New Southwest Boarding?

[blitzkrieg048]

Any feedback on the new Southwest boarding policy, we're trying it for the 1st time saturday, can someone give me an opinion. Thanx.

 

[Paticake]

I am also wondering.We are leaving 1/12. First time since new boarding. Me, my ds and dil are under the same confirmation #. My dh is using a rr flight so has a different # than us. I think I will go in and get our boarding passes first then get dh's. I should be able to save him a seat with me,right?

 

[tinkerbell60]

We used it over Thanksgiving. It was really nice not having to stand in line early. Even though we checked in on line exactly 24 hours in advance - we were around A30 - but, had no problem getting seats together (we are a family of 4) near the front of the plane. I think it is a definate improvement! It is nice knowing that if you have an A boarding pass, you can sit and relax until it is time to board.

 

[helenk]

I used the new boarding system the beginning of December and it worked very well.
It was very nice to be able to sit at the gate without the majority of the people sitting on the floor.
Some of the families were concerned about sitting together, you could hear them talking about it. But everything went well, everyone got a seat okay and we took off.

 

[tjmw2727]

I have flown SWA 3 r/t's since the new boarding and IMHO it is great. The gate attentants in MHT, MCO and PHI were great about explaining the policy and helping folks figure things out.

Here is my full report on last weeks flights posted right here on the transporation board:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=22326167&postcount=1

TJ

 

[bumbershoot]

I am also wondering.We are leaving 1/12. First time since new boarding. Me, my ds and dil are under the same confirmation #. My dh is using a rr flight so has a different # than us. I think I will go in and get our boarding passes first then get dh's. I should be able to save him a seat with me,right?

If I were doing that, I would have two windows up, and fill in your shared confirmation info on one, and DH's on the other. Press the button to get yours, then go to the other window and do DH's, so you're not having to enter it all new into the window (or waiting until after you've printed, yikes!).

My SIL checked me in for flights she got me and DS on RR vouchers, and we were one number apart. When they had us stand up (they made repeated announcements that no one needed to stand in line yet, that we should just sit back and relax and they would let each group know when to get in line, in numerical order) I just stood with DS on our later number, but the people around us wanted us to use the lower number.

Now, this wasn't in Orlando, so I don't know if people are that nice there, but in San Diego and Seattle.

 

[DisneyDadNY]

I flew out of Orlando the night of Dec 15th and was able to sit in a chair near the boarding line editing my Photopass pics until they announced my boarding group. I just stood up and walked on the plane. I think the new system is MUCH easier to deal with than the old system.

The old way always reminded me of camping out for concert tickets when I was a bit younger....

 

[ericamcl]

DH and I used the new system at Thanksgiving time and I have to agree with most of the PPs...the new system is much better than the old "cattle call" method. We were able to get bulkhead seating both ways which DH was happy about.
He's 6' 7" tall so he really appreciated the extra leg room!

 

[Piecey]

I used it five times in three days and LOVED it.. I loved being able to go grab food, go to the bathroom and not worry about losing my spot in line!

 

[pafer]

We used it this past Thanksgiving and I have to say I think it is a huge improvement. We checked in online as soon as we were able and got A boarding passes quite easily. We enjoyed not having to sit and wait on the floor as well. They do still allow families with infants and toddlers to preboard but you have to wait for the A boarding group to board first. Then they call those families and then they board B and C group in order. They have posts set up near the gate to show you were to stand when they call the groups up. It was well organized and much less choatic than it seemed in the past.

 

[klmall]

Have to agree with posts above. We flew 12/15 from BWI to MCO and returned 12/22. Even with high "A" numbers (52-54) flying down and a jam-packed plane the line-up and boarding was painless. We got 3 seats together where we wanted also. Return flight wasn't as full and we noticed several empty single seats on the plane.

Return flight from MCO was a little interesting to watch boarding process. We had very low "A" numbers this time (22-24) and were almost the first A's to board but watched as several large family groups with children lined up separately very early on; probably 30 minutes or so before any announcement to 'line up at the posts'. There was one family with twin toddlers, a pre-schooler, two parents, two sets of grandparents and an "uncle" who headed this separate "Family Boarding" line. As we in the A's boarded I overhead one of the adults in this large family group say, "Guess we should have tried for A passes!"

FYI - I checked in online the moment our "window" opened both times but you can see the difference in boarding numbers. Maybe fewer people in Orlando can get to a computer to do this while touring etc.

 

[feenie]

We LOVED It!
It was so nice not to get in line ages before your flight.
Also, it was a nice change having the people with small kids go after Group A.
(we could have had the 1st row both trips and we were in the 20's and 30's of group A each way) (we opted for the tray tables in row 2)

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We flew SW for the first time in December, so we never boarded under the old rules. We had "A" boarding passes, so I wasn't too worried. Well, boarding to depart from Dallas they said "Group A"! and EVERYBODY went! If something bad had happened I wouldn't think it was funny, but since we all got on and got seated just fine it was funny. They didn't pay a bit of attention to the numbers on the boarding passes.

Coming out of Orlando they asked everyone to line up numerically, which was more like I had imagined it. That also worked quite well for us. We printed our boarding passes at Epcot Guest Relations the day before departure and it all went just fine.

 

[Taja]

I forgot to check us in on our outbound flights *oops* until about 6 hours after the 24-hour mark last month. We had B boarding passes. My friends were a family with an infant (14 weeks old), so they were able to board between A and B groups and were happy with their seats. I boarded in the B group (in the 40s, if I remember correctly), and was able to snag a seat directly behind them.

On the return from MCO, I checked us in at 24 hours minus 3 minutes at DHS Guest Relations. We were A32 - A35.

Much nicer than standing in line forever!

 

[CarolA]

Return flight from MCO was a little interesting to watch boarding process. We had very low "A" numbers this time (22-24) and were almost the first A's to board but watched as several large family groups with children lined up separately very early on; probably 30 minutes or so before any announcement to 'line up at the posts'. There was one family with twin toddlers, a pre-schooler, two parents, two sets of grandparents and an "uncle" who headed this separate "Family Boarding" line. As we in the A's boarded I overhead one of the adults in this large family group say, "Guess we should have tried for A passes!"

Perhaps is this family and thier "friends" had not been abusing the 'Preboarding' by taking four extra adults there would not have been a change. LOL!

 

[scrappin]

We fly down December 18 and back on Dec. 24. On the way down we got A 22 and 23 and the plane was not full - no one sat next to us - we are a family of four and took two seats in one row and two in the row behind (kids have never flown and wanted to look out the windows).

On the way back we got A20's again for the first flight but the plane wasn't full but the second leg of our flight was full and we had A31-A34 and again were able to get seats like above but we did have people sitting next to us.

I think as long as you try to get your boarding passes as close to the 24 hour mark as possible, you should be fine.