Southwest check in question

[AirlineGuy07]

I've flown on many airlines but Southwest is one that I haven't tried yet. We (2 adults and kids 2 and 5 yrs old) are leaving in 3 days and was wondering if early bird check in is worth it. We want to sit together but don't really want to pay and extra $80 roundtrip for the early bird check in. Do you think we will be ok checking in right at 24 hours prior to get an A boarding? It looks like the flight is very full. Need help from all you Southwest veterans. Thanks!!

[wildernesslady]

You should be fine. One thing that we do sometimes is just book it for going home. Then you don't have to worry about it whent you are still vacationing. Have a great time

[disneymom15]

We've flown SW twice. Both times I did the 24 hour(with in a few minutes) check in & both times we got "A Boarding". On our return flights, I forgot about doing the check in all together. To our luck, Disney did it for us & we still had "A Boarding".

[cer]

I would not pay extra for it. You should have no problem if you check in when your window opens up.

[ChipDale2708]

Just flew Southwest to Vegas last week and did not pay the extra for the boarding. We checked-in at the 24hour mark and got the last two 'A' (59 & 60) for three of our flights and 53 & 54 for one. I heard people directly in front of me on a couple of legs say they had paid the extra and were only two in front of us. Glad we didn't bother spending the extra.

[Zippy 1]

We have flown SW many times and never had a problem getting in A group. We just check in at the 24 hour mark and are good to go. Also families with small children who don't get an A group pass get to board between groups A and B

[bjb1124]

I fly SW all the time for work and play. I have started paying for the early bird check in so I don't have to be on the computer at the 24 hour mark. So many people who used to check in at the 24 hour mark now do EB, that I've heard many people doing the 24 hour mark end up at the end of A.

Since you have kids, the worst it will be for you is at the end of the A line since families board between A and B.

I would pay for EB on your return, so you don't have to worry for the home trip, but on the way there, you should be OK with checking in at the 24 hour mark.

[DizneyRox]

Going with EB now wouldn't help too much I presume. Your EB order is determined when you apply it, so someone who booked it 6 months ago (or even yesterday) would be in front of you. I think people who were going to do EB would have done it by now, so you're probably just going to beat the crowd at the 24 hour mark.

I would take my chances and do the 24 hour check-in. I've grown tired of playing that game however and did EB for our upcoming trip just to see. depending on when/where we board and the seat I get will determine if I do it again.

If it helps, Southwest has three boarding groups typically, A, B and C, with the numbers 1-60 in each. A1 - A15 I believe are reserved for business select, A16 - A60 would typically be the general public boarding numbers. EB would start at A15 to whatever. I'm not sure if EB can extend into the B group or not.

So, you have 45 possible seats in front of you before it's better to do the family boarding between A and B. Significantly less if a lot of folks do the EB option.

[ThanxForNoticin]

We have flown SW many times and never had a problem getting in A group. We just check in at the 24 hour mark and are good to go. Also families with small children who don't get an A group pass get to board between groups A and B

The special boarding depends on the age of your kids. I thought it was families with children 4 and under. If you don't meet that requirement, you should still be OK if you check in at the 24-hour mark.

A good point made above - if you might not be convenient to a computer or a guest relations person at the 24-hour mark for your return trip, the extra $10 per ticket for the early bird might be worth it on your return flight. Have a great trip!

[emfleck]

We flew SW the beginning of March and I checked us in online about 23 hours prior and we were in Group B (the end of Group B) and were unable to sit next to each other. There was only 3 of us in our group.

[minnie-mouse]

We just flew SW and did not do early checkin. We checked in online 24 hrs before our flight and four of us sat together on both trips.

[Donald's Girl]

We are using it for the first time and only for our return trip. Having to worry about getting to a resort front desk or park guest services at the right time is the last thing we want to do on our last day.
Last year, before SW started this, I remember having to run from LeCellier to the BC front desk since we calculated (along with helpful cast members) that that was a quicker route than Epcot guest services at the entrance. This will be a blessed relief!

[tyandskyesmom]

We just got home last night and I don't like the early bird idea so we did not do it. We checked in online 24 hours ahead of time and got boarding A51 - A54. And now, Southwest is doing resort check in (at least they are testing it at Pop) and they said we would have boarding passes on our door at 4:30am. We did not get them but we had been checked in already (I was really nervous and boarderline mad by the time we got down tot he check in area) so they just re-printed our boarding passes and we had A48, A51, A52, and A55...how that happened I don't know but it did. So we were all good!

I just think it kind of defeats the purpose of a cheap SW flight if I am adding $10.00 per ticket each way!

[AirlineGuy07]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I checked in right at the 24 hour mark and got A25-29!! The flight is pretty full too.

[Genie1953]

We just got back 2 weeks ago and flew southwest both ways. We purchased EB for both of us round trip....that said.....we made several price adjustments as our airfare prices dropped. The first one that was made the customer service rep I spoke with said she needed to check to make sure the EB stayed on as sometimes it will drop off when an adjustment is made. She said it was still there. When we made the other changes I always asked and was assured it was still there. Well imagine my surprise when 23 hours and 55 minutes before our flight (just 5 minutes after the 24 hour check in mark) I checked our boarding pass numbers and found that I had A31 but my husband had B25. I immediately called Southwest and they checked into it and found that the earlybird had dropped off of my husband when one of the price adjustments was made. It could have been worse had I not checked when I did...because he would have been even farther down the line. Anyway....they checked our return flights and found it had dropped off of me as well....so they fixed it. Obviously they could not do anything about my husband's boarding number going down but they did apologize and gave me a number to call so I could report what happened and possibly get a refund for my husband's EB. So I called the number and again they apologized profusely and said our $10 would definitely be refunded but it might take a week to 10 days. All worked out well and I was able to save my husband a seat so he did sit with me on our flight down. Coming back our boarding numbers were A34 and A35 and we got great seats for that flight as well.

Now for the best part.....I was checking my credit card statement about 7 days later while we were in Disneyworld and imagine my surprise when I found that Southwest had not only refunded the EB but they had also refunded the entire cost of my husband's flight to Orlando. I had always heard good things about Southwest, but this was our first time flying with them so have to admit I was a bit nervous. However I must say that I am in complete agreement with everything I have heard about Southwest. They are great.

I do have to mention though that going down a lady was in line ahead of me who noticed that my husband was boarding after me and asked about it. When I told her what had happened she said that when she and her husband travel together only one of them gets EB and then saves a seat for the other person.

[Fangorn]

Can't say that I'm terribly surprised that SW refunded the entire price of your husband's ticket. As a company, they are very sensitive to customer service issues, especially when an error in their system creates a problem. I've had similar experiences with SWA, and it's a big part of why they are my preferred airline.

Steve