Southwest EarlyBird Check In Moving To Dynamic Pricing ($15-$25) On August 29th

In 2009 Southwest introduced EarlyBird Check In, this service automatically checks you into your flight 36 hours to departure. Regular check in opens 24 hours to departure, the reason travelers care about checking in with Southwest is that the earlier you check in the better your boarding position is and this matters for travelers wanting to get the better seats. When introduced EarlyBird check in cost $10, it now costs $15 one way. Starting on August Southwest will move to a dynamic pricing model for EarlyBird and it will cost $15-$25 per one way flight, Southwest will use two factors to determine the price:

  • Length of flight
  • Demand for EarlyBird on that route

They won’t be changing pricing base on the day of the week or time of the flight. Obviously makes sense to charge more on longer routes and I suspect this is being done ahead of the Hawaii expansion to maximize auxiliary revenue as much as possible. Upgraded boardings give you even better boarding positions and cost $30-$40 so I wonder if people will start just buying those instead. Chase Southwest Priority card comes with four upgraded boardings annually and the EarlyBird check in fees are eligible for the $75 credit as well.

Hat tip to TPG

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JO
JO (@guest_631428)
August 20, 2018 16:26

Hey, I was thinking… If my apartment complex has some vacancies, do you think my landlord will be cool with my “dynamically” pricing my rent downward? Lower demand justifies that, right?

AmzH8ter
AmzH8ter (@guest_631361)
August 20, 2018 13:58

This also makes me think that Hawaii routes/pricing/dates will open on August 30th as well.

Sam
Sam (@guest_631344)
August 20, 2018 13:15

Theres plenty of room even with B seating,
Not sure why one would want to get a better seat on a SW flight unless you needed to deplane immediately .

Stinger
Stinger (@guest_631371)
August 20, 2018 14:25

The only exception to this written above is places with heavy family pre boarding. My family of 5 no longer qualifies for early boarding. Usually we get front to mid B group and it works out fine. But last spring break out of Orlando we had front of B group and because of so many young families we still could not sit together. My only complaint is that a very large family/group had about 20 people. All physically large people and they purposely took 1 ausle and 1 middle seat, leaving about 10 riws with a window seat. The stewardesses tried like crazy to seat families together and those 20 I remorseful morons made it very hard for those nice ladies. The person my wife sat next to was encroaching about 1/3 into my wife’s seat. Photos to Southwest resulted in. complete ticket reimbursement via a credit, so good CS on SW part. So long story, Sorry about that, flying out of Orlando during holidays I would consider paying for early bird in the future. There may be similar locations that are very family heavy 😀

AmzH8ter
AmzH8ter (@guest_631372)
August 20, 2018 14:30

Avoiding the dreaded middle seat…. “C” boarding means center seat….

Hodor
Hodor (@guest_631381)
August 20, 2018 14:57

Not necessary a “better seat,” but we do it so our family can make sure we end up sitting together without being one of the jerks who saves seats for others in their party.

MickeyMouse
MickeyMouse (@guest_631447)
August 20, 2018 17:16

Luckily we have a family of 3 so we get our own row. I don’t know why a 2 year old has to pay full price for a seat, and even when we have paid for his required full price seat almost every flight (10/12) we have been asked by Flight Attendents, “Is he ticketed?”

Well he’s in his own seat, in a pretty big car seat…so yes we did pay for it! If you’ll check his seat and let him sit on our lap we’d prefer that as it’d save us some money 🙂

It’d be nice to have some type of Child Discount even 10-20%, I understand that at the same time they could potentially sell that seat for full price to an adult, but like at restaurants I’ve seen kids meals get generous portions that are cheaper than if an adult wanted them in the same portions.

calwatch
calwatch (@guest_631657)
August 21, 2018 00:49

Southwest does a child fare already – 15-25% off the anytime (walk up) fare. Very few people use it since WGA is usually 50% or more below walkup, but it’s an option especially if you have a fickle flyer because of its refundability.

MickeyMouse
MickeyMouse (@guest_631285)
August 20, 2018 10:33

That is a good note, and I do also suspect that this is likely due to the Hawaii expansion more than anything else. I fly with Southwest pretty regularly, almost exclusively, and I always check in at the 24 hour mark to try to get in that A Boarding Group. I actually have gotten in about 1/4 of the time by just checking in right at the 24 hour mark other times I’ve been traveling with our toddler so we have Family Boarding which is nice. If we didn’t get in the A Group and were not in the Family Boarding i’d Definitely consider the Early Bird Check In.

The first few times I didn’t get in the A Group even though I had checked in right at 24 hours I didn’t know what to think since they only have limited Business Select Seats so I didn’t know what had happened thinking I had done everything right to get in A Group. Then after further research I realized that it’s actually really lucky to get into A Group without paying extra, but checking in within minutes rather than hours of the 24 hour mark definitely helps your chances.

The only real downside for me is that with SW I’ve ALWAYS had a stopover somewhere and on the continuing flight I may be in a different Boarding Group than I was in the first. I’m not sure how that would work with the Early Bird Check In, but if it got both flights into the A Group that would be worth $15 to me.

I can see how a nonstop flight from CA go Hawaii would have a lot of people paying extra for this perk though. I’ve read a lot on SW to Hawaii and they said their pricing will be very competitive with other airlines, they will undercut other airlines and other airlines will have to lower their pricing to Hawaii which will help everyone.

I’m really interested to see what pricing to Hawaii will be like though. Any thoughts on what the lowest price would be (for the “Wanna Get Away Fare”?

Rob
Rob (@guest_631358)
August 20, 2018 13:53

I always check in exactly at the 24 hour mark and rarely if ever get the A boarding group and usually get at least B30. I think that’s mainly because I board at connecting airports. I think the way their system is set up is that if you are on a connecting flight, the connection is checked in at the same time as the original flight. So let’s say you are flying at noon from New York City through Baltimore (leaving at 2:15 PM) and then on to San Diego. By checking in exactly at noon for your NYC flight, you essentially get a leg up on your second flight leaving at 2:15 PM, because it checks you all the way through. Whereas, me, who typically gets on at a connecting airport without a prior flight, I get the short end of the stick because even though I check in at 2:15 PM, the better boarding groups/positions are already gone to connecting passengers who are allowed to check in before me.

MickeyMouse
MickeyMouse (@guest_631450)
August 20, 2018 17:20

Just checked in for a flight tomorrow 3 mins after 24 hour mark and got B3 can’t help but feel like 2 mins earlier could’ve gotten me A30! lol

But yeah I do see what you’re saying, it’s weird though on the connecting (2nd) flight I got B24.

frogger
frogger (@guest_631284)
August 20, 2018 10:31

Makes sense. As vacation spots everyone gets early-bird check in as they want to be next to family in friends. On flight back from Aruba me and my wife got the last 2 seats available next to each other in the last row of the airplane. Definitely would pay more to get less people with early bird.