In January, 2006 Southwest Airlines rolled out a new capability that many people are unaware of. You can now check in via your Palm or Windows mobile device.
Just visit http://mobile.southwest.com and there are options for Flight Check-in and Cancel Check-in. Selecting the option to check-in will allow you to claim that coveted A boarding pass, although you’ll still have to stop by a kiosk or see an agent at the airport to print the physical boarding pass.
Now, I just have one question. Why is it that all the other airlines don’t offer the same convenience?
That syntax works from a regular browser, but it brings you to yet another page, which you have to click the button to finish the checkin. So, it’s actually two click from a regular browser. I find that the blackberry browser truncates the action, so you must fill in the forms.
In the spirit of “they gave me something really cool so now I want MORE!!”, this is great, but it could be improved. Right now, I can go to that link on my Blackberry, then I have to click “Flight Check-in” and enter my confirmation code (rats – where did I put that??) along with my name. I already put a calendar reminder in Outlook (which comes up on my Blackberry with the link) to remind me to check in, but I still have to type in my confirmation code.
I’m wondering if there are URL tricks that could be used to fill in the form automatically. For example, instead of putting http://mobile.southwest.com” in my calendar reminder (which I then click on from my Blackberry), it would be really cool to be able to put something like:
http://mobile.southwest.com/cgi-bin/wireless?action=checkinform&confcode=K12A34&first=John&second=Doe
I made up everything after “checkinform”, but if that syntax was available (is it?) then check-in from a mobile device could be a one-click deal, with all of the info filled in ahead of time in a calendar entry (or some other similar method).
Make sense?
Leila,
Thanks for pointing that out! I can’t believe that was misspelled for over 6 months and no one noticed, or at least let me know. :-)
I’ve fixed it now. Take care,
John
Thank you for this tidbit of info! Just FYI, your link is incorrect since Southwest is mispelled; it should be http://mobile.soutHwest.com. link