Anytime fare leads to personal worst boarding position ever
 

(Since making A-list 7 years ago.) We all know boarding order for A-listers is a closely guarded secret so I tried an experiment to see if I could change my luck of always getting A20-A25. I used to get A16-A17 routinely on heavily traveled routes and full fights but it's been a few years since that. Now I wonder what lucky people get those positions.

So I book an anytime fare a while back for tomorrow's flight to try to change my luck and just got hit with A30. Ouch. I'm not complaining because I don't really care where I sit as long as I have bin space but that debunked my theory that higher-fare, non-BS tickets get the A16-A20 slots. It's BDL-BWI if that makes a difference. It's always full and a lot of people connect to elsewhere at BWI, but BDL is the origin for most people on this flight I'm assuming. Are there any other recent theories on this topic?

I get that it's a "personal worst", but too bad you can't edit your title to say "worst" (quotes) :D

FWIW, I buy the cheapest tickets I can get well in advance and usually get As 18-24 as a matter of course.

You're not giving us enough info; when you were getting A16-A17 I'm betting you were A-List PREFERRED, and I'm betting now you're not; that's the different between then and now.

I don't think fare bucket has much to do with it. But of course I only book WGA or BS fares, booking Anytime fare is like buying mid-tier gas...not worth it

There seem to be so many A+ elites out there now that I can't recall the last time I was better than A20. Usually A20 - A30 as an A+ on basic (not intra-CA, not expected high elite) routes

Oh yes sorry I was A-list Preferred then and still am now, no gaps. And yes I always thought what's the point of Anytime fares anyway but we got a new travel portal at work that only lets us book WGA and AT so I figured I'd try it out.

I guess I should add I do get A16-20 sometimes on points bookings, but those are mostly on weekends and to vacation destinations when I assume it's mostly casual travelers on board.

How many flights per year do you take usually? I'm up to 55 this year and that's a normal pace for me.

I'm at 36 paid flights and maybe 10 points flights

Can't claim much inference from a single observation...

To add another observation, I've been A-list Preferred for about 4 years. I am mostly A16 on WGA or points. Occasionally, like today, I'll get A17. When we line up, I will recognize the guy who has A16. This is flying from CLE, and when I get A16, he is A17 more often than not. My theory is A-list Preferred get lined up according to recent $ spend on WN. I fly back and forth from the West Coast, so very infrequently do I get a low cost flight.

I believe, trying to remember if I saw this in writing or if it was an agent comment, that the Business Select and A List are actually done at 36 hours. So if you were buying a ticket for "tomorrow", then those seats were already filled and you just got in before the EB paid group. The only way to force in is to buy Business Select at that time frame, if they are still available.

Wouldn't you have to know what A16-A29 paid to come up with this conclusion? Maybe the ticket was expensive in your mind, but could've been priced higher other days.

Good observation. But Early Bird is done at T-36 as well.

OP needs to do this for a flight leaving further out than tomorrow, and do it 7 or 8 times, not just once.