Southwest Airlines Early Bird Check In

[LC30]

For those of you traveling on Southwest Airlines, they just announced their Early Bird Check In program. For $10 per person, each way, they allow you to get a pre-assigned boarding number at 36 hours before your flight. You still board after business class and A-List Rapid Rewards customers but you get better boarding number than general passengers getting their boarding pass at 24 hours prior to the flight.

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Interesting, thanks for the info.

[dr&momto2boys]

I freaked out at first when I saw this because I thought for my family of five, it was going to be expensive to ensure seats together (at $10 each way per person.) Or I'd have to be right on top of checking in online 24hrs ahead of time (which is difficult on a cruise) to get a better boarding group. But then I read...
Families traveling with children 4 and under get to board between boarding groups A and B.
Whew! A relief for my family with 3 kids 4 and under!

[scootch]

Hate this. Since I travel with my two daughters without hubby, we have to sit together(at least till they get older) Unfortunately I have had a time when someone wasn't willing to "help" me out and move to a closer to the front seat(same spot.. isle) on another airline flight when flight numbers got messed up... so there's another $30 for me to fork out to be sure we sit together. Prior to this, I never had a problem getting an A boarding pass.... but the new Early Bird Passes are unlimited!! so can't take the risk I could end up in C!

[ckdipp]

So instead of hitting you up for bag fees, they found this method of separating you from more of your money!

[MegRN]

My husband and I have been pretty lucky. When we fly SWA we each take a kid and split up. One time on a flight we were the last ones to board. My son and husband took seats where available but I refused to let my 5 year old daughter sit alone. It took about 10 minutes but one guy was finally nice enough to move. But I really think he just moved so that the flight would get moving. It was one of the worst flights I have ever taken. I don't know if I will have to do this early bird for our fall trip. We usually don't make it to the connecting flight before boarding anyway.

[kcashner]

Please don't get me wrong, I'm a mom and I've traveled the world with my daughter...from the age of 2 months till now at 18. I don't have anything against kids.

BUT given the choice of changing seats or sitting next to someone's unsupervised child for a flight, I'll be happy to change seats!

[SnowWhite2]

I'm a loyal SW customer especially since they refused to charge for baggage. Now I'm just pissed that they came up with another "trick" to get money. They are back to being like any other airline when I book.

[dr&momto2boys]

Originally Posted by scootch

Hate this. Since I travel with my two daughters without hubby, we have to sit together(at least till they get older) Unfortunately I have had a time when someone wasn't willing to "help" me out and move to a closer to the front seat(same spot.. isle) on another airline flight when flight numbers got messed up... so there's another $30 for me to fork out to be sure we sit together. Prior to this, I never had a problem getting an A boarding pass.... but the new Early Bird Passes are unlimited!! so can't take the risk I could end up in C!

SW's policy says...
People traveling with a child 4 and under may board between seating groups A and B.

Oh, wait, I noticed briefly your childrens ages in you signature, but was that 2004? Your kids are older than 4 but still too young to sit alone. Sorry This policy does stink. Why not just assign seats like most airlines?

[Magical_Tink]

We were able to sign up for "A" boarding for our 9/26 return flight; did not have to wait 36 hours before. We were concerned how we were going to check in from the ship until they announced this option. We will take our chances going on 9/19 with the 24 hour check in.

I am still a Southwest fan. When I look at airlines charging $50pp for checking two bags. Last week when I flew home from San Diego I noticed people saving up to 5 seats when they boarded. No one made a fuss but I think that was too many to save.

[Morgey24]

Originally Posted by kcashner

Please don't get me wrong, I'm a mom and I've traveled the world with my daughter...from the age of 2 months till now at 18. I don't have anything against kids.

BUT given the choice of changing seats or sitting next to someone's unsupervised child for a flight, I'll be happy to change seats!

Since I LIVE in Orlando, every flight I take home is full of hyped up, whacked out "I'm going to Disney World" screaming kids... and then on the flights out of MCO with folks (some too old to really be doing this) with Goofy hats and bags as big as 3 pillows overflowing with stuffed animals and strollers filled with konked out kids and it is madness....

so I agree. I'd happily give up my nice aisle seat to not sit next to an unaccompanied 5 year old..

