haha, yes that right, you can 'haX0rz' the system, pissing off others in the process, but

ONLY IF YOUR NOT ON THE DAMN LIST....

which I happen to be. So it doesent matter how early I book my flight, nor how much I pay, I cant check in online, I have to go to the counter, which pushes me back, to the C group, occasionaly if I get lucky I get the B group.

So, yeah, great hack and all, but if you guys could come up with something so that I could atleast participate in the regular system then that would be cool.

Here's another idea. Even if you aren't handicapped, show up at the gate in a wheelchair. You'll get on before those other suckers! Screw them!

Thanks alot for screwing those of us who take the time and make the effort to legitimately get an "A" boarding pass!

Yeah, this sucks for real. Grow up.

Doesn't altering a boarding pass make you a terrorist? I think that's in the Patriot Act somewhere...

From the comments section of the referring blog:
"I fly Southwest all the time. Their policy on this is that, if you or someone else modifies your boarding pass in any way, then it's void. This is on the ticket when you print it out, so you have been warned."

Have a nice walk, pseudo A-listers!

If the TSA discovered you had altered your boarding pass, they might very well find you suspicious... with all that entails. I wouldn't do this in a million years.

They'd have no way to prove it in a million years. It's on paper at that point. This is a great way to make Southwest go to a real boarding system. I hate flying them sometimes. It's like being on the subway with slightly less smelly people.

I'm not sure what's funnier - this post, or the fact that some people seem pissy about it.

2 words for anyone thinking about altering your ticket: Cavity search.

Any Such Name, posters are pissy because it's is showing people how to screw the law-abiding customer, who is the same person that this site purports to help.

With the same technique (check in online, edit the source code, reprint boarding pass) you could change the registered passenger's name to your own name and make it past the ID check at the airport with a ticket that isn't yours.

Still sound like an innocent hack?

Of course it's an innocent hack. After all the only people guilty are the one's who do it right?

Up until now someone was doing this and getting away with it. Putting it up here it will be sure to draw attention which means the hole will be closed and the potential hacking problem resolved.

Of course you could just send an email to Southwest. It's events like these that make companies hate customers even more.

bambino - not getting a good seat on a cheap flight get you riled up that much?

kostia - are we a lil' paranoid over there? i flew with a knife in my bag within the past 6 months, and yet, the world still turns.

seems like it would be easy enough for them to add a check to the computer that scans your barcode to foil this.

Lemurs,

If you hate flying them, then stop doing it. I'll happily take my cheap ticket and print out my boarding pass at midnight. Anything's better than America West.

This is a solution in search of a problem. Frankly, anyone savvy enough to do this should be able to just print the damned thing at the appropriate time.

Also, as a near religious A-boarder (in fact, most of my online tickets have a little #1 on the page, showing that I was the VERY FIRST PERSON TO PRINT MY TICKET!) I must say this is pretty shady.

Here's another 'hack' - find out how your local nightclub marks the hands of patrons who have to leave the bar and put it on your hand! You can get in without paying cover!

here'a an idea - DON'T FLY SOUTHWEST. for like say, 15 bucks more you can fly a real airline, that you can pick out your seat at the time of purchase on-line. then you can only blame yourself if you suck at picking seats.

Flexo writes:

"Why would anyone want to board a plane faster? The only benefit is
getting your luggage in an overhead rack, but there's almost always room
anyway. By sitting down sooner, you'll be sitting in the uncomfortable
seats longer, and if you don't have a window seat, you'll be standing up
to let people in and out. Unless a flight is overbooked, I'd rather board
towards the end."

The payoff here doesn't seem to fit the risk.

Payoff: You get to cram your posterier into an airline seat 5..possibly 10 minutes sooner than your B and C section suckers.

Risk: Being detained, cavity searched and interrogated by TSA agents and spending the night in a prison cell with a big drunk and lonely trucker named "Jake." And, possibly spending the remainder of the Bush administration having your mail read, your bank records watched, and your phone tapped.

I am a healthy 73 y. o. and I often travel with my 65 y .o. healthy wife. We plan and book our trips well ahead but this does not help us if we continue to use Soutwest Airline.

During our recent Islip- Fort Lauderdale and back, we were forced to sit separately each and every time. The "24 hours ahead" boarding-card request via the internet was refused because of our "senior status." And believe me, we were exactly the same two people when we were "checked" in Islip and "re-checked" in Ft. Lauderdale. We ended up on "Waiting Line C." both times.

One airline employee advised us to ask for "pre-boarding" next time.

This is INCREDIBLE ! Southwest Airline discriminates against NON-HANDICAPPED SENIORS !

@LLH, thanks but I'll continue to fly Southwest with their great staff and customer service. I fly them weekly for work and have nothing but great experience and think your "real airline" comment is quite ignorant. Have fun picking out your seat before hand and sitting next to a screaming baby or gaggle of loud teenagers. I will continue getting A seating by checking in online (legitimately) and choosing who I sit by. I have flown many airlines over the years and there is no comparison to the great customer service frequent flyers get with Southwest. I hope your ego continues to be stroked by overpaying for bad service and late flights with your "real" airlines. :rolleyes:

Use the unmodified one to get through security. Use modified one to board.

This would be disastrous for me. I get pulled for 'random screenings' enough as it is. Six times in a row at last count. Like I need to hand them another reason to grope me.

See what happened to someone else who decided it would be a good idea to alter boarding passes.

I knew a guy (pre 9/11) who would always show up just in time for boarding an SWA flight and would pay a child $1 to swap numbered boarding cards with him. Families always arrived early enough to get the low numbers, and they didn't need them since families travelling with small children always board first, anyway.

This definitely does not (or at least should not) work since it is a violation of federal law to mark luggage as containing a firearm. I always print out a copy of this:http://trac.syr.edu/laws/18USC922.html to take with me to the airport in case some idiot airline employee tries to mark my luggage. That's just asking to get robbed.

This hack has been around since.. oh I don't know... the advent of the Xerox machine?