Southwest Anytime Flight and EBCI

Allison

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 27, 2005
I just purchased an Anytime fare on Southwest (Wanna Get Away is sold out). My understanding is this would give me boarding number higher than anyone with a Wanna Get Away fare even if they have purchased EBCI. Is that correct?

Therefore, the only advantage to purchasing EBCI in regards to boarding is that it could put me ahead of other Anytime fare purchasers?

Please enlighten me if I am missing something here. I don't see a big advantage to spend the $15.
 
You get the better boarding position with the Business Select ticket. Anytime fares are still treated like the Wanna Get Away fares when it come to checking in and getting a boarding position.
The Anytime Fare gives you the ability to cancel your ticket and have the money you spent, credited back to the credit card you used to purchase the ticket.
** Keep an eye open though. I have seen were the wanna get away fares are sold out but a little while later they become available again. A few times the wanna get away was sold out for the flight time I wanted and a few days later the wanna get away fare was available to purchase. So keep checking

Here is a link to what each fare class gets.
https://www.southwest.com/flight/pop_fareCompare.html?airline=WN
 
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My flight from PHL to MCO was noted as sold out on more than one occasion this Spring, only to be available a few days later.
 


As far as I understand the pecking order so to speak is Business Select, A-list Preferred, A-list, Anytime Fare, EBCI, WGA (without EBCI). Obviously boarding position won't mean quite as much for those who are boarding during the Family Boarding (that is if they don't have an A boarding position).

And if you consider this from SWA's standpoint they are rewarding those who 1) Pay a higher fare 2) frequent fliers.

I don't know if it's changed a huge amount yet..that is..but for my flight to MCO in September the Anytime Fares started in the mid-$500s PER WAY with the WGA fares dropping to as low as $139 (after starting at $186) PER WAY....so honestly if a person is going to pay that much more for the extra perks it comes with I feel like they should get that better boarding position as just one of the perks.

ETA: It is however possible for someone to book WGA without EBCI and get a high boarding position but that is usually due to someone cancelling their flight under 36 hrs so effectively a person's boarding position would have been given away.
 
I saw it on Southwest's discussion forum but I didn't know if it was accurate.

I will definitely be watching for the WGA fares to open again and will get a refund and book that if it becomes available.
 
I just purchased an Anytime fare on Southwest (Wanna Get Away is sold out). My understanding is this would give me boarding number higher than anyone with a Wanna Get Away fare even if they have purchased EBCI. Is that correct?

Therefore, the only advantage to purchasing EBCI in regards to boarding is that it could put me ahead of other Anytime fare purchasers?

Please enlighten me if I am missing something here. I don't see a big advantage to spend the $15.

As others have said you get no boarding perk for Anytime fares.

I have been stuck on many occasions with sold out WGA fares when getting my daughter to/from college around Thanksgiving. The fares were sold out and stayed sold out - supply and demand. If your travel time is say the day before Thanksgiving - WGA will most likely never pop back up. If your travel time is a day they predict heavy sell-through, like a Saturday in July, and then the buying slows down, Southwest may choose to release more wanna get away fares for the day.

I never purchased the Anytime Fare - I always jumped up to the next level, and purchased Business Select. The reasons are that it is usually around a $20 difference and it comes with one of the first 15 boarding spots on the highly-sold plane (so I don't need to buy EBCI or stress about boarding), it comes with rapid rewards bonus points, and it comes with a free drink coupon (a $5 or more value).

I would suggest, changing your ticket to Business Select and watching to see if more WGA tickets are released.
 


As others have said you get no boarding perk for Anytime fares.

I have been stuck on many occasions with sold out WGA fares when getting my daughter to/from college around Thanksgiving. The fares were sold out and stayed sold out - supply and demand. If your travel time is say the day before Thanksgiving - WGA will most likely never pop back up. If your travel time is a day they predict heavy sell-through, like a Saturday in July, and then the buying slows down, Southwest may choose to release more wanna get away fares for the day.

