scott_w

I booked my flights back on May 27 and bought the earlybird checkin right then. My flight is tomorrow and I get A58??? As I understand it the earlybird goes by date of purchase. There were THAT many people who purchased earlybird back before May 27 for my October 22 flight? I highly doubt it. I have never had anything worse than about A32 or so for any earlybird flight as I book months in advance. What happened???

mritty

Is it a connecting flight for other people? If it is, all their early bird and A-List checkins happened X hours before yours, where X = the number of hours between their originating flight's boarding time and your flight's boarding time. Then all your flight's A-list checkins happened, then your flight's early bird checkins happened.

scott_w

No way it is a connecting flight. LAS-SDF getting into SDF at 11pm.

mritty

Uh. How does that make it "no way"? The only way it's "no way" a connecting flight is if it's the first flight of the morning.

rove312

Also, I know of no official word in over a year that it's ordered by purchase date. They only say now that Anytime fares get the first EB numbers; it could be ordered entirely by fare paid.

GYEWorldTraveler

As far as I know Southwest orders earlybird checkin by fare paid with the tie-breaker being date of purchase. So if someone bought a anytime fare for $279 yesterday that trumps an anytime that was purchased 6 months ago for $269, a wanna get away that was purchased 8 months ago for $39, etc.....so I would guess what happened is that you may have bought a promotional fare or something a while back and got on the low end of the fare spectrum so pretty much anyone that bought earlybird checkin is ahead of you.....just my 2 cents

tusphotog

Your flight probably starts somewhere else, usually these afternoon flights to the eastern time zone start on the west coast. There are probably several connecting passengers from all around the west coast who take the first numbers (since their T-36 window opens before yours).

A58 is fine. You'll get a window or aisle no problem.

formeraa

There are plenty of connecting passengers from other West Coast cities into a late afternoon LAS-SDF flight. All EB connecting passengers would have priority over the OP. Then, it's the value of the ticket. For a Friday afternoon flight, there are probably quite a few business people on that flight.

formeraa

Just checked for connections on to the LAS-SDF flight. There are published connections from all of the following cities:
ABQ, BUR, ELP, LAX, OAK, ONT, SNA, PHX, SMF, SAN, SFO, SJC, SEA, and TUS.

So, on a Friday afternoon out of LAS, there are probably quite a few travelers (who might purchase EBCI) heading home to SDF from many of the 14 destinations listed above. They would all have higher BP's than the OP.

Fortunately, I doubt that there will be very many through passengers from RNO to SDF. So, the OP should be okay.

GottaLuvCruising

I wrote to Southwest specifically to inquire about how Early Bird Check-ins are prioritized. They did reply but only with gobbledygook, apparently trying to avoid giving a real answer. Perhaps we just assumed it is by date-of-purchase or air fare, then purchase date.

I understand that anytime fares go first and have no issue with that. However, I purchased my tickets 5 months & 9 days prior to travel and added EBCI at the time of purchase. But we got A47 & A48...the very last two EBCI check-ins. Two parties ahead of us had added EBCI just a couple weeks prior to travel. The same thing happened flying back from Las Vegas a few months ago - just one guest behind us had paid for EBCI despite the fact that we bought our tickets many months ahead.

I would just like an explanation from Southwest. If we have no advantage in added EBCI at the time of purchase, I'll just keep my $10 until T-37.

Just as they don't have a clear policy on seat-saving, Southwest doesn't clearly present what they are selling with EBCI.

curbcrusher

I agree that EBCI hasn't met customer expectations on many occasions (this thread is another example), but WN does clearly present what this product delivers, and it's not much. Customers get automatic check-in, better boarding position, and earlier access to overhead bins. That's it.

ckey

I just don't see the value in EBCI. Too many examples (and my own personal experience) where it is just a waste of money. Until SW starts enforcing boarding order, and is upfront about what this product actually is, then I am out.

tusphotog

Enforcement of boarding order aside, I'm not sure I understand this thought. You pay $10 and don't have to check in. WN doesn't promise an A. They just say you don't have to play the T-23:59:59 game. By virtue of that, you get a better boarding position than if you didn't do EBCI.

alggag

This.

EBCI isn't worth it if you can do T-24. On the other hand, if you can't get to a computer until say T-6 or until you're actually at the airport then it's worth it IMO.