How to tell if people will already be on the plane?

[cfriend416]

We are flying Southwest for the first time in February. Since SW does not assign seats, we are wondering if people will already be on the plane when be board, i.e. if our flights are continuing flights. Is there a way to easily find this out? If I call Southwest will the be able to tell me?

 

[cfriend416]

Anyone?

 

[Flynnismine]

We are flying SW as well and yes, U can call SW and ask if the connecting flight originated at your connecting airport. If it didn't, there will probably already be passngrs onboard. HTH

 

[winterwhite]

Put the flight number into seatguru. It will show you each leg of the flight.

So will the flight status app if you just put in the flight number. It will show you all the legs of the flight. That said, you have no way of knowing how many people are connecting through and I'm not sure southwest will tell you.

 

[cfriend416]

Thanks so much! Seatguru was really helpful. Since our flights are both the last of the day, there is at least one previous flight for each. However, I don't think it's going to be a problem. For one flight, the previous one is from Chicago and for the other, the previous flight is from Las Vegas. When I search southwest.com for flights from Chicago to Orlando, none of the flights you can book involve a stop at my home airport. When I search for flights from Las Vegas to our home airport, Orlando is not a stop for any of them. So judging by that, it doesn't look like many, if any, people will be on the plane when we board. Does that make sense?

 

[winterwhite]

Thanks so much! Seatguru was really helpful. Since our flights are both the last of the day, there is at least one previous flight for each. However, I don't think it's going to be a problem. For one flight, the previous one is from Chicago and for the other, the previous flight is from Las Vegas. When I search southwest.com for flights from Chicago to Orlando, none of the flights you can book involve a stop at my home airport. When I search for flights from Las Vegas to our home airport, Orlando is not a stop for any of them. So judging by that, it doesn't look like many, if any, people will be on the plane when we board. Does that make sense?

Maybe.

A through flight that doesn't involve a change of planes may not show as a "stop." While it is not nonstop, it is in the sense that you can't get off the plane. So, that may or may not be accurate. I haven't checked recently to see how southwest does it.

If you're the last flight out and there are no delays, I wouldn't expect there to be a lot of through passengers. Even so, I think the most through passengers I have ever seen (in 150+ southwest flights) was about 30 on a plane with something like 140 seats. No big deal.

 

[cfriend416]

Maybe.

A through flight that doesn't involve a change of planes may not show as a "stop." While it is not nonstop, it is in the sense that you can't get off the plane. So, that may or may not be accurate. I haven't checked recently to see how southwest does it.

If you're the last flight out and there are no delays, I wouldn't expect there to be a lot of through passengers. Even so, I think the most through passengers I have ever seen (in 150+ southwest flights) was about 30 on a plane with something like 140 seats. No big deal.

Thanks! Southwest does say if the flight has a stop with no plane change, and there weren't any of those either.