Southwest Early Boarding Option

[vacation_junkie]

Has any one paid the Extra $10 per person for this option? If so what were your boarding numbers?
I'm thinking about it for our return trip as the 24hr mark is at 11am..and there is no chance we will be at the hotel to check-in.
Thanks for your replies in advance

 

[backyardponder]

Personally, I don't pay it. If you feel you must sit with your 10 year old, then it might be worth paying it.

You can check in at any of the Disney Parks at their Customer Relations window. Bring your confirmation number with you and they will check you in and print boarding passes.

 

[formill]

We paid it for 7 of us.......there were only a few people- maybe 5 or so in the business class or whatever they call it ahead of us......I think our numbers started at A-16.......it was GREAT to just walk on the plane and choose ANY seat and we were all together. I have no desire to sit with others and split us up- we just don't travel a lot and the plane ride is big to us. I wish they would just assign seats like the other airlines.

 

[vacation_junkie]

Personally, I don't pay it. If you feel you must sit with your 10 year old, then it might be worth paying it.

You can check in at any of the Disney Parks at their Customer Relations window. Bring your confirmation number with you and they will check you in and print boarding passes.

I thought that was only available at the resorts..

Well we figured we paid $448 for our flight total for the 3 of us..adding the $30 for the early boarding still keep the total flight cost under $500. Which is still a fantastic price...and it will give me the comfort knowing that we are checked in and will be able to sit together.

 

[vacation_junkie]

We paid it for 7 of us.......there were only a few people- maybe 5 or so in the business class or whatever they call it ahead of us......I think our numbers started at A-16.......it was GREAT to just walk on the plane and choose ANY seat and we were all together. I have no desire to sit with others and split us up- we just don't travel a lot and the plane ride is big to us. I wish they would just assign seats like the other airlines.

ok so if I pay for it..then what do we do?

Do we have to log onto Southwest 36 hours ahead of time or do they do all the work and all we do is print our boarding passes at home or the airport...

 

[TheWog]

ok so if I pay for it..then what do we do?

Do we have to log onto Southwest 36 hours ahead of time or do they do all the work and all we do is print our boarding passes at home or the airport...

Note: Just for clarification it is check-in not boarding. If you choose to use it the service will check you in for your flight to get you lower boarding numbers. This will ensure you get on the plane sooner than those that didn't pay for it. You can print your passes at the airport or like you said at home/guest services, etc. If you wait until the 24 hour mark you will need to go to guest services or use your web enabled phone and do it yourself. You will likely get a higher number, but even in B you will be able to sit with your family, just not close to the front.

 

[TheWog]

I thought that was only available at the resorts..

Nope, you can do it at the parks guest services areas, DTD as well.

 

[tjmw2727]

I have done the EBCI a few times and its been low numbered A passes but there is no guarantee of an A pass. You will be checked in at 36 hours instead of 24 and you don't have to go online and do it. I usually do it for convenience especially on the return trip.

Alternatives are to have a trusted family member or friend check in for you and then re-print the boarding pass at the airport. You can check in via a web enabled cellphone at the parks and then re-print as above. Stop at guest services at any of the resorts or parks and the CM will do it for you, allow extra time if your doing this at the parks in case of a wait.

ok so if I pay for it..then what do we do?

Do we have to log onto Southwest 36 hours ahead of time or do they do all the work and all we do is print our boarding passes at home or the airport...

If you purchase EBCI you don't really have to do anything. Yes, you could wait until you get to the airport to print the boarding passes. If you want to go online prior to arriving at the airport to see what position you got you can do it after T24 not at T 36.

 

[MagicKingdom05]

Has any one paid the Extra $10 per person for this option? If so what were your boarding numbers?
I'm thinking about it for our return trip as the 24hr mark is at 11am..and there is no chance we will be at the hotel to check-in.
Thanks for your replies in advance

We did for our last trip a couple weeks ago and loved it. It came in handy with us traveling with a almost 2 year old and a 3 month old. This time we are going to do this again, because you are almost guaranteed a high A position (we got A 20 and A 21 going out and A 21 and 22 coming back).

 

[vacation_junkie]

We did for our last trip a couple weeks ago and loved it. It came in handy with us traveling with a almost 2 year old and a 3 month old. This time we are going to do this again, because you are almost guaranteed a high A position (we got A 20 and A 21 going out and A 21 and 22 coming back).

Awesome..now i'm thinking of it for both there and return. that way..I'm not having to worry about forgetting to check in right at the 24 hour mark. That comes at 9:10am while i'll probably be in a meeting!! I love sitting at the front of the plane....first off!
Its worth the $60 extra by the sounds of it.

