Flying SWA

[MrShiny]

We'll be flying SouthWest from Midway (couldn't beat their Friends Fly Free offer - worked out to about $130 pp ROUND TRIP).

We've never flown them before - I seem to recall that they don't assign seats.

How does this work - do they give you an assignment when you check in, or do they just let everyone on the plane in the order they arrived?

We'll be with two small kids (3 &7), so we do need to make sure at least each kid has an adult next to them!

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

We also took advantage of SWA promotion for our May trip to WDW/DCL. We'll be flying out of Midway also. I've flown SWA before. They will give you a plastic ticket with a number on it. They will board the plane by saying "Numbers 1-20 may now board."-just like other airlines board rows. If I remember correctly they tell people with small children or those who need assistance to preboard. When you check in make sure they are aware you're flying with small children and that you have to have adjoining seats. We have the same problem-we have 4 year old twins.

[sammi]

That's interesting to know as I was wondering the same thing.:)

When you get your number.....say 45 does that mean that you go to row 45? or just those folks say between 25 and 50 board and they're on their own to find seats together?:confused:

Thanks for your help........Cindy

[KJMAX1]

You know how much Id love it if we could get my daughter sit for our 9 hour plane ride with someone else? LOLOL!!

This will be her first airplane ride and we took advantage of the 99.00 fare each way from Seattle to Orlando!

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

You can sit on the plane anywhere you want-so the answer is yes once your # is called you're on your own to find a seat. It pays to check in early with them. As I said, (I flew a year ago though) I believe they ask people with small children to board 1st. But, I'm sure if you had a small child that needed to sit with you they would make someone move-who'd want to sit next to a kid screaming his head off because his mom had to sit 3 rows behind!!

[Kaa]

You check in at the gate and you are given a boarding card with a number on it for each person in your party. They call you to board by that number. You are free to sit anywhere on the plane. Since you have children under 5 in your party, you are eligible to pre-board. You should mention that you have a child under 5 and they will give you a pre-board card. The rows sit three across on either side of the plane.

[CRCrazy]

Just be sure to check your numbers prior to leaving the check in desk!

Flying SW for the first time from MHT, my family of five checked in and received our boarding passes - Numbers 87,88,89,90,91.

When we went to line up in the little check in lines Numbers 61-90 was at the far right of the room, and 91-130 were at the far left, after 1-30. Oh no, but it gets worse - we gave Daddy number 91 and sent him off to have some quiet childless waiting time, as my five year old (Just barely too old to qualify for pre-boarding) begins to cry, "But I NEED my Daddy!"

Then the announcement comes - your plastic boarding pass MUST match the printed number on your paper ticket confirmation, and your legal ID - no exceptions. I check all the paper tickets and yes - my FIVE year old daughter has number 91! No I will not send her to the other side of a room filled with bikers headed to Daytona Beach for the Daytona 500 by herself! I think it was the only plane to Orlando ever with only one family with children on it! and yes the plane was overbooked. I explained the situation to the boarding clerk as we approached the plane at boarding time, and he said it was fine to have Dad hold pass 91. Then Sarah spotted Daddy in the end of the other line, and started to cry "I need my Daddy!" The boarding clerk looked at my husband and asked "Are you Daddy?" At his embarassed nod, the clerk motioned him to the front of the line, past the glaring bikers, and said "Hop in, we can't have a scared little girl go to Disney World alone, can we?"

Thankfully, as soon as Daddy's little girl had Dad within reach again, she was good as gold, and happily entertained herself for the whole trip to Orlando.

Please be sure to check those boarding passes carefully before leaving the desk - I never want to deal with that again - the flight was great - smooth as silk, but no assigned seating was a little hairy - we were sure to arrive at the airport over two hours early for our return home - no security line hold ups, but we waited in a LONG line for the boarding desk to open - they open only one hour prior to departure.
:Pinkbounc :o :Pinkbounc

[sammi]

Oh my goodness! Poor Sarah......she was probably worried that her daddy was going to get lost!:(

That's such a weird way to arrange boarding isn't it? Why can't they do it the "normal" way...when you check in???? Really dumb......I guess the moral of this story is to make sure you show up early and wait in line. I wonder if we could e-mail SW and give them suggestions? Hmmmmmm.....?????

