Soutwest ?? about Early bird & multiple confirmation numbers

[calablovedisney]

Flights for our dates opened up for Southwest this morning and I booked!! YAY!! Now, I am getting excited. First, thank you all for the advice I learned here about opening up a southwest visa during the 50,000 points promotion. I got 4 roundtrip tickets all with my points!!!

Now, to my question...I paid for the early bird check in for our return flight only, so that I wouldn't have to worry about checking in while on vacation. Now, I am wondering if I should pay for it for our flight down. Do you think it's worth it? Or will I be okay checking in at the 24 hour mark. In our party are myself, dh, and 2 dds, 13 & 15.

And, we all have different confirmation numbers. I though I remember only have 1 number in the past for the 4 of us. Is this because I used points? Will I have to log in 4 different numbers in order to check in at that mark. If that is the case we will most likely not be in the same boarding group. I booked all 4 at the same time, but to add early bird to just one way, I had to go in and do it separately for each of our tickets, so 4 different credit card transactions.
thanks for your help. Again. Love, love, love these boards!!!

 

[jimandami]

Yes, you always have separate confirmation numbers when booking with points. We never buy EBCI and have never had a problem sitting together...at least 2 and 2 anyway. It is somewhat comical when we do our 24 hour check-in though as we usually have the app open on 2 phones and a Kindle Fire, and then on the computer. We bring them all up and hit check-in simultaneously. We had to check in 9 people in Oct from several different devices and all received A boarding passes.

 

[rwdavis2]

Unless you want to avoid specific areas or seats of the airplane there's no need for EBCI. Your kids are old enough to sit alone. Ours insisted on it.

 

[calablovedisney]

I agree, I don't think my girls will care about sitting with me or their dad, but they will want to sit with each other. Sadly, we do not have iphones so I will have to check in the old fashioned way, using a computer

Now, my dh, says we should now get an iphone just so we can use Disney apps while we are there. I say a data plan is a lot of money for the year (or 2 years) just to have for one trip. I told my brother I would pay him to lend me his phone for a couple of weeks though! haha For us, I think it was worth the EB checkin for the return since I would have to rely on guest relations while in a park to do it, and I just don't want to think about that.

oh, wait, my kids have ipad minis, so there is my way to check us all in at once. 2 computers, 2 ipads! thanks for the suggestion!

 

[sam_gordon]

I agree, I don't think my girls will care about sitting with me or their dad, but they will want to sit with each other. Sadly, we do not have iphones so I will have to check in the old fashioned way, using a computer

Now, my dh, says we should now get an iphone just so we can use Disney apps while we are there. I say a data plan is a lot of money for the year (or 2 years) just to have for one trip. I told my brother I would pay him to lend me his phone for a couple of weeks though! haha For us, I think it was worth the EB checkin for the return since I would have to rely on guest relations while in a park to do it, and I just don't want to think about that.

oh, wait, my kids have ipad minis, so there is my way to check us all in at once. 2 computers, 2 ipads! thanks for the suggestion!

Why not get a "pay as you go" phone if he really wants to have one. You get it for a month then shut it down.

FWIW, I don't think you can take anyone's experience on their seating assignment experience. So much will have to do with the time of their flight and where they're leaving from that an experience at airport 'A' won't be the same at airport 'B'.

 

[calablovedisney]

Why not get a "pay as you go" phone if he really wants to have one. You get it for a month then shut it down.

FWIW, I don't think you can take anyone's experience on their seating assignment experience. So much will have to do with the time of their flight and where they're leaving from that an experience at airport 'A' won't be the same at airport 'B'.

Yes, good point. Good idea with the pay as you go phone. I will look into that option. I didn't think of that. Thanks

 

[maxiesmom]

Yes, good point. Good idea with the pay as you go phone. I will look into that option. I didn't think of that. Thanks

I have a Virgin Mobile phone and I only pay $35 a month for unlimited text and data. I have the LG Volt, and right now it is on sale for under $100. It ran the MDE ap flawlessly.

 

[bjscheel]

If you check everyone in on one computer, I have to chime in that you can have 4 tabs open, one for each person. HOWEVER, (and I learned this the hard way), unless things have changed since I did it, you need to click on Check In AND then another button on the next screen before moving on to the next tab. I went through and hit check in on all 4 tabs successively, only to find out I had checked in DH 4 times. This was in 2011 though. I do EBCI all the time anymore, it's less stressful. And since I'm booking with points, I figure the savings allow me to splurge on it.

Also, you could take an iPad minis or an iPod touch if you have one, to run the MDE app while in the parks instead of buying a phone. There is wifi in the parks.