I never purchased the Anytime Fare - I always jumped up to the next level, and purchased Business Select. The reasons are that it is usually around a $20 difference and it comes with one of the first 15 boarding spots on the highly-sold plane (so I don't need to buy EBCI or stress about boarding), it comes with rapid rewards bonus points, and it comes with a free drink coupon (a $5 or more value).

I would suggest, changing your ticket to Business Select and watching to see if more WGA tickets are released.
To the bolded..Well...that's not really the case...actually they do get a boarding perk..

Like I mentioned earlier as far as I know it's Business Select, A-list Preferred, A-list, Anytime Fare, EBCI, WGA (without EBCI). So technically the OP having Anytime Fare is put ahead in the system for boarding position ahead of those with WGA and those with EBCI though I would imagine that someone who purchased both Anytime Fare and EBCI would be ahead of a person who just purchased Anytime by itself. I would call that a boarding perk just not as good as Business Select or A-listers.

ETA: Deleted screenshots..realized I was talking about the difference between Business Select and WGA but that's not what the topic was (which was the difference between Business Select and Anytime Fare--my bad lol)
 
I think it's only Anytime *with EBCI* that gets bumped ahead of EBCI. Otherwise, it's 24 hour check-in for Anytime, just like WGA. It doesn't come with (effectively) free EBCI.
 
Yes... customers who have purchased Anytime fares AND EBCI will received priority over "other fare types" (WGA) and ECBI. The question is specifically about EBCI.
 
Here's the relevent EBCI question. EBCI needs to be purchased in order to bump Anytime customers in front of EBCI. (Note that Anytime is not included in "Priority Boarding Privileges" - only Business Select and A-List.)

Sorry I can't get it to embed inline, but the screenshot is attached.
 

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Yes... customers who have purchased Anytime fares AND EBCI will received priority over "other fare types" (WGA) and ECBI. The question is specifically about EBCI.

Here's the relevent EBCI question. EBCI needs to be purchased in order to bump Anytime customers in front of EBCI. (Note that Anytime is not included in "Priority Boarding Privileges" - only Business Select and A-List.)

Sorry I can't get it to embed inline, but the screenshot is attached.

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What I'm saying though is what you initially said doesn't match anything I've read.

Everything I've read said EBCI doesn't get as high of a priority as Anytime fare (unless the passenger has both Anytime Fare and WGA fare).

Why would a company give priority to someone who paid $30 RT for a perk compared to someone who is potentially paying a lot and I mean a lot more for the next fare class up? For example the WGA fares for my September flight are nearly $700 RT less than the Anytime Fares.

I think it's the way SWA words that statement you posted. It's relative to your fare class you purchase not a whole pool of people. So Business Select with Business Select, Anytime Fare with Anytime Fare and WGA with WGA. SWA has a complicated back algorithm working in their system that looks at a variety of things such as fare class purchased, type of fare (i.e. rewards or companion pass), when the fare was purchased, when the EBCI was purchased.

Here's a way one source worded it specifically in their Early Bird Check-in section:
upload_2017-6-23_21-30-39.png


But honestly who the heck knows lol I could totally be wrong for sure it's just multiple sources have stated Anytime Fare has priority over EBCI period.
 
I just purchased an Anytime fare on Southwest (Wanna Get Away is sold out). My understanding is this would give me boarding number higher than anyone with a Wanna Get Away fare even if they have purchased EBCI. Is that correct?
At 36 hours out, Southwest automatically assigns boarding positions to the following passengers in this order: Business Select, A List Preferred, A List, Anytime with EBCI and finally WGA with EBCI. At 24 hours out, the remaining passengers (Anytime without EBCI and WGA without EBCI) get assigned a position based on the time they check in manually. If you buy an Anytime fare but do not purchase EBCI, you must check yourself in 24 hours out. By that time, the WGA+EBCI passengers already have their boarding position assigned and will be ahead of you in the boarding line.

