Southwest''s Mishandled Baggage Numbers...

[Tango-Bravo]

Why has Southwest consistently been somewhere in the middle of the pack in fewest mishandled baggage numbers over the past year (or more) in DOTs monthly major airline performance reports?

It would seem almost axiomatic that WN would be at the top in this category without fail, inasmuch as you have no interline agreements and, compared to the airlines included in the reports, a much smaller percentage of your pax travel on flights involving a connection.

 

[chase]

Tango-Bravo,

It is an area the company has brought to the attention of all stations in hopes of improving. We have installed bagtag scanners to help the process but these are not as reliable as some of the older more tried & true methods. Here is an issue also that isn''t realized often times.

Walk up to an AA/DAL ticket counter 25 minutes prior to push time. You''ll be told, don''t bother, the plane is closed out. Do that with SWA & you''ll get on & even with less time to push time many times. SWA takes the risk of getting you on board even when their is min time to get to the gate with your bags. If we closed out 30 minutes prior I would susspect we would have fewer missed bags. We also have some quick turn times on connecting flights. Other carriers don''t have such tight turns since they don''t fly point to point with stops along the way. Missing bags isn''t good & the company is working to improve it. Hopefully it will.