Southwest Boarding Passes

[luvdisney14]

Does anyone know anything about being able to print boarding passes the day you travel? Does them mean no waiting in line to be an A, B, C?

 

[~Kathie]

Does anyone know anything about being able to print boarding passes the day you travel? Does them mean no waiting in line to be an A, B, C?

If you purchased your tickets online, you can print your boarding passes online beginning 12:01 am the day of your flight. You need to have your confiramtion number. If you print early enough, you will get A but could get B or C. We usually have an early morning flight but stay up until midnight to print ours.

Here is the link to the page at Southwest.

http://southwest.com/travel_center/retrieveCheckinDoc.html

 

[curtessey]

Not sure if this is still the case, but when we flew SW last summer, we were not allowed to print our boarding pass if more than one ticket was purchased at the same time. In November when we flew, I was sure to book one ticket on each transaction so that we could print our boarding passes prior to leaving home.

You can print the pass as of 12:01 a.m. local time on the day of your travel. You would also need to do the same for your return trip.

Mary

 

[DemonLlama]

Now you can book all the party on one ressie and still do online check-in at midnight.

You should get A if you do it at midnight, but expect to watch lots of folks with children obviously not in need of pre-boarding time, go in front of you.

We watched about 40 people, usually 2-4 adults with one child in a group, and only a couple of the children were young enough to even need help with the seatbelt, hop into the pre-board line this past December on our flight.

This varies with the SW agent doing the boarding, but if you do the midnight boarding pass printing, you should still be able to find a nice quiet row for your whole party.

 

[FordFusion]

Someone told me its 24 hrs before your boarding time. So if our flight is at 8am on thurs, does that mean I have to get up that early the day before and print it out?

 

[sklimuck]

It is now 24 hours pre-flight you can print boarding passes. Much better for me because I don't always want to stay up to midnight to print them out. We were on a cruise this past January and couldn't get them to print onboard. Had to wait until we got to the airport and still got B.

 

[Forevryoung]

Ok, You can check in 24 hours before AND you dont need to print the boarding passes when you check in online (so if you dont have a printer you can still check in).

I've flown Southwest 3 out of the past 4 weeks

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

You can even checkin using your cell phone if it is internet capable. And it is now 24 hours in advance of your flight. I flew my parents in from Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving and I was able to check them in online and then I emailed Mom to have her print the passes at home. Both of them were on the same ressie and I had no problem checking them in at the same time.

 

[Tinkerbelle32]

O.K., dumb question here. If you printed them at home, wouldn't the voucher just be regular paper. When you get them at the airport they are that thick material. Does this matter? Sorry, if this sounds lame. Also, what do you do with your cell phone? Is it obvious I'm not to tech. savy? Thanks, Tink

 

[kpm76]

O.K., dumb question here. If you printed them at home, wouldn't the voucher just be regular paper. When you get them at the airport they are that thick material. Does this matter? Sorry, if this sounds lame. Also, what do you do with your cell phone? Is it obvious I'm not to tech. savy? Thanks, Tink

Yes, if you print them at home it is just regular paper but there is a bar code on it so they can scan it when you board. So, no worries about printing it at home If your cell phone has internet capability, you can log on using that just like you would using a computer. Obviously, you can't print the boarding pass if you use the cell, so you wait and print at the airport. HTH

 

[molly2004]

Sorry, I'm a bit of dunce about this....so does that mean you no longer have to get to the airport brutally early just to get an A pass? DH and I have two 2 year old boys and we'll be travelling with car seats. Is it reasonable to expect that we'll manage to sit together if we get A boarding passes?

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

If you have 'A" boarding passes, it's pretty much a guarantee. However, with two little ones in carseats, you will most likely be able to preboard prior to anyone in the 'A' line.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Now you can book all the party on one ressie and still do online check-in at midnight.

You should get A if you do it at midnight, but expect to watch lots of folks with children obviously not in need of pre-boarding time, go in front of you.

We watched about 40 people, usually 2-4 adults with one child in a group, and only a couple of the children were young enough to even need help with the seatbelt, hop into the pre-board line this past December on our flight.

This varies with the SW agent doing the boarding, but if you do the midnight boarding pass printing, you should still be able to find a nice quiet row for your whole party.

