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early check in with companion

drexie
Explorer C

Hoping someone can answer a question. My fiancée is my companion and we are booked on a flight to Hawaii for our vacation in a few weeks. I’ve noticed when checking in this year that she will get one space ahead of me regardless of when we check in. I was considering paying $20 to get an early check-in for our honeymoon flight. Does anyone know if I do this will she also then automatically get an early boarding position with me, or will I need to pay the early check in fee for both of us? Thanks!

6 REPLIES 6

Re: early check in with companion

PDFelter
Frequent Flyer B

we did this same thing on a flight back in October.  It did assign the companion the number next to me.

Re: early check in with companion

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I have not previously seen this exact situation discussed so I don't have an answer for you.  Unfortunately you may be in a situation where you just have to find out.  You could buy EarlyBird Check-in for yourself and see if you companion is assigned a boarding position with you, and if not, save a seat for them when you board.  Please reply with your results after the trip.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

 

 

Re: early check in with companion

elijahbrantley
Aviator A

This is always an interesting conversation because there is an unofficial process from SW that makes this happen.

 

Here is what I understand (as, again, this seems to an unofficial benefit). Companions will "always" get sequential boarding with the Companion Pass holder. This seems to be true whether you have A List status or not.

 

That said, it seems like with you wanting Early Bird, you are not an A Lister. So...if you want EBCI for you both, I would think you would need to pay for both. BUT I am not certain.

 

A quick message to the Southwest team on social media might get you the answer you are looking for. We'd love for you to share back here if you do!

 

-A List, Companion Pass holder

Re: early check in with companion

PDFelter
Frequent Flyer B

I only paid for early bird for myself back in October.  My companion received the boarding number right in front of me.

Re: early check in with companion

tillerrw
Explorer C

I'm hoping it works that way for us soon. I'm flying as my wife's companion. We had both purchased EBCI for our outbound flight as it's so early in the morning. My companion ticket was mistakenly canceled by us today. We immediately rebooked it but the EBCI was gone and could not be applied again.

 

I think I'll leave it as is and see what happens.

Re: early check in with companion

drexie
Explorer C

A couple things. My guess is that you're wanting to sit next to each other so one of you will be in the middle seat so if you were to buy EBCI, buy it for one and then just saved the middle seat since no one will complain about a saved middle seat.

Secondly, I bought EBCI just for me on the trip I'm on right now and for the first time ever, my wife got checked in 1 spot after me for some reason on both legs of the trip. Not sure why.