Flight cancelled, rebooked, then flight uncancelled and we cannot get a seat

DH and I sit in aisle seats across from each other, or, because we're both on the same plane, in aisle seats away from each other. Better than either of us sitting in a center seat. Yuk.
Well, I like sitting next to my husband. If I'm going to fall asleep on someone's shoulder, it better be him. We take lots of long flights.
 
And they sell so many early bird add ons that you aren't even guaranteed a spot in the A group.
Early-Bird Check-In was designed to get you checked in 36hours in advance that's it. Your Boarding group is not related to that; you were never guaranteed an A Boarding group. A-Listers (who are also checked in 36hours in advanced) aren't guaranteed A Boarding Groups and they have higher priority than EBCI.

The only ones that are are people who purchase Business Select (Boarding Positions A1-A15) and those who do Upgraded Boarding at the gate which fills in the spots left over in the A1-A15 should not all Business Select Seats be booked.
 
OP I hope all went well for you! What a big stressor to have.

I used to fly Standby back when you could do that (not as a result of flight issues) meaning your ticket was literally for Standby so I know how it feels to be reliant on seats being available; there were times we were not only split up in terms of the seats on the plane but actually the flights themselves. I honestly would not want to do that as a norm these days with the way travel is.
 
Early-Bird Check-In was designed to get you checked in 36hours in advance that's it. Your Boarding group is not related to that; you were never guaranteed an A Boarding group. A-Listers (who are also checked in 36hours in advanced) aren't guaranteed A Boarding Groups and they have higher priority than EBCI.

The only ones that are are people who purchase Business Select (Boarding Positions A1-A15) and those who do Upgraded Boarding at the gate which fills in the spots left over in the A1-A15 should not all Business Select Seats be booked.

Actually, early boarding for wheelchairs and the walking wounded are invited to board before the Business Select.
 


Actually, early boarding for wheelchairs and the walking wounded are invited to board before the Business Select.
I was talking about your Boarding Position. I didn't say "who gets on the plane first" just what Boarding Position you are assigned as in relation to what the PP was saying.

The PP said "And they sell so many early bird add ons that you aren't even guaranteed a spot in the A group."

My comment still stands :)
 
Years ago, due to weather issues, my 9 yo daughter and I were not given adjacent seats, I was couple of rows behind her. The person at the check-in desk was trying to help but the plane was full.

Finally she smiled and said "here's what you do. Board toward the end so people will already be in seats next to her. When you sit her down say "ok, honey, I'm just a couple of rows behind you. Be sure to let me know if you think you are going to get sick again "."

Sure enough, both folks offered to swap seats with me. 😁 I now travel with grandchildren and plan to use the same line if I need to.
 
Early-Bird Check-In was designed to get you checked in 36hours in advance that's it. Your Boarding group is not related to that; you were never guaranteed an A Boarding group. A-Listers (who are also checked in 36hours in advanced) aren't guaranteed A Boarding Groups and they have higher priority than EBCI.

The only ones that are are people who purchase Business Select (Boarding Positions A1-A15) and those who do Upgraded Boarding at the gate which fills in the spots left over in the A1-A15 should not all Business Select Seats be booked.
Per the Southwest website, Early Bird is meant to give you "better boarding position." A is better than B. When they first started selling Early Bird, they only sold as many as there were A positions. Now they've added the disclaimer about not ensuring A so they can sell more of them. There's also no way to find out how many they've sold already. And yes, your boarding group is related to when you check in, hence the early check in improves your position. If you check in 6 hours before your flight, you'll get a worse boarding position than someone who checked in 24 hours early.

Look, I'm not saying companies shouldn't make a profit, but good boarding position means A group. I think it's sketchy for Southwest to have chosen to sell more than there are A spaces.
 


Per the Southwest website, Early Bird is meant to give you "better boarding position." A is better than B. When they first started selling Early Bird, they only sold as many as there were A positions. Now they've added the disclaimer about not ensuring A so they can sell more of them. There's also no way to find out how many they've sold already. And yes, your boarding group is related to when you check in, hence the early check in improves your position. If you check in 6 hours before your flight, you'll get a worse boarding position than someone who checked in 24 hours early.

Look, I'm not saying companies shouldn't make a profit, but good boarding position means A group. I think it's sketchy for Southwest to have chosen to sell more than there are A spaces.
When you use the word "guaranteed" it does imply something. My comment was speaking towards your exact wording of guaranteed that's all.