How old were these children? The reason I'm asking is that on most Southwest flights the preboarding age has been pretty clearly stated as 4 and under. Now, I don't see a 4 year old as needing more time to board than an adult, but I do see a 4 year old as needing to sit with mom or dad, not neccessarily from a safety point of view but from a "consideration for those around him" point of view. Since preboarding (or getting up at midnight, waking up my child and leaving the hotel room to find someplace to check in online since I don't travel with a laptop) is the only way to guarantee that I can't blame parents for taking advantage of this option.

 

[mcraft17]

My dd who is 10 and I are flying down in June. Does this mean that there is a chance we won't get to sit together? She hasn't flown since she was six and I know it would really upset her if we are not seated together not to mention it would bother me.

 

[Pixiedust34]

My dd who is 10 and I are flying down in June. Does this mean that there is a chance we won't get to sit together? She hasn't flown since she was six and I know it would really upset her if we are not seated together not to mention it would bother me.

Yes. I understand that there is a chance of that happening.

I'm flying alone with my 2 kids (they'll be just-turned 10 and just-turned 8) and have not flown since they were infants. In other words, they have no experience on flying and I don't know if they will be scared at take-off/landing, or if their ears will hurt or whatever. I am really hoping for 3 seats together, or at least near each other. I have not flown anywhere for over a decade myself, so this is almost a "new" experience for me too.

I wish SW would up the age limit for early boarding. It's asking a lot of a kid who has never flown to sit by himself on a flight. And what adult would want to sit next to an unsupervised kid for a whole flight? Most adults wouldn't want to sit next to a squirmy, chatty kid whose mom is 10 seats away because they couldn't board together.

Anyway...........I am going to hope for the A seating and will hope for the best in getting our seats together. If I am lucky enough to find 2 seats together, I will put the kids together and will sit as close to them as possible.

 

[cats mom]

If I'm reading correctly, I think DemonLlama's concern with all the pre-boards was more about how many adults were boarding with one child. I don't know what SW's exact policy on that is?
I too have seen Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad and an older sibling or two all in the pre-board line with one under 4 child. Does that one little one really need 6 people to help him/her get settled in? Sure, it's great for all of them to get seats together up front, but it does not go over too well with the folks in the B or C lines.

mcraft17, I've never had a problem getting two seats together with an A or even a B pass. Don't be discouraged when all you see open are the middle seats - just keep moving back. You'll probably find something.
I've also seen flight attendants bribing folks with free drinks to open up space for a parent/child to sit together, so don't be afraid to ask them for help if it looks like you will have to split up.

 

[kcouture]

Yes. I understand that there is a chance of that happening.

I'm flying alone with my 2 kids (they'll be just-turned 10 and just-turned 8) and have not flown since they were infants. In other words, they have no experience on flying and I don't know if they will be scared at take-off/landing, or if their ears will hurt or whatever. I am really hoping for 3 seats together, or at least near each other. I have not flown anywhere for over a decade myself, so this is almost a "new" experience for me too.

I wish SW would up the age limit for early boarding. It's asking a lot of a kid who has never flown to sit by himself on a flight. And what adult would want to sit next to an unsupervised kid for a whole flight? Most adults wouldn't want to sit next to a squirmy, chatty kid whose mom is 10 seats away because they couldn't board together.



Anyway...........I am going to hope for the A seating and will hope for the best in getting our seats together. If I am lucky enough to find 2 seats together, I will put the kids together and will sit as close to them as possible.

I have reasons for wanting to sit with husband and 13 yo dd. That is why I print my passes 24 hrs ahead of time. Do we really need all 4 adults in a party to pre board with the 2 kiddos?

I personnally am tired of reasons why each parent thinks their child is deserving of special treatment but are unwilling to take advantage of the programs offered, ie waking up early to check in.

 

[mcraft17]

Thank you for letting me know. This is my first time with SW, I will just have to print my pass as early as I can and hope for the best. To everyone else good luck!

 

[CJRN]

We have two children, when they were younger (no matter how much $ we could save), we would not fly Southwest knowing there was a good chance we could not be seated together.

Now that they are older, it's different.

 

[spiceycat]

I flew Delta last time.

well the person next to me was a middle age child - might have been 9. very well adjusted did not mind his father being up front. we got along great....

well an hour out of Orlando his father shows up and says he want to change seats with me. Says his child would panic if the plane had problems.

so I agree....

just call me stupid - the reason this person wanted to change was there was crying baby next to him - now next to me.... well I don't have kids - so sometimes I find them entertaining.... I got the little one to quit crying and start laughing.

anyway back to the point - some kids act better - much better than the parents....