All the information below seems to be dead. SW recently updated their site to include a new page after the checkin page and the scripts don't seem to get past that.
Luckily, AJK found a new option that seems to be better than anything available before - you don't even need to leave your computer running for it to work!UPDATE: This new option doesn't seem to be working either
Update: The userscripts website seems to be down. In case the links below don't work, try the links in parenthesis.)Instructions:
1. Install the script.
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/45170 (
http://userscripts-mirror.org/scripts/show/45170)
2. Go to the Southwest check in page and another box with date and time input field will appear under the standard check in fields.
3. Fill in your confirmation number and name as usual in the first box.
4. In the second box, fill in the date and time that is exactly 24 hours before your flight.
(I usually offset it by a second to allow for any inconsistencies between your computer's clock and the Southwest server clock.)
5. Leave the page open, print out your boarding pass once it checks you in and enjoy your early boarding position.
6. Each passenger needs a separate browser or an incognito window. (Multiple Incognito windows/tabs of the same browser will not count as separate).
This is better kept on the hush hush as Southwest is known to hunt down and shut down these kinds of tricks.
If the above does not work for you, try this:
- Go to
this script
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/151875. (
http://userscripts-mirror.org/scripts/show/151875)
- Under the green Install button on the right, click "How do I use this?".
- Find the section on Chrome and under "Using Tampermonkey" click the link "Chrome's Webstore". This will download Tampermonkey for you.
- Go back to the userscript URL and now click the green Install button. It will install it through Tampermonkey and, at least for me, there was nothing else to do.
- Check out SW's checkin page
http://www.southwest.com/flight/retrieveCheckinDoc.html?forceNewSession=yes and it should show the date/time to checkin.