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Automatically Check In To (get an awesome seat on) Your Next Southwest Flight
- mherdeg 14y agoSouthwest sues people who monetize this kind of product -- see a 2012 example at http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2012/03/02/Southwest-sues-to-stop-website.html?page=all http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2012/03/02/Southwest-... or a 2007 example at http://www.internetlibrary.com/cases/lib_case511.cfm http://www.internetlibrary.com/cases/lib_case511.cfm.
- nikilster 14y agoI'm not making money off of it. I just built it for myself and thought I would share
- okkercat 14y agoYour site could also compete with their 'Early Bird Checkin' service that that they charge for: http://www.southwest.com/flight/early-bird-retrieve-reservation.html http://www.southwest.com/flight/early-bird-retrieve-reservat...
- nikilster 14y agoI think that those are taken out even before they release the check ins to the public.
- Osiris 14y agoCorrect. Early bird and A-List automatic checkins occur 36 hours prior to the departure of the flight. The general boarding checkin starts 24 hours prior.
- nikilster 14y agoAwesome, thanks for the info - just curious how did you find this out?
- Osiris 14y agohttp://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/faqs.html?topic=rapid_rewards_program_terms_and_conditions http://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/faqs.html?top... Southwest Airlines automatically reserves a boarding pass for A-List Members beginning 36 hours prior to scheduled departure of the Member's confirmed Southwest Airlines flight.
- mherdeg 14y agoI don't think we've previously seen someone publicly offer this service for free. It'll be really interesting to see what the company does in response -- thanks for going out on a limb for us all to find out!
- nikilster 14y agoGlad to be guinea pig (Didn't really think that anyone besides myself would actually use this when I made the site) thanks !
- dave5104 14y agoMaking money or not, this kind of service is explicitly forbidden by Southwest.com's Terms of Conditions: "You may not use Southwest's sites for or in connection with offering any third party product or service not authorized or approved by Southwest. For example, online check-in service providers may not use Southwest web pages to check-in Customers online or attempt to obtain for them a boarding pass in any certain boarding group." http://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/terms-and-conditions/index.html?int=GFOOTER-BOTTOM-TERMS http://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/terms-and-cond... Which sucks, because your product looks really cool. (And I'd forego paying $10 to use your service... which is probably why it's banned. :P)
- misiti3780 14y agodude - this is a great idea. i always assume that you couldnt do this because southwest did not open their apis (aka why they are not in hipmunk, kayak, etc) how did you build it?
- nikilster 14y agothanks! uh... I check everyone in manually?
- conrey 14y agoI assume this is for those of you too cheap to spend the $10 to have this done by Southwest. Pay for service that's worth it.
- tterrace 14y agoI assume this is for those of you too cheap to spend the $0.25 on a phone call. Pay for a service that's worth it.
- axxl 14y agoNow I wonder what happens if everyone on a flight signs up for this service. Who gets priority?
- nikilster 14y agoHasn't even come close to happening yet. By default it's the first person who put their flight info on site (just like if you were checking in yourself).
- yresnob 14y agohey everyone..i wrote a program that automated posting to this service so you will be the first one in the sites queue. http://checkintocheckintomyflight.com/ http://checkintocheckintomyflight.com/
- nc17 14y agoNormally you want to create an application that becomes more valuable as more people use it. This would be the opposite.
- nikilster 14y agoThere are hundreds to thousands of Southwest flights every day. Chances of collisions are small and even if they happen each person is still better off than if he/she had not used the site. This isn't meant to be a "take over the world business", it's just a little app I built that I thought I should share with my friends and anyone who wants to benefit from it :)
- ipince 14y agoWhy only Southwest? Do other airlines not allow this? Also, are you using some API or a more "primitive" method?
- lazerwalker 14y agoSouthwest is one of the few (American) airlines that assigns boarding groups based on checkin time rather than some other factor (usually seat assignment). Also, since Southwest is the only major American airline that doesn't offer pre-assigned seating, it's the only one where getting in an earlier boarding group gets you a tangible advantage beyond having an easier time finding overhead luggage space.
- nikilster 14y agoYup, completely true! And the real reason is that I fly Southwest.
- wangarific 14y agoSome other factor is usually $.
- Osiris 14y agoHaving been a frequent flyer, I have noticed that Southwest's rates are no longer as low and competitive as they were in the past. Frontier Airlines here in Denver usually has lower rates and better amenities, like Direct TV and stretch seating. Too bad I have all my airline points with Southwest.
- geekfactor 14y agoI used to fly SWA pretty frequently too, and now I never even bother to check their site unless I'm planning very far in advance. They are usually 30-50% more expensive than even traditional carriers on most routes originating in St. Louis.
- jaybna 14y agoBetting this will be down within 72 hours. I know a guy who did this years ago. The letter he got was not so polite (but I love it!). I don't think they ban them for the money, I think it is to make sure humans are doing the work because it shows real intent to make your flight. Their overbooking algorithms don't work so well otherwise...
- gregcohn 14y agoI'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that what this discussion needs is a "Hey - thanks for making this."
- nikilster 14y agoThanks!!! I was feeling pretty bummed after the comments.
