SW early board. How do they decide?

lost*in*cyberspace · Sep 28, 2016

Please note EBCI is NOT early boarding.

LisaS · Sep 28, 2016

disneyeveryyear said:
She was 15 at the time and flew less than DH and I.

Unless you booked her flight within 36 hours of departure, it is a puzzle how she got that boarding position.

stitchlovestink · Sep 28, 2016

Mackenzie Click-Mickelson said:
A1-A15 is only for Business Select..you have to pay for that fare or get an upgrade at the gate. A-Listers do not get boarding positions A1-A15 (they could IF they paid for the Business Select or did the upgrade at the gate which anyone can do that).

LisaS said:
A1-A15 are for Business Select passengers. The lowest position an A-List passenger can get if they did not purchase a Business Select fare is A16. Any boarding positions in the A1-A15 group that are still open just prior to boarding may be offered for sale by the gate agent at $30-$40 per person.

That can only occur once you are within 24 hours of departure. At 36 hours out, the system assigns boarding positions to Business Select passengers, A-Listers and those who purchased EBCI. At 24 hours out, everyone else can check-in. If anyone who has received a boarding assignment cancels their flight, their boarding position goes back into the pool and the next person to check-in gets it.

Sorry for misspeaking, the A listers I know only purchase business select fares because in the event they have to change their travel, their companies want refunds not flight credits restricted to their names.

Mackenzie Click-Mickelson · Sep 28, 2016

stitchlovestink said:
Sorry for misspeaking, the A listers I know only purchase business select fares because in the event they have to change their travel, their companies want refunds not flight credits restricted to their names.

No problem.

That will depend on company to company and Anytime Fare gets you a full refund too rather than a travel credit. Can't speak for all but when my husband travels he uses his company credit card so a refund would go back onto that credit card which is paid for by the company directly anyways.

My husband's company is pretty good but there is no way they would have wanted to pay mid $400s every two weeks for him to come home for 13 1/2 months which is basically what Business Select costs from KCI to BWI and KCI to Houston (Hobby) [he was in Houston from July 2015-mid Dec 2015 and in southern Maryland from early Jan 2016-mid August 2016]. 90% of the time he purchased Wanna Get Away fare with a few Anytime fares (generally only when there were no more Wanna Get Away fares left).

Business Select does earns more Southwest points, then Anytime fare and finally the least amount of points earned is Wanna Get Away. Generally speaking with A-list my husband gets A20s and when he was traveling a bunch for work he bought his ticket 1-2 weeks before the flight date(s).

ETA: my husband's company wasn't that stingy but the reality is they were paying a lot to have him out from our home. In Houston he was on full expenses paid (food, rent, gas, airfare) and in southern Maryland he was on a per diem, 20% raise in pay, $5,500 in moving expenses (to get there and back), gas and airfare paid by the company.

LisaS · Sep 28, 2016

Mackenzie Click-Mickelson said:
Generally speaking with A-list my husband gets A20s and when he was traveling a bunch for work he bought his ticket 1-2 weeks before the flight date(s).

Your post reminded me of another benefit A-Listers get. If they do not get an "A" boarding pass (which can happen if they book/change their flight within 24 hours of departure) they can board at the end of the A line. That A-List perk can add more people to the "A" group, meaning a few more seats are occupied when those in family boarding or the "B" and "C" groups board.

Minnesota! · Sep 28, 2016

stitchlovestink said:
The A1 to A15 spots are for A listers (those are the frequent flyers) and for ANYONE who purchased a business class fare.
Also, SW doesn't allow the gate agents to skip family boarding. It's listed on the website and doesn't say subject to availability or if offered. We fly out of BWI which has become SW hub. 75% of our flights to MCO are families. They have never skipped family boarding either way. Why??? Because skipping family boarding causes MORE DELAYS in departure trying to get people to move to accommodate those with younger children!

there is a rumour out there when something like that happens, it is because someone who had EBCI recently canceled their ticket and you were the first person to buy a ticket w/EBCI. So your newly purchased ticket took the canceled ticket's spot. Instead of everyone getting bumped forward a number when someone cancels, the next EBCI purchaser hops into that canceled ticket holder's spot.

I know I have said it a billion times on here, but I have never been on an SWA flight that had family boarding. It's always been "too many families, just not doing it". I will keep my eyes on it when we fly in 33 days

Mackenzie Click-Mickelson · Sep 28, 2016

LisaS said:
Your post reminded me of another benefit A-Listers get. If they do not get an "A" boarding pass (which can happen if they book/change their flight within 24 hours of departure) they can board at the end of the A line. That A-List perk can add more people to the "A" group, meaning a few more seats are occupied when those in family boarding or the "B" and "C" groups board.

Yup that is true.

keishashadow · Sep 28, 2016

Mackenzie Click-Mickelson said:
Maybe that was because you used SWA points to buy your tickets??

