The best you can get as an A-List Preferred is A16, and it will go as high as needed to accommodate them all. Those who fly slightly less (35,000 tier qualifying points or 25 one way flights), get A-List. If you earn 70,000 tier qualifying points or fly 50 one way flights, then you’re in. Those people who fly Southwest way too much are top tier elites, called A-List Preferred. Kings (A-List Preferred) and Princes (A-List)
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES BOARDING PASS GROUP B FULL
So you can assume that people at the back are going to buy up regularly on this and A1-15 will now be full almost every time. This is the first time Southwest has allowed people to buy up to a better number after they know their position. You don’t get any of the other perks that come with Business Select, but you do get on early. If the spots are open when you get to the gate, you can pay $40 to get one. Southwest has now decided to change that. Today, if not all 15 are sold in advance, then those spots just remain empty. They only sell 15 of these on each flight, so you are guaranteed to get something between A1 and A15 (exact number is determined by who checks in first), and that means you’ll get a good seat. Most importantly, it gives you true priority boarding.
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES BOARDING PASS GROUP B FREE
(It’s obviously a much bigger buy-up, sometimes hundreds of dollars, if you’re upgrading from a cheap Wanna Get Away fare.) This includes priority check-in and security, a free drink, and bonus points in the Rapid Rewards program. For $16 to $28 above that fare, you can buy Business Select. Southwest’s fully refundable rack rate is called the Anytime fare. B group is iffy, depending upon how many people are with you and how many are already onboard. But you can be reasonably assured that you’ll get a decent seat if you’re in the A group. (This changes in a year or so.) So your boarding number doesn’t give you a perfectly accurate count of what you’re going to find when you walk onboard. This happens a lot if you go to Dallas, because Southwest currently can’t fly nonstop to most cities in the US from there. If the airplane came from somewhere else before, then there could be people already onboard connecting through. The first people on the plane get the first pick of seats. First it’s A1-60, then B1-60, and then C1- whatever is needed depending upon how many people there are. The idea is that you get an alphanumeric pass that allows you to board in order. And now it has added more and more to that system to get to the point where it is today. But Southwest decided to make a change, so it created an entirely new system. People were ready at 24 hours out to make sure they got the coveted boarding pass in the first group. The time limit backed up until it was 24 hours in advance. It sucked.Įventually, this changed to the point where you could check in at the ticket counter and then online. So you would get camps of homeless-looking people staking their spots. Those in the first 30 could board in whatever order they lined up in. Plastic boarding cards were handed out beginning 1 hour prior to departure, and boarding was in groups of 30. When you got there, it was common to find lines snaking out into the concourse. It used to be back in the day that you could only check in at the gate. Let’s start with a graphic.īefore I start explaining this little picture, I might need to back up a little further. So, I thought it was time to break down how Southwest handles boarding. That’s going to be changing quickly as AirTran gets converted over. Long time Southwest loyalists might smirk a little at this, but keep in mind that in places like New York and Atlanta, flying Southwest is still a somewhat foreign concept. Is it really possible that the entire plane (less 3 people) checked in >4 hours prior? I was surprised in line to see that there were only 3 people behind us for the entire plane. I was peeved to be B48, but figured that we’d be ok. I forgot to do the 24 hour checkin yesterday, but remembered about 4 hours prior and did so from my phone figuring I’d still be OK by beating the airport checkin people.
I think my favorite was from someone in New York who is used to flying AirTran but just had her first experience on Southwest. In the wake of Southwest announcing that you can now jump to the head of the line for $40 a person if there is room, I’ve received a lot of questions about just exactly how the Southwest boarding process works.
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