UPDATE 2, December 3, 2007: Southwest issued cease-and-desist orders to the last of the remaining sites. Looks like the automated check-in game is over.

UPDATE: As of October 2007, most third-party services offering Southwest automated check-in have folded. See here for the update. Of the services mentioned below, only PlaneFast is still offering the service for a donation, not a fee. The remainder of this post follows, as originally published.

Since Southwest Airlines doesn’t have assigned seating, but assigns boarding areas on the basis of how early you check in to your flight, it’s long been known that an early check-in (preferably online) is the key to getting a good seat. So a cottage industry developed, with websites such as boardfirst.com, apassonly.com, and alineonline.com offering the service of checking you in automatically at the first possible moment, to guarantee you one of the approximately 45 boarding passes in group A. (Reminds me of sniping sites that put in bids for you at the last second on eBay.)

Of these three sites, only APassOnly.com has caved to the legal pressure, and is no longer accepting new customers. Go ahead and use the other sites if you like. They charge about $5 per use.

Southwest apparently doesn’t like anyone getting the automated upper hand, so they’re suing these sites (WSJ – subscription required). Their suit names “fraud, unfair competition and trademark infringement, among other things.” In particular, Southwest suggests that these other firms are violating the terms and conditions of the website — they are accessing passenger records as non-family third parties.

The argument is specious. I’m not sure if the airline is getting complaints from too many Group B ticketholders, or if they’re just control freaks. But the services are working on behalf of the ticketholders, at the ticketholders’ request — I would argue that they’re authorized users of the website as a result. And if you have an open seating policy (which I find awful to begin with) then you’re always going to find people looking to beat the system. Don’t like that? Then allow assigned seats. Most people I know prefer to know where they’re sitting.

In the meantime, if you’re flying Southwest, auto-check-in or not, and you’re looking for the best seats, print the SeatGuru seatmap and target a nice aisle or window. (Caveat: The map is for the 737-300, not the newer 737-700. If you see winglets jutting up at the end of the wings, you’re on your own…)

(Update June 8, 2006: Reader VS reports that PlaneFast, another service offering automated check-in, is still up and running — and that they’re FREE to use. The site works on a donation basis, not a fee.)

(Update June 18, 2006: Reader Marie e-mails me another site that offers “A” boarding passes: Fly A Today charges $5.95 and claims a 99.6% rate of getting the A pass.)

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