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?

I fly to Nashville every month, sometimes more. There has typically been a direct Southwest flight every morning for years. Sometimes it leaves at 7am, sometimes 630, for a brief heavenly time it left at 830. I always thought it was the perfect time to get you there for the majority of the work day, since it’s about a two hour flight. It was always pretty full, so I assumed that it would be here forever.

Well, when I went to book my flight for this month, the time had changed from departing at 7:30 and arriving at 9:30am to departing at 11:30 and arriving at 1:30pm. 1:30pm! Who, exactly, is that flight designed for? I wouldn’t be able to get to the office until 2:30 at the earliest, which leaves me 2.5 hours of the workday. So my options are to come in the night before (which I HATE doing since I really only need to be there for five or six hours) or take an American flight through Dallas that leaves at 6am and arrives at noon. Awesome.

The last time Southwest changed this flight they at least had an option that left at 6am, stopped in Houston, and got me there at 9:30. But even that one is gone. WTF??? Okay, ending my rant now.

Readers, have you ever had a flight you took regularly change times? What did you do as a result?

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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?

This morning I got to fly on one of Southwest’s Shamu plane. This is actually the second time in a month, which is unusual for me. The best part of it is seeing the kids’ reactions to flying on Shamu. Priceless! Now if only I got to fly on the Texas flag plane….

Lots of news stories today!!

First up: Rand Paul denied.

According to CNN (and a lot of other places), Sen. Rand Paul was turned away from a Nashville airport checkpoint. The body scanner went off, he refused a pat-down, and requested to be allowed to go through the scanner again. That’s not TSA policy, so they didn’t allow him to go any further and he was escorted out of the security area by local law enforcement. He says he was detained, the TSA denies it. Obviously I’m no huge fan of the TSA, and consistency is one of their huge issues. At the same time, it’s a bit gratifying to see them treat a famous person the same way they would treat anyone else. Of course, it may not be the best idea to piss off a senator during a voting session….

Readers, what are your thoughts?

Next:  Southwest is going “eco-friendly”. Or is it?

Southwest is going to be rehabbing the cabins of its massive fleet of 737s, installing lighter seats covered in “fabric more durable than leather,” reducing seat recline, and using recyclable carpet installed in squares. These changes will make the aircraft much lighter, which will save $10 million in fuel costs annually. Know what it will also allow them to do? Add an extra row of seats. Which of course means less legroom and personal space. Seriously, the only thing that is eco-friendly here is the carpet. Everything else is just a way to cram even more passengers onto a plane, reducing the comfort of everyone involved. Sigh. Southwest, I am not a fan of this plan.

Finally: Priceline killing off William Shatner’s “Negotiator” character

I don’t know how I feel about this. I love William Shatner and have enjoyed his Negotiator character, but he has been around for a while…..what do you think?

It’s early in the week, but there are already some interesting travel stories out there.

CNN has an interesting look into the future of airport security. What does the future hold? Well, thermal lie detector tests and cloned drug and illness sniffing puppies, for starters. Yowza!

Worried about keeping clean on the road? MSNBC has a roundup of some very interesting products designed to keep you refreshed, germ free, and, well, less smelly.

Nuts About Southwest has a post with details about Southwest Airline’s long awaited Rapid Rewards Shopping. Today only earn double points when using the portal. Yay shopping!

Coming home from Chicago, Part 2.

I’ve already shared the first etiquette issue I witnessed on Saturday. Well, here is the second. Southwest had the best flight times for Saturday (had to get home for my nephew’s first birthday!), so I flew them home. I really like Southwest—the flight attendants are usually pretty happy, the seats are a little bit bigger, and I typically can get a window seat without too much trouble. Other business travelers I’ve talked to don’t really like their boarding system, but I don’t have a problem with it. Especially now that they have the numbers to go along with the boarding groups.

(For those of you who aren’t familiar, here’s how it works. When you check in, you are assigned a boarding group (A, B, or C) and a number for your place in line. They have everyone line up basically in order for each boarding group, and then once you’re on the plane you choose whatever seat you want. This has always worked fine for me in the past, with no significant issues.)

However, on the last two Southwest flights I’ve taken, there have been issues. Flying to LA, I had place A30. Our group was boarding, the line was moving along, and then it just stopped. I waited a minute, and realized the lady two people in front of me wasn’t moving. “Excuse me,” I said, “are you in the A group?” “No, I’m a B,” she said. Okeydokey. I walked around her and boarded. Of course, it turned out the woman in front of me was also an A, so she followed me. At the time, I just thought, that was weird and kind of rude, but whatever.

Then Saturday happened. I was B23, not a great spot, but what can you do. I was behind a large family, and our group was boarding. And same as last time, it stopped. The family and I waited patiently, as there were several people in front of us waiting to board. Or so we thought. After a couple of minutes, the gate agent said, “Any more B1-30? Nope? Okay, B 31-60 come on down.” I waved my arm. “Wait!” I said. “There are more of us!” Still the line didn’t move, so I just went in front of everyone and boarded. The family followed close behind. Turns out yet another family had gotten in front of them, that were part of the C group. What the heck, people?

