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Boarding pass

sokiketa
Explorer C

When I purchase early board to try to get a "A" boarding pass only to get a "B" since I'm being charged I don't think it's fair to board families for free between the A's and B's maybe stop selling early bird after all the A's are sold 😞

 
4 REPLIES 4

Re: Boarding pass

dfwskier
Aviator A

A boarding passes are not "sold, " and there is no way to tell how many people want the "best"  boarding passes unitil 35 hours and 59 minutes before departure time.

 

Why, because A List and Early bird owners can keep showing up (buying tickets or Early bird)

until  before 36 hours before departure time.

 

So if someone buys early bird 30 days before departure time, and a bunch of A Listers buy tickets after then (but before 36 hours pre departure), then all of those A Listers   will get better boarding spots than the person who bought early bird.

 

Besides, early bird only guarantees 2 things:

1) Doing so guarantees that person will get a better boarding position than EVERY person

who checks in manually starring a 24 hours before departure. It does not guarantee that the person will get an A spot, or even a B spot for that matter.

2) Early bird gets your boarding spot for you at 36 hours before detarture so you don't have to do that yourself manually.

Re: Boarding pass

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Earlybird does not guarantee an A boarding position.  Southwest does not say anything about getting an A position.  If you are able to utilize family boarding there's no point in buying Earlybird as the maximum possible improvement in boarding position would be minimal.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Boarding pass

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@sokiketa wrote:

When I purchase early board to try to get a "A" boarding pass only to get a "B" since I'm being charged I don't think it's fair to board families for free between the A's and B's maybe stop selling early bird after all the A's are sold 😞

 

As @dfwskier mentioned Southwest doesn't know how many A-list tickets will be sold prior to the flight's departure there would always be the chance for a few more to hop on either as last minute tickets or same day changes or standbys. 

 

They also have to put the family boarding at some reasonable position as with the open seating policy they have to comply with the FAA in allowing families with young children to sit together. Many of the ULCC will waive seat selection fees as part of their compliance method for tickets with young children. So all I can say is that the current family boarding has always worked for me and that's a good thing and as intended.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Boarding pass

floridaguy
Aviator C

Preboarding to the rescue...