SWA early bird

I just logged in to get my earlybird for my March trip and noticed a price increase to $12.50. Still worth it on the Vegas to home leg since I never know where I'll be 24 hours before my trip home.

Booked may for Las vegas and charged on my Southwest card---did go for early bird boarding-----paid for at time of booking---hard pressed to see if SWA adds the $2.50 per ticket to my bill.....bad business practice if they do........my thoughts only......

Ditto paid for E.B. both ways ( 5 hour flight Buffalo-Vegas). I can't see how they tack on an extra $2.50 each way without card holders approval!

Just did the very same for our trip in 2 weeks....whoever believed we would be paying to board early...of course...no luggage fees....but I go way back....to the time when you could cancel a flight without penalty....lol..

I was a travel agent when....we hand wrote tickets....there were no cancellation penalties...there was not a TSA organization....you could wear shoes when you checked in....and cough...cough....you could even smoke after the well placed placard half way back on the plane....oh.....and they served meals....(a choice)....I know....stop playing the fiddle....but it is fun to reminisce....

Have great trip you all....

I'll be flying SW for the first time in April and we bought the EB. If I understand correctly I can print our boarding passes 36 hours in advance. Then if I check our bags curbside I don't have to check in at the ticket counter correct? Just go through security and to the gate?

You don't have to check in at the ticket counter.
If you check bags at the curbside, they'll print your boarding pass for you.
Or you can print them at home if you prefer.

I recently got stung on EB for the first time. When price of our flight dropped significantly I re-booked. $40 down the drain. Still came out way ahead but I'll wait until closer to the trip to buy EB, now and in the future.

I have rebooked our SW flights twice in the past month because the fare decreased. I don't believe I had to pay the EB charge again, and if it shows up on my CC bill, I will call to complain.

Kbfife, you are right...thanks, you made my day! Whew!

> If I understand correctly I can print our boarding passes 36 hours in advance.

No. They will establish your boarding pass number at 36 hours, but you can't actually print (or view) it until 24 hours before the flight. If you don't have a printer you can view it on your computer or phone at 24 hours, then print it later at the airport.

When we do not buy the EB, I sit with my finger poised on the "check in" button while we count down the seconds to the 24 hour mark. Your early bird number will be better than us who check in at exactly-24-hours.

A-Listers also get boarding pass numbers at 36 hours. There are a lot of new A-listers right now because of a targeted A-list challenge that is out there until June. So any given flight might might have a few A-List wanna-be's doing this challenge.

Also in front of you could be some people waiting for a connecting flight who checked in based on their original city's departure time. They get their connecting boarding pass when they check in for the first flight.

> I recently got stung on EB for the first time. When price of our flight dropped significantly I re-booked. $40 down the drain

Unless things have changed recently, if you cancel a flight and then rebook from scratch, you loose the early bird. But if you simply change the reservation, either to different dates/times or to save money, the early bird stays with the reservation and you don't lose your money.

-bcc

That is correct...no loss of EB with changing a res...only with cancellation. Yea! I should have checked before I whined, LOL. There's a FAQ section about EB on the SWA site that explains things.