Southwest Early Bird Checkin

[seashoreCM]

I just hope we won't start seeing one person buying an early bird ticket then trying to save seats for the rest of their group.

One person can't go far to save seats for the family but you can buy early-bird for 2/3 of the family members who sit window/aisle. This improves the chances of sitting together although not to 100%. Sorry, families of 4; 3 must buy early-bird for this to work. Otherwise the 4'th could be left out.

 

[Bobo912]

maybe mistaken but thought i read somewhere that DING fares are excluded in this Early Bird offering ( of course they made no mention of people traveling on Rapid Rewards but it seems those people can use the Early Bird process )

any other input on the "DING" situation?????

That's even worse, if you have to totally give up our early bird check in boarding pass just to get the lower DING fare.

Our trip down to Orlando in October is a Rapid Rewards ticket and I just entered the confirmation number on the SWA website, and you are correct, you can purchase early bird check in for rewards tickets. I didn't buy it though. I'm going to see what I get at 24hrs for that trip.

 

[TinkandAriel]

Last year on our return flight, I wasn't able to check in before we got to the airport, so I got our boarding passes at MCO just before we flew out...and we all got A boarding passes. Our flight was so dead, there were 6 or 7 SW employees flying standby with us, and we had a blast with them!
Btw, our flight down was about the same, we had A boarding passes and the inlaws had B, and we had no problem sitting together.
One year, we flew down at night, and there were 25 people on our SW flight. It was awesome.

 

[ms.ojo]

I AGREE! I admit I thought about it myself for a minute...then pictured dh boarding early, alone, w/ a carry-on and trying to save 3 add'l seats! He would be totally stressed!! I then picture at some point someone saying "foget it, I'm sitting here" and messing it all up. And THEN what??? DH fights for something he shouldn't really be saving? (I mean that verbally folks) or does he give up, look around and realize, dang, now there's nothing near here for us to be together! So he starts moving back in the plane trying to find 4 seats together just at the time I'm boarding w/ the kids. Can you just see the exchange between us?

Ya, not a good scenario. While I'd like to say we'll take our chances and not purchase this option....I think we probably will for our return flight from Orlando. Just makes things less stressful.

Human nature... whenever a change occurs which results in the raising or the initiation of fees or fares, someome figures a way to get around it... as much as they are able.

Hmmm, I hope my comment wasn't misunderstood. It may be human nature to think about ways to avoid price increases...my point in posting was to share (in a humourous way) how disasterous it could be to only book for part of your party! Not worth it!!! fwiw....we ended up booking EBCI for all 4 of us on our ret'n trip but declined to add it for our trip to Disney.

 

[bookwormde]

There are always unexpected and unintended consequences to all program modifications.

For my family it will be a wait and see thing. I have 1 child who is Aspergers and we used disability pre-board for his first few flights but as he has gained familiarity with the process if I am diligent at calling at 24 hours we can manage without using the disability pre-board if we are in the first 30 and make a b-line to the back of the plane where it is uncrowned and we have time to get settled before the crush. I am guessing that we may well have to go back to using the disability perboard since if we end up very far back in line the noise and bumping during loading in the crowd would upon occasion have undesirable consequences.

I would guess that there are others like use that if in the first group can manage without the disability pre-board who will now need to use it.

bookwormde

 

[SamSam]

I plan on purchasing early check-in for return flights because of the convenience, but will continue to check-in at the 24 hour mark for our flights out.
I don't mind the fee, as I have a choice of whether I want to purchase or not.

For those that have asked, it is available for DING fares:

Who can purchase EarlyBird Check-in?
EarlyBird Check-in is designed for passengers who have purchased electronic tickets at the Wanna Get Away Fare, Anytime Fare, Senior Fare or DING! Fare

Also, it will be transferred for some flight changes:

If an EarlyBird Check-in Customer chooses to change a flight, will the EarlyBird Check-in options transfer to the new flight?
It depends. EarlyBird Check-in is tied to the Customer’s reservation for which the EarlyBird Check-in purchase was made and will be transferred to the Customer’s new flight if he/she changes the flight at least 25 hours prior to the original flight’s scheduled departure time and so long as the change is to a flight that will depart in more than 25 hours. Since EarlyBird Check-in is associated with a reservation, any changes must be made within the same reservation record (same confirmation number) in which the Customer purchased EarlyBird Check-in.

