Southwest Early Bird Checkin

[Bobo912]

I've been keeping up with the posts here as we are traveling on SW this Friday and also in December. My DH is an A-Lister but I went ahead and got EBCI for DD & I. I do have to say, if a single person gets on and as we're boarding attempts to save 5 or 6 seats (as has happened on some SW flights)?... If my party of three wants those seats and no people are sitting in them or getting ready to sit in them and someone says they're 'saved' and we're standing right there?... they're ours.
Even before the advent of the EBCI, my A-List DH never saved seats. He might be a couple of slots ahead of us, but we lined up as our passes indicated. He would usually get on and find an unoccupied row to start stowing his bags first, but if a party of two had wanted the 2 seats next to his or even if a singleton wanted one of them then we would have found something else.

I'll come back here tomorrow evening and post what all our boarding passes are for our trip this weekend.
agnes!

When we flew back from Orlando last Sunday, the guy in line in front of us with A19 saved seats for his wife and 3 kids. They boarded with the B group. I saw at least one person ask if the seats were taken and then move on when he said he was saving them.

 

[horselover]

For anyone that might be interested. I sent an email to SWA about a month ago voicing my displeasure over the way they're handling EBCI. I specifically asked them how they planned to handle the issue of 1 person buying a pass & then saving seats for the rest of their party. Here's their response:

"Truthfully, we don’t have a policy either way--for or against--saving seats. In fact, we share our perspective on this issue on southwest.com as follows: "because Southwest Airlines maintains an open-seating policy, general-boarding Customers may sit in any open or unclaimed seat." With this in mind, as long as there is no Safety concern, it would be acceptable for a Customer to "claim" a seat for his/her family member or traveling companion who may be in a later boarding group. We are aware that the saving of seats is a by-product of our policy, and as long as the boarding process is not delayed and other Customers aren't inconvenienced, it usually isn’t a significant issue. "

Obviously they couldn't care less if you do this or not in fact it kind of seems to me like they encourage it. I had been leaning towards coughing up the $40 for our return flight home in Dec. but now I don't think so. I won't be paying for just one of us either. Nice way to screw the customers that think they're doing the right thing by purchasing a pass for everyone in their party. I'm liking SWA less & less. Their fares really aren't that much better from my home airport than other airlines so I think from now on I'll book someone else & not deal with this seat yourself business. JHMO of course.

 

[agnes!]

When we flew back from Orlando last Sunday, the guy in line in front of us with A19 saved seats for his wife and 3 kids. They boarded with the B group. I saw at least one person ask if the seats were taken and then move on when he said he was saving them.

I know every situation can be different, but *if* they had wanted to board together, then they *could* have (and, in my opinion *should* have!) paid-for EBCIs as a group *or* the early-boarder could have (*gasp*!) actually waited to board with the rest of his party. This business of an earlier boarding individual (however it happened) saving seats for a large party is not going to go over well. Many people coming back from Orlando are part of groups or families, why should people who are trying to play the system always win out? They are counting on the rest of the plane following the rules. If SW really wants to get some $$ from this revenue stream they will have to resign themselves to somehow policing the saving of seats. Yeah, having to say "No saving of seats" will jar with the sunny attitude they like to portray, but too bad.

If I want those seats and my party is together and those seats are unoccupied...sure, I won't come to blows, but you can bet I'll ask nicely and firmly for those seats.

agnes!

 

[agnes!]

For anyone that might be interested. I sent an email to SWA about a month ago voicing my displeasure over the way they're handling EBCI. I specifically asked them how they planned to handle the issue of 1 person buying a pass & then saving seats for the rest of their party. Here's their response:

"Truthfully, we don’t have a policy either way--for or against--saving seats. In fact, we share our perspective on this issue on southwest.com as follows: "because Southwest Airlines maintains an open-seating policy, general-boarding Customers may sit in any open or unclaimed seat." With this in mind, as long as there is no Safety concern, it would be acceptable for a Customer to "claim" a seat for his/her family member or traveling companion who may be in a later boarding group. We are aware that the saving of seats is a by-product of our policy, and as long as the boarding process is not delayed and other Customers aren't inconvenienced, it usually isn’t a significant issue. "

Obviously they couldn't care less if you do this or not in fact it kind of seems to me like they encourage it. I had been leaning towards coughing up the $40 for our return flight home in Dec. but now I don't think so. I won't be paying for just one of us either. Nice way to screw the customers that think they're doing the right thing by purchasing a pass for everyone in their party. I'm liking SWA less & less. Their fares really aren't that much better from my home airport than other airlines so I think from now on I'll book someone else & not deal with this seat yourself business. JHMO of course.

