Flying Southwest? Going on a Cruise? READ THIS

[MCazer]

Well, anyone that flies Southwest knows that you need a boading pass but there are no reserved seats. So you need to get those boarding passes early, or be split up onboard.

Well, on the last night of our cruise, I waited until 12:01am and went to Southwest's website with my confirmation number and printed off the boarding passes. It was well worth the .75 a minute plus .25 a page to print.

We got to the airport and were letter A. Our flight had no empty seats, so with 2 children (over 4, but under 10), we were very happy to sit together!

 

[ivanova]

Southwest is testing the waters for having reserved seating ... might happen this year

 

[cindy_k]

BTW: Even if you find a computer and the Printer doesn't work. Go to the website and go through the Motions of getting the boarding passes anyway.

When you get to the airport just go to the ticket counter where you check your luggage and tell them your printer didn't work but you should have boarding passes already. They will print them for you and you will still get your A's.

We have done this a couple of times now. Its a great tip!

Have Fun!
Cindy inNY

 

[tvguy]

Yeah, I don't think they are experimenting, I think they hope to make the switch by year's end.
Make's sense since the number one complaint they get is about the lack of assigned seats.

I have flown Southwest just 3 times. I gather their advance booking fares are low, but their last minute fares are the highest. Due to family illness last year we had to fly 3 times on short notice to Houston (from Sacramento). First time I flew Southwest with 6 days advance booking, it was $725 per person!!!!!!!! Next trip, with 5 days notice on America West, it was $405. Both require a change of planes in Phoenix. And America West has assigned seats. I admit I was stupid, I just assumed Southwest would be cheapest, and didn't compare fares for the first trip. Trust, me the second trip I checked.

 

[aprilgail2]

That is the main reasoin I would never fly southwest. When I called them and they told me they could not gaurentee that I would be able to sit with my 4 year old I said no way in heck is my 4 year old going to be on a plane sitting next to some stranger for 3 hours!! They must be insane LOL!! I really prefer Jet Blue...the tv at each seat makes it much easier to fly with my daughter...she puts on those head phones and sits still the whole time.

 

[markey]

We fly Southwest every year with our grandkids and do not have boarding passes on the way home. We have never not been able to sit together even when the plane is completely full. Also we have had flights with other airlines and to me SW is the best to keeping on schedule, and never has misplaced our luggage. The childrens ages to not allow us to use preboarding so that is not how we get our seats.

 

[LoveMickey]

We fly Southwest all the time.

Aprilgail2 - they do have pre-boarding for parents with young children, you should ask if you qualify for that. I think that 4 year old would meet the criteria.

Only once have we (2 adults) not have our seats together.

 

[lookingforward]

I am no fan of Southwest either! I have not flown them in two years but they used to let those traveling with children under five to board first. I hated every minute of the "check in" process. It was like a cattle call. Very stressful. I did not find their fares that great either. The only reason I flew them was that they had a non-stop from hartford to flordia. And since I have seen the television show "Airline" I am determined to fly with other carriers. Has anyone seen that show?

 

[aprilgail2]

We fly Southwest all the time.

Aprilgail2 - they do have pre-boarding for parents with young children, you should ask if you qualify for that. I think that 4 year old would meet the criteria.

Only once have we (2 adults) not have our seats together.

They told me they do that in most places..but a place like Orlando where almost everyone has a kid under 5 on the plane then they could not gaurentee me a seat with her...their exact words.
It is like a cattle call....one of our Jet Blue gates was near a SOuthwest gate and as we were all sitting down with our assigned seats relaxing..they were all herded up there in lines waiting to scramble for a seat....that is not my idea of a relaxing way to start a vacation. Who wants to have to be up at midnight to print out boarding passes...I pick my seat months in advance and that is mine, no one else can run ahead of me and take it.

