As someone that frequently travels with a large carry-on to help transport my photography gear, I’m a frequent user of some of Southwest’s optional fees. Unfortunately, news that Southwest sends ancillary fees soaring puts into question how much longer I’ll be able to do so, especially if and when my travels pick up again.
If you’ve never flown on Southwest Airlines before, it’s worth noting that this all economy class carrier doesn’t offer assigned seating. So, to differentiate its fare classes, Southwest offers different perks. For its most expensive fare, Business Select, passengers are assigned a boarding position of A1 to A15, while the next most expensive fare, Anytime, comes with Early Bird Check-In. There are other perks to these two fares, including higher point accrual rates, but they’re the only two with boarding position perks, as Wanna Get Away+ and Wanna Get Away get none.
However, even if you’re booked into one of the two lower fare classes, you can still enjoy Early Bird Check-In and/or Upgraded Boarding by paying for the privilege. Typically, the fees for these “upgrades” haven’t been obscene. However, as Southwest sends ancillary fees soaring, the potential for them to become untenable is quite high now.
Southwest Sends Ancillary Fees Soaring
Now, not everyone might see a change as Southwest sends ancillary fees soaring. It’s worth noting that the fee’s base rates aren’t changing. So, Early Bird Check-In’s base rate remains at $15, while Upgraded Boarding’s base holds steady at $30. What is changing, though, is the upper limit of what Southwest might charge for those perks. For Early Bird Check-In, the maximum price is jumping from $25 to an eye-watering $99. With Upgraded Boarding, we seeing an increase from $80 to $149.
It’s worth reminding that for both of these ancillary fees, pricing is per person and per segment. So if, for example, you’re flying from HNL to OAK to DEN, you’ll need to pay separate fees for the HNL to OAK flight and again for OAK to DEN, even if both segments were booked as a single itinerary.
How to Avoid These Fees
The vast majority of Southwest’s passengers don’t pay these fees or play check-in roulette. For those not familiar, outside of paying for boarding positions, they’re assigned at check-in based on how early you check in. Typically, passengers can check themselves in beginning 24 hours before their scheduled departure time, with the earliest check-ins usually receiving A Group positions. For Early Bird passengers they’re automatically checked in 36 hours before departure, which usually (but not always) gets them an A16 to A60 position. This is why I typically buy Early Bird, especially since Upgraded Boarding isn’t always available (though neither is Early Bird).
Of course, with the prices for these fees potentially going up by quite a bit, being able to enjoy them while avoiding paying for them would be nice, right? Well, you’re in luck because there are ways to do exactly this!
Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Card
Oh yeah, this was a given, right? Credit cards are going to be the primary way to get these perks for “free,” even as Southwest sends ancillary fees soaring.
This first example, Southwest’s cheapest credit card, carries a $69 annual fee. I’m not going to cover the full list of benefits, but it does come with 3,000 points free every cardholder anniversary (worth at least $42) and two Early Bird Check-Ins per year (worth at least $30). Those two benefits alone completely wipe out the annual fee of this card, and as Southwest sends ancillary fees soaring, it could provide a heck of a lot more value, depending on how exactly you value that Early Bird Check-In perk.
Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Card
In the middle of the pack in terms of Southwest’s co-brad credit cards is the Premier card, which carries a $99 annual fee. However, for that fee, you get 6,000 points every cardholder anniversary (worth at least $84) plus the two Early Bird Check-Ins per years (worth at lest $30) for a minimum value of $114, which surpasses the annual fee by a good bit.
Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Card
This is the card I carry, which, unfortunately, doesn’t cover Early Bird Check-Ins. However, it does give you a number of Upgraded Boardings – four, to be specific, which comes in at a minimum value of $120 per year – and $75 in Southwest travel credits each year. The card also awards you 7,500 points every cardholder anniversary, which is worth at least $105. So, how much does this card cost? $149 per year. Which is nothing compared to the minimum $300 value the card provides every year.
Again, the above valuations are based on the named benefits only and exclude others, such as in-flight purchase statement credits, points earnings, etc., though these benefits alone make the cards quite compelling.
Booking a Higher Fare Class
If you really don’t want one of Southwest’s great credit cards, another avenue you can take is to book a higher fare class to avoid fees as Southwest sends ancillary fees soaring. Remember that Business Select automatically comes with an Upgraded Boarding boarding position, while Anytime fares comes with Early Bird Check-In. Both fares do come with other perks, too, such as free Wi-Fi for Business Select passengers, and the ability to refund your fare or make changes without incurring fare difference charges. However, these benefits do come at a cost.
Below is a sample inter-island flight fares. This one specifically is for Honolulu to Lihue.
As you can see, the fare difference is quite a bit – nearly double when going from Wanna Get Away to Business Select. In fact, the difference is so great that if you’re doing it purely for an Upgraded Boarding position, it likely doesn’t make sense for a non-stop flight. That said, if your flight has more than one segment, then it begins to make more sense, as the Upgraded Boarding fee is charged per segment (though I don’t know who the hell would ever fly HNL-OGG-LIH, but this is just an example).
Things make a little more sense if you’re going for Early Bird Check-In, which is part of the Anytime fares above, all of which are just $20 more than the base Wanna Get Away fare. That makes the fare just $5 more than Wanna Get Away + Early Bird Check-In purchase separately, though it’s worth reminding that both Upgraded Boarding and Early Bird Check-In can cost much more than their base prices, which would definitely change the calculus. Unfortunately, you don’t know what these charges are going in, so whatever you end up doing will be a gamble.
Southwest Sends Ancillary Fees Soaring, Final Thoughts
Honestly, even though Southwest sends ancillary fees soaring, it isn’t enough to make me go running back to Hawaiian. For the same flight, Hawaiian charges the same base fare. Then, to get priority boarding (and extra legroom), you have to upgrade to Extra Comfort for $9, PLUS you have to pay $15 for your checked bag ($30 if you aren’t a HawaiianMiles member, but why wouldn’t you just join?). That’s an extra $24 in fees, which comes out more than the base Early Bird Check-In fee AND Southwest’s Anytime fare. Plus, remember, Southwest gives you TWO free checked bags, whereas Hawaiian charges another $20 for your second (if you need it).
Now, might I change back to Hawaiian if Alaska’s acquisition closes? Maybe. But thanks to the value Southwest offers me, especially with my co-brand credit card, their value proposition remains tough to beat – even as Southwest sends ancillary fees soaring!