Southwest - Paid extra, still in B

[KimWDW]

So when I booked my tickets I paid all this extra money for early bird check-in. I just checked in now, 23 hours ahead of time, and I got group B! What the heck! I thought the point of paying all that money was that so you'd be guaranteed an early grouping. Apparently you still need to check in right at 24:00, whether you paid extra or not??? What's the point of paying, then? So confused.

 

[monarchsfan16]

Early bird doesn't guarantee an A, and as more people buy it, you're in more competition for the good boarding positions. It simply guarantees that you are checked in before the people at the 24 hour mark.
I've gotten Bs the last couple times I've flown out of our local airport, only to be surprised with As coming back from Orlando, having bought early bird for both legs. We've still managed to get decent seats, and seats together.

 

[msjprincess]

All they guarantee is that you'll be checked in 12 hours before the people that don't pay for EBCI.

It doesn't matter that you checked in at 23 hours. SWA had already checked you in and gave a boarding pass number 13 hours earlier.

There is no way to guarantee that everyone that pays for EBCI will get an A boarding pass.

You still got a better boarding pass than if you hadn't paid for EBCI.

 

[KimWDW]

So for our flight back I don't have to worry about what time I check in, that's good to know. I thought I screwed us by not doing it right at 24:00 before. I'm disappointed after paying the money, I hope we get to stay together. Thanks for the info.

 

[msjprincess]

What's your number and how many of you are there?

 

[goofy4tink]

So when I booked my tickets I paid all this extra money for early bird check-in. I just checked in now, 23 hours ahead of time, and I got group B! What the heck! I thought the point of paying all that money was that so you'd be guaranteed an early grouping. Apparently you still need to check in right at 24:00, whether you paid extra or not??? What's the point of paying, then? So confused.

So for our flight back I don't have to worry about what time I check in, that's good to know. I thought I screwed us by not doing it right at 24:00 before. I'm disappointed after paying the money, I hope we get to stay together. Thanks for the info.

Paying for EBCI gets you checked in at the 36 hr mark. It means that you are checked in before those that didn't pay and have to check themselves in at the 24 hr window. That is all it gets you. It does not get you into the A group automatically...never has it said that that will happen.

Unless you have a group of 15, you should be able to find seats together!!! The planes are big...plenty of room for groups of 4 or 5 or even 6 to get seats together, or close to each other. It's just not an issue.

I generally pay for EBCI only for my flight home from WDW. Why? Because I don't want to worry about being near a computer at that 24 hr window. I don't want to be sitting on a broken down attraction and unable to check in. I want to buy it and forget about it. Then, when I checkin at the RAC counter the next day, I get my boarding pass handed to me.

 

[KimWDW]

There are only 3 of us so I'm guessing we'll be fine. But one other time (when we hadn't paid extra) we got B group (bad number) and we got split up 2 and 1. That's why I fly Southwest as a last resort only. This time we had to go Southwest and I paid extra so we wouldn't be separated. Should be okay, though. *crosses fingers*

 

[Carriemel]

Can you imagine where you might have been if you'd waited to check in till the 24 hour mark? You might have been all the way back in C.

 

[goofy4tink]

There are only 3 of us so I'm guessing we'll be fine. But one other time (when we hadn't paid extra) we got B group (bad number) and we got split up 2 and 1. That's why I fly Southwest as a last resort only. This time we had to go Southwest and I paid extra so we wouldn't be separated. Should be okay, though. *crosses fingers*

More and more people are now buying EBCI. You would have to be very high in the B group to be forced to split up. I have sat and watched those in the C group find seats together....3 seats at that. But that's early in the C group. If you get on a flight that has a lot of families flying, then you may be more likely to get seats together since families tend to take entire rows vs solo travelers who each take an aisle or window seat, making it impossible for late boarding families to find completely empty rows.