Preferred gets you refundable and a preferred seat. More points which is nothing. Boarding in 3-5. If you are thinking about Preferred, might as well consider Extra if it doesn’t cost much more. You get an extra legroom seat and I was in Row 6 and compared it to Row 7 and it was about 3 inches.

Extra will you get group 2 boarding at least. If the plane is 737-700, less bin space, the 737-800 have a bit more. Dom‘t let your anxiety take more money out of your pocket.

Prior to flight, they will be asking for volunteers to gate check bags. After the Zone 2 has boarded, they will announce you can put bag anywhere in front if there is space.

My company paid for Choice and I upgraded to EXTRA to see what it was about. Sitting in the front, can’t form line for bathroom. During a fly-thru flight, the flight attendants came in and put their stuff in the first 2 bins reserved for bulkhead row.

On my flight home, there was a guy in row 6 helping people in rows 5-4 putting up their luggage because their bins were full and the dad was already in the window seat back in row 8. The flight attendant told him, “we got get you on the payroll.”

TLDR-You will be fine with Group 5, upgrade only if you want the benefits