Southwest apologizes to top-tier customers for boarding fail

DALLAS – Southwest Airlines continues to have computer problems that are causing its best customers to lose a major perk — early boarding.

The airline said Wednesday that it partially fixed the problem but was still working to make things right and find the cause of the glitch.

A spokeswoman says Southwest is giving extra frequent-flyer points to A-List and A-List Preferred customers who didn’t get priority boarding in the last few days. It takes 25 one-way flights or a certain number of points in a calendar year to qualify for A-List, and 50 flights or even more points for A-List Preferred.

Most Southwest passengers board in the order they check in. Priority privileges can mean the difference between an aisle seat up front or a middle seat farther back.

Dallas-based Southwest carries the most passengers within the U.S. of any airline.