# SWA Early Boarding



## beejaybeeohio (Jul 22, 2011)

What's the point of paying the EB fee if one is placed behind those who don't?
Here's my experience on a flight out of Portland.

My position # was B30 vs my DH who had A18. I asked the  gate agent in PDX about this discrepancy & she informed me that she couldn't explain it and that her roster showed non-EBers ahead of me. She suggested I contact SWA customer service as there was nothing she could do to move me up. My boarding # for our connection out of Midway was A56 with DH having A25-I asked folks ahead of me if they purchased EB option and at least 5 in front hadn't. Just wanted to share my disappointment with the response I've received from SWA after I emailed them about my experience of being issued boarding passes with numbers behind those who didn't buy this option. This is the canned response I received which didn't address my complaint at all:


"Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns.

We're sorry to learn of your disappointment with the boarding pass number you recently received as an EarlyBird Customer. Your feedback is of the utmost importance to us, and we appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns.

As you know, Customers who choose to add the EarlyBird option to their reservation will automatically be assigned a boarding position between 36 and 25 hours prior to the flight's scheduled departure time. We will reserve the best boarding pass number available after our Business Select Customers’ and Rapid Rewards A-List Members' boarding passes are assigned. As the number of these types of Customers may vary per flight, the boarding group number of Customers who add the EarlyBird option will vary. Although Customers who elect to add the EarlyBird option will be checked in and assigned a boarding position before general boarding begins, EarlyBird Customers are not guaranteed that an "A" boarding pass will be available. Although we are unable to honor your request for a refund of the nonrefundable EarlyBird fee that you paid, please be assured that we have included your concern in our monthly summary for our Senior Leaders.

Your patronage is important to us, and we hope we will continue to merit your consideration when you are planning future trips. It would be our privilege and our pleasure to see you onboard for many years to come.

Sincerely,

Sally, Southwest Airlines"


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## Fern Modena (Jul 22, 2011)

But here's the slick part my sister has noticed on her last two flights.  She never pays for Early Bird, but requests a boarding pass at the exact 24 hour mark (or actually I do, cause she doesn't have a computer).  She always gets an A boarding, usually in the 30's or so.  She gets on, finds a seat she likes, and the one person sitting in that row tells her the seat "is saved." 

Seems one person in a party of two or three buys Early Bird and then "saves" the other seats for those who haven't.  And the Flight Attendants know about it but say they have been told not to do anything about it.  And I don't blame them, it could really lead to hostilities.

But it sucks, no matter how you slice it.  

Fern


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## vacationhopeful (Jul 22, 2011)

The $10 Early boarding option is AFTER the Rapid Rewards A List Frequent Flyers - who are automatically given boarding numbers 36 hours before the flight. If they change their reservation (and many do via the free cancel and rebook), if they do within that 36 hour window, their Boarding Pass number becomes available for reissue.

IF any passenger has a connecting FLIGHT to your flight, you checking in 24 hours in advance; their 24 hour window is way before yours. 

Many people don't know if their assistant or spouse spent the $10 for EB.  Others will simply have forgotten. Others will simply feel it is none of your business. Others like a former friend, would lied just to get you upset and watch you be unhappy to his joy and amusement.


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## Bucky (Jul 22, 2011)

I guess the question I want to ask is did your husband pay for EB also and did you do them both at the same time?  If the answer is yes I would pick up the phone and call SW back and ask to speak to a supervisor.  With such a wide disparity between yours and your husbands boarding pass numbers it just looks like somebody dropped the ball at SW and I would demand a refund of the fees.


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## beejaybeeohio (Jul 22, 2011)

Fern Modena said:


> \Seems one person in a party of two or three buys Early Bird and then "saves" the other seats for those who haven't.  And the Flight Attendants know about it but say they have been told not to do anything about it.  And I don't blame them, it could really lead to hostilities.
> 
> Fern





Bucky said:


> I guess the question I want to ask is did your husband pay for EB also and did you do them both at the same time?  If the answer is yes I would pick up the phone and call SW back and ask to speak to a supervisor.  With such a wide disparity between yours and your husbands boarding pass numbers it just looks like somebody dropped the ball at SW and I would demand a refund of the fees.



I made the reservations for both of us at the same time using a SWA Chase Visa promotion of 2 r/t tix for signing on for their cc.  Paid for EB for both, but we were given 2 different confirmation #s.  On the flights to PDX we were one behind the other in our A group line-up- which is why I am an unhappy camper with the #s I received on the homebound flights, especially since he was far ahead of me & NON-EBers were in front.

On the down-low, DH did "save" me seats on both return legs since we both paid the EB fee and I was behind him and others who hadn't paid 10 bucks! But I would not think of having only one of us pay the fee and have that person save a seat for the other!


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## Bucky (Jul 22, 2011)

I would definitely call back and speak to a supervisor.  These people can be hard headed but they aren't in the business of losing customers over what appears to be a simple screw up on their part.

Their website has been totally messed up ever since the recent redesign.  Hope you get things resolved in your favor.


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## bogey21 (Jul 22, 2011)

I have a choice living in the DFW area, AA or SW.  For almost 15 years it was SW about 95% of the time .  Now I am almost exclusively an AA "carry my own bag" customer.

George


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## ondeadlin (Jul 22, 2011)

The terms and conditions are fairly clear if you read them (imo).

They're not offering you "first" boarding for $10, they're offering you "early" boarding, i.e. boarding before the rest of the cattle. 

