rove312

Plainly not true on WN if they get EBCI or check in right at T-24, or even buy the upgraded boarding position at the gate.

LegalTender

Basically, a conjecture experiment.

sdsearch

Normal (non-Exec) Plats at AA get all those benefits you mentioned.

What Exec Plat would have gotten you is access to AA's "Flagship" lounges (AA's "premium" lounge) no matter what cabin you were flying in. But the lounges you used as BA Silver were the normal Admirals Club lounges that most people use.

So you were the equivalent of Plat, not of ExPlat. You simply did not understand (and perhaps not care) which OW Emerald benefits (which were not available to OW Sapphire) you were missing.

Btw, the #1 obvious difference between AA's Admirals Club lounges and AA's Flagship lounges back then was that the Flagship lounges had a small free food buffet, while Admirals Club had pretzels and such free but otherwise only paid food. But since the merger with US Airways, earlier this year Admirals Club lounges also started having some free food, including two choices of soup.

Anyhow: You don't have to earn partner miles with the same airline you fly. You can choose to fly airline X and yet get credit cards for airline Y and post hotel stays to airline Y and post rental cars to airline Y. It was mostly through partner earnings that I got my 2MM Lifetime Plat status at AA (and certainly more than the 1MM that would have been necessary for AA Lifetime Gold status I got only through partner earnings). While I chose to also fly AA during that time, I know of plenty of FTers who got to 1MM AA Lifetime Gold or even 2MM AA Lifetime Plat without ever flying a paid AA flight during that time!

sdsearch

Actually, in all the years since T-24 check-in got introduced (that was earlier than EBCI IIRC), I've always managed to get an exit row seat so far, despite only flying Southwest a few times a year at most (and always on award/points trips, never a paid Southwest flight in over a decade).

So if I, with zero WN status (and not even ever having bought the upgraded boarding position at the gate) can get an exit row seat every time, I don't see why someone following the same procedure would have to be stuck with a middle seat if they didn't care what row of the plane they sat in, given that there are way way more aisle and/or window seats on each plane than there are exit row seats!

But, of course, that's assuming you're at the gate when they start boarding. If you're a late arrival at the gate, the early boarding number you got is now irrelevant, and you might have very limited seat choices. But that would apply for someone who's A-List also, given Southwest's lack of assigned seating. (At an assigned seating airline, it doesn't matter if you arrive after 95% of the plane has loaded, at least if you don't need to stuff anything in the overhead bin. At Southwest, because of open seating, it very much does matter.)

toomanybooks

I have not had WN status ever, (except CP). Have never bought EBCI or the fake-BS low boarding position. I try, not always successfully, to check in at T-24. I have never not been able to sit in my preferred aisle seat over many flights.

Even got exit row once with something like B-20. That was odd.

Marko123

I don't know, I read the fine print and it seems the 24 hour grace period wouldn't have applied to me. It's a short trip so it's not too important to me, but I learned my lesson for next time.

Amicus

Yup.

I understand, you are proud of being lifetime AA. . . No problem.

I started this thread simply to report that my experience with a legacy (AA) was substandard to WN. Four AA planes, dirty, decrepit cabin condition.
Not being able to do online check-in at all was strange (I do have TSA Pre).
Tight seating, especially on the RJ's.
WN cabins are clean and in great condition, in comparison.

Back when I flew AA, there wasn't "special Coach seats", "super-special Coach seats" and "Even More Special Coach seats." So, if I stopped to see an AAgent in the Lounge (don't care what KIND Of lounge it was), the AAgent could get me an exit row or bulkhead most of the time, if I asked.

Bottom line: from my current home airport, nonstops on WN make sense.

sdsearch

Indeed, you seem to live in what is almost a "captive Southwest hub". While it may not be a true hub in the sense of MDW or BWI, I would think MCI rates as a "focus city" for Southwest, while it's nothing but a spoke for any other airline.

Meanwhile, I happen to live at an airport which is either a hub or focus city for all 4 major airlines (AA, DL, UA, and WN), plus has nonstop service on several smaller airlines (includeing AS up and down the West Coast). So for me, living near LAX, who flies where is not as lopsided toward one airline as it is for people who live near MCI (for WN), or on the Ft Worth side* of DFW (for AA), or near EWR (for UA), or near ATL (for DL).

(*I picked the Ft Worth side because for them DFW is much closer than WN's DAL. For people in Dallas proper, it's more even.)

Btw, I do tend to fly WN when I want to fly to MCI, simply because WN has nonstops LAX-MCI, because MCI is such a key to WN's operation.

Ironically, I might still be willing to fly WN with connections to JAN (Jackson MS) if they still flew there, because they flew full-sized planes there. But they pulled out of JAN a year or so before one of my relatives moved there, so WN is not an option for me.

LegalTender

Let's say you're off to Cancun in March. You stick with Southwest, or use AA's dirty, decrepit planes?

WN:



AA:

Soccerdad1995

I would submit that infrequent travelers are generally not savvy enough to know about how they can maximize their chances to get better seats. But if they are, they can buy E+ on UA, or even take the likely TOD offer for FC seats just as easily as they can buy EBCI or upgraded boarding position on WN. So still basically a wash.

Besides, I already said that WN wins for infrequent travelers, so if we put this one firmly in the infrequent traveler win camp it doesn't change anything.