Southwest Rapid Rewards - Boarding A, B, C: How do get A without a problem

Greetings,

My wife and I will be using Southwest for the first time next year. The route we are flying is PVD to MCO, round trip, non stop. We choose SW because of the non stop availability to MCO. No other carrier out of PVD can do that.

Outbound, we are looking at an afternoon flight. How many hours before my flight can I print out a boarding pass to secure "A" boarding? On the return, we more than likley will not have access to a PC. Will arriving at the airport 2 hours prior secure us a "A" boarding? Or should we think of arriving earlier.

Any other helpful information perttaining to SW would be helpful.


Thanks,

Bishop

You can check in beginning at 12:01am the day of your flight. That will definitely assure you an "A" pass on your outbound flight.

In terms of your return, arriving 2 hours before should give you more than enough time and an "A" pass. However, unless you're travelling during a holiday, or at 5 on a Friday night, why would you want to arrive that early? Despite what you may have heard, most security lines do not take too long. Unles you've nothing else to do, you'll end up with a lot of time on your hands.

Go to an internet cafe or something and print out your boarding pass there. I've done it several times and have never had a problem.

On your return leg, you can also swing by the airport (if it's not too far out of the way) up to four hours ahead of time and use the check-in kiosks to collect your boarding pass. That way if, for example, you're on your way back from lunch, you can check-in with minimum disruption to your visit and spend a little more time out and about.

The internet cafe -- or just finding some other way to access the internet -- is a great idea.

I thought if the reservations were purchased online for two people or more, you could not get boarding passes by checking in online. Can you in fact get boarding passes if you don't have separate reservations???
Someone please clarify for me as I always purchase for my husband and myself as a couple (and not separate reservations). Thanks.

You are correct. There is no way to check-in online if two (or more) people share the same reervation. I had to call them this morning to have them separate my reservation from my wife's. They did so which allowed us each to check-in online (and get an "A" boarding pass). However, from now on, I think it makes sense for my wife and I to book our tickets separately.

They're going to have the multi-passenger check-in functioning at some point in the near future. So they're working on it!

In terms of your return, arriving 2 hours before should give you more than enough time and an "A" pass.

Even pre-online-checkin, I got a "B" on PVD-BWI more than two hours before flight time several times. Heck, I got a "C" once 90 minutes before. I think MCO, being both a longer flight and a leisure destination, is probably worse.

As a couple travelling and, presumably, sitting together, though, is a "B" card really so bad? If you line up early, you are still to have your choice of window or aisle seats for the non-middle person, and two together are very likely to be available until the end of "B" boarding.