just checked into flight on SW without EB

[emmabelle]

I actually don't mind going after the babies go on. The other day I unintentionally took seats two rows in front of a 1 year old who screamed like crazy for at least 20 minutes but then thankfully he calmed down. Phew

 

[Day-Day]

We have been lucky 0nr the 6 or so flights we have had on SWA. We have been assigned A-boarding when checking in on the 24-hour mark. These have all been non-stop flights starting with an empty aircraft.

 

[dancin Disney style]

That's too funny. The only reason we had them is we paid to upgrade. My teenage daughter has severe flying anxiety and would not be able to fly alone. Our EBCI got us a high B. I thought people thought of us as suckers for paying more rather than having a trophy.
At least he got his day in the sun .

You can get a medical pre board. There are no costs to do so.

 

[Roocatty]

You can get a medical pre board. There are no costs to do so.

We are getting a doctors note this time but southwest said its up to the gate agent to let her preboard or not. I would make sure we went after those with physical disabilities but we will see how it goes next time.

 

[nkereina]

Trying to decide whether to add EB to my reservation next Saturday out of Philly. I'm thinking it could be a waste of money, especially since they just lowered the price on my 5:30 pm flight to $52 (which means another trip will be planned, have to use that credit!). With them discounting the price, logically you would think the flight has a good amount of seats left, right?

My main dilemma is I will be driving home from work at 5:30 on Friday, and will have to rely on my husband to be ready on the computer at 5:30 on the dot to get those boarding passes!

It's a waste of money if you have no strong preferences or needs for where you will sit. It's not a waste of money if you really want or need a certain seat. So worth it is relative. For the OP receiving B15 & 16, I agree with PPs that it's not terrible so long as there's not continuing passengers remaining on the plane when OP boards. If your airport is a connecting city, it's possible there could already be people on the plane.

 

[Spencer Wright]

I had a thread about this because I was feeling indulgent this trip and had some money in the budget left over.

I did not use it based on advice provided, and had a perfectly fine experience checking in EXACTLY 24 hours beforehand. I got the second half of A on the way down and B9 on the way back up to Philadelphia.

There were EB people with numbers right around me who were not happy. I'm not sure how it works but does not seem worth it if you can check in EXACTLY 24 hours in advance.

This year I did stay at work late and do it from the office and it worked out well

 

[nkereina]

There were EB people with numbers right around me who were not happy. I'm not sure how it works but does not seem worth it if you can check in EXACTLY 24 hours in advance.

IMO, there are still variables though. If you live in a connecting city, you may board a flight that is already half full with continuing passengers. Or if you are flying to/from Orlando, you will have a larger amount of family boarding between A and B groups. If these two factors aren't present, I agree you can have good luck checking in at 24 hours. But if one or both of those factors are present, it's a bigger risk if someone is particular about their seat.

 

[davper]

We never pay for EBC. We are generally in the B's and usually find seats together. We're all adults tho so if we HAVE to get split up we can without too much stressing. I mean, obviously we'd prefer to be together but there was one flight we weren't. But that was because we were late getting to the airport gate and missed our assigned boarding positions and had to board with the 'C' group. We were actually lucky we didn't miss the flight entirely.

My wife doesn't qualify as an adult. If we do not sit together, she is not flying. So EBC is a must. Small price to pay for happy wife.

 

[Anal Annie]

My wife doesn't qualify as an adult. If we do not sit together, she is not flying. So EBC is a must. Small price to pay for happy wife.

Well ok then.....

 

[bookgirl]

My wife doesn't qualify as an adult. If we do not sit together, she is not flying. So EBC is a must. Small price to pay for happy wife.

My mom's the same way. She has flight anxiety, so we EBC or if my step dad is with us they preboard due to his medical condition and she's at least by one of us.

 

[ScubaCat]

I actually don't mind going after the babies go on. The other day I unintentionally took seats two rows in front of a 1 year old who screamed like crazy for at least 20 minutes but then thankfully he calmed down. Phew

I've found my one-time $300 investment for Bose Quiet comfort noise canceling headphones to be far more valuable than the 20 EBCI's I could have purchased with the same money. And I get to listen to music too

 

[emmabelle]

So on the flight home I had bought EBCI for both me and my husband, and got A47 and A48. We got good seats in row 7.

