Southwest Anytime Flight and EBCI

[DebbieB]

And this is why I can't imagine flying Southwest. Yes, the ticket price may be less, but all this hassle about who boards when and how and will I be able to sit with my other half? That stress alone would be too much for me.

I think it's exaggerated. I routinely pay the extra $30 to get early bird. My last trip I got A27 both ways. Even without early bird, if you are on at 24 hours, you should be fine for 2 people. Now large families who want to all sit together might have issues.

 

[barbliny]

If you are considering adding EBCI to your Anytime fare ticket, you should look at the cost to upgrade to Business Select. It's often just a few dollars more to purchase Business Select vs Anytime + EBCI. The price difference between those two options is often as little as $7.

With Business Select you don't need EBCI. You will be assigned a seat in the A1-A15 group, get a free premium beverage and receive more reward points due to the higher multiplier you get with a BS fare. Well worth the extra $7.

Yup! That's exactly what I suggested Allison do before all of the hub-bub started with the misreading of the EBCI policy.

And I'm another proponent doing check-in at exactly 24 hours before - I never purchase EBCI and usually still get an A, never gotten anything higher than mid-B. And even with that higher number we did not have any problem getting 4 seats together a couple of weeks ago.

Another hint is to book first flight out on your trip to MCO and last flight out on your way back home. We had no family boarders on our outgoing flight and only 1 family on our way home. So, you're lessening the risk of high number of family boarders in case you get a B boarding number.

And I also wish that Southwest would stop turning a blind eye to all of the groups whose EBCI strategy is to purchase it for only one person in their group and then commandeer and save seats for the rest of their group. I see this every flight I'm on!!

 

[LisaS]

Yup! That's exactly what I suggested Allison do before all of the hub-bub started with the misreading of the EBCI policy.

Ah, yes! I was posting late last night and posted bad advice (paying for EBCI with an Anytime fare) and was so anxious to correct my error I didn't look back to see that you had already posted about all of the benefits that come with Business Select for very little additional cost!

It is curious that it costs only slightly more for Business Select over paying for Anytime plus EBCI when you get so much more.