Now that I am based in Houston, Texas, I wind up flying with airlines other than Delta. When I was in Georgia, 95% of all my flights were Delta. They dominate the Atlanta airport hub, but other than that, I have also found them to be generally a good partner for being on time, having great service, and ensuring my bags show up on the carousel promptly upon our arrival.
On a recent flight to San Diego on Southwest Airlines, the carousel stopped spinning, and my bag was nowhere to be seen. I went to the service counter to start investigating. My expectation was Southwest would just look my bag up on the computer and identify exactly where my it was. Why would I think that? Because that’s what Delta does.
When you check a bag with Delta, they place a separate sticker on your bag with a bar code to match the bag tag. When the bag goes down the chute, scanners read that barcode, so at every step, the bag can be immediately located. In fact, Delta sends me a text informing me when my bag has been loaded onto the plane, which is very comforting–except when you don’t get that email (check out my blog on this customer service fail here). Since Delta has upgraded to this new system, I have always arrived at an airport with my checked bag waiting for me. This sets an expectation that all airlines would be using the same technology. Wrong.
When I asked the representative from Southwest to tell me where my bag was, she looked at me like I was insane. “I’m not sure,” she said.
Bewildered, I thought, How can you not know? There’s that barcode!
She explained Southwest does not scan bags as they go into the plane, only when they come out. So my bag could still be on the ground in Houston, or on another plane anywhere in the world. And Southwest had no clue.
Here’s the thing: I expected Southwest to have the same system as Delta, but Southwest’s business model is to offer inexpensive flights, ones that get you from here to there without any frills. In this case, that meant no expensive scanning system to detect where my bag was. So, when you buy that $119 Wanna Get Away fare, just know there is reason they can offer that price. With this in mind, decide what you are willing to pay in order to get the service you desire.