
Automatically Check In To (get an awesome seat on) Your Next Southwest Flight - nikilster
http://checkintomyflight.com/
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mherdeg
Southwest sues people who monetize this kind of product -- see a 2012 example
at
[http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2012/03/02/Southwest-...](http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2012/03/02/Southwest-
sues-to-stop-website.html?page=all) or a 2007 example at
<http://www.internetlibrary.com/cases/lib_case511.cfm>.

~~~
nikilster
I'm not making money off of it. I just built it for myself and thought I would
share

~~~
okkercat
Your site could also compete with their 'Early Bird Checkin' service that that
they charge for:

[http://www.southwest.com/flight/early-bird-retrieve-
reservat...](http://www.southwest.com/flight/early-bird-retrieve-
reservation.html)

~~~
nikilster
I think that those are taken out even before they release the check ins to the
public.

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Osiris
Correct. 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.

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nikilster
Awesome, thanks for the info - just curious how did you find this out?

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Osiris
[http://www.southwest.com/html/customer-
service/faqs.html?top...](http://www.southwest.com/html/customer-
service/faqs.html?topic=rapid_rewards_program_terms_and_conditions)

 _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._

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gregcohn
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that what this discussion needs is a
"Hey - thanks for making this."

~~~
nikilster
Thanks!!! I was feeling pretty bummed after the comments.

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MartinCron
Don't be bummed. Even though I personally wouldn't use this (my life is too
short to fly Southwest if I don't have to) I think it's great that you made
something and are sharing with a community of people who are making things.

~~~
nikilster
Thanks! :) Makes me feel better:)

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wangarific
With 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.

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FootballMuse
agreed. open source lives forever!

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yresnob
Yes open source this please.

or wait..why don't i spend an hour and write it myself.. ha

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jaybna
Betting 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...

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srj55
This 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.

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ShabbyDoo
A-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.

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taurussai
Very 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.

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nikilster
Thanks!! Awesome idea - totally - do you think people would be okay forwarding
their itinerary?

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patrickod
They'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.

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nikilster
That'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?

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_rs
One 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.

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nikilster
Cool - I'll try this

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nc17
Normally you want to create an application that becomes more valuable as more
people use it. This would be the opposite.

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nikilster
There 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 :)

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tterrace
Very 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
tterrace - email me, something funny to tell you. Also Thanks!

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conrey
I 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.

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tterrace
I 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.

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dave1619
Simple 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.

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axxl
Now I wonder what happens if everyone on a flight signs up for this service.
Who gets priority?

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yresnob
hey 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/>

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asarazan
Will this check in both people travelling under the same confirmation number?

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thecoffman
This 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?

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nikilster
Good idea! I literally just built this for myself so I didn't think about
anything like that.

Would it be interesting?

Thanks!

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theprecisionist
Thanks 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.

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ipince
Why only Southwest? Do other airlines not allow this?

Also, are you using some API or a more "primitive" method?

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lazerwalker
Southwest 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.

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wangarific
Some other factor is usually $.

~~~
Osiris
Having 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
I 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.

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thronemonkey
Oh my god I love you

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nikilster
:D

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livestyle
I 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?

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nikilster
haha thanks!!! Um... I'll try, wanna help?

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thronemonkey
even 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?

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zachgalant
Yeeah Nikil! Nice work!

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nikilster
Thanks ZG! :)

