Post your Southwest Airline boarding pass results!

[recyclelady]

I thought it would be interesting to start a thread that tells:
1. Did you purchase the early bird boarding?
2. What were your boarding pass numbers?

We have a flight to Las Vegas tomorrow (totally unrelated to cruising!) I did not pay the early bird fee for boarding.

We got A35 and A36. I'm pleased.

We aren't going to have computer access at the 24 hour mark for the return flight, so I'm going to have our daughter check us in. I hope she has good luck for us!

[kelmac]

It will be interesting to see what happens if 100 people sign up for the early bird feature on the same flight.

Would seem ironic to pay $10 for a "C" boarding pass.

Enjoy!
Kel

[6rugrats]

Originally Posted by recyclelady

I thought it would be interesting to start a thread that tells:
1. Did you purchase the early bird boarding?
2. What were your boarding pass numbers?

We have a flight to Las Vegas tomorrow (totally unrelated to cruising!) I did not pay the early bird fee for boarding.

We got A35 and A36. I'm pleased.

We aren't going to have computer access at the 24 hour mark for the return flight, so I'm going to have our daughter check us in. I hope she has good luck for us!

It would also be useful to post departure/arrival airports, dates of flights, flight numbers and at what time you checked in.

[recyclelady]

Originally Posted by 6rugrats

It would also be useful to post departure/arrival airports, dates of flights, flight numbers and at what time you checked in.

Good point!

Chicago Midway to Las Vegas
Tuesday, Sept. 22
7:25 am flight
checked in at exactly the 24 hour mark
no early bird fee paid
A35 and A36

[travelntreats]

I did the Early Bird purchase just last week..... before it was available for a fee and I checked in at the 24 hour mark, I seemed to always get an A 30+ boarding pass on average.... when paying the $10 fee I ended up with A 16....

I was not concerned of the $10 fee as it was simply a test of the cost effectiveness that really was not necessary.

I think it is a crap shoot either way but even the "B" group had no problem finding a seat that was sufficient.

I think where the problem lies is for those ending up with a "C" group boarding pass when the seat choices are limited.

So, some will purchase the $10 early boarding pass and in the end, if it keeps the fares down, it's ok with me if they purchase, but I probably would not in the future unless I was unable to check in at the 24 hour mark or have someone do so for me if I was unable to do so.

[Ms Understood]

We just went to Las Vegas for the weekend and so glad I did the early bird. I typically check in on my Blackberry and then print out boarding pass when I get to the airport. This time was not able to get thru on the Blackberry and would have surely had a C if not done automatically by "early bird". We got A18 and 19 on an over- booked flight. Well worth $10.
------------------
Helen

[twoputt.plusone]

I have flights booked for Feb and did take the early bird option. Time will tell if it was worth it.

2P.P1

[sunlover5]

Can you buy the early bird for just one way of your flight? Waiting for SW to open for a cruise late March. I was wondering since on a cruise it would be worth it to pay the 10.00 for ticket home if you don't use the internet onboard!!

[Toto2Kansas]

Originally Posted by sunlover5

Can you buy the early bird for just one way of your flight? Waiting for SW to open for a cruise late March. I was wondering since on a cruise it would be worth it to pay the 10.00 for ticket home if you don't use the internet onboard!!

Yes, it is purchased for each flight seperately and gives you the option which flights you would like it for.
We will find out Saturday when we check in for our flight from MCI to LAX.

We went ahead and paid the $10 fee for flying home also, mainly as checking in that last day in Tahiti could be a problem onboard the ship. We will soon see if there was a benefit to paying this.

[Rudi610]

Flew IND to BWI on Sept. 15; 5:45pm flight. Checked in about 22 hours before flight (no early-bird). Just me and 2 of my kids. I had A36 and my kids had A39 and A40. Go figure since I checked us in at the same time.

[eddiesgal]

DH and I booked SW in mid November and decided last night to spend the $10 each to have a better selection of seats. I must say at first I was apprehensive but now I'm actually happy that I don't have to worry about checking in at the 24 hour point to try and get a good seat. We'll see if the additional funds were indeed worth it.

[parody]

Originally Posted by eddiesgal

the $10 each

Since it is generally "allowable" to "save" seats on Southwest, it has been suggested that when one is in a traveling party of 2 or more, only 1 person needs to spend the $10 and just hold seats for the remaining folks in the party. (Obviously, this won't work if your party is 10+, but it should certainly work if your party is 2-4 people--unless they all want window seats!)

[travelntreats]

Originally Posted by parody

Since it is generally "allowable" to "save" seats on Southwest, it has been suggested that when one is in a traveling party of 2 or more, only 1 person needs to spend the $10 and just hold seats for the remaining folks in the party. (Obviously, this won't work if your party is 10+, but it should certainly work if your party is 2-4 people--unless they all want window seats!)

OMG.... a new twist to "Chair Hogs" !!! .....Couldn't resist !

But seriously, I would never even consider saving seats to save that $10.00 fee....Just rude in my eyes.

[parody]

Originally Posted by travelntreats

OMG.... a new twist to "Chair Hogs" !!!

Well, but chair hogs on a cruise save seats that are hardly ever used again. Here we expect that the saved seats will be used in relatively short order--at least that is what the hope is!

[frogandtoad]

I’ve never flown Southwest before but will in December. I have 2 questions. My flight from home to my destination has a stop with a plane change. When I do online check-in, will I get a boarding number for both flights or just the first? On the way home from the destination, I have the same situation. Would I pay $10 for each flight or a total of $10 for the early bird feature? Thanks for any answers!

[parody]

Originally Posted by frogandtoad

I have 2 questions. My flight from home to my destination has a stop with a plane change. When I do online check-in, will I get a boarding number for both flights or just the first? On the way home from the destination, I have the same situation. Would I pay $10 for each flight or a total of $10 for the early bird feature? Thanks for any answers!

1. When you check-in online for the first leg of your trip, you will receive boarding passes for all segments of your outbound trip assuming that it has not been purchased on 2 separate tickets.

2. The early bird feature is on a one-way basis from origin to destination. Again, assuming that you do not have 2 separate tickets, the early bird feature will apply for all segments of your outbound (and later inbound) trip.

[NHBob]

A bit off topic, but for the lighter side of Southwest see this YouTube clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiVcn...x=0&playnext=1

Bob

[Gsel]

We just returned from a trip on SW and DID pay the $10. I will have to say it worked very well. We did not have access to a computer until late in the day before we left and still had A20 (or so) passes for all legs of our trip. It cost us all of about $40, and well worth it as all of our flights were full. There was some seat saving going on and the FAs put a stop to it very quickly when they saw it. Would do it again under the same circumstances.

[cruiserbryce]

funny that this came up...we were just going through scrap book stuff from our cruise last sept and came across our boarding passes...we printed them right at the 24 hour mark and got 32 and 33 in the A group

[KLLund]

My father died last week and I needed a flight NOW to get to my mom. I booked the next SWA flight out of Portland for Sacramento and paid the extra $10 because the flight was in 3 hours from booking. I got boarding pass A4 and was actually the second person on the plane (some no shows I assume) .. and this was a good thing because the flight was very full.

I had always heard that if you booked at the last minute, you got the extra screening but this was not the case at PDX this time.