SWA - Paying for A Boarding Passes

[cjsmom5]

I know some time back there was a thread on how much you would pay for an A Boarding Pass. Well -- SWA now has that option. I went online to check out what the difference in fares would be. For us to go from Phoenix to Orlando we could go at the fare of $218 one way or in business select it would be $384 one way. While I understand you would get double rapid reward credits and a free drink (I don't drink so no value for me there) it would essentially cost me $166 each way or $332 round trip for that A Boarding pass. I'm not sure about most by neither my company or myself would pay for that.

The other thing is that SWA will now have the "elite" type of flyers - which is good if you are in that class - I guess. But, it will again make getting those A Boarding passes much harder ... and with pre-boards going between A & B - one should try to make sure that they get either an A or B boarding pass, for sure, if families desire to sit together.

We are flying SWA for our Feb/Mar trip because we have three free tickets. But lately US Air has been beating and/or matching SWA to Orlando ... and they have assigned seats. For me, it won't be too hard of a decision. It is sad as I like SWA but the non-assigned seats with their new policy is truly pushing me to use others.

That said, it will be a good program for the business traveler, I just think it won't be as good for the family leisure traveler.

 

[BelleBeast]

I too thought about going to Airtran - However, the conversations on this board opened my eyes - You may purchase a Nonstop flight and when they change there itinerary (which they will probably do, seeing were booking so far ahead) you have a very good chance ending up on a flight with a several hour layover. They don't care and will not change it for you either.

This is something I will not do!! Therefore SW is my choice.

Just something to think about.

 

[cjsmom5]

We've flown US Air from Phoenix the last two years (4 trips) and the only schedule change has been a couple minutes. I've heard that about Air Tran but haven't experienced it with US Air, at least not yet.