Regarding the disclaimer...that's been there for at least the last several years at least though I have no idea how to find out exactly when it was added. The disclaimer is the same for A-listers. Hardly so they can sell more EBCI IMO; frankly by the comments I see it doesn't appear many people are even reading it lol so I can't see how that would serve to make more people purchase it. I see more people on the Boards at least asking questions about EBCI oftentimes after they've purchased it without realizing what it is they have even purchased.

Being checked in 36 hours in advanced is not related to getting the specific Boarding Group A,B or C is what I was meaning. You are simply checked in in accordance to SWA's assignment algorithm. That means you may get an A or you may get a B (a C would likely be a glitch if it was through A-List or EBCI). Certainly one can hope for an A...I hope for an A every single time myself :tongue: Sometimes I'm lucky sometimes I'm not. Even the A-listers have this same aspect. The only difference for them they do have the assurance that they can Board after A even if their Boarding position is not in A.

Rest assured you are getting a better boarding position. Remember everyone else has to schlep to their phones, tablets or computers to check in at 24hours while those who are A-list or purchased EBCI can sit back and relax knowing they are already checked in and have a Boarding position earlier than those other people (exceptions aside) :)

One thing that I would be intrigued on though is knowing if the number of people who purchase EBCI is down with the implementation of dynamic pricing which I can see as a tool to drive the number of EBCI purchasers down a bit.
 
Per the Southwest website, Early Bird is meant to give you "better boarding position." A is better than B. When they first started selling Early Bird, they only sold as many as there were A positions. Now they've added the disclaimer about not ensuring A so they can sell more of them. There's also no way to find out how many they've sold already. And yes, your boarding group is related to when you check in, hence the early check in improves your position. If you check in 6 hours before your flight, you'll get a worse boarding position than someone who checked in 24 hours early.

Look, I'm not saying companies shouldn't make a profit, but good boarding position means A group. I think it's sketchy for Southwest to have chosen to sell more than there are A spaces.
The problem is not being in B but letting all of the families board BEFORE B. I think even mid into B, without a ton of families boarding there are still plenty of seats.

I wish they would let all PURCHASED early bird people board THEN families. If families choose to roll the dice on getting priority they should not get priority over those who paid extra but right now they do.

They should board the A's then begin boarding the B's until they get to the first non-earlybird B (they should have it printed on the ticket if they do not already) then board the families then everyone else.

On many routes this is probably not even an issue but the orlando route you can have more than half the plane full of families with small kids.
 
The problem is not being in B but letting all of the families board BEFORE B. I think even mid into B, without a ton of families boarding there are still plenty of seats.

I wish they would let all PURCHASED early bird people board THEN families. If families choose to roll the dice on getting priority they should not get priority over those who paid extra but right now they do.

They should board the A's then begin boarding the B's until they get to the first non-earlybird B (they should have it printed on the ticket if they do not already) then board the families then everyone else.

On many routes this is probably not even an issue but the orlando route you can have more than half the plane full of families with small kids.
On our last southwest flight there were more wheelchair preboarders than family boarders (lots of retirees in florida too). But I do think we have a social responsibility to let them board early, just like we do to allow two year olds to sit next to a parent instead of two strangers.

I’ll never forget the time I flew united with my toddlers and even though I paid a class if seats that had seat selection, the airline screwed it up and overbooked and gave us four seats literally in four different corners of the plane instead of the seats together I had booked. There was zero help from the airline and no-one volunteered to move seats until I left my toddler screaming in panic alone while I was in tears as well and people realized actually they would be better off moving than stuck being the involuntary custodian of a terrified child. The weirdest part was it was two seats per row so i was offering a trade of aisle for aisle seats—no downgrade.
 
On our last southwest flight there were more wheelchair preboarders than family boarders (lots of retirees in florida too). But I do think we have a social responsibility to let them board early

I know at least several years ago in Nashville there was such a problem of people claiming to need disabled pre-boarding on flights to Orlando and Las Vegas - most of whom were miraculously cured at touchdown and were sprinting to be first off the plane (obviously NOT the ones who legit need it, the ones who would put a brace or boot on and limp up to the counter - in the days when you lined up at the airport to get your A, B, or C card and they did not make you get in numerical order - saying they needed more time to board - then the brace or boot got put in their carry-on), they started putting all of them in one section of the plane and then at landing a flight attendant was stationed in that section to ensure that they all had to wait until everyone else was off the plane. I was on a flight to Orlando where that happened and some of the people who thought they were so smart were fuming that they had to wait to disembark.

