EB disappears from reservation, anyone else
 

So I go to check in for my flight to LAX tomorrow and I draw a B 59 boarding pass. I know I bought the EB but it doesn't show up. This flight was bought in November and I changed the time of day last week. I did it on the phone because I had a companion attached. And she said the EB went with. Well it did not.

This happen to anyone else? I called CS and they said I could get a refund. which I don't want. I want an earlier BP. CS said they can not do that.

Do I lobby at the gate??

Thanks!

You can most certainly try. It wouldn't hurt to have a paper copy of your EB purchase receipt in-hand. The GA can alway let you board with the A's, after the A's, with the pre-boards, or....at B59. A brief & polite explanation & pleading of your case with the GA just prior to he/she starting the boarding process is likely your best shot.

Did both your reservation and the companion reservation have EBCI?

I don't think that a reservation with a companion itinerary attached can be changed without cancelling and rebooking the companion itinerary. So, any companion EBCI would be lost.

You can plead your case to the GA if you want, but the only thing they might be able to do is unused BS slots or let you board with Family Boarding after A group.

You might want to try cancelling your companion's BP last minute to try and re - check - in and they would get the earliest available non-BS position, which may be quite early if someone else ahead of you changes or cancels their reservation.

We both had EBCI and hers stayed when I rebooked via the phone. Hers was a high number since I only added her a couple weeks ago, but this ticket was bought in October so mine would have been a very low A. Mine somehow got lost. According to CS when I did it, this is the only way to not lose the EBCI is do it is on the phone with a reservation agent.

I will take both of your suggestions. I suggested to the CS that I would take one of the slots that are not occupied by BS and was told that ticket would cost more. I explained to her it was not my fault, it was theirs.....

People need to realize when you are asking the people over the phone to check you in, all they are doing is going to the website and checking you in the same way we would ourselves. They don't have any special access to override boarding assignments.

If you do it yourself you are right, but you can call reservations and they can change it without cancelling/rebooking. From what I understand, if the Southwest record locator didn't change (confirmation number) then they should have a history of the EBCI purchase in the record. Have them look for that and it could help your case. Of course if you have an entirely new locator, it won't help you at all since it won't be on the new one unless you paid for it again.

Let us know what happens.

This might be worth a call to Southwest Customer Relations at 214-932-0333. Their hours are Mon-Fri, 7am-8pm CT.

Keep trying, if you get a busy signal.

I'm not surprised the CS didn't give you a BS BP (I'm not sure they could without having you pay to upgrade to a BS fare), but a sympathetic GA may comp you Upgraded Boarding If you politely explain your situation and have the documentation.

Since your companion's BP is a good number, let me revise to....
You might want to try cancelling your BP last minute to try and re - check - in and they would get the earliest available non-BS position, which may be quite early if someone else ahead of you changes or cancels their reservation.

...it can definitely work - I have seen C group BPs become A group.

I am glad you were able to keep her EBCI. Practically speaking, just have her save you a seat if all else fails - this is certainly a situation where I wouldn't feel bad about seat saving.

I've had this happen in the past; since I thought I was checked in I didn't bother to do so until I got to the airport, so I ended up with a C-something position. They won't do anything except refund your EBCI fee (eventually). I bit the bullet and paid $40 at the gate, after trying unsuccessfully to have them make any accommodations.

Related: You now cannot see if an upcoming reservation has EBCI attached when viewing My Travel > Upcoming Trips. There used to be a small red "EB" icon, but that's no longer displayed. I did discover that if you select Change Reservation, it's displayed on the following screen… and have written WN to ask if this is a permanent change or technical glitch, but haven't received a reply yet.

Since it's no longer displayed until you try to change a reservation, I can't see if I still have EBCI on my reservations that Southwest changed manually as part of the schedule adjustment. Urgh. I did call and ask about this and was assured the EBCIs were still there… I guess I'll find out for sure when I check in for those flights. I'll try to remember on those to not wait until I'm at the airport. :rolleyes:

I had the same thing happen last year. The reservation showed EB but my wife got B60. I called CS from the airport and they agreed that I had paid for EB but couldn't do anything about it. The GA and the CS at PHL said she is stuck with the number she got. Since I was A16 I just saved her a seat. But I was annoyed.

The red "EB" icon shows up if you use "View/E-Mail Air Reservation" from the "Travel Tools" pull down menu in the upper right corner.

How do I cancel last minute and re check in???

And no seat saving, even I complain about that ;))

Thanks

Thanks or the tip!! I am going to check them all from now on.

Excellent, thanks! That requires knowing the locator number so it's a bit more complicated, but it does show me the EB icon on those flights Southwest has touched and I would be unable to see otherwise.

See my previous post. They can't, so no reason to hold it against them.