 

[cjsmith]

Flying Southwest is very much like a cattle call at check in. My husband hates when we fly them but they are the only ones who go directly from my area of Florida into Long Island. I drive from Naples over to Fort Lauderdale at times to use them so we can go directly into Long Island when we go to see my parents. It's nice that we can finally get pre-boarding passes at 12:01 but we still get to the airport early and wait on line in A. By the time they do all the pre-boarding, which is a joke, we can be the first family in line A and still board the plane half full!
And they haven't decided whether or not to do assigned seats. Upper management is still fighting this and it's still in the talking stages. There has been quite a few articles that I've read about this and the last one I read said that nothing has been decided. It will be great if they do this.

 

[two-foxes]

I am no fan of Southwest either! I have not flown them in two years but they used to let those traveling with children under five to board first. I hated every minute of the "check in" process. It was like a cattle call. Very stressful. I did not find their fares that great either. The only reason I flew them was that they had a non-stop from hartford to flordia. And since I have seen the television show "Airline" I am determined to fly with other carriers. Has anyone seen that show?

I love that show! I have never flown Southwest, mainly because mom worked for United for 35 yrs (still get buddy passes), but after seeing that show, I would avoid them, even if they had a great fare and I NEEDED a reserved seat! Perhaps some think that show is a great commercial for Southwest, I took it as a neon sign flashing "stay away!"

But, if I saw the inner workings of United on a 30 minute show, I'd probably go running, too!

 

[chasbos]

I must have missed out on all the excitement because we just flew SWA for the first time Jan 21-28 and it was no different then any other airline experience I have had. We actually to got sit 3 & 3 ( 2 adults, 4 kids) side by side each way and usually with assigned seating we get 2 & 2 & 2.

I was amazed at the efficiency of the airline and both of our flights were full and it was very smooth getting on and off the plane. The gate announcer announced that we would be boarding in about 20 minutes and people just nicely got up and lined up in the proper rows - no different from assigned seating when people line up also way before the flight.

We also did not print our boarding passes off the night before, we just arrived at the airport about 1.5 hours prior to boarding and still recieved A passes.

Maybe we had good luck, but I would definitely fly with them again.

 

[bratray]

i love SW- i have never had a problem with them and use them always for trips to FL- last year out of buffalo i got direct roundtrip flights to orlando for $100!!! now you can't beat that and we have never been seperated from our parties- just get there early

 

[*Fantasia*]

When I called them and they told me they could not gaurentee that I would be able to sit with my 4 year old I said no way in heck is my 4 year old going to be on a plane sitting next to some stranger for 3 hours!! They must be insane LOL!!

I can't remember which airline, but it happened to us. My 5 yr old was assigned somewhere nowhere near me, I told the flight attendant that my daughter can't sit by herself (especially she gets scared cause her ears pop when decending, then sometimes she cries)
I had to beg this lady to exchange seat.

they do have pre-boarding for parents with young children, you should ask if you qualify for that. I think that 4 year old would meet the criteria.

I think even if the the child is 5, 6, or 7, I think they should let the children sit with their parents. I think the kids would be more comfortable this way. I don't think my kids would want to sit with strangers, and I don't want them to sit with strangers either.

It is like a cattle call....one of our Jet Blue gates was near a SOuthwest gate and as we were all sitting down with our assigned seats relaxing..they were all herded up there in lines waiting to scramble for a seat....that is not my idea of a relaxing way to start a vacation. Who wants to have to be up at midnight to print out boarding passes.

I pick my seat months in advance and that is mine, no one else can run ahead of me and take it.

I like assigned seat..you know you are guaranteed that you and your family (especially with young children) will sit together.

I have a flight with SWA for Feb. SWA do not have a direct flight to MCO and I hate connections (especially when I have 2 small children and one has problems with ears popping). I am thinking of just cancelling it and just loose my money and book one with direct flight. And I don't have to worry about if my children will be able to sit with me cause I will get an assigned seat, well at least my chances of sitting together is greater. Honestly, I don't care for SWA. The price is nice, but it's not worth it to us. I would pay more and get a direct flight and chances of sitting together is greater.