In fact, I'd pay $10 to be on a kid free flight Anyone at Southwest listening?

[Jestocost]

Originally Posted by Magical_Tink

We were able to sign up for "A" boarding for our 9/26 return flight; did not have to wait 36 hours before. We were concerned how we were going to check in from the ship until they announced this option. We will take our chances going on 9/19 with the 24 hour check in.

I am still a Southwest fan. When I look at airlines charging $50pp for checking two bags. Last week when I flew home from San Diego I noticed people saving up to 5 seats when they boarded. No one made a fuss but I think that was too many to save.

Just to clarify so you don't have the wrong expectations, Early Bird Check In does NOT guarantee you an A pass. It automatically processes your boarding assignment 36 hours before flight time, which means you don't have to do anything to get your assignment and gives you a 12-hour head start on anyone who doesn't pay the $10 and waits until they can check in 24 hours before the flight. You'll still be behind any medical preboards, unaccompanied minors, A-List frequent flyers and Business Select passengers AND you will be behind anyone else who paid for Early Bird Check In that gets processed before your assignments. If there are 50 people in that latter group, you could find yourself holding B boarding passes.

It's not yet clear how many passengers will be signing up for the new service nor has it been explained how the order in which boarding numbers are assigned to EBCI passengers will be determined. Presumably how soon you signed up for EBCI, as well as things like fare class (Anytime Fares go ahead of Wanna Get Away fares, for example) could play into the equation. Based on the fact that a relatively high percentage of SWA passengers apparently doesn't know how the boarding process works until they get to the airport, I assume those same people won't know about or use EBCI. As a result, it's tough to predict how much of an impact this will have. The posters on this board generally pay close attention to these types of things and don't represent a good cross-section sample of the SWA passenger base. We'll know a lot more as reports come in from SWA passengers in the coming weeks.

[kcashner]

What I'd like to see Southwest change is the policy re saving seats. As above, we've seen people with an A pass save 6 seats. In another case, a woman in a wheelchair and her companion were allowed to book first--that's fair. BUT they saved seats for their entire extended family group--9 more seats for people who had B passes. That's not right or fair.

However, guess this isn't a forum on Southwest. I'll keep flying them...they have the only direct flights between my home airport and Orlando!

[Jestocost]

Originally Posted by kcashner

What I'd like to see Southwest change is the policy re saving seats. As above, we've seen people with an A pass save 6 seats. In another case, a woman in a wheelchair and her companion were allowed to book first--that's fair. BUT they saved seats for their entire extended family group--9 more seats for people who had B passes. That's not right or fair.

However, guess this isn't a forum on Southwest. I'll keep flying them...they have the only direct flights between my home airport and Orlando!

Actually, I think what you want is for SWA to consistently ENFORCE their policy that prohibits saving seats. No policy makes a bit of difference if its not enforced. From what I've seen, some FAs are very diligent, some will force seat savers to stop saving if asked by another passenger, and some conveniently disappear or flat out refuse to do anything when disputes occur.

[carmie3377]

Right now, I'm safe since I have a 3 YO. But even when he's 5, there is NO way I would let him sit alone! I wouldn't even want my 10 YO DD to sit alone. No telling when a weirdo is going to be sitting beside her. It's different if they are an unaccompanied minor because FAs keep an extra eye on them and they sit in the front. But when you're forced to split, no telling where on the plane they'll be. I've always have been able to get boarding A because I do log in early but I know that the situation may arise where I may not be able to, such as a last minute flight due to emergency, ect.

It surprises me the number of people that won't move over a seat or up a few aisle so a parent could sit with their child. If I was flying alone, I would gladly move so a parent could sit with their child. Even if flying with DH, I wouldn't want to be split from him but I would happily move if it meant a parent and child wouldn't have to split. You never know the situation that caused them not to be able to check in early. Sure, maybe they were lazy and just didn't try. However it could be some legitimate reason as well.

However, now that they are charging to get the early boarding, I can understand how someone that did pay would not want to give up their seat to someone who did not.