Friends, please wait until the gate agent tells you to line up before getting in line. It is frustrating for those of us waiting to board for people to jump in line and then keep us from getting on the plane during our group. This goes for other airlines too. If you are flying American, and you’re in boarding Group 4, please don’t stand up and clog the boarding area until it’s closer to your turn. It is very difficult to maneuver a suitcase through a hundred people to board, when those people won’t be boarding for like ten minutes anyway!

Readers, what are your thoughts on this? Have you experienced people not waiting their turn to board?

Don’t forget about the contest going on through Sunday!! You could win two nights in a Courtyard Marriott.

This past weekend I attended Blog World in LA. I had an amazing time—learned a ton, met a lot of great people, and got super inspired to pump up my blog. But it had a very scary beginning.

Thursday night I flew to LA on Southwest with a reward ticket, stopping in El Paso. The flights were totally fine and normal. I got some good knitting done, did some reading, and took a little nap. On the second flight, once we landed, we taxied for what felt like seven hours (LAX is huge). When we finally got to the gate, I was so stoked to finally be at Blog World and simultaneously so anxious about it that I maybe didn’t pay as much attention to my stuff as I normally do.

Rolling my suitcase behind me (and limping slightly from a yoga injury), I headed outside to the curb to find the Super Shuttle. Since I couldn’t find it and was starting to feel annoyed, I started looking for my phone to call someone to help me find it. My phone wasn’t there. You know that second when your heart feels like it has stopped? Well, I have that a lot with my phone because my purse is so big, so I’ve kind of learned to ignore it. But this time it didn’t go away because my phone wasn’t there. I went inside and pulled everything out, and it still was not there. Now not only had my heart stopped but I was freaking my freak. A million thoughts start racing through my brain. I was in a huge airport with no visible employees. Who to contact? The gate where my plane was sitting was really far away and inside security, and even if I wanted to go back there I didn’t have a boarding pass. Where the heck is the escalator to get upstairs where there are ticketing agents? Southwest usually turns around planes very quickly—what if they’ve already left?? What if I’ve lost my phone before Blog World? I won’t have email or a way to call my husband or a map or…….

These thoughts, and others, swirled through my head as I rushed around searching for someone to help me. Well, “rushed” is a strong word. More like I limped pitifully. After going around some blind corners and random construction, hope beckoned ahead in the form of a man wearing some sort of airport uniform and moving suitcases around. He directed me to the Southwest baggage office (which I would never have found by myself), where I explained my situation while trying not to cry. The baggage agent immediately calls up to the gate and starts to say, “I have a passenger who left her iPhone on the plane.” They interrupted her, she nodded her head as she listened, and smiled at me as she hung up. “They’ve got it,” she says. Hallelujah!!

I will be very, very careful with my phone in the future. This has never happened before! It was definitely the scariest ten minutes I’ve had in a long time. So thank you Southwest! I can’t imagine having to go through Blog World, or any trip, or (let’s be honest) a single day without my phone, and thanks to them I don’t have to.

Readers, have you ever left something important on a plane?

Sunday night, my best friend was flying home from Chicago. She and her boyfriend were on the last flight home, as they wanted to enjoy every minute of their weekend getaway. Everything was going great until they got to the airport. They were so busy with a wedding, seeing friends, and visiting favorite places that they did not check in for their Southwest flight ahead of time. Of course, the flight was overbooked. Because they hadn’t checked in, there was a very real possibility of them not getting on the flight. And my friend had an critical meeting with her boss at 8am Monday morning. Talk about stressful!!

The best advice I have to avoid this in the future is to check in early, as soon as you can. With Southwest, checking in early also gives you a better spot in line, so you can get a better seat. With other airlines, you can at least make sure you have a seat, as sometimes when flights are full  you are not assigned a seat. And if you’re not assigned a seat, you have a better chance of being bumped.

Luckily, my friend was able to get on her original flight. But some people are not so lucky, and do in fact get bumped. Readers, do you have any advice for them?

When the iPhone first came out, I wanted one. A few months later when my brother-in-law got one and came to visit with my sister, and I got to be around it and use the amazing features, I really wanted one. When I went to visit them in San Francisco and my sister had one, I really, really, really wanted one. A few weeks later I somehow lost my crappy POS phone that I had used for over three years. I figured this was a sign, and got an iPhone.

A year and a half later, my iPhone is my second most necessary travel item after my laptop. Not just for the obvious phone, email, internet, and music capabilities (but I use those constantly and they are great!!) but for the apps. Not everything listed here is an official travel app, and is by no means comprehensive, these are just my favorites to use while traveling.

• Tripit. Once you register, it will help you keep track of your trips, alerting you to delays. It also lets you know if anyone in your “group” is traveling near you. Very handy!
• Southwest. Allows you to do all the stuff you can do on their website, but on a handy app.
• YogaNow. Helps you find yoga classes near you.
• Meditation Now 2. Different meditations. I use it on the plane or when I’m trying to sleep. Very helpful!
• White Noise Free. I use this every night!! There are many different “white noises” you can choose from. You can also set a timer. I have found that for hotel rooms that are near the elevator, or have a loud air conditioning unit, or are near a highway, this app is the best. You can drown out the offending noise and get a good night’s sleep.

I’m sure I will think of more to add, and there are certainly more that I use. Anyone have a favorite I missed? I’m always on the lookout for more apps!!