Anyone do Early Bird Check-In with Southwest Air?

[Sheep]

wait woops. I meant to say my flight is 6 am on Saturday. So that would mean I need to be up at 6 am on Friday right?

You can check in online anytime after 6am Friday for a 6am Saturday flight. Obviously the earlier, the better but you could also check in during the afternoon or any other time before 6am Saturday that's convenient.

 

[FearoftheNight]

You can check in online anytime after 6am Friday for a 6am Saturday flight. Obviously the earlier, the better but you could also check in during the afternoon or any other time before 6am Saturday that's convenient.

actually does anyone know how important it is to check in during the first few minutes or hour? are most of the good spots gone in the first 1-2 hours or something?

 

[MotionMan]

actually does anyone know how important it is to check in during the first few minutes or hour? are most of the good spots gone in the first 1-2 hours or something?

Depending on the flight, a few minutes can make all the difference.

MotionMan

 

[InverseOfNeo]

I have already said too much...

MotionMan

:thumbsup:

I've never had to fly out of Burbank before but I still know what you're talking about.

 

[ss284]

Like others have said it depends on the flight. I fly southwest between Baltimore/Chicago pretty frequently, and the flights are almost always full. If I didn't have A-list I would be ponying up the $10 to guarantee an early board with access to the overhead bins.

Also, I think EBC gets you access to shorter security lines.

 

[ss284]

Depending on the flight, a few minutes can make all the difference.

MotionMan

I would say a few seconds can make a difference on popular routes.

 

[gorcorps]

actually does anyone know how important it is to check in during the first few minutes or hour? are most of the good spots gone in the first 1-2 hours or something?

Always depends. I just went from Chicago MDW to Denver (always sold out flights). First one I checked in within minutes of when I was allowed to, and got B14. Returning I forgot to check in the day before, so checked in morning of (maybe ~10 hours ahead of flight) and got B37.

It's also worth noting that you don't HAVE to print your bording pass when you check in. You can check in on your phone or PC and not print, then go to the kiosk in the airport and get your boarding pass which will have the same number you already checked in at. Some people don't realize this, so I thought I'd mention it.

In my case early bird check in would have only been 10 bucks. Not exactly a high cost to guarantee a good seat on a popular flight, but budgets differ. Would have been nice to have that extra room in the emergency exit rows...

 

[alkemyst]

Like others have said it depends on the flight. I fly southwest between Baltimore/Chicago pretty frequently, and the flights are almost always full. If I didn't have A-list I would be ponying up the $10 to guarantee an early board with access to the overhead bins.

Also, I think EBC gets you access to shorter security lines.

In most airports, if not all you are considered 'business/first class' at that point.

That is another plus I forgot about.