Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Atlanta but Washington DC will always be home.
Programs: Marriott LTP, Hilton Diamond, Accor Gold, Hyatt Explorist,, Delta Plat,
Posts: 2,076
I've been lurking on this thread for awhile now and decided to post my experience:
I don't fly Southwest often, but when I do it's for leisure, and it's with my wife. We always spring for Early Bird Check-In if we're not flying on Business Select.
It really burns me when we get on board to find that 1 person in a family has purchased EBCI and gets on early and tries to save 3/4/5 seats in the front, bulkhead or exit row because they were too cheap to pay for EBCI for the whole family.
If the person is in the bathroom (on the plane) or a through passenger that's stepped off for a moment that's one thing, but if someone is just trying to save seats for people boarding later, I don't think that's appropriate and there have been a couple times my wife and I have insisted we be allowed to sit (usually exit row or bulkhead).
If you want to make sure you've got enough seats together pay for the higher fares or EBCI. Otherwise it devalues the point of my wife and I paying for EBCI or Business Select fares.