Bradley airport, is early bird checkin needed????

[yankeeslover]

flying out of bradley on friday august 10th at 6:30am..as of now i chose not to purchase the EBC..... there are four of us, my wife and i, and our two daughters.... 13 and 5... i want to make sure that the three of them get to sit next to each other.... is bradley a busy airport? if i dont do ebc does that mean im taking a big risk of getting B or C boarding pass?.... I dont care where we sit on the plane, i just want to make sure they sit together and i get a window seat either in front of them or behind them...will this be an issue with a B or C pass? or should i spend the extra on the ebci???

 

[DougandBeth]

I fly on Southwest all the time out of Bradley airport. The airport is not the concern it's the airline and most SW flights will be completely full. Here is my suggestion make sure you check in online 24 hours ahead of time.

In addition family boarding is between A&B so I would imagine you will fall into that category and although you may be in the back of the plane your odds of all sitting together is relatively high.

 

[mb187143]

I fly on Southwest all the time out of Bradley airport. The airport is not the concern it's the airline and most SW flights will be completely full. Here is my suggestion make sure you check in online 24 hours ahead of time.

In addition family boarding is between A&B so I would imagine you will fall into that category and although you may be in the back of the plane your odds of all sitting together is relatively high.

Family boarding is only for families with children 4 and under, if they even offer it, so it is unlikely they will be able to take advantage of it. The last two early morning flights i took from PHL to MCO, the did not offer family boarding, since it would have been most of the plane.

That said... If you check in right at 24 hours, you have a good chance of being at the end of the A or beginning of the B group, and should have no trouble finding seats together, either in a 3 and 1 or 2 and 2 grouping. you may have to go a bit further back in the plane, but i've only ever seen families at the end of the C group have trouble locating seats together. If you have the ability to check in right at the 24 hour mark, you should be fine.

DF and I didn't buy EBCI last time we flew, checked in at 24 hour mark on the way down and got A25 and A26. We forgot to check in at the 24 hour mark for our return trip, so we checked in around the 20 hour mark, and got B29 and B30, and we were in row 13, and had our choice of seats.

 

[pooch]

all the time. I agree that if you check in right at 24 hrs, you SHOULD be ok. But that is not a guarantee. I expect you'll get seats together either 3-1 or 2-2 toward the back of the plane without a problem. If however, it is an absolute MUST for you to be 3-1, I'd get the EBCI. Yes, its more money but you'll get what you want.

 

[ccgirl]

flying out of bradley on friday august 10th at 6:30am..as of now i chose not to purchase the EBC..... there are four of us, my wife and i, and our two daughters.... 13 and 5... i want to make sure that the three of them get to sit next to each other.... is bradley a busy airport? if i dont do ebc does that mean im taking a big risk of getting B or C boarding pass?.... I dont care where we sit on the plane, i just want to make sure they sit together and i get a window seat either in front of them or behind them...will this be an issue with a B or C pass? or should i spend the extra on the ebci???

I fly out of PVD, which is similar to Bradley. I have yet to purchase EBCI and have yet to be split up from my children even with C passes (forgot to check in one time until we got to the airport) on a full flight. Granted, my DH was quite a few rows away but neither of us minded.

Is this a direct non stop flight? If so, just check in 24 hours in advance and you should be fine.

Have a great trip!

 

[Tara]

I'm betting that if you don't do EBCI and check in at exactly 24 hours, you'll get low B boarding numbers at best. I've known people flying out of Bradley who did EBCI and got Bs.

If it is important for you to have the seating arrangement you describe, I'd advise you to pay for EBCI.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

I've known people flying out of Bradley who did EBCI and got Bs.

Ugh. We just booked flights out of BDL and paid for EBCI - I know it doesn't guarantee As but still, I hope we get them .

 

[lovingthemouse]

Always fly SWA from Bradley - we have never purchased the ECBI going down (and i am on that computer 24 hrs exactly), but coming home i have purchased it - just don't want to be inconvenienced leaving a park to check-in.

 

[DebbieB]

Always fly SWA from Bradley - we have never purchased the ECBI going down (and i am on that computer 24 hrs exactly), but coming home i have purchased it - just don't want to be inconvenienced leaving a park to check-in.

You don't need to leave the park, just go to guest services. I have done SW check-in a couple times from City Hall at MK, I've done it at guest services at Downtown Disney.

 

[francie57]

We are flying out of BDL on the the 9th on the 6:30 flight and are using Southwest for the first time (usually did the Delta non-stops). I did purchase the early boarding for both ways since I don't want to have to worry about being on the computer at 24 hours either way. For me its peace of mind that my boarding is taken care of since we have never used an airline where I didn't have seat numbers ahead of time.

 

[Shelly S]

We fly SW out of BDL a lot. When I check in ASAP at 24 hours I usually get A's in the 40's or 50's. If I am just a minute or two late, it is mid Or upper B's.

Last time, I was talking to someone in line to board two people ahead of me. She paid for the early bird. I was glad I didn't. I think we had B41 and B42.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Ugh. We just booked flights out of BDL and paid for EBCI - I know it doesn't guarantee As but still, I hope we get them .

Just thought I'd report back for future reference

The flight I mentioned above was last week and we got Bs with ebci. We had purchased the option all the way back in February. In the end it was all a moot point because we had to cancel at the very last minute. I think next time I might take our chances at 24 hours.

 

[DebbieB]

Just thought I'd report back for future reference

The flight I mentioned above was last week and we got Bs with ebci. We had purchased the option all the way back in February. In the end it was all a moot point because we had to cancel at the very last minute. I think next time I might take our chances at 24 hours.

Sorry to hear you had to cancel your trip. The fact that you got B's shows that more people are buying EBCI.

 

[francie57]

Agree with more people using EBCI. We bought it for our flights on the day the flights were available out of BDL. We got 37, 38, 39, 40 on the way to MCO and on the flight back got 17, 18, 19, 20. Would do it again (actually we are for our return flight in Jan - going JetBlue down since time was better) since I don't want to worry about being on a computer at the 24 hours mark when on vacation. We did pay for it at the time of booking since I think the earlier you purchase it the better.