rsteinmetz70112

My wife and I both recently renewed our A List status for next year. She is A List preferred, I'm just A List. We have both noticed an almost immediate and significant improvement in both our boarding positions. That goes against conventional wisdom that there are more A listers toward the end of the year. It may be there are fewer A List passengers flying compared to the number of occasional flyers but the total number of passengers hasn't increased very much. We generally buy the cheapest tickets availible, so ticket price is unlikely a factor.

Just thought I'd put this out there for consideration.

steved5480

Very same experience, albeit with the calendar shuffled a bit.

Re-qualified A+ in early July, running on points since then. Positions "spiked" for several months (consistently 16-20), have slowly drifted down to low 20s since late September. I don't recall the odd initial "spike" you outline in past years, but then I don't keep track of the nits that closely so likely just don't remember.

joshua362

A thought floated a few years ago is that heavier executive travel, those likely to hold A list, tend not to travel as much after thanksgiving. Not me of course... I was routinely getting A16, A17 in December.

rsteinmetz70112

My spike started about a month before Thanksgiving.
I don't remember this in past years, but my posititions before were worse than I remember.
​​​
​​​
​

dmbolp

Here's a weird A+ boarding position I got today. Sitting at the ABQ airport at 1:30p (mountain time) I booked an ABQ-DAL-LGA flight for tomorrow leaving at 2:05p. We boarded the plane at 1:37p, so I know I booked the flights more than 24 hours prior to departure. I ended up with B-16 for the 1st leg and A-37 for the second leg; never been worse than A-22 and usually 16-19. And I booked it with Travel Funds.

And as I type this I realize, I really need to book this 36 hours out for A+ to come into play...oh well

jb3t

I was in line wants on an originating flight with A18. I got to talking to the two people in front of me and we went over every conceivable option ( Price of ticket, when ticket was purchased, points in your account, how long you have had A+, number of flights this year, age, etc) and based on that, the guy at A16 was well behind us in every category. I don’t get it.

Taco Tuesday

One option you didn't mention was money spent in, say, the last 6 months. I fly across the country almost every week, and am almost always A16. When, I'm not A16, I'm A17, and it's always the same guy who's A16. We've chuckled about this a few times, and in fact he flies a bit more than me. And, in reading the various discussions on this forum about A or A+ boarding positions, I think recent spend is a good possibility.

flown-the-coop

Absolutely convinced its a rolling spend. I typically buy only BusSelect. Then when traveling on points, I get to understand how much I spent the last few months. If my travel has slowed, I am A-19+. If I am going once or more per week to Houston, then A16 almost everytime when not BusSelect. 6 months seems about the right window.

rasheed

I decided to post in an existing thread rather than make another new thread, but I think a lot of the official other airlines elite matching A-List offers as well as many of the targeted A-List offers that came this year are causing some issues. This also assumes that the auto-check in tool was working okay. Yes, I had status when my fare was booked, and it was not a late change.

I got my highest A-List boarding today at B-15. Now, I just have to decide if I will go to A-61 or wait for the separately called group (which should have at least 14 other people).

I feel really bad for anyone who bought EBCI.

Maybe on the average, you don't get so many A-List folks per flight (my results would indicate at least 60ish A-List folks on my flight not include BS and those behind me), but I think Southwest has to be a little careful to not reduce the elite experience among the many other issues out there.

ursine1

It's much more likely that your status dropped off the itinerary ("glitch") than there are that many A-Listers on your flight. Normally I'd suggest calling and having them check, especially if this is the outbound on a round trip, but right now hold times are insane.

rasheed

Fair thought. My second segment is A35, which seems more possible for A-List, but could feasibly happen at T24 too.

I also agree that in light of other issues the airline is facing, I can manage the boarding position rather than calling.

NoStressHere

I have seen A-list come up in the B boarding. Must be flights with LOTS of A-listers or something.

rasheed

A follow-up is deserved on not so A boarding for A-List. So, the B 1 to 30 section was mostly empty. I did not do A61 as I saw so many of us standing in a side area.

The gate agent decided to slow play it and call again for any other A 1 to 60, then XT, then military before finally calling the A-List and A-List Preferred groups. There was no takers in the other callers groups. I am unsure how customer friendly that was as he knew all of these folks standing around were A List. For the most part, this is the more dedicated SW flyer group who just happened to not do so well fitting into the boarding groups.

Lastly, I can confirm that fare outside of of BS is not used for ordering, but I don't think if we ever got confirmation if it is a rolling points count or purchase date within the status groups.

nsx

Was it a 737-800 (175 seats)?

rasheed

Yep.

Yep.