Southwest recently added a new way to board early. Customers can pay $40 to board in an available Business Select space (A1-15) within 45 minutes of a flight. So let’s say there are only 6 Business Select customers on a flight, and A7-15 are available boarding spots. 45 minutes before departure you could pay $40 to get one of those spots. If all of the Business Select spots are taken, it won’t be offered. You don’t get any Business Select perks except boarding with that group. (official press release)

The reactions seem to be mixed. People with A-list or A-list Plus feel that the value of the status has been diminished now that random people can just take those top spots. One example given on the FlyerTalk forum was that someone who purchased a $79 fare can pay $40 and board immediately after the guy who paid $400 for a Biz Select fare.

Here are my thoughts:

• If you feel that you need one of the best seats in the plane (exit row, bulkhead, etc) it may be worth it.
• If you had to change your flight and had a C boarding pass it may be worth it.
• Yes, it devalues SW elite fliers somewhat.

HOWEVER

• I don’t think it will be used that often. $40 seems like a lot, per segment. Your casual flier likely won’t be willing to fork out that much.

If your goal is to try to get an exit row seat, it seems a bit of a crapshoot.  Unless you know for sure what spot you would get, and that there are no thru passengers, there’s a good chance your $40 would be wasted.  If all you care about is an aisle (or window) seat most A boarding passes will get you that.  I don’t plan on taking advantage of it unless I’m feeling really terrible and have a bad boarding pass.

Check out the FlyerTalk forum about it here. It’s very interesting to see the frequent flier reactions. (Although if you don’t have a ton of time I don’t recommend it—I always get sucked into the various discussions and before you know it two hours have passed!)

Readers, what do you think? Does this de-value Southwest elite fliers? Will you take advantage of it?

Southwest is running a promo right now where you can get an extra 4,000 Rapids Rewards points on roundtrip Business Select flights. Depending on how much your ticket costs, you could get almost enough for a free flight from one trip! You can earn 2,000 bonus points for one way Business Select flights.

I know not all of us have the ability to choose Business Select fares when choosing our flights (myself included), but if you get the opportunity to fly Biz Select, this is a great promotion. Often you will have the opportunity to upgrade your ticket when you check in, and if it’s not a huge amount it may be worth it to pay out of pocket. For example, two weeks ago I flew to San Jose. Because I bought my ticket at the very last minute (literally about three hours before my flight left thanks to the tornadoes in DFW), it was an “Anytime Fare.” I ended up upgrading to Biz Select for $22. Now, unfortunately this was before this promotion started (dangit!), but I think it would have been well worth the $22 for the extra 2000 points I would have gotten. I just did it for the better placement in the boarding line.

Don’t forget, you have to register for this promo. It seems to be another promotion that everyone should sign up for, even if they don’t know for sure they’ll be able to use it. Because it won’t hurt, and you may get a ton of extra points! Promo runs from now until May 29.

Hooray promotions! Readers, have you heard of any other great opportunities for extra points lately?