 

[MagicKingdom05]

Awesome..now i'm thinking of it for both there and return. that way..I'm not having to worry about forgetting to check in right at the 24 hour mark. That comes at 9:10am while i'll probably be in a meeting!! I love sitting at the front of the plane....first off!
Its worth the $60 extra by the sounds of it.

It is. You still can't print your boarding passes until 24 hours prior, but you don't have to worry about checking in at that 24 hour point. We haven't done it yet for our September flight, but we are going to.

 

[kldmom2000]

I'm doing it for our return trip because I always stress out all day the day prior to our return flight to make sure we're back at the hotel for that 24 hour mark in order to get A or B boarding passes @ guest services (the lines in the parks always seem to be long @ that time).... this way I can just relax that last day.... (My phone has internet capabilities but it's very limited and last year I tried to log into SWA and couldn't access it )

 

[MagicKingdom05]

I'm doing it for our return trip because I always stress out all day the day prior to our return flight to make sure we're back at the hotel for that 24 hour mark in order to get A or B boarding passes @ guest services (the lines in the parks always seem to be long @ that time).... this way I can just relax that last day.... (My phone has internet capabilities but it's very limited and last year I tried to log into SWA and couldn't access it )

For the first time on a trip the day before we came home we didn't have to plan being at the resort so we could check in.

 

[verlee]

We paid for it on our return flight. I think it was worth it. No need to worry about it the day before and the day of the flight goes very smoothly. I was on the computer at the 24 hr slot to check us in and that worked very well too.

 

[puffkin]

We did for our last trip a couple weeks ago and loved it. It came in handy with us traveling with a almost 2 year old and a 3 month old. This time we are going to do this again, because you are almost guaranteed a high A position (we got A 20 and A 21 going out and A 21 and 22 coming back).

Your situation is a prime reason NOT to do EBCI. You can preboard the whole family between A & B anyway with the kids so it really was wasted money. You can't sit with the kids in an emergency row anyway for the extra room and the only benefit I can see is getting the very first row. If you family board you will definitely be able to sit together. And the less time on the plane with a toddler, the better

We don't do EBCI because we qualify to preboard with DS. And by the time we can't we are ok being split up if absolutely necessary. But I have an iphone and I usually don't have any problems checking in at 24 hours. We save the $40 each way instead and that covers a character meal or something else fun at Disney

 

[MagicKingdom05]

Your situation is a prime reason NOT to do EBCI. You can preboard the whole family between A & B anyway with the kids so it really was wasted money. You can't sit with the kids in an emergency row anyway for the extra room and the only benefit I can see is getting the very first row. If you family board you will definitely be able to sit together. And the less time on the plane with a toddler, the better

We don't do EBCI because we qualify to preboard with DS. And by the time we can't we are ok being split up if absolutely necessary. But I have an iphone and I usually don't have any problems checking in at 24 hours. We save the $40 each way instead and that covers a character meal or something else fun at Disney

True, but we had an issue last January when our oldest was 8 months old and I had a hight boarding priorty then she did and we ended up not being able to sit together. We both agreed with now having two kids, it's worth being able to get on the plan early and sit up front so we can get off the plan first as well. Also while cleaning out a drawer of the computer desk last nigth we found a $50 SW giftcard that we completely forgot we had gotten for Christmas. With that it will only cost an extra $10.

 

[Tara]

Awesome..now i'm thinking of it for both there and return. that way..I'm not having to worry about forgetting to check in right at the 24 hour mark. That comes at 9:10am while i'll probably be in a meeting!! I love sitting at the front of the plane....first off!
Its worth the $60 extra by the sounds of it.

This is the main reason I use EBCI. I'm not terribly worried about getting seats together. When we travel as a family, it's me, DH and DS8 and we've had horrid boarding numbers in the past (me at the end of the Bs and DH/DS at the end of the Cs) and DS still was able to sit with one of us without anyone moving.

The convenience of not having to think about it? It's worth $10 per person each way for me!

 

[vacation_junkie]

Your situation is a prime reason NOT to do EBCI. You can preboard the whole family between A & B anyway with the kids so it really was wasted money. You can't sit with the kids in an emergency row anyway for the extra room and the only benefit I can see is getting the very first row. If you family board you will definitely be able to sit together. And the less time on the plane with a toddler, the better

We don't do EBCI because we qualify to preboard with DS. And by the time we can't we are ok being split up if absolutely necessary. But I have an iphone and I usually don't have any problems checking in at 24 hours. We save the $40 each way instead and that covers a character meal or something else fun at Disney

I am from Canada...my roaming frees and internet access on my smart phone would cost me about $30 to log on and check in from the US on my canadian phone...I went on for 32 seconds last year by mistake and it cost me $11