Boarding with young children & early bird check-in

[meloneyb21]

We haven't flown since 2006 so I'm unsure of any new boarding rules. We'll be travelling with a 5 and 1 year old on Southwest. Do we still preboard? Would "early bird check-in" be beneficial to us or is it not necessary?

TIA

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

Family boarding on SWA now takes place between the A and B groups. You should not have any issues getting seats together. In my opinion, EBCI would be of no benefit to you.

 

[Jestocost]

EBCI will assign you your boarding numbers 36 hours in advance of your flight time, which is 12 hours ahead of when you will be able to log in and check in for yourself. You don't board ahead of anyone else at the airport based on EBCI, but you do have a better chance of getting a lower boarding number. The cost is $10 per person each way.

Families with children four and younger are allowed to board between the 'A' and 'B' groups. Sometimes they will limit it to just the child that is four or under and one parent, and require older children to board with the other parent in their assigned boarding order. This is not common and probably won't apply to your small family, but it is at the discretion of the gate agent. If there are a ton of families wanting to board with small children, then it might be a possibility.

I'd recommend just checking in at the 24 hour mark and you probably will get an 'A' boarding pass, which will have you boarding ahead of family boarding. That woulde pretty much guarantee you seats together for your family.

 

[tjmw2727]

We haven't flown since 2006 so I'm unsure of any new boarding rules. We'll be travelling with a 5 and 1 year old on Southwest. Do we still preboard? Would "early bird check-in" be beneficial to us or is it not necessary?

TIA

SWA still offers family boarding but as mentioned ina prior post it has moved from before the A group to between the A and B groups.

If the 1yo is a ticketed passenger you will be eligible for family boarding.

If the 1yo is a lap baby then you won't qualify for family boarding because the child under 4 won't be at risk of being separated from you. The baby will be sitting on your lap.

It dpends on your preferences as to the EBCI being "worth it" for you. With early bird SWA checks you in at 36 hours vs your having to be at the computer at T24. I do purchase it because I feel its worth the cost and time savings to me and I just add it into the fare when I am making my decisions to purchase.

 

[seashoreCM]

If the 1yo is a lap baby then you won't qualify for family boarding because the child under 4 won't be at risk of being separated from you.

Why would you not "qualify anyway"?

With kids this little you should certainly be able to march up to the gate with your C pass just after the A group.

 

[tjmw2727]

Why would you not "qualify anyway"?

With kids this little you should certainly be able to march up to the gate with your C pass just after the A group.

Well I didn't make the rule, I just wanted the OP to be informed while trying to decide if the EBCI was worth it for them.

The purpose of family boarding is so that a child 4 and under isn't separated from a parent. Since a non ticketed baby will be sitting on the parents lap then there is no need for family boarding. You could certainly try and "march up to the gate" but since the 1yo will have a verification document and not a boarding pass the gate attendant may or may not let them board with the families. The OP's other child is 5 - to old for family boarding.

IMHO its better to just use EBCI or check in as close to T 24 as you can and get a low pass than hope that the gate agent will let you board with the family boarding.

 

[maurene]

Well I didn't make the rule, I just wanted the OP to be informed while trying to decide if the EBCI was worth it for them.

I'm not seeing anything on SW website that indicates that the child under 5 must NOT be a lap baby. While the purpose of the family boarding may be to make sure the child isn't separated from his/her parent, I highly doubt a gate agent would refuse to allow a parent with a lap baby to board during family boarding.

Here is what I found on the SW website:

An adult traveling with a child four years old or younger will board between the “A” and “B” boarding groups. If you have an “A” boarding pass, please feel free to board with that boarding group. With an all-jet fleet outfitted with comfortable, leather seats, our families with small children are easily accommodated together.