Which you received.


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## Rent_Share (Jul 22, 2011)

Bucky said:


> I would definitely call back and speak to a supervisor. These people can be hard headed but they aren't in the business of losing customers over what appears to be a simple screw up on their part.
> 
> Their website has been totally messed up ever since the recent redesign. Hope you get things resolved in your favor.


 

The web site has always been a Piece of Stuff


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## beejaybeeohio (Jul 23, 2011)

ondeadlin said:


> The terms and conditions are fairly clear if you read them (imo).
> 
> They're not offering you "first" boarding for $10, they're offering you "early" boarding, i.e. boarding before the rest of the cattle.
> 
> Which you received.



Not really, since I was among the herd who hadn't elected to pay the EB fee.  That is the issue.  If the PDX gate agent had said that the 89 folk ahead of me were Business or A-list or had all also paid the fee, not a problem.  

If you can find the wording in the terms/conditions indicating that one who pays the EB fee might be assigned a # in the midst of the cattle, please quote it to me and I will accept what occurred (but never throw away 10 bucks on an if-come EB fee again).


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## ondeadlin (Jul 23, 2011)

Sorry, my response above was rattled off and I realize today that I didn't make it clear that I think the people ahead of you were probably all A-list and Business.  I know what the gate agent said, but I'm skeptical.  I fly Southwest a lot (Companion Pass) and I've never seen anyone paying for early boarding being placed behind non-early boarders.

There are basically only two explanations (1) mistake by the gate agent; or (2) computer glitch.  While both are certainly possible, I'd bet on the human mistake every time.


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## bogey21 (Jul 23, 2011)

ondeadlin said:


> ....I think the people ahead of you were probably all A-list and Business....



You could be right but I doubt it. The truth is the SWA I flew almost exclusively from when they only served 3 Texas cities until a couple of years ago is a shadow of its former self.  

George


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## vacationhopeful (Jul 23, 2011)

bogey21 said:


> You could be right but I doubt it. The truth is the SWA I flew almost exclusively from when they only served 3 Texas cities until a couple of years ago is a shadow of its former self.
> 
> George



Or been connecting TO your flight from a earlier flight that day. Checkin time for boarding passes is BASED on the first of the connecting flights.


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## amanven (Jul 23, 2011)

ondeadlin said:


> The terms and conditions are fairly clear if you read them (imo).
> 
> They're not offering you "first" boarding for $10, they're offering you "early" boarding, i.e. boarding before the rest of the cattle.
> 
> Which you received.



And if most of the passengers on a particular flight purchase tickets  and pay the $10 for what they think will be early boarding, you will essentially be paying an extra $10 to end up with the rest of the cattle anyway.  It seems Southwests "no advance seat selection" boarding policies have gradually deteriorated to organized chaos because Southwest has offered   too many "pay for preferred boarding" or "preferred boarding as a reward" options.  I never liked Southwest's system before and now I dislike it even more than ever.


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## Bucky (Jul 23, 2011)

You all seem to be missing the info that has been provided!  Regardless if the agent was right or wrong this person has stated that at least five people in front of her said they had not paid for EB and yet were in front of her!!  Now that is nothing but a SW screw up.

I agree with SW not being the shadow of what it used to be.  We've had the SW advantage card for years now and have used all the benefits for those 16 credit flights!  Now to fly from RDU to ONT it cost us 21960 points!  That's a big bump IMO.  The only good thing is you don't have the idiots with carry on bags bigger than my luggage that I check, taking up all the overhead bins.


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## Talent312 (Jul 23, 2011)

I'll only queue up for a SWA flight, if its so darned cheap that I'm willing to swallow my pride and join the rest of cattle, where knowing your place in the herd makes it tolerable.


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## ondeadlin (Jul 23, 2011)

Bucky said:


> Regardless if the agent was right or wrong this person has stated that at least five people in front of her said they had not paid for EB and yet were in front of her!!



Yes, this is more than possible.

Early boarding does not put you ahead of A-list members or business select members. It clearly says that on the FAQ.

So there could be people in front of the OP who did not pay the extra $10 for early boarding, yet are legitimately entitled to board first under the WN system.


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## Free2Roam (Jul 23, 2011)

A few times I've seen people at the front of the line when they have a higher boarding number. The gate agents don't make them wait their turn. When I asked, I was told as long as they have the correct letter they're OK.  I suppose they just don't want the confrontation.


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## VacationForever (Jul 24, 2011)

I have a different twist on SW.  I paid for Business Select ticket and due to flight delay, I asked the counter person to move me to the earlier flight that was also delayed.  She indicated that "A" was no longer available and I had a "B" boarding pass.  She gave me a drink ticket as usual.  I checked my credit card a couple of days later and saw a refund of $15.  Surprising!


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## beejaybeeohio (Aug 9, 2011)

*Change to a thumbs up!*

Just to let you all know that SWA gave me a LUV voucher for $100 after I reiterated my frustration to them about my number in relation to my husband's and others.


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## Luanne (Aug 9, 2011)

beejaybeeohio said:


> Just to let you all know that SWA gave me a LUV voucher for $100 after I reiterated my frustration to them about my number in relation to my husband's and others.



And this is why I love LUV.


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## jbuzzy11 (Aug 13, 2011)

Luanne said:


> And this is why I love LUV.



now if we could only get them to fly into mexico!!


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