Southwest Airlines Raises Early Check-in Fees
If you travel frequently with Southwest Airlines , you are probably familiar with their EarlyBird Check-In program. For a nominal fee, clients can pay for priority boarding. Southwest has just raised this fee by about 20 percent.
The fee increased to $ 15 from $ 12.50, and that’s per person, per ride. So if you choose early check-in for your outbound flight, this will add $ 30 to your ticket price. An airline spokesman told Consumerist:
We revise our prices every few years to meet market and production conditions and to maintain the quality of our offerings. Effective March 14, Southwest is increasing the purchase price of EBCI from $ 12.50 to $ 15 one-way per passenger to meet these goals.
The program assigns boarding points to passengers 36 hours before departure, but this does not necessarily guarantee that they will board first. Frequent A-list flyers still have an edge over EarlyBird customers.
Southwest differs slightly from other airlines in that there are no specific seats. Other airlines have similar ‘seat selection’ fees, and given that carriers strive to remain competitive, it would not be surprising if they followed suit and raised comparable fees.
For more details, head over to the full Consumerist article.
Southwest Airlines Gradually Raises Early Check-In Fees | Consumer