16 fast fingered fools...

[susandennis]

Boarding Group A, Boarding position 17. Does this mean that there were 16 other people who kept hitting Online Checkin and got through before I did???!!! How is that possible. In my mind, my plane left at 11:30. So I sat down to print out the pass at 11:30. "Not time yet, you silly" was not the exact message I got, but kinda close. Then I looked and sure enough my plane doesn't leave until 11:40 and then I got caught up in something so I didn't get back to that page until 11:41 and best I got was position 17.

Oh well.

I'm ready. I spent a long time this morning finishing off that tedious work job and then ran the bears over to the Baby Corner. And now ...

I used to work for a guy who was a fairly high level manager who worked hard and loved, loved, loved his vacations. I remember walking into his office and hearing his booming voice 'Ok, Dennis, we're one sleep away, so only good news allowed!'

That's me... one sleep away.

Comments

[lolleeroberts.livejournal.com]

I think there are programs for frequent flyers that keep track of when they can print boarding passes and hit on the second it becomes available. Either that or there were people with upgrades who got to pre-select their seats. I have a hard time believing that 16 people got in there in one minute.

Although it's amazing how fast concert tickets sell out sometimes.

[yesthatjill.livejournal.com]

Yep - for Southwest, the first 15 are reserved for their version of 'business class'. The other thing to consider is that if you're connecting (unlikely here, but still) those connecting people get their boarding passes more than 24 hours before the second flight leaves.

[susandennis]

ahhhhh That explains it! Ok, Q. Does being in A group, position 17 mean that they will literally line us up and I will be behind number 16 and A1 will get on first?

[yesthatjill.livejournal.com]

Exactly - so you will be the 17th person boarding the plane in Seattle. :)

[susandennis]

Sweet! Thanks. Now I know what to expect. I'm pretty sure I've flown SW before but it was in the days when they handed you colored cards.

I'm cool with 17. I can do that. Thanks! (And, yeah, no connecting flight, so I'm cool.)

[zimzat.livejournal.com]

It's been a few years since I've flown Southwest, but I thought they went with some unusual general-boarding groups, sort of like 'Zone 1', except no pre-assigned seats. Have they changed that?

[yesthatjill.livejournal.com]

It used to be groups A, B, and C, where you got your card with your group number when you checked in - at the gate - an hour and a half before your flight left. Which led to some nasty elbowing when people camped in the boarding area where the groups congregated. So they moved to A-1, A-2... A-60, B-1, B-2, etc. We line up based on Group (A/B/C) and then the number.

Families with children under 4 who have a B or C boarding group get to board between A and B (which was a nice change, they used to board before everyone and the whole front half of the plane was full by the time A started for certain flights).

There still aren't assigned seats.

[zimzat.livejournal.com]

Excellent, thank you for the details.

I haven't flown Southwest because they aren't listed on Orbitz. Since more and more airlines appear to be removing themselves from sites like Orbitz it looks like finding the cheapest flight is going to become quite a chore, or I'll have to create my own rate scrapper for comparing them instantly. I already want to do that for also comparing against Amtrak and Greyhound too.

[geordie.livejournal.com]

Ah, I am too late. If you want A1 you need to pay the extra $15, or whatever it was, to get in that first group. Then you can forget for a few hours and still get on in the first handful. Mostly it's not worth it, we did it because we were late booking so the only tickets available were the expensive ones and it was just a small extra charge to get a decent seat on a nearly full plane.

[yesthatjill.livejournal.com]

I've done it to use the 'express lane' at security if I know I'll be running late... and that other time I bought the ticket the day I was flying.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Have a great trip!

HUGS!

[susandennis]

Thanks!