Well, then, I might just choose to be 'inconvenienced' and it IS significant to me if a singleton gets on and proceeds to save 5 or 6 seats, therefore the saving of sets by the other party is unacceptable to ME. Sheesh, SW makes it sound like the saving of seats is only ever a couple traveling together and it's only ever a single person saving for one other person. HA!

I got EBCI for our next two trips, because the initial ticket prices were so good that the extra fees weren't a deal-breaker, but I'm going to be aware of what's going-on in line and in the plane cabins and will post a EBCI 'trip-report' here when I get back.

agnes!

 

[taliategan]

I bought the EBCI for my DW and 2 DDs, but not for myself, for our flight in January. I bought our tickets a while back, and am not even sure if the EBCI was available to purchase when I bought the tickets. I wanted to assure that one of us is sitting with our daughters. I still do not like the idea of paying for something which you are not actually sure what your getting. At least with the other airlines when you pay extra for a seat, you know the seat you are purchasing. The least SW could do is let you know how many other passengers have already purchased the EBCI before you decide to make the purchase. I suppose some are purchasing the EBCI just so they do not have to worry about checking in at 24 hour mark, but I would think most are doing it to assure that they can get good seat selections when they board the plane.

 

[Candlelady]

Checked in this morning at 8:15am for our 8am flight Thursday, BDL to MCO. Purchased EBCI a few days after it was announced. We've got A18 & A19. Wonderful not having to be poised at the pc waiting for 24 hr mark. The real test will be from MCO to BDL on 11-7

Candlelady.

 

[momsully]

We flew from MCO to DEN last Saturday. I had purchased EBCI the day it was announced since we were cruising and I did not want to deal with checking in from the boat. We were A16 - A19. There were no business selects so the only people that boarded before us were two preboards in wheelchairs.

One of the wheelchair customers got on with her spouse and proceeded to save an entire row of seats (row 2) for the remainder of her party. She put out coats and bags to hold the chairs. The remainder of her party had C boarding passes. Many folks asked for those seats as the plane was full but she kept saying they were saved. Her excuse was that in the past her entire party (eight people) had been allowed to preboard with her and she did not want them to sit in the back of the plane. The flight attendent did nothing when asked by a passenger if he could have those seats.

 

[pooch]

I've read just about every message in thiis thread, and there's one thing I'm still not 100% sure.

Is there anyone whose used EBCI, while staying at a value resort (site of SW "test" of RAC), and was successfuly able to use RAC to check their baggage? I've seen varying messages that said RAC was possible, and others where is was not possible with EBCI.

In fact, your boarding passes and luggage tags will be on your door the morning you check out. Slap them puppies on your bags & drop them at RAC. SOOOOO convenient!!!

 

[Bobo912]

I've read just about every message in thiis thread, and there's one thing I'm still not 100% sure.

Is there anyone whose used EBCI, while staying at a value resort (site of SW "test" of RAC), and was successfuly able to use RAC to check their baggage? I've seen varying messages that said RAC was possible, and others where is was not possible with EBCI.

I used RAC at ASMu this past Sunday. I purchased EBCI. My boarding passes and luggage tags were hanging on the door when I woke up on Sunday morning. Checked 2 bags at the hotel airline checkin. Didn't see them again until I got to my home airport. Worked perfectly.

 

[agnes!]

We flew from MCO to DEN last Saturday. I had purchased EBCI the day it was announced since we were cruising and I did not want to deal with checking in from the boat. We were A16 - A19. There were no business selects so the only people that boarded before us were two preboards in wheelchairs.

One of the wheelchair customers got on with her spouse and proceeded to save an entire row of seats (row 2) for the remainder of her party. She put out coats and bags to hold the chairs. The remainder of her party had C boarding passes. Many folks asked for those seats as the plane was full but she kept saying they were saved. Her excuse was that in the past her entire party (eight people) had been allowed to preboard with her and she did not want them to sit in the back of the plane. The flight attendent did nothing when asked by a passenger if he could have those seats.

The rest of her party didn't bother getting boarding passes at T-24 or getting EBCI now did they.

Wait a minute...EIGHT PEOPLE?!? EIGHT? Holy cow...that took some brass. I don't know what I would have done, who wants to go up against someone in a wheelchair and get accused of being uncaring/etc. Maybe I would have been sneaky-mean and sat behind them and kicked their seats the whole time...
or maybe even just sat down in any of their seats if I truly wanted it.

But it is interesting to me...they didn't really want to just sit together, they just wanted to sit together in the front of the plane

Sheesh.
agnes!
PS - Bobo, that's cool, glad to hear some details of how it is working out for WDW guests.

 

[wdwstar]

I would be very careful when it comes to push and shove over seats, SW has zero tolorence and everyone may get kicked off the plane. I dont know why anyone would want to start their vacation off like that..... over a seat.

 

[agnes!]

