Southwest Airlines tight connection time
 

I have a tight connection flying St. Louis to Kansas City and only have 25 min to make the second leg of the flight Kansas City to San Diego.

Today when I checked the first leg of the flight left late and if this would occur on Thursday I would miss my connection. If I see the St. Louis flight is not going to leave on time should I try and change flight #2 in St. Louis prior to departure?

Any thoughts or recommendations. I am now regretting booking such a tight connection.

Thanks.

Sandy

Can you change flights now to allow more time? SW doesn't charge a fee for changes. (But you will have to pay the difference if the price of the ticket went up.)

If you can't or don't want to change now but then you can alrady tell at your departure gate in STL that your flight to KC is leaving too later and you will miss your connection I would ask at the departing gate in STL for an alternate flight. They might reroute you through a different connection rather than through KC.

L

laurie_ann:

I am thinking I will wait and see what the situation is in St. Louis and then ask at the departing gate for an alternate flight if I see I am not going to make it.

Thanks very much.
Sandy

Here's terminal map.

http://flystl.com/AirportGuide/Termi...EAirlines.aspx

Looks like connecting gates aren't that far apart.

Rastaguytoday:

Thank you for the terminal map. Yes you are correct the connecting gates aren't that far apart. I have connected thru KC before. The STL flight leaving late yesterday is what has me worried about the tight connection. I have to hope my flight goes out on time otherwise I am in trouble.

Sandy

I've had 30-minute connection times on Southwest and made it with time to spare, but that was at Dallas-Love Field, which is pretty small and compact. Kansas City is a weird airport and badly designed, though if the Southwest gates are close together you could still make it.

My real concern is that Southwest doesn't often have that many alternate departures (especially at Kansas City), and if you miss the flight, you will only be put on another Southwest flight. That might mean waiting until the next day. Do check the flight schedule. If there's not another San Diego flight that day, you'd have to fly via Phoenix or Dallas and hope for the best.

Stupid me, I gave you St. Louis, when you wanted KCI.

Their website doesn't have a decent map that I can find, but their website says that SWA is in Terminal B, gates 37-45.

Not a lot of gates.

Keep in mind that at MCI, there decentralized security, one set for each few gates. Not sure about the particular gates WN uses, but there is a chance that security is required. Others may know better.