I asked this question at flyertalk.com
Someone suggested BP's are distributed equally between curbside, counter, online and gate. Is this true?
flyertalk.com has employees of SWA who lurk and answer.
(note the term "our planes")
This is best of replies:
They are not "equally disbursed", we are all pulling out of the same pool at the same time. At 20 minutes prior to departure time the only place you can get a boarding document is at the gate.
Most of our planes hold 137 passengers, there are a few still around that only hold 122. A's...1-45, B's...46-90, and the remaining are C's. When A's run out, B's start, then C's... There is always the winning of the lottery, when we are on C's and an A pops out, that means someone has canceled from a flight and voila, you are the winner of a surprise A
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Last edited by 4thplz : Today at 4:10 pm.
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elsewhere it was mentioned that SW uses check-in time in case your flight is cancelled and you are put on a stand-by list for a future flight. They use the number on the BP as in: numbers 1-20 are put on this list.
Bottom line. All are pulled from same place-
45 A's are distributed first, then 45 B's, and then the remaining BP's which are C's.
No if's, ands, buts or could be's. This came from an employee of SW. Again facts instead of rumors.