Anywhere on the road

Is anyone (not A, A+, CP) still purchasing early bird for flights during this 'no middle seats' time period? I suppose if it is a cross country flight and you are trying to score the exit row or LUV seat, perhaps. For a quick 2 hour or so, I see no need. Seating is fine, and, given that PAX load of 1/3 less, bin space should not be an issue. Am I missing something?

dgross

I am a companion pass holder. We used to purchase Early Bird, but there is no reason to do so. We can always get a row to ourselves now.

NoStressHere

We normally are on a mission to get the LUV seats. But now with middle seats open - we can take any row.

Exit row is the only MAYBE good deal. Other than legroom, it is actually not the best seats if you want to use tray table.

TXJeepGuy

I normally do, but don't see a reason to do so right now.

Just checked in for a flight tomorrow at 24 before and got A48. Good enough.

Kacee

There is IMO no reason to purchase early bird right now. I actually prefer to board late these days, and pick the people I will / will not be sitting near, rather than choosing early and having no control over who sits near me.

Captain Tony Buffett

I just flew Southwest last weekend, LGA-DEN and DEN-LGA. I didn't purchase Early Bird, and checking in right at the 24 hour mark got me A30 on the way to DEN, and A42 on the way to LGA. I got the exit row on both flights, and on the LGA-DEN flight, two of the exit rows remained completely open. No reason at all to pay extra.

Eastbay1K

A35 and A37 a couple of weeks ago on OAK/SNA at T-24(ish). 3 seats to myself as A37. I wasn't sure how many A1-15s there were because they're calling 10 at a time, but it didn't appear to be many. WN offered me an A1-15 for only $265. If only it had truly included a cocktail ... would have been so tempting ...

NoStressHere

I am confused. A1-a15 is usually around $40???

Or was that the ticket price for a biz ticket - last minute? Or was that the differnce to buy Biz?

hhoope01

Given when you check-in at one of the kiosks, it will offer to upgrade you to a Biz ticket and quite often the cost to upgrade from a WGA fare is in that $250 range, I interpreted that the OP was referencing a Biz ticket upgrade (and the kicker is the cocktail comment given one would normally get one of those with a Biz class ticket, but it wouldn't do you any good right now.)

Eastbay1K

Yes, That was the offer on the screen.

sdsearch

So what does the extra $210 (over getting buying Priority Boarding to get A1-A15) get you exactly? Is it just a scam for people who don't know that they can buy Priority Boarding from a person not far away? Or is it a $210 fee to avoid talking to an agent ?

I can understand such offers on airlines with actual business class cabins, but I don't get the point of such an offer at Southwest, especially when the much cheaper Priority Boarding offer exists just past the kiosks.

ursine1

Absolutely.

The kiosk offer is an upgrade to Business Select, and includes the perks of a Business Select ticket. In addition to an A1-15 boarding position (also available for much less cost as Upgraded Boarding, $30-$50), the other primary benefit is 12x RR points, vs 6x with a Wanna Get Away fare. (As noted earlier, the Free Drink perk is currently useless, as there is temporarily no alcoholic beverage service on board. The other perk, access to the Fly By lane has effectively been replaced for many by TSA PreCheck.)

The kiosk upgrade may make sense if you've purchased (or had purchased for you by an employer or client) an Anytime fare, or perhaps a very expensive WGA one. Otherwise the benefits don't generally offset the cost.

I'm not sure if this is still true, but one risk of the upgrade process is that, should you choose to "learn more" but then decide to decline the upgrade after learning the exact cost, you'll have forfeited your assigned boarding position, and will be given the next available one. (It's possible Southwest has fixed this issue -- I haven't had any recent need to attempt a kiosk upgrade.)

dansachs

If you have a layover the kiosk offer should upgrade you to A1 - A15 for both legs of your trip.

GreenPlastic

Honestly, I think the offer is only for those that have their tickets purchased by their companies and want to rack up more points on the company’s dime. Same for buying points on their hotel reservation site. It doesn’t show as a points purchase on the receipt, so basically it allows business travelers to buy points through their company.

hhoope01

This is the scenario that I've done the upgrade. I sometimes end up with last minute travel and my company would buy an Anytime fare. If I wasn't able to get a good boarding #, I'd look to pay to get into the A1-15 boarding at the airport. But with an Anytime fare, it was cheaper for me (this comes out of my pocket not my employer) upgrade the ticket to a Biz ticket to get the better boarding position, then I'd go that route. (And getting more points as well was just gravy on top.)