Post Your "Upgraded Boarding" ($40 for BS Boarding Positions) Offer Reports Here!
 

With Southwest's recent announcement of new fees, including Upgraded Boarding, it is not yet clear how often passengers will take WN's offer to board in unused BS positions (and, thus, what the impact on EBCI and A-List/A-List Preferred will be). Southwest has the exact figures (but, I doubt they'll share right away - even if we ask really nicely). So, I thought it might be help everyone get a sense of the impact of this new optional travel charge if folks posted their experiences with Upgraded Boarding ("UB").

I would suggest the following format, but of course any data is useful:

Flight: [e.g. MDW-PHX, 1:35pm]
Did GA offer UB?: [Yes/No]
How many (or which) BS slots were offered?: [e.g., A6-A15]
How many passengers purchased UB?: [e.g., 2 takers]

Please let me know if there is additional information you think we should try to gather in this thread. Also, please keep this thread on-topic and limited to reports of UB offers and takers (and leave the discussion of the impact of UB to the other on-going threads).

Thanks!

This Tuesday 1/22/13:
HOU-HRL at 9:00am, HRL-HOU at 6:20pm
Both flights, GA offered "A1-15" to people in the B or C group.
No one bought it on either flight.

On both planes, though, most middle seats remained empty, so the flights weren't packed.

This Monday
Flight 411 PHX to SAT departing at 10:35 am
Positions A3 to A15
One taker. Flight was completely full.

AUS-HOU, 1/24/12, 3:15p
Offer: Yes
Positions: Don't know, I was listening to music
Takers: Don't think so, some people approached the podium but I think it was the typical "Is this a boarding boarding pass or do I need to check in a third time?" crowd as no credit cards came out.
Load: Looked to be about 120 on a 73G.

EWR-HOU, 1/21/12, 4:25p
Offer: Yes
Positions: Did not specify (A2-A15 were open)
Takers: No, the podium where offer was announced was way from the gate.
Load: 95% Full

No offer on my two intra-CA flights this week. I'm pretty sure BS was sold out in advance on both flights.

no takers at the MCO gates Wed, flights about 75% full.
In MCO, they'd have made more $$ if they changed the announcements to "Folks, if we get just two more customers to pay us another $40, we will have met our quota and we'll give you back your peace and quiet in the gate area"

two takers on a flight from PIT-LAS yesterday.

The gate agent didn't reprint their tickets when they paid the fee--they crossed out the boarding position only on the smaller stub on the right of their boarding passes and wrote A7/A8 on--with a sharpie marker. Boarding wasn't underway, the crew wasn't even on the plane yet. Takeaway: New strategy (gamble) to save the $40 fee (at least out of PIT)--bring your own black sharpie.... @:-)

I wrongly confronted the folks in front of me that after seeing their boarding passes B48/B49 (we had A16/A17/A18). (Someone else in our party had noticed them run over with credit cards out during an announcement, but I wasn't thru security yet.)

PIT was generally disorganized this morning.... The plane had been there all night, but after everyone was boarded, provisioning still hadn't brought 10 bags of ice, canned water, or snacks... Which led to a separate trip to the warehouse as provisioning forgot the -800's get two more boxes of snacks.

Four flights this week:
MCI-LAS
LAS-SNA
SNA-DEN
DEN-MCI

Although there were empty spaces in the queue A1-A15 on each of the four flights, the only flight where the agent offered the $40 upgrade was SNA-DEN.
Zero takers.

1/24/13 ft 414 LAS IND
Offered..No takers...

Full flight. no empty seats...
Ar IND 25 min +
Great group of FA...did a good job...everyone got a P nut...

Spent 2 1/2 hours in BWI waiting for a connection yesterday. Never heard an upgrade announcement the entire time espite being in gate areas most of the time. Actually heard my name paged as I was sitting at the wrong gate and missed the line-up making my A02 moot. So I was paying somewhat of attention during mid day and heard tons of other announcements about the 10 minute rule and this is your last chance to board.

7:50a MCI-BWI, no offers/pages either but only 43 on the plane. Silly me was talked into BS (from AT) on the phone while making a switch. But I ain't paying the $22 so worth the points, A01 and seat 12A...

Aboard #464 LAX - SMF right now.

Was able to witness 3 flights boarded at LAX this morning.....no offers made on any.

This flight had ~ 4 business select passengers and is ~ 2/3 full.

Took about 20 minutes of fussing to get connected to the inflight internet service. But, service is now OK.

Posting onboard MCI-DEN at 7.10 a.m., announced as "fairly full." I got B12 at T-24, presuming no connectors. The call was made starting with A5; there appeared to be 3-5 takers. There was also the call for remaining A-listers to board before Family Boarding.

Aboard 1101 SMF-LAX right now.

GA announced that they had "about 6 A boarding passes for sale for $40 flat rate (whatever that means)" No takers.

Flight is 94 seats taken of 142.

Oh, and good news-----Honey Roaste peanuts are back!! YAY!!

Today was a double dose of the absurd at tiny but beautiful GSP en-route to BWI !!

First an announcement the BS upgrades were available for $16 to any of us traveling on a AT fare. She rattled off the benefits of a drink and more points then INCREDIBLY READ THE NAMES OF 5 PASSENGERS who this was directed to. TWICE!

Ironically, I was on full fare but didn't hear my name.

Then an announcement for those on discounted tickets for improved boarding positions for the $40. No takers.

And the flight was less than 1/2 full, with 13 thrus, I was maybe the 5th to board and all exit rows taken by the thrus... FA's were touting come on back and have a whole row to your self as soon as I got on the plane.

No rhyme or reason IME when they choose to offer these options during the last 2 weeks.

Wow somebody on the PA sounds un-informed. $16? That's new.