Mount question - what lvl and how summon

I have the collectors edition and therefore already got a mount.

How do I summon a mount?
I have reached level 20 with one of my chars and want to summon my mount but I can click on both, also the fat yellow one, and nothing happens.

Somehow I remember there was a 'whistle' in the collectors items stuff. But all that went into my inventory and then I pressed use on all of it. Now I cannot find the whistle, nor some kind of coat thing that was also there for the mount, that has mysteriously disappeared.

Anyway, so how do I mount my mount?

Kill Ifrit, join a Grand Company, get 2000 company seals, buy chocobo permit. This unlocks access to all mounts.

Even though you used the item to call a mount, the actual ability to actually call a mount to ride isn't unlocked until you've cleared a certain point in the main storyline where you have to join one of the Grand Companies.

After enlisting you then have to do FATES for Grand Company seals, which are like a currency which you use to buy things from the Grand Company Quartermaster vendor. This vendor sells an item called 'Chocobo Issuance' for 2000 Grand Company seals.

After purchasing this issuance, you then have to speak to the Grand Company Commander nearby for a quick quest called 'My Little Chocobo' (this quest requires the Issuance you just bought to complete) which at the end of it gives you a chocobo mount that you can name, and which also unlocks the ability to ride mounts, including all other mounts you may have acquired. Confusing and convoluted I know, but that's how SE made it sadly.

If you open your Actions and Traits menu you will find your mounts listed there.
The bardings you obtained are now in their own inventory, available to you once you are able to access your Companion menu.

As others have said, in order to be able to use mounts freely, you first have to get far enough in the main storyline.
The posters above go into detail so I won't.

For the Companion bit....
All it means is that you will be able to summon your chocobo to fight along side you.
The quest to unlock Companion mode requires you to hit lvl 30 in a DoW or DoM. Then head to Camp Tranquil.

Thanks very much for the advice. Wow, they really make you jump through hoops to get it, as if it is not bad enough all this running around. That is what is getting to me in this game. I hate to have to waste time running all over the place! Sometimes I just sit and think "do I really want to do this?"

If you've been participating in F.A.T.E.s while doing the main story, you could already have the 2,000 seals required without even knowing.

No they wouldn't. You don't get seals from fates until after you join a Grand Company.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HopeXIV

Wow, they really make you jump through hoops to get it, as if it is not bad enough all this running around.

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I was thinking exactly the same unlocking the mounts on all of my 8 alts (5 unlocked so far ...)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ROFL-kopter89

If you've been participating in F.A.T.E.s while doing the main story, you could already have the 2,000 seals required without even knowing.

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Nope - you can't gain GC seals before you actually join GC.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HEC

Nope - you can't gain GC seals before you actually join GC.

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Whoops, my mistake. I earned them that fast I assumed I already had a small pile beforehand...

How do you actually earn the other types of mounts besides the chocobo?