 

[BYC]

I plan on purchasing early check-in for return flights because of the convenience, but will continue to check-in at the 24 hour mark for our flights out.
I don't mind the fee, as I have a choice of whether I want to purchase or not.

For those that have asked, it is available for DING fares:

Who can purchase EarlyBird Check-in?
EarlyBird Check-in is designed for passengers who have purchased electronic tickets at the Wanna Get Away Fare, Anytime Fare, Senior Fare or DING! Fare

Also, it will be transferred for some flight changes:

If an EarlyBird Check-in Customer chooses to change a flight, will the EarlyBird Check-in options transfer to the new flight?
It depends. EarlyBird Check-in is tied to the Customer’s reservation for which the EarlyBird Check-in purchase was made and will be transferred to the Customer’s new flight if he/she changes the flight at least 25 hours prior to the original flight’s scheduled departure time and so long as the change is to a flight that will depart in more than 25 hours. Since EarlyBird Check-in is associated with a reservation, any changes must be made within the same reservation record (same confirmation number) in which the Customer purchased EarlyBird Check-in.

I am a little confused by this. We have 6 tickets. 5 of them are Rapid Reward tickets, and one is Wanna Get Away. As soon as I heard about EBCI, I paid $120 for EBCI both ways. They were happy to sell me the EBCI option, even though 5 of mine are Rapid Reward. I wonder if I paid for nothing??

 

[seashoreCM]

Too bad Southwest doesn't have a family discount for Early Bird Check In; it would go like this:

Buy a middle, save the row.

You must exchange your boarding pass at the podium or ticket counter for a red one. Now nobody wants a secondhand red boarding pass for a middle seat so having counterfeit ones floating around doesn't inconvenience anyone.

On the plane the red boarding pass gives you the right to choose whom you sit with but unclaimed aisle and window are fair game for others when boarding is done.

 

[twinklebug]

Pricing out my Feb flights, I figured since I got in at decent rates (although I hate the times - it looks like I'm stuck as it's president's week) so I just ponied up another $60 for EB check in both on the flights down and back. No worries - worth the $ if it helps me to relax, and that's the whole point of taking a vacation right? There was no way I'd have been online at 6:15 am at the 24 hr mark anyway for the flight down.

As for not buying EBs for everyone... I'm not going to cheat the system and check in just one or two of us to save seats - I really hate the line hopping mentality at WDW, the same applies to the flights. I won't be a party to it.

I do believe SWA has a winner concept here if they can stop the seat saving thing.

 

[nuzmom]

We fly out this coming Thursday. I don't like that they made this change effective immediately. I agree with other posters - when I bought SW tickets, I took into effect the fees charged on other airlines. With this additional fee, I would have gone with Airtran!!!

Also - how did everyone hear about this new "option"? Of course, I know NOW because I decided to hang out on the Dis for a little while. But, we didn't receive an email or anything (flights have been booked since June).

I wonder if it's really an advantage to add this to a flight in the immediate future. I'm thinking of just checking in at the 24 hour mark because "most" flyers won't know of this option anyway.

 

[Nik's Mom]

There are always unexpected and unintended consequences to all program modifications.

For my family it will be a wait and see thing. I have 1 child who is Aspergers and we used disability pre-board for his first few flights but as he has gained familiarity with the process if I am diligent at calling at 24 hours we can manage without using the disability pre-board if we are in the first 30 and make a b-line to the back of the plane where it is uncrowned and we have time to get settled before the crush. I am guessing that we may well have to go back to using the disability perboard since if we end up very far back in line the noise and bumping during loading in the crowd would upon occasion have undesirable consequences.

I would guess that there are others like use that if in the first group can manage without the disability pre-board who will now need to use it.

bookwormde

We're in your shoes. We have 2 autistic children. We have tried doing regular boarding before, but lately we have found that the kids totally freak out. So we always use pre-boarding now. I think this will probably be your best option.

