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Southwest updated itinerary to flights that don't have Early Bird checkin

dthj_44
Explorer C

My round trip will include 1 transfer each trip, meaning I'll be riding 4 planes total. I thought it would be a good idea to pay an extra $80 to get early bird check-in to save some headache.

 

A few weeks ago Southwest updated my itinerary, the new flights are not eligible for early bird check-in. I have no way of going back to my original itinerary to see if the original flights for eligible either.

 

- does Southwest sell early bird check-in, even if the flight is ineligible, and place it on the customer to find that information out later?

 

- if my original flight was eligible, and Southwest changed my flights, this is beyond my control, can I get a refund?

 

- For flights that include a transfer, do I need to check in for each plane?

 

Thanks,

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Southwest updated itinerary to flights that don't have Early Bird checkin

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

There are no "ineligible" flights. If for some reason EBCI was dropped from your reservation contact Southwest and request it be added back, shouldn't be that big of a deal. EBCI will handle reserving your boarding position for all flights on a trip with a connection. As long as you are more than 36 hours from departure time EBCI can be added to the reservation. The sooner it gets re-added the better your position will be so call asap. This might also be something Customer Relations can handle, but they seem to be just as swamped and not responding to as many messages on Facebook or Twitter as they previously did. 

I'm curious though how you are seeing it is no longer on the reservation? Are you looking at the trip in your RR account and not seeing the icon that indicates EBCI?

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Southwest updated itinerary to flights that don't have Early Bird checkin

dthj_44
Explorer C

Thanks for your response. I was able to contact SW customer support and they were very helpful, confirmed what you said - the EBCI still had applied.

 

As you guessed, my confusion stemmed from the icon legend on my itinerary - there is one for EBCI, live tv, and wifi, the one for EBCI was missing from the flights. I clicked the banner option to add EBCI, even though I already had it, and was informed the flight was not eligible. This was because I was clicking the banner and attempting to add within 36 hours of the flight.

 

I'm a victim of my own overly-cautious behavior.

Re: Southwest updated itinerary to flights that don't have Early Bird checkin

bec102896
Aviator A

My guess is that the EB is still on your reservation it probably transferred to your new flight. When you go to add EB it is probably saying ineligible because it's already on the reservation. 

 

When you look up your reservation you should see a EB icon that looks like a 🌅 (or something like that unless the icon changed)  

 

You could always reach out to Southwest on Facebook or Twitter in a DM and they can confirm if your reservation has EB on it. 

 

-Blake

Re: Southwest updated itinerary to flights that don't have Early Bird checkin

dthj_44
Explorer C

You are correct, thank you for the advice.