People who legit need early boarding I have no problem with. Because most of them will have to wait for the skycaps anyway to disembark. But the people who try and game the system really irk me.
 
The problem is not being in B but letting all of the families board BEFORE B. I think even mid into B, without a ton of families boarding there are still plenty of seats.

I wish they would let all PURCHASED early bird people board THEN families. If families choose to roll the dice on getting priority they should not get priority over those who paid extra but right now they do.
Yes. I agree. This would be the ideal solution.

I also agree that as a society we should let the people with physical disabilities board first so they have the time they need. I think consideration should be given to small children (elementary age) and they should never be required to sit away from their parents. Airplanes seem to bring out the worst in people on so many levels.
 
Airlines have had to adjust to Boeing's problems with their planes this summer, so there's been a lot of shuffling flights. Sure hope they get things resolved soon.

Delta doesn't have any 737 MAX planes, nor do they have it on order, so that's not an issue they are experiencing.

Edit: already posted I see.
 
I know at least several years ago in Nashville there was such a problem of people claiming to need disabled pre-boarding on flights to Orlando and Las Vegas - most of whom were miraculously cured at touchdown and were sprinting to be first off the plane (obviously NOT the ones who legit need it, the ones who would put a brace or boot on and limp up to the counter - in the days when you lined up at the airport to get your A, B, or C card and they did not make you get in numerical order - saying they needed more time to board - then the brace or boot got put in their carry-on), they started putting all of them in one section of the plane and then at landing a flight attendant was stationed in that section to ensure that they all had to wait until everyone else was off the plane. I was on a flight to Orlando where that happened and some of the people who thought they were so smart were fuming that they had to wait to disembark.

People who legit need early boarding I have no problem with. Because most of them will have to wait for the skycaps anyway to disembark. But the people who try and game the system really irk me.
My husband has been noticing this more lately. He flies from the LA area to KC every 2 weeks at the moment. It's such a shame though when people lie like that.
 
The problem is not being in B but letting all of the families board BEFORE B. I think even mid into B, without a ton of families boarding there are still plenty of seats.

I wish they would let all PURCHASED early bird people board THEN families. If families choose to roll the dice on getting priority they should not get priority over those who paid extra but right now they do.

They should board the A's then begin boarding the B's until they get to the first non-earlybird B (they should have it printed on the ticket if they do not already) then board the families then everyone else.

On many routes this is probably not even an issue but the orlando route you can have more than half the plane full of families with small kids.
The family boarding for sure rubs some people the wrong way when they end up with a B. You are getting a better Boarding position than those who check in at 24hrs and that's what it was for. But if you have bad experiences with things like too many "miracle" preboarders or too many Family Boarders I'm sure it can sour the experience. And yeah Orlando is a problem child but I feel that way about the airport itself lol.

EBCI isn't on mobile boarding passes. It will show up on paper boarding passes. I personally rarely use paper boarding passes and almost always use mobile. Over the last 2 years I've seen more and more people just using their phones.
 
Years ago, due to weather issues, my 9 yo daughter and I were not given adjacent seats, I was couple of rows behind her. The person at the check-in desk was trying to help but the plane was full.

Finally she smiled and said "here's what you do. Board toward the end so people will already be in seats next to her. When you sit her down say "ok, honey, I'm just a couple of rows behind you. Be sure to let me know if you think you are going to get sick again "."

Sure enough, both folks offered to swap seats with me. 😁 I now travel with grandchildren and plan to use the same line if I need to.

Or, instead of using passive-aggressive jerk tactics, you could just ask. Something like that is all but certain to cause me not to move (wheras, I would most likely have moved if just asked). I'm willing to take the chance to call your bluff.
 
Or, instead of using passive-aggressive jerk tactics, you could just ask. Something like that is all but certain to cause me not to move (wheras, I would most likely have moved if just asked). I'm willing to take the chance to call your bluff.
Have you actually read previous posts? People who refuse to swap until left with a screaming child, people who fake an invalid status, and (not above but I witnessed recently) - people who buy early boarding for one person in a group who boards and throws a briefcase on one seat, a jacket on another and a carry-on on a third to save seats for the rest of the group. I'll take my passive-aggressive!
 

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