So, today I got an email from Southwest Air reminding me that my trip is right around the corner. I appreciate that. What I don't appreciate is the sales pitch! Southwest Air has one of the most inclusive airfares. Bags of any kind up to a reasonable limit are not extra, etc. But, they do charge extra to do online check in and print a boarding pass more than 24 hours in advance. That is really what the nice reminder email was about, a sales tool to get me to pay $10 per person (per segment as far as I could understand!). So, I could have spent an additional $40 to print boarding passes for Clay and I today for the 2 flights it will take us to get to Portland. Sorry, Southwest. I will just wait and do it 24 hours in advance. And as I understand it from reading the website, then I will get to log on twice that day because when it is 24 hours in advance of the first flight, it is too early for the connecting one! Really once all the inconvenience and possibly the Early Bird Booking fees are considered, one or more of the other major carriers was priced quite comparably to Southwest. We'll see how we feel about it after all is said and done. But, for today still a little peeved.
UPDATE:
So, notwithstanding how the SW website described the instructions for online checkin, I only had to log on once to print boarding passes for both segments. So that was good news! Still no idea how the $10 charges are for Early Bird, per segment, etc. and I won't be finding out!
