New To Southwest - Early Bird Question

I purchased Early Bird for family. Is this correct: Eventhough I purchased EB I still can't check in and print boarding pass until 24 hours prior to flight. However, Southwest will have my spot already reserved at 36 hours. So I can actually check in at 12 hours prior if I want.

Yes

Since WN will check you in 36 hours out, all you need do is print your boarding passes at the airport. No other checkin is needed.

The good news is you can check in whenever you want and not worry about doing it 24 hours before. You can even wait till you get to the airport. You will be one of the earlier ones other then those spots they reserve for their high level fliers and those who signed up for this before you did.

 

Keith

Since WN will check you in 36 hours out, all you need do is print your boarding passes at the airport. No other checkin is needed.

 

You got it.

YOU don't check in at all. Southwest automatically does it for you. All you do is print your boarding passes.

YOU don't check in at all. Southwest automatically does it for you. All you do is print your boarding passes.

 

This is correct but you click the check in tab to get to the boarding pass. At least that is what we had to do last week.

Thanks everyone. You've been a great help. We don't fly much at all and I was kinda nervous through this whole booking process. I booked in September to travel Christmas weekend and wanted family to sit somewhat close together. I feel a bit more at ease now.

Thanks everyone. You've been a great help. We don't fly much at all and I was kinda nervous through this whole booking process. I booked in September to travel Christmas weekend and wanted family to sit somewhat close together. I feel a bit more at ease now.

You're welcome and good luck!

Thanks everyone. You've been a great help. We don't fly much at all and I was kinda nervous through this whole booking process. I booked in September to travel Christmas weekend and wanted family to sit somewhat close together. I feel a bit more at ease now.

 

You will do great.

 

When we fly Southwest we always take advantage of this feature. To me it is worth the extra dollars.

 

Have a wonderful time.

 

Keith

Just wanted to report back and thank everyone once again for responding. Just checked our boarding passes and we have A28 A29 A30 A31 and connecting flight we have A19 A20 A21 A22. Now its time for me to "get away"

That is fantastic.

 

You will have a good choice of seats. Usually they reserve a set amount for their frequent fliers in the lower numbers of the A section but many times not all of them are in use.

 

Have a great flight and cruise.

 

Keith

Just wanted to report back and thank everyone once again for responding. Just checked our boarding passes and we have A28 A29 A30 A31 and connecting flight we have A19 A20 A21 A22. Now its time for me to "get away"

Excellent, thanks for reporting back!

Just wanted to report back and thank everyone once again for responding. Just checked our boarding passes and we have A28 A29 A30 A31 and connecting flight we have A19 A20 A21 A22. Now its time for me to "get away"

 

Those are really good positions for EBCI. Over on FlyerTalk, there is a long running thread where folks report their position after having paid for EBCI. Not uncommon to see people getting "B" positions.

I will never purchase EB again unless I can not check in at the 24 hour mark

That happened to us. B position after paying for EB. I contacted SW and they refunded our money.

Now I check in at the 24 mark and always have an A position.

I will never purchase EB again unless I can not check in at the 24 hour mark

That happened to us. B position after paying for EB. I contacted SW and they refunded our money.

 

EB will always be ahead of those who check-in at the 24 hour mark. And depending on the number of A-List FFs and those who had higher priority EB, you may get a "B". But doing it yourself won't get you any better, and could be significantly worse.

 

From the Southwest website: "EarlyBird Check-In Customers will have their boarding positions reserved beginning 36 hours prior to their flight's scheduled departure time.

 

Now I check in at the 24 mark and always have an A position.

 

Pure coincidence. Please report back when there are a large number of EBs and you get pushed back to B.

We’re considering booking a separate one-way flight from LAS to SFO to board our cruise (we plan to fly business international - possibly AA - to the States and back but wanted a stopover in LAS on the way). I’ve checked and Southwest has several flights a day on this route at very reasonable prices (August isn’t open as yet but July rates appear to be good, especially as they include 2 bags pp). So, are there any disadvantages of booking with them and could someone explain what’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ boarding? There wil be 7 in our party, can we prebook seats with SW and what are our chances of getting seats together if prebooking isn’t permitted?

 

Sorry for all the questions, but we usually book internal flights combined with our long haul air travel. However, in this instance, the business fare for that one flight adds £500 to our ticket costs - unbelieveable when we can get a one-way flight for well under $100 in coach for the 1.5hr flight.

So, are there any disadvantages of booking with them and could someone explain what’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ boarding? There wil be 7 in our party, can we prebook seats with SW and what are our chances of getting seats together if prebooking isn’t permitted?

 

... unbelieveable when we can get a one-way flight for well under $100 in coach for the 1.5hr flight.

No, there's no seat allocation on Southwest. You queue up in an allocated order, and when you get on board you find a free seat that you like the look of and sit down in it. Early Bird - the original subject of this thread - means that you get allocated a queue position further towards the front of the queue, although there is no guarantee that the aircraft will be empty when the queue starts to board as sometimes there are transit passengers who are already on board from the aircraft's previous sector. The sooner you board, the more free seats there will be.

 

The airline's official page about the boarding process is here: https://www.southwest.com/html/generated/help/faqs/boarding_the_plane_faq.html and there is an official community which threw up this explanation from participants: https://www.southwestaircommunity.com/t5/Boarding/What-is-the-boarding-process/td-p/33

 

If seven of you want to sit together, one obvious thing to try (that doesn't game the system) is to get EB for everyone, so that you have the best chance of finding seven seats close to each other in a pattern that suits you.

 

However, it'll be worth you pricing flights on other airlines now. On a quick search, I'm seeing fares (that are not "basic economy" type fares) that are under $100. You'd need to look at baggage policies etc, and think about whether you have any frequent flyer benefits that would be worth something to you, to decide whether they might be better overall value for you.

However, it'll be worth you pricing flights on other airlines now. On a quick search, I'm seeing fares (that are not "basic economy" type fares) that are under $100. You'd need to look at baggage policies etc, and think about whether you have any frequent flyer benefits that would be worth something to you, to decide whether they might be better overall value for you.

 

Thanks for the info and links - I’ll take a look ;). Alaska Air also had some competitive pricing, but their baggage charges need to be added to the base fare (approximately the same as SW). Which arirlines are you seeing?

 

Perhaps not the correct place for my next question, however, do you know if we book with AA for our business international flights and the return flight is a codeshare with BA (SFO-LHR), are we able to book seats without charge?

If you don’t buy early bird, it’s almost guaranteed mid b group. I think there’s a people with family option between a30 and a31 to 60. But since we don’t have kids, we don’t pay much attention to the details. There’s also a pre board group for those with handicaps.

 

There’s also a c group. But by the time people board in that group, there may not be room in the overhead bins.

 

 

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Perhaps not the correct place for my next question, however, do you know if we book with AA for our business international flights and the return flight is a codeshare with BA (SFO-LHR), are we able to book seats without charge?

No, unless you have high enough status (all this info is on BA's webpage), you're going to pay for advanced seat selection if you're flying on BA metal, even in business class.

You may choose seats at no charge during online check-in.

Perhaps not the correct place for my next question, however, do you know if we book with AA for our business international flights and the return flight is a codeshare with BA (SFO-LHR), are we able to book seats without charge?

No, unless you have high enough status (all this info is on BA's webpage), you're going to pay for advanced seat selection if you're flying on BA metal, even in business class.

Or if you are booked in J or C booking classes - but if you were forking out that sort of money for your business class ticket, the seat pre-allocation fee would be pretty trivial!