Flash forward to plane doors getting ready to close and on comes a mom, a dad, and two little guys. There is one seat way down back. Mom and 1 year old take that. Now dad and 3 year old need seats. There is a middle in front of my husband and a window a couple of rows back. Flight attendant comes and announces to the rows around us that she needs volunteers to move so the dad and son can sit together and proceeds to say we aren't leaving until someone gives up their seats. So my husband moves to sit between a husband and wife in the middle seat and I moved to the window with another husband and wife. Basically we ended up with the last two seats on the plane. So much for buying EBCI.

Oh well, the other passengers clapped for us for moving.

 

[mom2rtk]

So on the flight home I had bought EBCI for both me and my husband, and got A47 and A48. We got good seats in row 7.

Flash forward to plane doors getting ready to close and on comes a mom, a dad, and two little guys. There is one seat way down back. Mom and 1 year old take that. Now dad and 3 year old need seats. There is a middle in front of my husband and a window a couple of rows back. Flight attendant comes and announces to the rows around us that she needs volunteers to move so the dad and son can sit together and proceeds to say we aren't leaving until someone gives up their seats. So my husband moves to sit between a husband and wife in the middle seat and I moved to the window with another husband and wife. Basically we ended up with the last two seats on the plane. So much for buying EBCI.

Oh well, the other passengers clapped for us for moving.

You're a better person than me. I would have made them refund my EBCI. Or not moved. That family had the same opportunity as you to buy ECBI.

 

[emmabelle]

I'm thinking maybe they underestimated how long security can be? It was the 7:40am flight, so I doubt they were a connection that arrived late? The stupidest part was the dad never thanked us which would have gone a long way with me. Oh well...

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

My mom gets it for me so I can have a aile (sp) seat it makes it easier to get up mid flight to use the restroom I try to go before hand it never works

 

[Espers]

We've flown Southwest well over 100 times and our general rule of thumb is this - if our flight is over 2.5 hours, we get EBCI to make sure we can sit together. Less than that, we don't - but when we don't, we ALWAYS make sure to check in at exactly T-24 - and we've never had worse than a B boarding position. And we've never had to split up, although there are only two of us. Most of the time when we fly into MCO, it's only about an hour or an hour and a half and we don't have to make a connection.

One thing to remember about connecting on Southwest - when you check in at your originating city, your 24 hour checkin time is earlier than those checking in at your connecting city - and your boarding number should be better than those originating there. That being said, if your originating flight runs late and they are already boarding when you get to your connecting city, you could get stuck with an undesirable seat, even with a low boarding number.

 

[mmouse50]

Flying out of MCO and always buy EBCI for the return trip. Once I was stuck in the high B section and had to wait until all the family boarding had boarded. That time I felt that it was a waste but then I didn't have to worry about trying to be somewhere in the parks to log into Southwest at the 24 hour mark.

My wish would be that they enforce the rule where only 1 adult and 1 child under the age of 5 board during family boarding - not the entire extended family. I have seen grandma and grandpa board with families that have 1 child that maybe 5 or under but everyone else in the party is in their teens and above.

 

[constanze]

I also get flight anxiety, so it's much less stress for me to just get EB for our family. Something I've been noticing on my last couple flights...I was walking down the aisle---I had a A31 once and another A26---both these flights, a couple people had already laid their sweaters and stuff across entire rows of empty seats, to save for larger parties that came on the plane later. I was surprised the flight attendants were allowing.

 

[JeanfromBNA]

Sometimes they enforce family boarding rules, sometimes they don't. The last time that we flew, the MCO gate agent made an announcement that "if your child drove you to the airport, you do not qualify for family boarding."

 

[jo-jo]

I believe ALL EBCI should be boarded before family boarding. It's never happened to us, but I would be upset if I paid and then 50 people in family boarding got on ahead of me.