- Osiris 14y agoI'm on the Southwest A-List right now, but that expires in December so I'm definitely going to be using this next year. I was actually thinking about doing something like this myself but knowing me I never would have actually done it, so THANK YOU. Just don't mention how you can add the "A-List" tag to your boarding pass to get through the fly-by lane.
- nikilster 14y agoWhoa, didn't even know what the A-list was or that it existed! What's this business with the A-list tag? Thanks for the appreciation :) - really cool to see people enjoy this!
- caseysoftware 14y agoDon't feel bummed this is pretty nifty. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but you actually made it happen. :) The only thing I was going to do different is then text me that the check in occurred and tell me what the boarding number is. It's just an FYI but would make me feel better. (And since I work for Twilio, obviously I was going to use that. :) )
- nikilster 14y agoBrilliant idea! Mind if I do that? Also a lot of the checkins are early in the morning or late at night so maybe I should have an option for not texting if you don't want to be woken up from sleeping. Thanks again!
- wangarific 14y agoWith all the talk of you probably getting a C&D shortly, the real coup would be to release the code that does it for free. Can't imagine they can do much against that.
- FootballMuse 14y agoagreed. open source lives forever!
- yresnob 14y agoYes open source this please. or wait..why don't i spend an hour and write it myself.. ha
- dsl 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA
- taurussai 14y agoVery cool! Can you somehow make sure, I don't have to put in all this information? For eg. if I forward the confirmation email to an "automatic checkin email id", can you pick up the relevant information and automatically check me in.
- nikilster 14y agoThanks!! Awesome idea - totally - do you think people would be okay forwarding their itinerary?
- patrickod 14y agoThey're giving you enough information to get the itinerary through the website no? If so then I see no reason why I wouldn't just forward the email for the sake of convenience.
- nikilster 14y agoThat's true - okay good idea - I'll see if I can whip this up. Any ideas on the best way to receive and have a system to grab and parse email?
- _rs 14y agoOne method would be to setup a normal email address (even something like gmail) and on the server setup a cron job that connects to it via imap and downloads the messages. Probably not the nicest solution, but it might be easiest.
- nikilster 14y agoCool - I'll try this
- timjahn 14y agoSendGrid has a fantastic Parse API for this (available on the free plan): http://docs.sendgrid.com/documentation/api/parse-api-2/ http://docs.sendgrid.com/documentation/api/parse-api-2/
- tterrace 14y agoVery nice! I wrote a simple python script with urllib2 and beautifulsoup to do the same thing a while back. When I was making it I noticed that the southwest servers would sometimes report slightly different times in the response headers (I'm assuming because of load balancing or something). To deal with this, I had the script start polling the check in page 5 minutes before and steadily increase the rate as time went on. I doubt it actually made much of a difference but it was pretty fun to make.
- nikilster 14y agotterrace - email me, something funny to tell you. Also Thanks!
- thecoffman 14y agoThis is awesome - I've often thought about building something like this myself. Have you considered writing a little about your implementation? Background jobs and web scraping? An API?
- nikilster 14y agoGood idea! I literally just built this for myself so I didn't think about anything like that. Would it be interesting? Thanks!
- thronemonkey 14y agoOh my god I love you
- nikilster 14y ago:D
- livestyle 14y agoI just signed up.. I fly Southwest all the time and this is a MAJOR pain point.. BRILLANT!! If you do get shutdown.. will you honor the existing reservations made?
- nikilster 14y agohaha thanks!!! Um... I'll try, wanna help?
- thronemonkey 14y agoeven if you get shutdon you've inspired me to write a script to do it myself. any chance you would publish your code if you were shutdown?
- livestyle 14y agoWhat kind of help would you need?
- zachgalant 14y agoYeeah Nikil! Nice work!
- nikilster 14y agoThanks ZG! :)
- asarazan 14y agoWill this check in both people travelling under the same confirmation number?
- srj55 14y agoThis is a bad idea. Not only is it against Southwest policy, it also pisses off people like myself who actually go and check-in "exactly" 24 hours before and end up with a "B-7" boarding pass!!!!! Clearly, Southwest has their reasons for assigning boarding priority 0-24hrs before flight on a first-come-first-serve basis, or else they would just assign priority during payment (early-bird checkin $10 notwithstanding). Possible Reasons: 1) Loyal customers can get a "one-up" on new fliers or people who don't really care when they board and where they sit. 2) People who don't change flights within 24 hrs of takeoff can also take advantage of this --the rest might be "penalized" in this model. Sites like "checkintomyflight.com" break apart the aformentioned model. But, this is hacker news. So, congrats on building this service.
- ShabbyDoo 14y agoA-List folks get auto-assigned a boarding order 36 hours before a flight starting with A-16. A1-15 are the "Business Select" seats for which a premium is charged. So, on flights with many frequent fliers, many of the "A" slots may be not be available even to those who check in early.
- dave1619 14y agoSimple yet brilliant. I love the simple design and clean user experience. Emailing me when I've checked in with my boarding pass is extra nice as well. Well done, Nikil! I was just buying a Southwest ticket and was complaining about having to remember to check in when I found this site. It made my day.
- theprecisionist 14y agoThanks for making this. I live in Dallas and fly out of Love Field frequently and use SW every chance I get. Hope this stays around.