 

[mackymaddyconnorsmom]

I have not had any problems with Southwest. I got to sit with my 3 kids and husband without any problems. In fact, on the way home I am positive everyone got to sit with their kids except one family, but the other people in his row was willing to move so the parents could sit with him. The Parents said, "No, thats ok. He will be fine" The boy was sick and the unlucky couple got to deal with him throwing up and coughing. Not his fault, but not the best of parents. My friend had trouble with US Air. They seperated her daughter from her. They had all their seats in different sections.

 

[bratray]

=*Fantasia
I have a flight with SWA for Feb. SWA do not have a direct flight to MCO and I hate connections (especially when I have 2 small children and one has problems with ears popping). I am thinking of just cancelling it and just loose my money and book one with direct flight.

SW does have direct flights it just depends which city you are flying out of- i always fly direct from buffalo to MCO

 

[kar313]

We fly SW quite frequently. Our DD turned 4 last year and we loved be able to preboard (which is only for people w/ kids under 4) but haven't had a problem since she turned 4 we make sure to do computer check-in as soon as we can and most times flights are not completely full. We fly airtran almost as much and love picking our seats online.

 

[staylor]

I'm probably going to get flamed here, but I'm going to stick my two cents in as well. I'm a SW flight attendant. I have been flying for SW for 14 years now.
My first suggestion is that everyone go online and get your boarding passes early. For those of you that have not flown us in a while we board by letters A,B,C now not numbers. Groups A and B each hold 45 people and C the rest. Our flights in and out of Orlando are not only full but full of families. I am based in Dallas so I cannot speak for Orlando, but have not heard that we don't use pre-boarding. You can pre-board if you have children under 5 and I encourage it because it gives you a few extra minutes to get settled and get out of the aisle so we can board everyone else and get in the air. Keep in mind the FAA requires that car seats go next to the window. This is a safety issue, if the car seat sticks out over the seat and is put in the middle seat, the person next to the window is blocked in in case of an emergency.
My second suggestion; for the families that are not able to board in A or B, I cannot speak for the other 7,000 + flight attendants but I personally do everything I can to get families together. Nothing works better than offering free drinks to the people that move. Also, asking a business person if they wouldn't mind baby sitting this little one for the next few hours usually gets people to move as well. Many of our passengers are parents and understand and usually don't mind moving. I hope that every flight attendant you encounter is helpful and friendly and if they are not do not hesitate to write a letter to SW (just don't tell them I told you to ). We pride ourselves on customer service and you never know maybe they just need one more letter on this person to take some action.
About the assigned seats, I hate to tell you that our CEO, Gary Kelly, has announced that we will not be doing this. We are however going to discountinue service to Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Which is a bit sad because this was one of our original cities way back when.
If you haven't flown us in a while, give us try. You may just be pleasantly surprised with the changes you'll see.
Staylor

 

[chasbos]

No flaming here, staylor. As I had originally posted we had a great flight and experience on SWA.

As for the direct flights, we flew direct both ways. We flew out of Buffalo at 7:15 a.m. and were in Florida by 9:30 a.m. (bonus!) And we flew home at 4:00 p.m. giving us an extra 1/2 day in Florida. There were numerous flights on the days that we flew that had stop overs - just don't book those ones if you want to fly non-stop.

Of course airlines are a matter of opinion and everyone has different ones, hence the numerous airlines out there.

That said I will likely fly SWA every chance I can.

 

[rjh8115]

Count me in as another SWA fan. We flew them last year to PBI and are flying them to MCO in two weeks. Everyone seems to enjoy their jobs (unlike other airlines). I don't mind the unassigned seating. We've never had a problem sitting all four together. I also like the stops. It gives the kids a chance to burn off some energy and allows us to grab some snacks.

Just my 2 cents worth . . .

Rick