Any one flown southwest? What is the quality?

[Karrie Davis]

I really prefer frontier but with the SW prices I am scared not to just get the tickets and insure the great price. I always end up with great prices on frontier but what if....

So have you liked flying with them. I hear they don't reserve seats.... not sure what that meens. I am thinking it was like flying 10 years ago, when you got there they picked your seat.... Is that ok if there are 2 of you and you want to sit together...?

 

[aroyer]

We love Southwest. As far as the seating, it is like first come first served. The last time we flew with them we got to pre-board because we had a small child so we got to get on and pick our seats. Southwest doesn't pick them for you. We are flying Southwest for our trip to WDW and will get to pre-board again because we have a 15 month old.

 

[eeyoregon]

The key to a good flight on SW is to plan ahead. 24 hours before your flight time, you can logon to their website and print your boarding pass. There are 3 boarding groups - A,B and C. If you don't have children under the age of 5, you can not pre-board and will want to get boarding pass for group "A".

Then arrive at least 1-2 hours before your flight and hop in the line at the gate for "A" boarding. One of my kids usually plops down on the floor and holds a spot. This will ensure you get seats together.

SW has great baggage policies. You are each allowed THREE checked suitcases up to 50 pounds each at NO charge!

Also keep in mind that they do not have in flight movies so bring your own entertainment.

 

[Karrie Davis]

Thanks! I am glad I know how that works. My son is 2 so we can do early boarding How do they handle the ealy boarding for families with young kids?

The inflight entertainment is a hard thing not t have though That is one think I just LOVE about frontier.... Well, I guess we could buy 3 small dvd players (not really ), ok maybe one for the 2 year old.... hey, it a long flight from Denver

 

[dsnygirl2006]

If you print out boarding passes ahead of time and have a child under 5 what boarding group do you get in???

 

[alicenwonder99]

If you print out boarding passes ahead of time and have a child under 5 what boarding group do you get in???

I'm also wondering how this works? We are traveling with an infant. Does just the baby and her mother (my dd) get to preboard? Or will they let all of us in the party preboard (there will be 4 more of us...2 adults, and 2 other children over 5 years)?

Mary

 

[plutolovr]

With a small child you can usually board early with the child and all immediately family. If Grandma and Grandpa are going they usually won't allow them to preboard with the rest of the family.

 

[Ariel8676]

If you pre board with a small chld they put you in a seperate line from everyone else. We flew SW once and it was fine..loved the prices too

 

[Kat77]

Admittedly my own biased opinion because that is dh's employer

It shouldn't be hard to find seats together for two people but the tip to log in and get boarding passes for group A would ensure it.

Portable DVD players are very cheap these days so go for it and buy one. We fly Ameican a lot with kiddos and never have inflight entertainment with them either. Even with inflight movies, it is rarely anything our kids would watch by choice anyhow.

 

[isla bonita]

To me its a tin can with a seat and would fly nothing else because of the price. and direct flights. LOL

 

[kstinw19]

I have all good things to say about SW. I think that they are the most "kid-friendly" airline that I have flown.

Some airlines, like Delta, do not let you pre-board, but SW is great about it. If you can pre-board it is really great b/c you have the pick of the plane and can configure your family in any seats you choose. It makes it nice if you have two kids who have to have window seats, you can get them.

Also, SW is usually pretty good about letting you take on your carseat if there is an empty seat on the plane. They will usually tell you when you get your carseat tag to check it at the gate.

The employees are super nice and we really have enjoyed all of our SW experiences. That being said, we are flying Delta in September b/c SW doesn't have great times out of Columbus anymore, but I am admittedly nervous about straying from SW. I will just keep my fingers crossed

Have a great trip!

 

[angipoo]

We flew SW for last trip (my first flight ever). Checkin was easy over the internet. I would do it as soon as you 24 hour window comes up., we got in A boarding group. We had a 4 yr old and she did fine, 2 yr old, I would definitely have some things to do. We just got fun fare for Nov 27 - Dec 3rd, so glad cause hubby went back and none to be had now!

 

[kuusimo]

We flew Southwest last week with our 3 & 4 year old boys, my parents, brother and his fiance. I had called Southwest ahead of time, and asked if it mattered if we checked in beforehand or not. They said if you are pre-boarding it does not matter. You still need to print a pass, so I figured why not just check in since I was there anyway. When we left Phoenix, we stood in the pre-board line, and they allowed all 8 of us to pre-board together. It was the first flight for both my boys. The crew was great and put lids on the drinks for them without me asking. The bathroom is in the front of the plane, which I was glad we sat up near the front.

