After delays on Sunday, Southwest asks Monday passengers to plan ahead

Due to technical issues that started Sunday, passengers flying on Southwest Airlines Monday are being told to arrive at the airport two hours early, with printed boarding passes in hand.

The trouble began Sunday morning, when the airline said it had to use back-up systems across the country to check in passengers who did not have mobile or printed boarding passes. Of the 3,600 flights scheduled Sunday, 450 were delayed, and Southwest did not say what caused the problem or how long it would take for it to be fixed.

At Los Angeles International Airport, handwritten tickets were being issued to passengers, and those who missed their flights because of the glitch were scrambling to find new ones. E.J. Schultz told the Los Angeles Times at his gate, people who had paper boarding passes were fine, but those who downloaded their tickets to their phones were told to wait in line. He said he wasn't sure why Southwest didn't notify people sooner to print their passes before showing up at the airport: "If everyone had done that," he said, "it would've saved so much time."

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