 

[Tara]

Is there any official confirmation that family boarding between the A & B groups is NOT going to be affected by EBCI? My sister and her husband are flying with their 2-year-old for the first time ever and they're inexperienced fliers on top of that. I know they'll be stressed enough as it is without adding the worry of not being able to sit together. But if family boarding isn't affected, there's no point in forking over the extra $60.

 

[Bobo912]

We fly out this coming Thursday. I don't like that they made this change effective immediately. I agree with other posters - when I bought SW tickets, I took into effect the fees charged on other airlines. With this additional fee, I would have gone with Airtran!!!

Also - how did everyone hear about this new "option"? Of course, I know NOW because I decided to hang out on the Dis for a little while. But, we didn't receive an email or anything (flights have been booked since June).

I wonder if it's really an advantage to add this to a flight in the immediate future. I'm thinking of just checking in at the 24 hour mark because "most" flyers won't know of this option anyway.

I had a flight booked already too and added EB check in to the return leg yesterday. I heard about it on a TV news program.

 

[bavaria]

Also - how did everyone hear about this new "option"? Of course, I know NOW because I decided to hang out on the Dis for a little while. But, we didn't receive an email or anything (flights have been booked since June)..

I strongly suggest flyertalk.com This is a DISNEY website, not a FLYER website. I often cringe at the completely wrong information which is repeatedly given out here by well-meaning but misguided posters here.

One is far better off joining that community for timely, factual advice, especially as so many of the transportation regulars (who did have factual information) here have stopped posting or only make an appearance for hot threads like this.

Of course, they don't have goofy4tink over there, but the moderators are just as 'unique' and 'special' as she is

 

[bavaria]

there is also at least one report already of someone getting B17 with EB, so as we surmised, paying the fee does not guarantee much. And it may leave those who choose not to pay completely at the end of the line.

 

[safetymom]

I strongly suggest flyertalk.com This is a DISNEY website, not a FLYER website. I often cringe at the completely wrong information which is repeatedly given out here by well-meaning but misguided posters here.

One is far better off joining that community for timely, factual advice, especially as so many of the transportation regulars (who did have factual information) here have stopped posting or only make an appearance for hot threads like this.

Of course, they don't have goofy4tink over there, but the moderators are just as 'unique' and 'special' as she is

Does that mean I am unique and special.

 

[crashbb]

there is also at least one report already of someone getting B17 with EB, so as we surmised, paying the fee does not guarantee much. And it may leave those who choose not to pay completely at the end of the line.

Wow - most people don't even know about EB yet so if people are already getting B17 (assuming it wasn't a case of them not properly getting signed up for EB) then that is really saying something.

 

[Brian Noble]

Amusingly, I booked SW for my wife and kids literally the day before this was announced. We never fly SW, but the price was so good on a direct, 1-stop trip, for what is really an "extra" vacation, that we thought we'd give it a spin. It's still an acceptable price, but with the extra $20 per person, it's a little less attractive than it was.

And, I'll absolutely be paying it, because I know they'll want the best chance possible to sit together.

 

[PlutoPony]

Wow - most people don't even know about EB yet so if people are already getting B17 (assuming it wasn't a case of them not properly getting signed up for EB) then that is really saying something.

Even more interesting is that the flight in question was Midway to MCO AND the ticket was a "wanna get away" booked and EB'ed ~T60 (i.e. it was a fairly wide open flight if there were still the cheapest fares available that late).

The person in question flew today and apparently it was not a computer glitch that gave him the B17.

 

[bavaria]

Does that mean I am unique and special.

you are (and have always been) in a class of your own!


Back to the EB topic, SW says that they will review the program in a few weeks. Based on the success of the program (as witnessed by the people here, on FT, and in real life buying the EB) there is speculation that the price is too low, and will be raised.

The family board still seems to be firmly in the 'I'm not buying, and I WILL sit with my children' camp. There may be a lot of disappointment in the near future.