We came across this bording pass service for Southwest on BoardFirst.com. For the price of $5 per seat a boarding pass is provided ahead of time. Has anyone used this service before and is it a legit organization? Obviously we are not concerned about the cost involved but since we have to provide them with personal information i.e. credit card no. etc. we are ascertaining their legitmacy.

How long before day of departure can we acquire a boarding pass from this company? We are flying SW this coming June

jet29..............I have heard of these guys but have no personal experience and I dont know anyone who has.You can go online EXACTLY 24 hours prior to your flight and print your BP.This could change between now and June, but Southwest is not likely to.I would not do it as it is something I can easily do myself.

Go on line and print out your own boarding pass and save the $5. It's been my experience that if you do print it out within 24 hours before the flight, you get an "A" boarding pass that lets you board with the first group.

On a return flight, most hotels have a business center where you can go on line and print out your boarding pass first thing in the morning. Just make sure you have your confirmation #.

Pay someone to do what you can do yourself?? Doesn't make sense to me.

Just check in from home -- or from the hotel if you are on the road.

meant to add - while you CAN check in up to 24 hours in advance - you don't have to do it that early if it is a really inconvenient hour.

I usually take early a.m. flights on Southwest so I check in the afternoon/evening before. For a late afternoon or evening flight I usually check in when I get up in the morning. Have always been in group A.

jet29, you were very smart to check this out before just taking their word for it that this is a good service. I wonder how many people are foolish enough to think this is a good deal. I hate to see these people getting rich by making it look like they are they are providing a service that the average person cannot do for themselves. This "service" might be legal, but it's still a scam.

That boarding pass service won't get you a specific seat assignment. Southwest just doesn't offer seat assignments.

Why is this service "a scam"???? there are lots of 'services' that provide things to people, for a price, which they could otherwise do themselves...hauling their own bags comes to mind.

I think the service is not a scam as long as people understand what it offers. It does not offer you any better seating than you would get yourself checking in 24 hours ahead of time. I think this sort of service made more sense (if any) back when Southwest wouldn't let you checkin online until 12:01AM the day of your flight. Unless you absolutely cannot get near a computer 24 hours before checkin and think it's worth $5 to get in the A group, I don't see how this service is worth anything.

Andrew

Unless you do not have internet access and a computer to check yourself in & print your boarding pass 24 hours before your flight, I don't see that this service provides anything more than you can get on your own.

SW does not assign seats, only 'preboarding' and groups A, B, then C.

Just show up with crutches and let them wheelchair you to the gate so you can preboard and get an seat up front.

OK, maybe rip-off would be a more accurate description.

I look at it this way. If a person has enough computer skills to go on line and order this service, then I see no reason why they can't print out their own boarding pass. I see it as a rip-off because I can't understand why such a person would pay someone else to do something for them that's so easy. But to each their own.

Now that we have our answer, we have another question.

If we were flying from home we wouldn't need this service but being that we'll be travelling and perhaps not have access to the Net with a printer at our hotel, we will require a place i.e. Internet cafe in which to print out our boarding pass. The hotel we are considering in San Diego doesn't have any public PC with Internet connection and they suggest that we use Kinko's services. Anyone know if Kinkos provide this type of service?

I can't believe the hotel doesn't have capability for that. Even at Hampton Inns and LaQuintas I've been invited to use the manager's office to print things off from the web (if there is no business office or if the lobby computer is down). I would ask at the front desk if you could use on of the office computers to print a boarding pass.

But, to answer your question, yes. You can access the web on a Kinko's computer and print anything you want. Put a credit card in the reader to access the web and printing is usually 49cents a page.

SW allows to pring boarding passes 24 hrs before the flight. Sure you can do it yourself!

BoardFirst will provide a pass? How will they give it to you? E-mail? FedEx overnight?

Even that will only put you in group A - same as you'd done it yourself. They will not treat you like a celebrity getting you in with the pre-boarding crowd.

jet29, I do not know what kind of hotel you will be staying in while traveling, but even the least expensive hotels will have internet service, either free or cheap. My hotel budget is generally less than $100/night, and I can't remember the last time I stayed in a hotel that didn't provide internet service. That's because most people expect it these days.

SW's check-in time used to be 12:01am on the date of travel, but that has recently been changed to 24 hours before flight time.

I've heard it said that you don't need a printer to check in with Southwest online. At least, you can check in then "lose" your boarding passes and get new ones at the airport, but I think that preserves your standing in (presumably) group A.

Andrew

Andrew makes a good point. For my most recent flights, I did the early online check-in and printed boarding passes - but opted to print out new passes at the airport at the kiosk when I was checking my luggage.

Absoultely correct...You check in on line, get your Griup A status,get your BP's at the airport....So I could check you in as far as that goes!!