ALP Boarding position vs A-List?

[jerryf]

Do A-List Preferreds get a better boarding position than regular A-List?  (Assuming tickets are purchased at the same time, etc.).  

[SoCalFlyer97 · Accepted solution]

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@jerryf wrote:

Do A-List Preferreds get a better boarding position than regular A-List?  (Assuming tickets are purchased at the same time, etc.).  

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Hello!

There's varying opinion on this; my take is "Yes".

An EBCI question was asked a while back on SW's Twitter/X after the passenger reportedly got a B34 spot with EBCI. Here's SW's official response that documents the Priority Boarding order and I consider this reply as fact:

Priority boarding positions are assigned in this order: Business Select, A-List Preferred, A-List, Anytime fares, EarlyBird. EarlyBird boarding positions can vary, and you are not guaranteed to get an "A" group boarding assignment.

https://southwest.com/help/booking/earlybird-checkin

-Larissa

https://twitter.com/SouthwestAir/status/1594125108129722370?s=20

Also, persons on an ALP's or A-List's reservation also receive sequential boarding positions too. As mentioned before on this board, I had flight that was booked well in advance from SAN-SJC. I have A-List and when the 36-hour mark came around, I never even made into the A group; thus, I assumed this flight was full of ALP's or people who were booked under an ALP's reservation. As you may know, ALP's and A-List have the "A61" benefit and can board after the A-Group. 

Based on this and my recent flight experiences, I believe ALP's and persons on their reservations are positioned ahead of A-Lists provided they book at least 36 hours in advance. 

Hope this helps.

[DancingDavidE]

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@SoCalFlyer97 wrote:

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@jerryf wrote:

Do A-List Preferreds get a better boarding position than regular A-List?  (Assuming tickets are purchased at the same time, etc.).  

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Also, persons on an ALP's or A-List's reservation also receive sequential boarding positions too. As mentioned before on this board, I had flight that was booked well in advance from SAN-SJC. I have A-List and when the 36-hour mark came around, I never even made into the A group; thus, I assumed this flight was full of ALP's or people who were booked under an ALP's reservation. As you may know, ALP's and A-List have the "A61" benefit and can board after the A-Group. 

Based on this and my recent flight experiences, I believe ALP's and persons on their reservations are positioned ahead of A-Lists provided they book at least 36 hours in advance. 

Hope this helps.

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That's true for what happened to your ticket for sure.

However we don't know if there were any other A-list ahead of you, and/or ahead of any ALP. 

I'm thinking to some flights where I had A-16 as an A-list member and maybe I had purchased my ticket far ahead, or paid more for it, or else there weren't any ALP on that flight.

As ALP last year I was getting A-18, -19, and -20 pretty often but I didn't ask the groups in front of me if they were also ALP - missed opportunity.

But for the OP's question - if the tickets were bought at the same time for the same price, and one passenger was ALP and one was A-List then I think the ALP would be first.