Thanks for everyones tips!:)

Cindy

[Minnie554]

I cannot stress enough the importance of getting to the airport early if you are flying Southwest. We had no problem getting seats together flying out of Chicago, but had big problems coming home. We, 6 of us in total, arrived at Midway 2 hours early flying out and got #'s 23 - 28. Everything went smooth. When we were to fly home we arrived at the Orlando airport 2 hours early, only to see a 3 block long line at the Southwest check-in. The line snaked in and out and then ran forever. We managed to get to the actual gate about 45 minutes before our flight left, and our numbers were over 100. Myself, my husband, and my aunt were traveling with a 15 year old, 12 year old, and 7 year old. I didn't mind the thought of being seperated from my 2 older kids , but I certainly did not want my shy 7 year old sitting in between strangers. Trying to figure out in my head if we could possibly be seated together, the 2 of us that is, would soon be a moot point. When they called the preboarders, I cannot even tell you how many families stood up. I told my husband I think there are 150 people on this 130 seat plane! It took much moving around and my 7 year olds scared face to get the two of us together, and I just ran around the whole flight checking in with everyone else!

Good luck! And please get there early!
Gina:smooth: ;)

[MrShiny]

Now we do have a 3 year old - does that mean we only copete with the other families with under5 year olds?

[Kaa]

You will be competing with other families with young children, elderly people and those needing assistance to get down the jet way. I wouldn't worry about the competition if you get to pre-board. It really won't be bad at all.

[Anne34]

They don't always allow preboarding on Flights to Orlando out of Midway. We have done this flight 4 times with children under 5 and have never had preboarding. Their reasoning is that most of the people going to Orlando have small children and it is almost impossible to do preboarding for that. We have three children (4, 6, & 8) and we had to ask people to switch to have the kids near us. Just make sure you get to the airport early. They don't start handing out numbers until 1 hour before the flight, but the lines start much earlier. All other destination on SW we have been allowed to preboard.

[emmalgin]

Okay I have a 6 and 9 year old and we are leaving out of Buffalo next Sunday. I flew last year out of Buffalo and is was a breeze at the airport in the morning. No crowds. I am arriving 1:15 minutes early. Am I wrong to cut it that close?????

[CRCrazy]

I think you may want to allow a little more time if that is a busy travel week to Florida. Is it a vacation week, or is there a special event going on? Our trip was the week after school vacation, so there were no outgoing Disney vacationers, but it was the start of Bike Week in Daytona, so the planes were overbooked with bikers. Lots of people, but everyone was very friendly. One man spent half an hour in line telling my husband where to go in Daytona to avoid the police. Little did he know, my husband is a police officer! LOL! We had no intentions of going anywhere but Disney!

We got to Manchester Airport for our infamous flight at 6:35 for an 9:40 am flight - Baggage check in and security lines were fairly long, so I don't believe we reached the checkin line for boarding passes too much before an hour before our flight. As I mentioned, we were already up to the 90's for a 130 capacity plane.

Orlando baggage checkin and security lines went much more quickly, we arrived at the check in desk for boarding passes at least two hours before flight time, and we were still about number 35-40 in line. As we had an hour to wait before we could get our passes, My husband and I took turns standing in the line while the girls (5,11,&13) staked out some chairs and ate lunch, played games and read. Once the boarding passes were issued, we decided to get into line immediately and just sit down on the floor to wait the last hour to be sure we could get seats together. When they finally started boarding the preboarders and numbers 1 through 30, Sarah (5) turned to me and said, "Mommy, this line is just too long to wait for the plane, you should get a FASTPASS." Needless to say, Disney magic worked its joy this trip - the only long line we waited for were the flights to/from Orlando.

Happily, the plane was not overbooked this time, and although fairly full, not every seat was taken, so our family of five had two rows of seats together, and no one even needed the spare seat. Once again, the flight was lovely. Southwest planes are clean, smell fresh and the attendants do a nice job keeping everyone comfortable. I just wish they had a better boarding system!

[MNT568]

I have a pre-boarding question. We are thinking of a fall trip, me, my DS (age 4) and my mom. Will the three of us be allowed to pre-board together or just me and my DS?

[KJMAX1]

Man am I glad I cancelled SW yesterday to buy tickets on American for less than 99.00 each way from Seattle.

[kityrussell]

MNT568 - I don't have children but from what I've seen everytime I've flown SWA (5 times), everyone in the child's party gets to board together. I doubt they want to separate families from traveling together.

[Minnie554]

Everyone in the party with a small child is allowed to board early. We have flown Southwest at least 5 times in the last 3 years, and this is the first time with problems. I think 3 things affected this flight. One, it was super cheap, if I remember right $129 round trip. Two, on our way home, when we got all backed up, it was the only straight through flight to Chicago on that particular day, and three, there are the extra security checks now. After this experience I am definitely going to look for another airline for our next trip. If I can't get anything close in price I will fly Southwest again, but like I said I will get there EXTREMELY early!

