Can someone explain how Southwest works for me?

[SerinaEmily]

I've never flown SW before but we are planning on booking them for our Aug 25-Sept 3 trip to Disney when the fares come out. We are flying out of Buffalo.

We are travelling with me and my fiance and our 6 children ages 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, and 12.

How does the boarding work? From what I'm reading it looks like us getting seats together may be an issue? Can Bill go on with the 4 year old and his other 2 kids and save seats for me and my kids?

Also what are their policies regarding if we book a flight and have to change the dates (if free dining is offered later than I'm guessing).

Also how do I get a DING fare? Do I have to be sitting by my computer all day waiting for one that applies to me? When would the DINGs come out in comparison to the Wanna Get Away prices? I wouldn't want to wait too long to book the flight since we need 8 tickets.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[bumbershoot]

Their site should still have the boarding info tutorial...if it's still there it's way better than I can explain.

Little kids get to board after the A group but before the B group. So it's always best to try for an A boarding group. And I'm not 100% sure it's 4 and over, or *up to* 4, to count as a little kid...but you're right, they don't tend to let the entire family on with the little one and parent...

dings come at random times. Get signed up for it, using your local airport (and if there's more than one you'd be willing to use, sign up for that as well) and MCO. If you keep your speakers turned on, you'll hear the "ding" noise like you're on a plane when they come in. Or just look for the email symbol over the SW plane tail symbol on your computer. I'm actually not sure I've ever booked a Ding fare b/c it seems when I'm looking for good fares, the wanna get away fares have been just fine for me.

SW doesn't have a fee or anything similar when changing a flight. If you end up with a refund situation on a ticket that's NOT fully refundable, you'll get a credit that will expire one year from when you *first* booked the ticket, but there are no actual fees to change things.

 

[Bobo912]

I've never flown SW before but we are planning on booking them for our Aug 25-Sept 3 trip to Disney when the fares come out. We are flying out of Buffalo.

We are travelling with me and my fiance and our 6 children ages 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, and 12.

How does the boarding work? From what I'm reading it looks like us getting seats together may be an issue? Can Bill go on with the 4 year old and his other 2 kids and save seats for me and my kids?

Also what are their policies regarding if we book a flight and have to change the dates (if free dining is offered later than I'm guessing).

Also how do I get a DING fare? Do I have to be sitting by my computer all day waiting for one that applies to me? When would the DINGs come out in comparison to the Wanna Get Away prices? I wouldn't want to wait too long to book the flight since we need 8 tickets.

Thanks so much for your help!

I wouldn't worry too much about getting seats together. If you check in at T-24 you're probably going to get a high A or low B depending on how many EBCIs were purchased for your flight. You would still be able to find seats together, but they would most likely be toward the rear of the plane. And you fiancee can board with the 4-year-old between the A's and B's and save seats for you. SWA allows it, people do it all the time, and I've never seen anybody make an issue of it. I think it bothers people much more when somebody boards and saves the first two or three rows at the front of the plane. I doubt if the gate agent would question your fiancee if a second or third child boarded with him either. We flew back from MCO two weeks ago and there was a family on the flight who had a child in a wheelchair, so the child had a blue boarding pass to board before the A group. The entire family of 8 (3 adults and 5 children) boarded with the child and nobody said anything. We had seats behind them on the plane - they were an adorable family.

DING fares have to be booked on the day they are released. The DING will tell you what time it expires. I used to book DINGs fairly often, but lately the dates/times seem to be more restricted and they don't fit in with my schedule. Most of the time, the Wanna Get Away fares are nearly as good. Rebooking with SWA is really easy. If you rebook and get a lower fare the money will stay on account, as the previous poster mentioned. If you can't use it within a year, but you have a family member or friend who is traveling and can use it, you just give them your confirmation number and they can apply your leftover funds to their fare.

 

[pamjb]

Here is a link to SW's check-in and boarding procedures

http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/checkin.html

the Tutorial is listed under Boarding Procedures.