I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[SouthFayetteFan]

I agree and I'm just surprised by how many are willing to pay this extra fee. It's not like SW is super cheap anymore. Their fares are frequently higher than other carriers like Delta, AA, United, etc.

I guess it's just not that big of a deal to me if I am on/off the plan first to pay to sit close up, and I can handle sitting next to strangers for a few hours. There is way I'm paying anymore than I have to, even if my flight was free with points lol!

I agree! I would be very upset if I saw all these other people and family boarding go before me if I paid for a "premium" check-in process.



I really don't understand it either! I equate paying for EBCI with a checked bag fee. Why would I pick an airline that has open seating with 2 included checked bags to then pay for EBCI? Let those people fly the other airlines with traditional seat maps and save the low wanna get away fares for me HAHAHA

I'm so insulated to the EBCI process because I've been using family boarding for 9 years now. We've used it on 46 legs by my best estimation during those 9 years and never had a seating issue. But that run will come to an end soon as daughter #2 will turn 7 in approx 17 months. (Unless my something crazy happens with me and my wife )

Also on those 46 legs, I've seen many a family with "young-ish" kids boarding in the C group with separation anxiety written all over their faces. I'm glad they raised the family boarding up to 6, that's for sure!

During that same time, we've seen EBCI priced at $10, and then $12.50, and then $15, and now a dynamic $15-$25 each way. There are now so many people paying for it, it's crazy! We will join those ranks of people soon though, as with my wife's flight anxiety, there's no way I'll risk a 24 hour checkin. I have been trying to research if her condition would be a "pre-board" eligible condition and of course there's nothing conclusive on that.

 

[amalone1013]

I'm so insulated to the EBCI process because I've been using family boarding for 9 years now. We've used it on 46 legs by my best estimation during those 9 years and never had a seating issue. But that run will come to an end soon as daughter #2 will turn 7 in approx 17 months. (Unless my something crazy happens with me and my wife )

Also on those 46 legs, I've seen many a family with "young-ish" kids boarding in the C group with separation anxiety written all over their faces. I'm glad they raised the family boarding up to 6, that's for sure!

During that same time, we've seen EBCI priced at $10, and then $12.50, and then $15, and now a dynamic $15-$25 each way. There are now so many people paying for it, it's crazy! We will join those ranks of people soon though, as with my wife's flight anxiety, there's no way I'll risk a 24 hour checkin. I have been trying to research if her condition would be a "pre-board" eligible condition and of course there's nothing conclusive on that.

Wait... are you and DW joining the Dischurners baby race?

Anyways, I wanted to add to this discussion in that everytime I read about someone budgeting to fly SW on this board, whether it's points or cash, Disney or non Disney trip (not this thread though), they budget additionally for EBCI. Which makes me want to pay it even less because as you said, I would be upset if I paid and got late B. Especially with it now being $25 always for DEN-MCO and we've considered it coming home, so we're not worried about checking in at the parks... but around the time we started considering it it went to dynamic pricing (aka $25pp for us) and the SW Priority card came out. I think I will finally call in and upgrade my Plus to that today. As long as we are two, I will just try to check in on time and if we forget or don't like it, consider upgrading (hopefully with Priority credits). Understandable for your wife's anxiety though... peace of mind is priceless.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

We only fly SW once or twice a year and normally add EBCI. We booked a last minute Easter weekend trip and flew Southwest. With our late booking of 1 month out, we decided to try online checkin and hope for the best and then at the airport try for the A1-A15 upgrades. EBCI was $25 I believe each way for MDW-MCO-MDW. At 24 hours out we got B41/B42 on the flight there and B16/B17 on the way back. At the counter before security we were able to purchase the A boarding pass for $40. Both ways we got A6/A7 and were able to snag exit rows.

I think this is going to be my new strategy if flying Southwest on leisure routes when the odds of business travelers buying the Business Select Fares are lower.

 

[elgerber]

I am gambling on my SW seating for our trip at the end of May. It's just dh and I, and the cost has gone up so much, it's not worth it. Now, if we end up separated in middle seats in the back of the plane, I may change my tune LOL. But this is a budge trip, fights, hotel, car etc, all on points, so the cheaper the better.
Even with my family in September, I didn't buy it. My kids are 23 and 26, if we can even sit 2 and 2, it's all good. I think...
When it was much cheaper, I thought it was the best money spent, but not so much now.

 

[GlamMistress]

Wait... are you and DW joining the Dischurners baby race?

You beat me to it - I was going to post the same thing, lol!