Gina

[mickey7861]

We flew SWA once and never will again because of the seating situation. You have to get there EARLY to be sure you'll sit together. We sat 2 and 2 (each adult with 1 child) however about 15 min. before take off a mom with 2 children showed up and there were no 3 seats together left on the whole plane. They had to sit separately. I am a nervous flier to start with and I'd have to reschedule my flight if this happened to me. I'd never take that chance again. The planes were well kept and the flight attendants were great but this seating thing really spooked me.

[CarolA]

emmalgin, you are cutting it WAY TOO close. Security is probably going to take you 5 or 10 minutes (on a good day) and so is baggage check. If at either place you are selected for the random search you will NOT be in line in time to get a good seat (assuming the plane if full!) Airlines are now recommending that you need to be at the airport at least 90 minutes in advance (and that is with assigned seating!)

[bethsg]

I will only fly southwest since it's the best choice out of BWI to MCO, but my beef with Southwest is, while they have numbers... if you are 31 and someone else is say 59, and they call you to line up 30-60, the #59 person, can be in front of you, and in my opinion, that's just simply not fair if I show up to the gate earlier than that person. I mean why put numbers on the card if you are only going to line up by color. We are a family of 6, and it's just nice to be together during the flight. I know that means getting there to get those early numbers, but then I just jump from the check in at the gate to the correct line marker at the gate door, and sit on the floor for that next hour. So just because you are 30 and someone else is at the higher end of your boarding group, doesn't mean you get to get on first...

[Tense]

I've flown SWA countless #'s of times. YES... you need to get to the boarding area early. Only on this last flight did I ever have a problem. The problem is with PEOPLE having the I must be FIRST metality! Granted you odds of sitting together if you have a large group is not good if you come late to the boarding area... HOWEVER if you book with Delta IE. you might not sit together either. We needed to return a rental car by 12:00pm and our flight wasn't until 2:35pm We arrived at the gate at 12:30pm and there were a few people sitting around waiting. 5 min later this woman shows up and parks her butt right at the boarding desk to be #1 in line! SWA will not give out boarding passes until 1:35pm SOOO now everyone starts to trickle up to the lineand STAND /sit on the floor for 1 hour minimum, just because SHE has formed the line so early. I had the unfortunate problem that my 8year old DD was SICK (vomitting) for the last day of the vacation , and was still sick waiting for the plane, so I dragged myself up to the line when I saw it 20 deep, all I wanted was to be in the first boarding section so I could be by the bathroom for her sake......ok LONG story short(I'll try) .As we were in line..I could see people filter over to the boarding area NOW! So I told my DH to put our DD at the 1-30 with her backpack and just wait for us. I thought #1 in line was going to have a stroke! no lie! She couldn't run fast enough over to the boarding area, Darn near butted my DD out of the way, and parked herself on her little stool, and was giving my DH death looks. I could see her talking to my DD. I minute or so later I went up to her and asked what the problem was. She had told my DD SHE HOPED that security would check my husband AND BUMP him off the plane. She also informed me that I needed a boarding pass BEFORE I stood there, I told her I had my boarding pass and SWA has open boarding. I also explained WHY I wanted to get on the plane early... NOT FOR THE SAKE OF BEING 1st, but because my DD was SICK. AND I didn't want her throwing up on ANYONE! SHE then told me I should have pre boarded (which I didn't think to ask, but I knew it was for small children and handicapped, which we were neither). I told her she could go on before us, and that still didn't make her happy. SHE REALLY hoped we'd get bumped. WHAT a nasty woman. Well, she boarded before us, and sat in row 7 or so go figure plenty was opened before that! We did sit in the 1 seats, and a good thing BECAUSE on take off DD threw up, and the stewardess were very helpful, and she was SICK the whole flight. I was nervous flying with her to begin with, BUT the woman made me a nervous wreck. I love SWA... but after this experience with this woman, I don't think I want to do open boarding again. It's too stressful.

[barbnbrian]

What a terrible experience. I think I would have purposely sat DD Near Her so that if she vomited during the flight, it might have been on her!

[emmalgin]

Thanks, but I'm still not convinced. I have been to Buffalo Airport last year (yes pre 9/11) and they seldom do seating prior to 30 minutes prior to flight. Sunday morning I expect to be very quiet in a small airport. I even checked the SW website and there are still 'Friends Fly Free' seats available.

I will arrive at 6:30 - 6:45 but still think I'm going to be waiting around for nothing. Also the flight is only 2:30 minutes.

[emmalgin]

Also at Buffalo, SW has curbside checkin, where last time it took less then 2 minutes. Can't at all envisage needing more then 1:15 minutes to checkin.

