1st time flying SWA is early bird boarding worth paying for?

[Thumper_Man]

I'm also wondering whether this is worth it. We're heading to MCO this weekend, and the flight is soldout. I've never bought early bird boarding before, but with a coast to coast trip, I'm wondering whether this would be worth it to get the 4 of us close to each other (with at least one parent with one child). Our kids are not little enough for family board.

Does the $12.50 one way fee cover both flights on the one way itinerary? (We connect in Las Vegas.)

Yes, it covers both flights. You will be checked in for both at the 36 hour mark. Once you go to print your boarding passes, you will have 2 sets of boarding passes. One from your departing city to Vegas. Then Vegas to MCO.

 

[FreeTime]

Just wanted to share my experience with EBCI from flights to Las Vegas this past week. My DH and I were not in a hurry so we decided we would sit near the back of the plane to not have to deal with the madness up front with the stuffed overheads, people in a hurry, etc. The plane had 28 open seats. Well here come the C boarders. We had an aisle and middle seat and a couple came up and asked us to move so that they could sit together. We declined. Then a gentleman came looking for a seat . The FA advised him that there are seats with kids a few rows up. He went up to the lady and said "I love kids" and sat down. The lady said to him, "really? Your going to sit here? You can't sit here." He got up and the FA told him that she can't do that but would jot offer to help. He found another seat. Her kids were terrible BTW. One was with dad behind her. They kept standing up, jumping and yelling. I am glad we had EBCI and didn't have to deal with her. I would have told her, yes I am really going to sit here, plopped down and started reading.

 

[mikehn]

Tomorrow morning three of us are flying baltimore to MCO. I didnt pay for early bird. Never have. I checked in this morning at a few minutes past 24 and got boarding positions A57-A59. Granted there are a dozen flights from Baltimore to MCO tomorrow on SW alone. Who knows how many other flights there are from the DC area to MCO tomorrow on other carriers. So my point is, paying extra for early bird checkin depends on a whole lot of things. I never pay for early bird because there is plenty of capacity.

 

[ABCastillo]

We've never paid EB fee and checked in online exactly 24 hours prior. If in the parks at that time I use my smartphone. I almost always get A or B boarding and have always found plenty of seats available for our party. The people who have trouble are those that cannot book right at 24 hours and end up with a high C boarding number.

This is what I do and have had good success!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Scotch]

We decided to go ahead and try early bird boarding as we'll be on the second to the last flight from home airport and last flight from the connecting airport to MCO this Friday. And both segments are sold out in all classes. And we have three reservation #s for the four of us, so I was concerned about the delay re checking in three times.

I'll go print out the boarding passes later today and report back re #s.

 

[herb102211]

We also use the Early Bird option when flying home from MCO so I don't have to worry about checking in for the flight while we're at the parks. We've gotten in the A30's.