ETA: That's the only thing I can think of is that because you used points but bought the other ticket not using points that the ticket bought not using points was given higher priority with regards to assigning boarding positions.

if true, that stinks

. Points can be purchased as well as being earned. If anything, they should prioritize their boarding for those who patronize them enough to earn substantial points to book tickets IMO. Ok, ok, quite laughing A listers.

Mackenzie Click-Mickelson · Sep 28, 2016

keishashadow said:
if true, that stinks . Points can be purchased as well as being earned. If anything, they should prioritize their boarding for those who patronize them enough to earn substantial points to book tickets IMO. Ok, ok, quite laughing A listers.

lol I hear you though. A-list is hard though an average person isn't going to fly 25 1 fly flights in a year (or fly booking flights to earn 35,000 pts unless they are doing Business Select or possibly Anytime Fare all the time in one year) but after 12/31/17 when my husband's current A-list status expires he'll be back to a normal person lol.

I could be entirely wrong on the points thing it was just my only thought for such a difference in boarding position. Someone else proposed it could have been due to a person canceling within 36hrs that would effectively give that boarding position away but I have no idea if that's how it works.

DebbieB · Sep 28, 2016

keishashadow said:
if true, that stinks . Points can be purchased as well as being earned. If anything, they should prioritize their boarding for those who patronize them enough to earn substantial points to book tickets IMO. Ok, ok, quite laughing A listers.

Or got their credit card. I've received the 50,000 miles twice.

Mackenzie Click-Mickelson · Sep 28, 2016

DebbieB said:
Or got their credit card. I've received the 50,000 miles twice.

We did that for the sake of getting Companion Pass. My husband had a little over 60,000 points for just Jan-June. The bonus miles from the credit card put him to the Companion point. We've only got to use it once so far but we looked at it from a standpoint of next year we'll use it for Disney World in Sep and we're thinking about visiting a friend in San Francisco in the early part of 2017.

keishashadow · Sep 28, 2016

yes chase is everywhere.

Their new offering is very tempting even with the high annual fee :magnify:

.

tinkerbella16 · Sep 28, 2016

I flew SW for the first time a few weeks ago. We booked our flights and EBCI the moment Fall flights were released back in Feb. When I went to print our boarding passes the day before flying to MCO we got A16-A20. Leaving to go home we got A19-A23. We were very happy that we booked so early and very happy our boarding positions.

stitchlovestink · Sep 28, 2016

Minnesota! said:
I know I have said it a billion times on here, but I have never been on an SWA flight that had family boarding. It's always been "too many families, just not doing it". I will keep my eyes on it when we fly in 33 days

LOL....
I have never been on a flight that has NOT had family boarding. And I fly BWI to MCO a good bit between WDW, cruising, and visiting family and my adult kids that live in Florida...

Minnesota! · Sep 29, 2016

We fly out of MSP, but 99% of the time connect in MDW...which, I believe, is a decent sized hub for them. I do find it odd...since they tout it, but I have never seen it in action. We flew Sun Country in June on the way out, and they had everyone and the brother loading before us - military, disabled, kids, preferred, etc. Since it is assigned seating, I don't care, but I am just so used to lining up and getting on with SWA, it threw me for a loop

keishashadow · Sep 30, 2016

stitchlovestink said:
LOL....
I have never been on a flight that has NOT had family boarding. And I fly BWI to MCO a good bit between WDW, cruising, and visiting family and my adult kids that live in Florida...

Have been on several flights out of MCO where they announce family boarding is being suspended but they were all oversold

disneyeveryyear · Sep 30, 2016

LisaS said:
Unless you booked her flight within 36 hours of departure, it is a puzzle how she got that boarding position.

Nope she was booked about 6 weeks out. It is still a mystery to us, but boy did she rub it in. She is also the one who ALWAYS gets pre-check even when nobody else in the travel party does. She keeps telling me that she is "A Big Deal!) LOL

disneyeveryyear · Sep 30, 2016

Minnesota! said:
I know I have said it a billion times on here, but I have never been on an SWA flight that had family boarding. It's always been "too many families, just not doing it". I will keep my eyes on it when we fly in 33 days

It must depend on the airport. At STL, I have never been on a flight where they denied family boarding.

Mackenzie Click-Mickelson · Sep 30, 2016

disneyeveryyear said:
It must depend on the airport. At STL, I have never been on a flight where they denied family boarding.

I'm sure it also depends on the gate agents and depending on your on-time factor of that flight.

goofy4tink · Sep 30, 2016

I think that since SW started actively monitoring who is actually in that family boarding group, they've stopped suspending family boarding. Why? People used to get into the family boarding group with 3 or 4 kids, one of who met the age guidelines, then aunty and uncle and the 5 cousins came along, and the 2 sets of grandparents! It was a nightmare. Now, they seem to be much more strict about who is allowed to be in that group.

SW early board. How do they decide?

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