Southwest Seat Assignment

[sam_gordon]

Originally Posted by mom2cgj

Sorry to hijack this thread, but we are considering SWA for our flight, and I'm confused by the check-in process. I don't fly much, so please bear with me!!! With SWA, do you check-in online? Usually my DH flies Delta for work, and I don't think he does anything more than check in at the airport a couple of hours before his flight. I'm assuming you aren't sitting in the airport for 24 hours, though! So if you can check in 24 hours early online, what exactly is the benefit of EBCI? I was thinking about using it, but now I'm not sure. We will be a family of 5. Any advice?

Depending on the ages of your kids, it might be worth paying for EBCI (even for a couple of you).

As the OP mentions, they checked in right at the 24 hour mark and got low B's. Looking at the list carl posted, with a 'B50' assignment, that only leaves between 12 & 60 "empty" seats boarding after you. IMO, if it's the former, that's not enough to guarantee finding seats together. Even if it's a plane that seats 137, there'll only be 27 seats empty... those can all be middle row.

Of course, there's no guarantee you'll get a low B by checking in 24 hours ahead... you might even get an 'A' number.

In my opinion, I would pay for EBCI for however many people MUST sit together. For example, if one of your kids is <7, and the rest are all teenagers, I'd get two EBCI's... one for the youngest and one for an adult. The rest are on their own.

[jayhawk74]

SWA planes have the following seating:
737-300- 137 seats onboard
737-500- 122 seats onboard
737-700- 137 seats onboard
737-800- 175 seats onboard

SWA is converting the 737-700s to what they are calling the Evolve seating. That means those aircraft have 143 seats on board but because of the new seat design the legroom is the same as on the 737-500.
Here is the seat pitch of each aircraft. The info came from a SWA employee magazine.
AirTran 717 - 29"
AirTran -700 - 30"
SWA -300 - 32"
SWA -500 - 31"
SWA -700 (non-Evolve) -32"
SWA -700 (Evolve) - 31"
SWA-800 - 32"

[daughtryfan114]

Originally Posted by carl59

SWA planes have the following seating:
737-300- 137 seats onboard
737-500- 122 seats onboard
737-700- 137 seats onboard
737-800- 175 seats onboard

Medical pre board are the first group on.
Group A - Business Select are next: 1-15 (Most times, little to no boards).
Rest of Group A: 16-60.
Family pre board are next.
Group B: 1-60
Group C: 1-#

Just flew from Phl to Mco Saturday and thsts exactly how boardong went. I was A60.