Southwest Early Bird???

[wendybird]

This is my first time using this $10 feature from Southwest called Early Bird Check-in. I know that SW will check us in early automatically so we don't have to worry about 24hrs in advance, getting a "A" boarding pass, etc.. What do I need to do? Do I still check-in on line and print my boarding pass or do I have to go to the counter at the airport. Also, we have a connection with change of planes. How do we get the Early Bird Boarding pass for the second flight? Do they both print when we check-in?? Help?? Leaving in 12 days

[Fangorn]

The following is from a document I put together for some of my staff that does a fair amount of traveling, but for whom SWA may be a relatively unknown thing. Maybe this will help some.

As to your specific questions:

Q: Do I still check-in on line and print my boarding pass or do I have to go to the counter at the airport.
A: you still check-in on line - or rather you go through the process to get your boarding pass. You'll have been checked-in already. You don't have to go to the counter.

Q: Also, we have a connection with change of planes. How do we get the Early Bird Boarding pass for the second flight? Do they both print when we check-in??
A: the second flight is taken care up automatically and the boarding pass for the second flight will print out at the same time as the first.

Hope this is useful.

Steve


Here's my document:

Checking In

On-line check in for your flight opens exactly 24 hours prior to your flight time. If your plane departs at 8:25am on Tuesday, then you can check-in anytime after 8:25am on Monday. Southwest does not assign seats, but allows you to choose any open seat when you get on the plane. Consequently, you get the best choice of seats the closer you are to the front of the boarding line. Your place in the boarding line is determined by the relative position of your check-in (with a couple of significant exceptions). So the sooner you check-in, the closer to the front of the line you'll be and the better your seat selection will be.

If your trip requires you to change planes, you only have to worry about checking in for the initial flight. When you check in for that first flight, you will automatically be checked-in for any subsequent flights on that itinerary. This usually works to your advantage, since in most cases (but not all) the check-in time of the first leg will be prior to the 24-hour window being opened for the second leg. You’ll usually get a lower boarding pass number for that second leg than you will for the first. For example, from Portland, OR there are no non-stop flights to Orlando. One of the current options is to go through Denver leaving Portland at 6:15am Pacific Time. That’s 7:15am in Denver, but the Denver to Orlando flight doesn’t depart until 10:30am. So when I check in 24 hours before my initial flight, the system automatically checks me in for the second flight 27 hours 15 min before the second flight. Going west, it’s even better – check-in for the Denver to Portland leg is at nearly 30 hours prior to departure of the flight.

Of course, this can work against you if you’re starting your journey from a hub location i.e. Denver. While I and everyone coming from the West Coast check-in more than 24 hours prior to departure, someone beginning their trip to Orlando from Denver has to wait until the 24 hour point. I’ve been on flights from Las Vegas to points east where the local passengers started somewhere after B40 because of all us folks connecting in Las Vegas and having started hours earlier.

The Exceptions Mentioned Earlier

Three conditions that cause people to scratch their heads when they see the number on their boarding pass are Business Select , the “A”-List and the new Early Bird Check-in. Business Select passengers pay a bit more than full-fare and get to board the plane first. There are, at most, 15 Business Select seats on any given flight. Consequently, the first 15 boarding pass numbers – A1 thru A15 are reserved for Business Select, even though there may not be anyone paying this fare on any given flight. So, even if you were the absolute very first non-Business Select passenger to check-in at the 24 hour mark, and there were no Business Select passengers, the very best boarding pass you could get would be A-16.

But that would require that there were no “A”-list members on your flight, and that isn’t likely to happen. “A”-list members are Southwest customers that fly 32 or more one-way trips within a year period. These folks (and I’m one of them) are automatically checked-in for their flights 36 hours prior to departure. What that means is that if there are 10 “A”-list members on a flight, they will have already been assigned A16-A25 and the first boarding pass available to the general population will be A26. I was on a flight once where the first general population number was A42. Usually, though, there are only 5 or so “A”-list members on a given flight.

In the summer of 2009, Southwest added an additional wrinkle to the mix. For an additional $10 per person each way, you can effectively buy your way onto the “A” list for that flight with the Early Bird option. As with the “A” list members, your boarding pass will be automatically assigned 36 hours before your flight. Travelers purchasing this option will be assigned boarding numbers AFTER the “A” list members. This option can be very useful if you know that you will not be available to check –in right at the 24 hour mark. It’s especially helpful for that return trip from Walt Disney World since you won’t have to stress about remembering to check in at the 24 hour mark. You don’t have to pay the fee each way if you don’t want to.