 

[amalone1013]

My Ebay business is booming again... as I was going back and forth a bit on an item with an interested buyer, make an offer style, for about 15% under list price... someone else swooped in and paid full list price! Now someone else has paid list price for another item which I paid $0 for OOP. Now if only I can get rid of this person who keeps offering me half of what I'm asking for for another item (truly, they offered 50%, I countered with 80%, they declined... then submitted a new offer for 55%, a $2 increase)

 

[DisneyMandC]

I am gambling on my SW seating for our trip at the end of May. It's just dh and I, and the cost has gone up so much, it's not worth it. Now, if we end up separated in middle seats in the back of the plane, I may change my tune LOL. But this is a budge trip, fights, hotel, car etc, all on points, so the cheaper the better.
Even with my family in September, I didn't buy it. My kids are 23 and 26, if we can even sit 2 and 2, it's all good. I think...
When it was much cheaper, I thought it was the best money spent, but not so much now.

I texted my whole family when I bought us six tickets to fly SW to Disney in September and just said "don't plan on sitting together" It's only a two hour flight though so everyone can amuse themselves for that period of time.

 

[wendow]

I have been trying to research if her condition would be a "pre-board" eligible condition and of course there's nothing conclusive on that.

They are very lenient in terms of what qualifies as a disability and basically will not tell you 'no'. Probably some legal reason there. We used preboard for years due to my dd18's anaphylactic peanut allergy. I would go on with her and clean down the entire area and anything she would be touching. Flight attendants were great about it and even offer me cleaning supplies if mine seemed to be running low. Now that SW no longer serves peanuts, I don't do that anymore. But there was never the least bit of push back when I asked for a preboard.

 

[wendow]

I texted my whole family when I bought us six tickets to fly SW to Disney in September and just said "don't plan on sitting together" It's only a two hour flight though so everyone can amuse themselves for that period of time.

This is how I feel! My teens can sit separate and dh & I can each split with one of our boys. We can either put in ear buds and watch free tv/movies or chat up the stranger next to us

 

[amalone1013]

I texted my whole family when I bought us six tickets to fly SW to Disney in September and just said "don't plan on sitting together" It's only a two hour flight though so everyone can amuse themselves for that period of time.

DH is the difficult one for me. I would happily read or whatever. He is more upset being separated even though he has no anxiety and usually watches a movie on his phone anyways

I'm debating what to do for ILs this summer... I think they care even more than DH lol. I was thinking about giving them a SW Priority card to use to upgrade... but with my luck the agent would card them, even though DH and I have never been carded before. Only once was I questioned, when my credit card had my maiden name and I was alone. But when it's been DH and I we've used cards with my maiden name and they didn't bat an eye.

 

[GlamMistress]

Just to provide a DP...

Trying to buy Disney tickets for me and P2. Already got P2's using his capital one venture for the statement credit - still need to finish meeting the minimum spend but almost there. I'm at 5/24 with last capital one credit card being the quicksilver on 10/17. Just applied for the capital one venture and was denied; not sure why, I'll have to wait for the letter. Stats are below for most recent cards. However, I applied for the Barclay Arrival Plus (thanks to @GlamMistress 's post!) and was approved so I'll use that for my tickets. Didn't want to have a $5k spend but I could make it work.

10/17 Capital One Quicksilver
1/18 Wells Fargo Rewards Visa
5/18 Marriott
5/18 Citi Doublecash
9/18 CIP
1/19 SW Biz
1/19 SW Plus

Remember to use UT, not Disney's website itself to buy the tickets. Need to code as travel to erase the charge via the Arrival+

 

[wendow]

(Unless my something crazy happens with me and my wife )

You drop this little nugget and left us all hanging

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

You drop this little nugget and left us all hanging

Yeah - not intentionally joining that race. I can tell you that!!

 

[elgerber]

.

 

[wendow]

DH is the difficult one for me. I would happily read or whatever. He is more upset being separated even though he has no anxiety and usually watches a movie on his phone anyways

I'm debating what to do for ILs this summer... I think they care even more than DH lol. I was thinking about giving them a SW Priority card to use to upgrade... but with my luck the agent would card them, even though DH and I have never been carded before. Only once was I questioned, when my credit card had my maiden name and I was alone. But when it's been DH and I we've used cards with my maiden name and they didn't bat an eye.

My dh was upset on our recent flight to MCO thinking we wouldn't sit together since we had C somethings. I was like, 'you are going to watch espn and i'm going to watch hgtv...why does it matter who we sit next to for that lol?'. We ended up in an aisle and middle. Nice thing about flying to MCO, at least coming from Denver, it's almost all families so they eat up more of the middles than flying to other destinations. I flew to Houston by myself last Sept and again had C boarding. There were pretty much only middles left b/c it was a ton of business travelers.

