Our Southwest card comes with 4 priority boarding passes*. *(Where available)
My understanding of this concept is that at the airport we can go up to the counter to purchase this via the card and it gets credited. I don’t think I can do this ahead of time. Does anyone have experience with the level of availability? I think there are 15 spots. Has it generally available for folks or should I be planning to arrive at the airport super early? Thanks!
Here is Southwests info https://www.southwest.com/html/travel-experience/upgraded-boarding/index.html?clk=GFOOTER-PRODUCTS-UPGRADED-BOARDING
I would get there early so that you are more likely to secure this place in line.
Thanks! Have you done this before? I was wondering if people had tried to pay but it was full.
My parents do this virtually every time they fly, getting there early is probably a good plan, but I don’t think it has to be super early. As far as I know, they have never not been allowed to purchase the day of.
Thank you! Great news. It’s not essential, but I wasn’t sure if I should realistically expect it.
It’s definitely sometimes unavailable, I’ve had that happen. It’s a nice perk when you can get it.
I have not but I have watched all the activity around it at the gate. People seem to be very happy when they are called up and told they have this perk. The call ups are frequent fliers who are automatically upgraded when not enough people are willing to pay. I just pay for boarding in group A.
Are you talking about Early Bird Check-in? Or is there another “pay for a better boarding position” scheme out there in addition to this Priority Boarding?
Early Bird
Both my flights last month had 100%availability.
I checked in 24h in advance just the same but got the boarding on arrival for my flight down.
Flight back had only 42 passengers so I skipped it then strong text
Awesome! Thanks everyone. We’re going on a cruise in May and most likely won’t be able to check in for our flight home until only a few hours before the flight. I will definitely survive sitting apart from my husband (especially after 5 days of togetherness) but figured if we got this perk we might as well take advantage of it! I’m otherwise usually flying with my kids and we just use family boarding.
My wife and I were stuck with like C30 for our direct flight back to DC from San Diego this past November. I asked if I could purchase an A and they had one left! I was able to grab the exit row seat without a seat in front of me (I am 6’2") and then the flight attendant stood next to me to “save” the seat for my wife. It was so awesome and well worth the price for all that legroom on a 5 hour flight.
A cruise is one of the few times I would do early bird if I couldn’t check in on the ship.
It would depend on how many travelers, of course, but for me it’s cheaper to pay for internet package at sea (often a perk, to) vs early check-in for my party of 8.
I’ve very rarely seen all of those A1-15 spots taken on my Southwest flights, which is probably why Southwest was willing to give these away to some credit cardholders. Having said that, I haven’t noticed if more of those spots are filling up now that this has been offered as a credit card perk.
Not sure which cruise company you’re going through, but doing research for my upcoming Disney cruise I found out that they have an on-board check-in desk where you can get boarding passes, etc. before your flight. That way you don’t miss out on the 24-hour advantage. May not be available for all airlines, etc., but worth looking into.
I imagine it’s an industry standard because this would affect all cruise passengers.