Southwest testing CP’s boarding together
 

I just received this in my inbox:

As a loyal Rapid Rewards® Member with Companion Pass, we're excited to share with you that from October 18 through November 8, we're conducting a test in your market that allows your Companion to board with you on your flight.

Here's what you need to know:•Have your Companion stand with you at your assigned boarding position•You must present your valid Companion Pass card along with your boarding pass to the gate agent at time of boarding•Your Companion's name and the name on their boarding pass must match your Companion card•Only flights between October 18 and November 8 are eligible•Only flights departing from Denver or Dallas (Love Field) are eligibleWe look forward to seeing you and your Companion onboard soon!

Sincerely,
Your friends at Rapid Rewards®

This has to be a hot deal for A-List... no?

Of course you would have to locate that little companion card they sent. I probably threw mine out. :D

Got this email this morning.

Love it and hope it sticks.

Got the email, but we just flew as a family DAL-DEN and back. Would love to try to squeeze wifey in at A16 in DAL ...

It's a nice perk for truly frequent fliers.

Of course I don’t have any CP flights in that window...but if it sticks is sure will be nice when traveling with my 3 year old. I’ve had plenty of times when I pay for EBCI for her and still get a B boarding pass to go along with my A20 slot...and thus we become A61 instead. Inasmuch as she isn’t old enough to sit in an exit row and “jump the line” over other A -listers, I really hope this policy change sticks.

This would be great if it catches on - thanks for posting!

Not in the target area, but CP and I have a connecting flight through DEN within that window. We just got our shiny new cards for 2018 too ^

Will try it out and report back.

No idea where our card is, suppose I should give them a ring and ask them to send me one in the mail. We won't be going through either airport during that period, but I hope it goes brilliantly and they roll it out elsewhere! Our method always got us seats together, but we normally took seats further back to ensure that - this would be nice for tighter connections!

Anyone else wonder "what's to test, what's to try out"? Are they fearful of a revolt when 6 people lineup between the poles of 5?

How hard would it be to program something along the lines of when the CP Member checks in and a CP holder flight is present, append an "A" or "CP" to the BP so one gets "A45" and "A45(CP)" ? Start it tomorrow.

No card, no physical check at the door, no hassle.

Contrast this to when someone decided the AL+ wifi login password suddenly needed to be 8 characters and complex and nary a word, email or test was done...

I agree, what's to try? Other than baggage allocation, I don't think this changes much. If I'm in boarding group A, and my companion is in C, I'm saving them a seat next to me either way.

I also received this notice today as well.

But now there "potentially" could be a larger crowd in the A boarding ranks. Those boarding lanes can get fairly crowded already, but what if there are 10 "companions" flying and all of them are now boarding in the A1-30 range. That adds 10 more people milling around which can add to the congestion which can possibly cause a slow-down in the boarding process.

While I would guess the question is how many CP companions tend to fly on a particular flight and would the CP holders tend to be bunched together all in the A boarding?

I imagine its linked somewhat to how its earned.

The "hard" way, BIS, peak earning and family years, probably just a few times a year for vacations. That A group less likely to climb aboard another plane for fun every other weekend.

Bloggers, credit card churners, retirees, etc, more usage, but less likely to hold status.

I really can't see more than handful per flight.

This would eliminate some of the "seat saving" aggravation.

I would reserve this perk for us A list preferred customers, however. Otherwise it could get crowded in the A16 - A25 boarding area.

Thankfully fly 2 flights and get to "test" it out from Denver!

The "test" would be to see if they can effectively communicate the policy to their ops agents, and if those agents can effectively process passengers under the new policy without negatively affecting boarding times.

While they may or may not have received official notification, all CP holders -- not just A-Listers -- would appear to qualify as the policy is written.

If WN wanted to restrict this to A-Listers, they would need to either also require presentation of an A-List member's card/verification of A-List on boarding pass, or adjust the procedure to something along the lines of what joshua362 suggested -- specific notation on the companion's boarding pass. While seemingly not technically that difficult, I'm highly doubtful that will happen.

Sure, but non A-listers are boarding later so there won't be an extra person boarding early in the process.