 

[wendow]

Yeah - not intentionally joining that race. I can tell you that!!

Oh why not!?!? Live a little! Just don't enter family of 6 territory or you will have to churn points for 2 rooms

ETA: Totally kidding! Love my big fam and would love more if I was younger!

 

[miztressuz]

The most recent that I know of are on DISchurners here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DISchurners/comments/aj6vx6/news_discussion_thread/eh7ccil/

Those are from 2/24 which also seem to be the most recent links shared on DoC.

I thought I had the same ones from one of my flights at the end of March but I just double checked and my flight was minorly different. I honestly think both sets of links would work, but here's the ones I saved from that flight -

https://applynow.chase.com/FlexAppWeb/renderApp.do?CELL=6T8J&SPID=FVP9&PROMO=DF01

https://applynow.chase.com/FlexAppWeb/renderApp.do?CELL=6T8J&SPID=FVP4&PROMO=DF01

(the only change is to the "CELL" value, last letter on mine is "J" whereas the ones from Feb end in "K")

 

[1st*toright]

True story... I know someone who lost their law license after paying for a Disney trip out of their client trust account...

Not sure this technically meets the criteria for business cards and what not, but still not something I'd recommend doing!

Yeah, that whole co-mingling thing - really bad idea!!! One quick trip from "borrowing" to "fraud".

I agree and I'm just surprised by how many are willing to pay this extra fee. It's not like SW is super cheap anymore. Their fares are frequently higher than other carriers like Delta, AA, United, etc.

I guess it's just not that big of a deal to me if I am on/off the plan first to pay to sit close up, and I can handle sitting next to strangers for a few hours. There is way I'm paying anymore than I have to, even if my flight was free with points lol!

If you're on a flight that has predominantly business travelers, you'll see a whole lot of EBCI. I much prefer to be on the aisle, and if I'm traveling for work I may be in meetings 24 hours before my flight and run the risk of not checking in right away. If the company is paying I will ALWAYS get EBCI. With the fam, not so much. We still get early boarding with the little one, and we've always been able to sit fairly close together, even if the teen and one parent are in a later group.

 

[DisneyMandC]

DH is the difficult one for me. I would happily read or whatever. He is more upset being separated even though he has no anxiety and usually watches a movie on his phone anyways

I'm debating what to do for ILs this summer... I think they care even more than DH lol. I was thinking about giving them a SW Priority card to use to upgrade... but with my luck the agent would card them, even though DH and I have never been carded before. Only once was I questioned, when my credit card had my maiden name and I was alone. But when it's been DH and I we've used cards with my maiden name and they didn't bat an eye.

Yeah I was worried my MIL would want to sit together since she's a nervous flyer, but when her and FIL flew to FLL a couple months ago, they ended up sitting apart on their Spirit flight. DH hates the cattle call, but I don't mind it at all. I always have earbuds in on a flight so I don't care who's sitting next to me since I'm not going to respond to whatever they say

 

[apollodi]

You might be pleasantly surprised with your seating selections and see that EBCI isn't necessary. As long as I know I'm on a flight without thru passengers and I have an eligible child, I will save my money and just family board

DP for ya....and this may be a rare event.....but we boarded a SW flight from FLL yesterday with B41 - 43 positions - got 3 seats together in the last row of the plane.

ETA: B41 -43 was obtained having bought EBCI Fortunately, our connecting flight had much more favorable A group positions and we were able to snag some great exit row seats.

@apollodi I’ll go a step further. On our recent flight from ORD to MCO, there was a family of 5 that must have been late or connecting as they were the last on the plane. Of course there were not 5 seats together at that point. The flight attendants asked nicely for people to volunteer seats so they could be together (I think they did 3+2, keeping each kid with an adult). When there were no immediate volunteers the FA offered free drinks and then said “we’re not going anywhere until this family is seated” So I’m sure you’ll be able to get seats at family boarding. On our flight I paid for EBCI and got B25, DH did not and got B55. Our son is 10, so no family boarding (which is before B) and we still had 3 seats together. You’ll be fine with family boarding as long as you do 2 + 2, and not have to get 4 together.

You will be fine. Go ahead and check in at 24 hours, but you'll likely be better off with family boarding. If you didn't have family boarding eligibility it would be much more of a concern. Just be sure to line up early for family boarding because those non-stops to MCO from IND are packed with families. The last few time I flew it I believe I got a late A for at least one of my people checking in at 24, and we managed to still sit together.

Ok, all of this is making me feel better. We'll get in the family boarding line early! In a pinch, DD5 could sit on her own if a parent was in the row in front or behind. She's very independent. I agree that this EBCI system seems to have some flaws if too many people pay for it. An interesting economics question...