff has shifted to be just like everyone else…sad. Along with all the other negative changes, Southwest has now been relegated to the last option for our team (note: we take multiple trips per month).
@ David R. Miller — They were always SouthWORST. Their customers were just to dumb to realize it. Smart travelers know that you don’t NEED to check a bag, but their customers fell for that gimmick while paying through the nose for their herding position.
Southwest should do the following:
* Go back to Bags Fly Free (BEST IDEA)
But if the above is not an option, they should implement the following options:
* Allow parents to prepay for baggage online for unaccompanied minors, especially for youth returning home on a flight, where mom or dad might not be at the airport.
* Accept cash or prepaid debit cards for unaccompanied minors so those without credit cards can pay the bag fees themselves.
* Allow parents to pay for baggage over the phone for unaccompanied minors.
* Include one checked bag each way in the standard unaccompanied minor fee
* Allow for one checked bag when quoting prices for youth group travel packages that children traveling via a group travel do not have to pay individual baggage fees. This policy could apply to school groups, youth groups, youth sports teams, church groups, camp groups, class field trips, and similar arrangements where most in the group are youth traveling together.
SWA will in the not too distant future be a Harvard business case on how to destroy brand equity.
I fairness, the old model had run its course by failing to adapt and invest. But the ham handed me-too transition that seeks comparable fees with demonstrably less value is almost certain to fail.
I’m willing to bet that absent accounting gimmickry SWA will post a loss for fully year 2026.
@Johhny — Speaking of accounting gimmickry, Elliott (mis)Management can resurrect Arthur Andersen to ‘cook the books’ for SWA.
Southwest will find out as time goes on that no one was especially loyal to them they just liked the perks. When that happens as its unfolding now they are like any other US Airline … total trash. CEO and staff are trash, their company is trash.
Its unreal the country who invented this form of transportation that the world emulated to create their Airline industry exceeds it in every singular way practically.
@BA — I agree that these are negative changes, but let’s not get too cynical. There are still decent things going on in the industry; new aircraft, unique routes, and those of us who’ve taken advantage have earned outsized value with all these programs and cards. So, many of us still enjoy traveling. I do not think it’s ‘the end’ for US carriers. Like, your ‘trash’ comment is a bit much. And, sure, CEO Jordan will get his ‘golden parachute’ regardless of how things go, as most corporate executives do, which is what happens when corporations are unaccountable. Consumers and workers deserve better; instead, it seems management and the capital class seemingly always gets away with anything and everything, and we pay the price. Anyhoo…
You might think that using a Southwest credit card will get you one free bag. Not so! My wife was charged a fee for her single checked bag when flying alone. She has a card issued to her. Southwest says that since she is not the PRIMARY cardholder (me, her husband), she must pay.
@John that is not a SWA thing. It is an industry wide thing. Not defending it just stating facts. The credit card company is buying your credit card holder status from the Airline. They only buy status for the account holder, primary, cause they want more people paying that annual fee, and if they buy that status for every secondary holder then they “lose” that all those fees…. poor mega-rich bank
Southwest needs to go back to Free Checked Bags because from my understanding that the bag price was already included in the price. This is the only way that their lower customers will come back and they can be successful again. Other than that I have to find a new airlines that’s does business properly!
I’m convinced that Southwest who is now dubbed as SouthWORST is trying to purposely tank themselves! They need to fire this new CEO! He has no regard for customers, loyalty, just numbers! Southwest has shown they don’t care about their customers anymore.
And I got a news flash for people: I know someone that works at Southwest and they told me that all that time we actually thought we were getting our bags for free they were charging us in the initial fee to book with them!!! So we didn’t lose free bags because we never had them in the first place! But we did lose open seating! So now anybody that does have those packages where they get free bags still you’re actually already paying for it in the fee and then you have to pay for additional seating. Mark my words Southwest is going to file bankruptcy in the end! Just wa just watch!
I fly Southwest exclusively right now. With the extra fees they are quickly pricing themselves out of the market. I have a lot of points that I need to use, but then back to United.
I never had any loyalty to Southwest, but they were convenient for nonstop travel to a couple specific locations from my home airport of BWI. I now find myself going back to AA since I already have to use them for my business travel, and I’d rather rack up miles there than save the $2 or so difference in price that it comes out to now for many of the same destinations. AA status may not be what it once was, but I’ve gotten half a dozen upgrades this year. Which is half a dozen more than A-list can provide with their all coach seating.
More reason to stop using Southwest. Let them go bankrupt!
So, what happened? How did it end?
@ SHADRYA THOMPSON — Learn to pack less and use a carryon. You almost certainly don’t need everythinh you back in your checked bag!
@Gene — I’m with you on this, regardless of the former free checked bags policy at SWA; specifically, I try to only do carry-on, because I don’t want to chance losing my checked bags, or having to wait extra for them after. Over a decade ago, when I was checking my bags, one came back so damaged that I did manage to get a ‘replacement’ bag from the airline, but I doubt they are as generous anymore. Be lucky to get a ‘sorry’ outta most of ‘em these days! They’d probably blame you, the passenger, for them damaging your bag. Psh. The ‘Marriott’ treatment, ya know…
We’re talking about the airline whose IT infrastructure is so bad they cannot figure out how to accept payment in Canadian dollars. Obviously, the roll-out of fees is going to be a total cluster.