I have used their $10 extra for them to check you in early. Guess what...my sister who did NOT pay extra was A 32...I paid for the early check in and was B 5..Go figure.

What does A32/B5 stand for? Not the placement in the plane, unless they have a strange numbering system?

@DebitNM - thanks for explaining the Thanksgiving sale, I'll be sure to check them out next time. Plotting our next trip now...probably in January, Austin maybe ?

Too bad they don't fly to Hawaii, sorry for the OT, is there a Southwest an equivalent to fly to Hawaii ?

Southwest has A, B, and C letters issued for the order in which you board the plane. All the A's go first, then all the B's and then C;s. So A 35 is way before my B 5 for which I paid extra.

Every time that I have paid the extra $10, I have gotten A15 or so. Not sure how that happened to you.

I normally check myself in from home and always get in the A group (I think maybe one B since they started on-line check in)

But when on a leisure trip (sans laptop, gadgets/gear) I often pay the $10 so I don't have to worry about finding an internet connection or interrupting something fun. The worst I've ever ended up w/ Earlybird was A26. But it might make a difference which routes one is on.

I play 24 hour roulette. I can do that anywhere now with my Iphone. Usually get in the A25 to A35 range.

webvan: no reserved seats. You can go online 24 hours before and check in and get your place in line, that's what A, B, and C refer to.

We don't carry a lot on, but still want to get a little room in the overhead bins, and a decent aisle and middle seat; amd looking for someone in a window seat not wearing a short sleeve shirt and hairy arms to sit next to (well, at least that bothers my husband -- maybe it's because there's a possibility of sharing the armrest or body spillage). He gets weirded out by that stuff.

@webvan - they used to fly to Hawaii, sigh, stopped a few years ago.

When you check in online, you get a boarding assignment. People board in 3 groups A goes first, then B and then C. Within those groups, you get a number, 1 - 60 which further defines where you are in the group and where you will stand when you "queque" up to actually board.

This pretty much assures a fairly smooth procedure.

Once the gate agent scans your boarding pass [which you can either print at home when you checkin online - or at the counter at airport] you get on the plane and grab whatever seat appeals to you.

If you don't have bags to check in, print pass at home and go directly to security - much faster than getting boarding pass at airport. Not sure, some airports might have sep. kiosks to print passes so you don't have to wait online with those checking in bags; ours doesn't.

Odd, we fly between Boston and the west coast of FL often but never SW bcs their fares are always much higher than others. We do Air Tran, Delta and Jet Blue depending on price and schedule and our dates are always flexible. I have never checked SW for other routes but based on looking several times a yr for the mentioned route, we have never chosen them. I realize comparing is often apples vs oranges with baggage fees, no baggage fees, seat fees or not so one has to factor all that in but, even given that, they are way higher and I have never figured out why they are so popular. They must be more competitive on other routes.

Like all airlines, Southwest has certain routes or service areas that they are usually the cheapest - and that would be here in the southwest.

They are headquartered in Dallas, so flights going through Dallas tend to be cheap.

Our home airport is Albuquerque and for us, it is one of the best schedules and prices. We don't have Jet Blue, nor Air Tran. Flying to Calif, Seattle, Phoenix, Denver, and even eastcost FL and NY/Boston Southwest is consistently the lowest fare.

We also have SW Visa card and we get free flights very quickly, so often we don't even have to pay anything for at least one ticket, sometimes 2.