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By Darlin Tillery
Life & Trends Reporter
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A Southwest Airlines passenger says a standby alert in the airline’s app left them scrambling for answers before departure.
In a post on Reddit, user suspiciousbroccoli22 shared screenshots from their trip that appeared to show conflicting information.
One image displayed a red notification banner in the app reading, “We had to move you to the standby list. One or more seats are no longer available for this reservation. See a Customer Service Agent at the gate for assistance.”
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Another screenshot showed a text message stating, “Standby alert: You have been cleared for flight 2277 from LAS to STL, departing at 1:55 PM. Get your boarding pass(es) here.”
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According to the original poster (OP), they spoke with a gate agent two hours before the 1:55 p.m. flight from Las Vegas to St. Louis and were told their place on the flight was confirmed.
The agent said the seat assignment and boarding pass would appear in the app about one hour before departure.
“I checked at 1 PM for my 1:55 PM flight and the Boarding Pass & Seat Assignment were showing,” the OP noted.
They added, "It's definitely meant to make you feel anxious and pay for an upgrade."
standby message for basic fare due to seat
r/SouthwestAirlines
Reddit users flocked to the comments to weigh in, with several questioning whether the message was tied to the fare type.
One asked, “Wait, so why were you moved to the standby list? It was just a function of buying a basic economy ticket and not purchasing a seat assignment?”
The OP replied: “I do not believe I was actually moved to true Standby (where you are unconfirmed for the flight & seat). Yes - for your 2nd question.”
'Really need to change the wording'
They also referenced an explanation shared by another Reddit user in a separate discussion: “You're [on] standby for a seat, not the flight. They ran out of basic seats at the back of the plane.
"Once that happens, they list basic passengers as standby in the hope that other passengers will pay to upgrade to a preferred or extra legroom seat rather than upgrading you to one of those seats for free."
"They really need to change the wording, but that doesn’t seem to be happening,” they added.
Southwest Speaks
Speaking to Newsweek, a Southwest spokesperson claimed only "a small subset" of customers were seeing the issue on the mobile app.
"The final 14 customers holding Basic fares to check in on full flights only are showing they are on the standby list because their seat has yet to be assigned," he explained.
"Internal teams are working with our reservations vendor to clear it up. It’s by no means intended to entice customers to pay for an upgraded seat … because none would be available anyhow, given that it’s a full flight."
While he was unable to provide an exact date for the fix, he added, "It’s certainly on our list of minor tweaks we’re making to smooth the Customer Experience after seeing how things have performed in the live environment in the past month since we launched assigned seating."
Southwest Fares
Southwest outlines its fare differences on its website. On its Same-Day Change and Same-Day Standby page, the airline states, “Same-day standby allows you to retain your current flight while listing for standby on an earlier flight via the Southwest app or mobile web, should one become available.”
The site also notes, "With the exception of A-List Preferred and A-List Members, Customers who purchase Basic fares are not eligible for free same-day standby.”
The airline further explains that once a passenger is cleared from standby, “a seat will be assigned to you.”
Newsweek has reached out to suspiciousbroccoli22 and Southwest Airlines for comment via Reddit. We could not verify the details of the case.
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