6 days and counting......

[Tense]

Check in should only be a few minutes at best... WE're all talking about boarding passes. Once you check in you will be given a gate number. You walk to the appropriate gate and THERE is where you need to line up and WAIT for your boarding pass. Unlike other airlines that issue your boarding passes at check in, SWA DOES NOT. So once you get done with check in ,high tail it to the gate, because that's where your wait will be.

[emmalgin]

Fortunately the flight is only 2.5 hours. We'll survive.

[Tense]

Have you ever flown SWA out of Buffulo? If you have then you know your airport. If you haven't SWA needs some getting used to because IT IS different from all other airlines. Good luck!

[emmalgin]

Just did United. However it is a Sunday AM flight and there are still tickets available on their site (including Friends Fly Free program). I will prepare for the cattle call, but fairly confident that it should be okay. Kids are pretty good and I can try pre-boarding with the 6 year old.

When do they board? I thought boarding is usually 30 minutes prior......

My only worry is overbooking.....

[Tense]

SWA starts actually boarding the plane startint with the pre boards roughly 30 minutes before flight time... Preboard is for children under 5, and they will have your childs name and birth date in the computer, so you can't prebaord because to do so they give you a special blue ticket along with you boarding pass. So even if you tell them you want to pre board, they won't let you because you child is too old. I've found that unfortunatley the line for boarding passes generally forms around 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours prior to the flight. SWA will BEGIN handing out boarding passes at exactly 1hour prior to the flight. People know this and that's why the line forms so early. I think it was better before 9-11. Now since people get to the airport so early for security checks, they tend to get to the boarding gates earlier and this is why I believe the lines are forming sooo much earlier.

[Tense]

SWA starts actually boarding the plane startint with the pre boards roughly 30 minutes before flight time... Preboard is for children under 5, and they will have your childs name and birth date in the computer, so you can't prebaord because to do so they give you a special blue ticket along with you boarding pass. So even if you tell them you want to pre board, they won't let you because you child is too old. I've found that unfortunatley the line for boarding passes generally forms around 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours prior to the flight. SWA will BEGIN handing out boarding passes at exactly 1hour prior to the flight. People know this and that's why the line forms so early. I think it was better before 9-11. Now since people get to the airport so early for security checks, they tend to get to the boarding gates earlier and this is why I believe the lines are forming sooo much earlier.

[emmalgin]

but outside the numbers this is no different then any charter I've ever taken. Never are seats preassigned and there are always crowds and the worst is you have to do the checkin, baggage and sear assignment at the same time.

Check any charter in Toronto on a Saturday morning at 6:00 am and it is a zoo.....

Can't expect much different?????

[GAIL HAYDEN]

If you use curb side check in, tip the sky cap, there are only two lines to wait in, one is the scanner line and the other line is to get your number.
The order of preboarding in Hartford and Orlando is: elderly, people with special needs and then children under 4 or 5 (seems to depend on the day of the week and where the departure is from).
I don't see them changing this way of boarding, it has worked for them for better than 28 years. Personally, they are my number one choice for flying.

[Charleneluvsdisney]

Emmalgin,

My family has used SW out of Buffalo for the past 2 years. 1 1/2 hours should be plenty of time to get through security and get your boarding passes. My family of 3 ended up in the second boarding group this year, but we had an afternoon flight. We were still all able to sit together. Last year we were in the first boarding group and left on the 8:00 a.m. flight.
Coming home this year was a different story - 1 1/2 is not enough time to get through everything in the Orlando airport. We were in the last boarding group and I was lucky enough to get a seat diagonal from my 5 year old son and my husband. By the way - our trip was in mid march during spring break.

[emmalgin]

Was waiting for someone from Buffalo to answer. I think we'll arrive at 6:45 for the 8:00 flight. Just some people scared me with comments about 2 hours +.

5 days and counting......

[dgaston]

Have used SWA extensively in the past week due to a death in the family. Flew out of PVD, BNA, HOU, and Midway. Even when my 18 year old DD and I had seats 95 and 96 on a full flight we were able to find two seats together in the rear of the plane. I saw preboarding of families with children under 4 "and anyone needing extra time to board" on each flight.

[bootc3]

Has anyone flown SWA out of Indy? We are flying in August. Have a group of 5 adults and 1 (5yo) child. Does everyone have to wait in line for boarding passes or can one person in our group? Also, does anyone know if SWA has curbside check-in at Indy airport? Thanks:D

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Everyone, except for children, have to wait in line for the boarding passes as they check you id, again.
As to curbside, you can find that out by accessing http://www.southwestair.com/travel_center/travelAdvisory.html#curbside