New to southwest please help!

[hinodis]

I'm very confused about how SWA does things. I have only flown on Delta. I want to sit with DH. it will be just the two of us. Can someone explain the seating to me? I see people say they for A20 or B10?? What does this mean?? If there is a chance I won't be sitting with my DH I'm booking with another airline. We are flying from DTW to FLL.

 

[goofy4tink]

Did you do any research on the SW official site before booking? they have everything you need to know about boarding and seating.
Basically....you don't get to choose a seat until you are on the plane. So....you have two choices for checkin. You can do nothing addtl and then be online 24 hrs prior to your departure. If your flight is at 8am on a Sat, you need to be online by 8am, Fri, to get checked in. After you checkin, you will get your boarding pass. It will list a letter (A, B or C) and within that letter, a number. When you get to the gate and they announce boarding, you will get into the line up according to your letter/number. The A group will start with A16 because those paying full fare or business select get the A1-15 slots. Then, the A group will board. Followed by 'family boarding' which means that families with kids under 4 are allowed to board here, no matter what slot they got. Then the B group boards, followed by the poor C group. Those in the A and B groups usually have no issue getting pairs of seats together.
Or, you can buy Early Bird Checkin for about $12 or so pp, each way. This will get you checked in at the 36 hr window! You do nothing, SW does it automatically...which is especially nice when headed home! At the 24 hr window, you can go online and print out the boarding passes and find out what slot you got.

You might want to go to the SW site and look around. there is a 'boarding school' area that will help you understand what will happen.

 

[jayhawk74]

Southwest board in groups of 30 in the order of your boarding card (A1-30, A31-60, B1-30, B31-60, C1-??). The exceptions are those with Medical issues (they board first) and those with children under 4. They board after the As if they don't have an A Boarding pass. The Boarding numbers are issues on a 1st come basis when you check. The checkin can be no earlier than 24 hours before your flight. That is unless you bought Early Bird Check In then Southwest will automatically check you in 36 hours before your flight.
However if you are connecting and your flight is late you may end up boarding with the Cs (even if you have an A Boarding Pass) since Southwest starts boarding 20-30 minutes before the flight departs.

 

[Dvcmbr09]

SWA doesn't assign seats. The A20, B10 they are boarding numbers, you are assigned that number when you check in. Which I advise you check in exactly at 24 hours before your flight to have best chance of get group A. SWA will board A1-A30, then usually pre boards (families with small children, etc) then they continue to board A31-A60. Then they same for B's, board B1-B30 directly followed by B31-60. So there is a chance you won't sit with the rest of your travel party if your boarding number is farther back (somewhere in the B's). That being said I have traveled with SWA many, many times and the only time I can remember having problems sitting with my travel party was on a connection flight we were late for so we were third to last to board.

 

[mikehn]

SW does not assign seats. There are no guarantees you will sit with DH. Stick to Delta. Short and sweet.