I didn't say I would push and shove, but I probably would have asked firmly and nicely. Sheesh, I'm not going to get into a fist-fight over a seat, but SW should really re-think their "seat-saving" tolerance especially with the advent of EBCI. I really do understand that we'll all get some place to park our fannies but I guess I'm still in shock over the woman & her husband saving EIGHT (*eight*) seats for their C-Pass family-members. I'm sure there were quite a few folks on that plane who weren't happy about that. Btw, I have to wonder what that woman have done if someone else got on *before* her and saved those seats for some other C-Listing folks? Bet she would have raised a fuss over that.

Oh, I promised a 'trip-report' on how the EBCI works for us. We printed out our boarding passes last night for the trip down and we got A19, A20 and A21 (DH is an A-Lister and DD & I got the EBCI).

agnes!

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Just got back.

Using early bird on the way down got A18 and 19, for the return A20 and 21.

It worked great for us and was wonderful not to have to checkin at exactly 24 hours. Our return flight oversold!

 

[Sammy]

I just checked in online for the first time since EBCI started. We did not do the EBCI as it is just DH and I this time, and we figured two seats would not be difficult to get. Anyway...I got in right at the 24-hour mark and got A33 and A34.

I haven't read through this entire thread, but in general, what are some of the lowest numbers people been reporting for non EBCI check-in?

 

[dsny1mom]

Bought EBCI. From MDW to SNA A32 plane at total capacity. From SNA to PHX flight oversold got A47. Connecting from PHX to MDW A17 only 46 seats sold. I didn't purchase my EBCI until about 3 weeks after it was announced.

No incidents of seating battles on any of the flights. I did hear the FA thanking some passengers for switching seats on the flight from MDW to SNA. They must have been asking for people to switch towards the back of the plane. I was in the front row didn't hear the FA ask anyone up front.

dsny1mom

 

[minniebeth]

For anyone that might be interested. I sent an email to SWA about a month ago voicing my displeasure over the way they're handling EBCI. I specifically asked them how they planned to handle the issue of 1 person buying a pass & then saving seats for the rest of their party. Here's their response:

"Truthfully, we don’t have a policy either way--for or against--saving seats. In fact, we share our perspective on this issue on southwest.com as follows: "because Southwest Airlines maintains an open-seating policy, general-boarding Customers may sit in any open or unclaimed seat." With this in mind, as long as there is no Safety concern, it would be acceptable for a Customer to "claim" a seat for his/her family member or traveling companion who may be in a later boarding group. We are aware that the saving of seats is a by-product of our policy, and as long as the boarding process is not delayed and other Customers aren't inconvenienced, it usually isn’t a significant issue. "

Obviously they couldn't care less if you do this or not in fact it kind of seems to me like they encourage it. I had been leaning towards coughing up the $40 for our return flight home in Dec. but now I don't think so. I won't be paying for just one of us either. Nice way to screw the customers that think they're doing the right thing by purchasing a pass for everyone in their party. I'm liking SWA less & less. Their fares really aren't that much better from my home airport than other airlines so I think from now on I'll book someone else & not deal with this seat yourself business. JHMO of course.

Thanks for sharing Southwest's response, Horselover...
that is just wrong in my opinion~ people are paying the EBCI fees in good faith and others are taking advantage of it...but not doing anything wrong in Southwest's eyes as long as they know how to work the policy. Very disappointing.

 

[mareed]

I just checked in online for the first time since EBCI started. We did not do the EBCI as it is just DH and I this time, and we figured two seats would not be difficult to get. Anyway...I got in right at the 24-hour mark and got A33 and A34.

I haven't read through this entire thread, but in general, what are some of the lowest numbers people been reporting for non EBCI check-in?

We were late 50's, so barely in the A group to/from Orlando from Houston. But, I think Houston has many connecting passengers, and the best we could usually do before EBCI was 30's to 40's.

 

[suzct]

OK...we are leaving Saturday and I can check-in T24 on Friday and hve purchased EBCI for our return so I don't have to worry about it at Disney. I don't understand how I checkin my whole family on Friday. We have one conf # for the 4 of us. Will I need to enter it 4 times or does one checkin serve for all? I see others saying different members of their parties have different bp #'s. Is that because they have different conf #'s??
Thanks

 

[pamjb]

You will only have to enter your single confirmation number and all of the passenger names will come up. Just click in the "check-in all" box and you are good to go.
Some people, myself included, book every passenger on a different confirmation number. This way, we can take advantage of fare sales that may occur AND we can use more ticketless travel funds.

 

[aero99]

Wanted to add another set of data points. On the way down, did not do EBCI and got A28 and A29. On the way back, bought EBCI so I wouldn't have to think about checking in at 24 hrs. We were A17 and A18.