galipemi

And I seem to have booked ridiculously early (Already booked for Oct 23-Nov 7)

I normally fly legacies since I live in Canada and that's somewhat limiting. This time though, I'm headed for a cruise out of Tampa and have decided to drive to Buffalo with a friend.

We've booked with WN and just have a few questions I'm hoping you'll be able to help with.

1. We're on two reservations, want to sit next to/near each other and won't be together at T-24. Is EBCI our best bet?

2. There has been a $15 price drop on the flights (that we booked 48 hrs ago) and so we rebooked. Although we're on "I wanna get away" fares, it offered me the option to request a refund. Will I get the $$ or future credit?

3. If we do get future credit, can it be used to purchase the EBCI?

I've read up on the boarding process and have no questions there. No fear FT'ers, I can count AND read!

scott_w

1) Best bet is for one of you to get EBCI and then save a seat for the other upon boarding.

2) You will have $15 credit towards a future booking for travel that must be completed by the date of the ORIGINAL ticket purchase.

3) You cannot use the credit towards EBCI.

FCfree

Although one of you getting EBCI is the best way for you to get the best seats, if you want to go with T-24 check-in, you don't have to be together at the same moment to use it. You have two options:

1. One of you gives the other his confirmation number. The one with both confirmation numbers then does the check-in at T-24. You can even do this on your cell phone at mobile.southwest.com

2. You can each check in at T-24 and have a contest to see who gets the better number. They will be within a couple of positions of each other.

nsx

If you are pretty sure that someone will be online at T-24 or within 5 minutes of that, I recommend not buying EBCI. If one of you is going to take a middle seat, you only need one non-terrible number. T-18 or even T-6 should be good enough for that.

mritty

There's no need to be together at T-24. You don't select seats when checking in on SWA. Your boarding *position*, not seat, is decided upon when you check in.

You can each check yourselves in independently, or one of you can check both of you in. If you each end up with anything from A to mid-B, you're virtually guaranteed seats next to each other.

If you cancel/rebook within a certain time frame, you can get a refund even for non-refundable fares. I don't remember ever seeing the "request a refund" option if the fare was past that deadline.

if you only get ticketless travel funds back, and not a credit card refund, no. EBCI cannot be purchased with those funds.

galipemi

Thanks for all the replies, I've been off in neverland for a few days with work

mritty: I know we can't select our seats, but would rather not have any "discussions" with regards to seat holding/saving I think we'll select the EBCI for the flight home but skip it for the connecting flights down.

Once again, thanks everyone ^