Coming home, my mom asked if we could all pre-board again and they told her that the parents and grandparents could, but then when we actually boarded they told my parents no, but this one time they would allow it. I think it depends on the airport and the person that you get checking you on.

Our flight was 3 hours long, and DH pulled out his laptop and they played a pin-ball game, but for the most part they were interested in looking out the window.

Hope that helps.

 

[barkley]

i think it's kind of hit and miss on the pre-boarding policy. we usualy fly s.w. and have found that as more people try to take advantage of the preboarding practice sometimes the staff takes a 'parents only' stance (and personaly i support this-i have 2 kids neither of whom qualify for preboarding, but neither of whom i'de let sit alone-it's very frustrating to see a group of 6/8/10 adults all pre-board based on having one child under 5, then when you get on with your kids there are no seats together that enable a parent to sit with their kids). i tend to wonder if one of the reasons s.w. is trying out assigned seats now is because of issues with this-we had delayed flights on our last trip to wdw because of nasty verbal fights between large groups of people trying to pre-board and sw staff trying to limit it to those who truly needed it (and they have gotten much tougher on physical disabilities as a basis for pre-boarding, so we saw people who would have realy been advantaged by pre-boarding having to wait while all the 'family issues' were being resolved).

s.w. with kids also entails taking food with you-their limited snacks (and even meals on those flights that offer them) are very small-so make sure to pack something to eat (and don't count on getting drinks quickly-they seem to be doing them later and later into the flights).

last but not least-be ready to be delayed/re-routed. we ended up with 2 unschedualed landings on our last trip due to problems s.w. was having with other planes that day-and found that the disclaimers with the tickets provide them with the ability to do this as they deem appropriate. it was'nt a major issue for us, but there were some very upset travelers when we landed over 2 hours late due to landing in an unschedualed stop and then having to do that stop's route (was supposed to be direct to florida from los angeles-we landed in texas, picked-up passengers then flew to new orleans dropped them off and picked up more....).

 

[3princesses+aprince]

With a small child you can usually board early with the child and all immediately family. If Grandma and Grandpa are going they usually won't allow them to preboard with the rest of the family.

I don't know if we just got lucky but when I flew last March, I had 2 kids under 5. It was my kids, me , dh, my mother, and my brother, and we all got to go in the preboarding line together.

 

[Perditamarie]

We have had great experiences with SW, as well. The gate folks were on the lookout for people w/strollers and tagged them right away for gate-check and showed us where to pre-board. They also gave us beach balls, which were great for the resort. Definately bring snack/meals. The snacks they serve are sweet and salty and things you don't want kids to eat.

I have heard recently on the news that they are phasing in assigned seats -- I can't remember exactly when, but I thought it was sooner rather than later.

 

[LoveMyDisneyCats]

We flew and thought the preboarding was great DD(4), DD(18m). I can see how it could be a problem if you do not have small kids but they are young enough that they should still sit with you. The crew did seem very accomodating though!

 

[NotUrsula]

I have heard recently on the news that they are phasing in assigned seats -- I can't remember exactly when, but I thought it was sooner rather than later.

Actually, they are TESTING assigned seating, which by no means should be taken as proof that they will adopt assigned seating; they have done a lot of tests in terms of seating restrictions in the past, and all of those ideas were dropped.

If they do decide to adopt it, it would not be put into full operation until sometime in 2008, as the software to run it will take that long to be fully tested.

 

[mytwinklestar]

We fly Southwest on all our Disney vacations. I have never been disappointed. The staff are courteous and helpful. We have printed our boarding passes online and had to once board with a B boarding pass. The three of us were able to find seats together w/out a problem. This year we will be five flying - two children under 5. I am hoping they are still preboarding because this will be the first flight for the 2 and 3 year olds. Fun! Fun! Fun! The prices cannot be beat. In 2004 my brother booked with Delta for our big family trip. He didn't want to wait to see what the internet specials might be with SW. I waited - booked the special which was just about HALF what they all paid AND - we had better flight times! Rest assured that you are in good hands. Enjoy the flight - and the Magic!

 

[Threeriversdisneyfan]

I don't the validity of the post in the board months back that SWA sometimes doesn't allow pre-boarding of flights to Orlando. Does anybody else remember seeing this on these boards? I haven't see it for a while, hopefully a rumor started by someone that got a "C" boarding pass.