I stand corrected on the Early Bird upgrade. It had been a while since I read SW boarding policies and I believe I might have confused it with the A-list assignment policy. Thanks for the clarification.
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04-13-2019
05:54 PM
04-13-2019
05:54 PM
@chgoflyer wrote: This, hopefully you understand by now, is not true. I wouldn't go that far. I have no knowledge of SW boarding position assignment algorithm. Do you? I am not sure what your relationship is with SW, so maybe you do. We know that the Early Bird Check-in process boarding position is based on an algorithm known only to Southwest. Why would SW stop there?
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04-13-2019
10:52 AM
04-13-2019
10:52 AM
@chgoflyer wrote: Personally, I've never found it particularly difficult. Sometimes I set a reminder on my phone, which helps me check in as early as possible. Another option would be to purchase EarlyBird Check-In, so you're automatically checked in. I'll buy that often for a return flight, when I know that it will be inconvenient to check in right at t-24. Once again, you understand perfectly. Your last paragraph summarizes the issues with the process. So I will pick on that scenario as illustration. Let's take, for example, Southwest's Honolulu route. I am sure that it is safe to assume that most of those travelers will not be originating or terminating in Honolulu. By the way I lived in Hawaii for many years and have flown between the mainland and Hawaii many dozens of times. Imagine paying for early bird check-in only to be given a C group boarding position because 120 other roundtrip travelers to Honolulu did the exact same thing ahead of you when they booked. I am sure that Southwest's response will then be to tell passengers to book sooner, set your alarm, etc. When even that starts causing bottlenecks for seat positions, then Southwest's response will be to tell passengers to book business select, and so on. It sure starts sounding like paying for assigned seating and the concept of open seating by boarding position starts to fall apart. It becomes boarding position by chronological sequence of upgrade payment (but, who knows? since that happens behind the scenes). I think the open seating/boarding position concept works on short regional flights, but not so well on longer legs - pun intended, I am very tall. One poster mentioned that seniority is a factor; I doubt it. I would say it plays no factor at all, based on my personal experience. I had been flying SW almost exclusively since 2005 when I banned the use of [our carrier of choice at the time] by my employees for business travel. There are many parts of the SW boarding position assignment process that give some of us the impression of being arbitrary and unfair. I don't think anything will change, since that is how SW operates, but I wanted to add my voice to that of those passengers who are starting to feel like the open seating process is being manipulated into a paid upgrade driver.
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04-10-2019
08:42 PM
04-10-2019
08:42 PM
@chgoflyer wrote: @garcianc wrote: @chgoflyer wrote: I guess I'm still completely confused as to why you don't simply check in at 24 hours prior to departure, so that you don't get a late boarding position and then need to cancel your flight? The confusion is probably because I did not say, nor did I think I said, that I don't try to check in 24 hours in advance Thanks for your replies. If you've been getting C boarding positions when you try to check in 24 hours in advance, then you should try harder. I think you understand now.
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04-09-2019
09:32 PM
04-09-2019
09:32 PM
@chgoflyer wrote: I guess I'm still completely confused as to why you don't simply check in at 24 hours prior to departure, so that you don't get a late boarding position and then need to cancel your flight? The confusion is probably because I did not say, nor did I think I said, that I don't try to check in 24 hours in advance Thanks for your replies.
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04-08-2019
12:11 AM
04-08-2019
12:11 AM
@chgoflyer wrote: I am not sure why you mentioned this, as this has absolutely no bearing on your situation. I probably should have been less subtle. It bears because I cancelled my reservation on Southwest and booked a flight on another airline. Hence my boarding position on that Southwest flight became available to others who checked in after me.
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04-06-2019
09:30 PM
04-06-2019
09:30 PM
You forgot one, cancellations. Case in point, if someone were to check in now, they could get an assigned boarding position ahead of someone who checked in after I did this morning because my C25 spot is now available.
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04-06-2019
01:56 PM
04-06-2019
01:56 PM
I think the Southwest Airlines web site has a definition of what "boarding position" means, if you need it: https://www.southwest.com/html/travel-experience/boarding-the-plane.html Thanks for your reply.
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04-06-2019
01:45 PM
04-06-2019
01:45 PM
I don't know if you have done this but, do NOT EVER pay to upgrade to Business Select after you have checked in! I can't stress that enough. I have been flying Southwest almost exclusively (the other airline was Airtran) for more than 10 years. During one of my trips, a few years ago, I booked my flight at the last minute due to a change of plans and I received a boarding position at the end of the C group. I decided to pay at the gate for an upgrade to Business Select. BIG MISTAKE. Ever since then, I get C group every single time (one time I got C62 and took a picture of my boarding pass - the line oly goes up to C60). I am flying tomorrow and, when I checked in this morning I got C25. My theory is that I have been flagged as someone who would pay to upgrade and the C group assigment is arbitrary. How do I know this? I was in a Southwest flight from Birmingham to Washington where I was the only person standing in the C line and that is when the light bulb came on. What I do now is that I book refundable fares when I book Southwest and cancel my reservation for a full refund when I get such a bad position after checking in online. Then I book with somebody else. I did that last month on my cross-country trip to Seattle. I couldn't find another flight for tomorrow, so that doesn't always work (though I will be cancelling my return flight), but I am sure that it is just as inconvenient to Southwest to get a last-minute cancellation.
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I have been flying SW almost exclusively for over 15 years. A few years ago, in a cross-country trip, I decided to pay for an upgrade at the gate in order to get a seat in the exit row. I am very tall and my knees cannot handle long flights very well. Big mistake! Ever since I did that, I now routinely get assigned boarding positions near the end of the line. I even took a picture of a boarding pass once that assigned me position C62 (by the way, the numbers at the gate only go up to C60). Out of principle, I refuse to pay for another upgrade. What I do now is take the very first seat I find, knees be darned. This usually results in a bad flying experience for me and the two other poor souls sitting next to me. I have learned to assume the "eject" position in the middle seat in order to fit. My wife sometimes travels with me and, when I book her ticket through my profile, we both get equally crappy assignments. When she uses her own profile, she has gotten better position than me. She is a few years older than me (she is over 65), so I am wondering if the algorithm takes that into account. We both just recently flew another carrier from Paris and were impressed, so I plan on using them for cross-country trips and only using SW for short trips. Anyway, has anyone experienced changes after paying for an upgrade? Just curious.
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