For EBCI passengers, the boarding position is based on fare class. Anytime passengers with EBCI get assigned before WGA passengers with EBCI. Within each fare group, the order is based on when EBCI was purchased. So an Anytime passenger who purchased EBCI just a few days before the flight will be ahead of a WGA passenger who purchased EBCI the day flights first went on sale. So if you purchase an Anytime fare, there is a big advantage to purchasing EBCI because you will be ahead of all the WGA+EBCI passengers regardless of when you purchase EBCI (but you will be behind the Anytime passengers with EBCI who purchased EBCI before you did). ETA: From what I've seen, the Business Select fare is usually about the same price as the Anytime fare plus EBCI so if you needed to purchase a refundable ticket, it would be better to purchase the BS fare rather than the Anytime fare plus EBCI. Boarding positions A1-A15 are reserved for Business Select passengers so you would be at the head of the line, boarding right after any pre-boarders.
 
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And this is why I can't imagine flying Southwest. Yes, the ticket price may be less, but all this hassle about who boards when and how and will I be able to sit with my other half? That stress alone would be too much for me.
 
Mackenzie - again, the screenshot you're posting is the order WITH EBCI. I agree that it's odd given the difference in revenue, but the Anytime fares are paying for refundability - not better boarding position.

My concern with the incorrect statement is that if it's important to OP to have a high boarding position, she needs to add EBCI or be diligent about checking in at 24h - Anytime alone does not give her priority boarding.

LisaS explains it perfectly.

Aquamarine - I fly Southwest almost exclusively and don't find it to be an issue. I've never purchased EBCI... I just check in at 24hrs. Generally, as long as you don't mind sitting behind the wing, there are plenty of seats. I'm usually choosing from full rows or at least sets of two seats together.
 
And this is why I can't imagine flying Southwest. Yes, the ticket price may be less, but all this hassle about who boards when and how and will I be able to sit with my other half? That stress alone would be too much for me.

It's not a hassle at all. I was just curious since I had not purchased this fare before. Not stressful for me. I like flying Southwest.
 
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What I'm saying though is what you initially said doesn't match anything I've read.

Everything I've read said EBCI doesn't get as high of a priority as Anytime fare (unless the passenger has both Anytime Fare and WGA fare).

Why would a company give priority to someone who paid $30 RT for a perk compared to someone who is potentially paying a lot and I mean a lot more for the next fare class up? For example the WGA fares for my September flight are nearly $700 RT less than the Anytime Fares.

I think it's the way SWA words that statement you posted. It's relative to your fare class you purchase not a whole pool of people. So Business Select with Business Select, Anytime Fare with Anytime Fare and WGA with WGA. SWA has a complicated back algorithm working in their system that looks at a variety of things such as fare class purchased, type of fare (i.e. rewards or companion pass), when the fare was purchased, when the EBCI was purchased.

Here's a way one source worded it specifically in their Early Bird Check-in section:
View attachment 246755


But honestly who the heck knows lol I could totally be wrong for sure it's just multiple sources have stated Anytime Fare has priority over EBCI period.

Nothing you've quoted actually says that.

If both passengers purchased EBCI then, yes, the one whose underlying far was Anytime gets priority over the one whose face was WGA. But having Anytime does not give priority over ECBI. Given that ECBI purchasers can their boarding position set 12 hours before those with Anytime (who haven't purchased EBCI) can get theirs (ignoring the "headstart" of having a connecting flight), your theory doesn't make sense (yes, the first 15 are held for Business Select, but nothing is held for Anytime).
 
It's not a hassle at all. I was just curious since I had not purchased this fare before. Not stressful for me. I like flying Southwest.
If you are considering adding EBCI to your Anytime fare ticket, you should look at the cost to upgrade to Business Select. It's often just a few dollars more to purchase Business Select vs Anytime + EBCI. The price difference between those two options is often as little as $7.

With Business Select you don't need EBCI. You will be assigned a seat in the A1-A15 group, get a free premium beverage and receive more reward points due to the higher multiplier you get with a BS fare. Well worth the extra $7.
 

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