Post all SW questions concerns, etc. here...

[thanxfornoticin]

I'm flying with my son who turns 7 while on our trip. I am planning to check in right at the 24 hour mark. How hard is it to sit two together? It sounds like it is pretty tough to get A unless you pay for it in some way. If I'm in B what are my chances of being able to get seats together? Any recent experiences?

From previous experience, if you check in at 24-hrs, you're likely to get a "B" boarding group (not for certain, but odds are good). Depending where you're flying, it could make a difference for your boarding. For example, Orlando flights obviously have more kids and tend to have more families boarding between A and B. But if there are 2 of you, and you check in as soon as you can, I expect you should not have any issues sitting together. You'll be in the back third of the plane, but together. Have a safe trip.....

 

[titojackson84]

If you get a bad boarding number, you could try doing the upgraded boarding if it’s available. It’s around $25 or so each and you get guaranteed A1–15. I have their card so I get 4 each year. Done it twice so far and got i the first 10 rows.

 

[EACarlson]

If you get a bad boarding number, you could try doing the upgraded boarding if it’s available. It’s around $25 or so each and you get guaranteed A1–15. I have their card so I get 4 each year. Done it twice so far and got i the first 10 rows.

It's been $50 every time I've looked to/from MCO.
My suggestion would be to pay the $25 each to add EBCI. Odds are you will get an early B which will definitely allow you to sit together. Assuming you will remember to check in exactly at T24 while on vacation is a recipe for disaster. There can also be connectivity issues.

 

[ultimatefans]

I'm flying with my son who turns 7 while on our trip. I am planning to check in right at the 24 hour mark. How hard is it to sit two together? It sounds like it is pretty tough to get A unless you pay for it in some way. If I'm in B what are my chances of being able to get seats together? Any recent experiences?

If you’re in B you shouldn’t have any issues seating 2 together. I almost always rely on 24-hour check-in and have never gotten C even recently. (It’s possible, I just never have) 3 together could be an issue but 2 shouldn’t be a problem. If your home airport is a hub city that could get you in the Cs though.

 

[disneymouse16]

Thanks for the responses! I just have no idea what it actually looks like. Maybe I'll just get the EBCI for on the way home, definitely more likely I miss the check-in time while we are in a Disney Park than the morning before at home. I had no idea how feasible sitting two together would be.

 

[RedHead0186]

If your home airport is a hub city that could get you in the Cs though.

I don't believe Southwest has hub cities

 

[nekonekoneko]

I don't believe Southwest has hub cities

They don't, and that's what caused SW to have more headaches than any other airline last December. With Delta, American, whoever, they have hub cities where the pilots and flight attendants can go, if nothing else, get on a plane from wherever they are to a hub and check in, so the airline knows where they are.

Since SW doesn't have that, everyone was scattered all over the place, and the software had a bunch of people in the wrong city. So they'd get the flight attendants a hotel room in Chicago which is where the software thought they were. But they were still in Dallas, because the flight from DAL to ORD never happened. It cascaded things even further. "We have a plane ready to go in MSP, but where's the crew?" "Uh, they're calling that they're are still at BWI"

So, in a way, not having hubs gives SW the ability to have more non-stop flights all over the country, but it's more of a problem if there's a system-wide issue.

 

[John De Young]

Before the pilots can strike, they still have to be released from mediation, then have a 30 day cooling off period and have the president not step in to prevent it. The industry people I've seen that have commented expect a deal by the end of the month and this is a negotiating tactic.

Released from mediation or medication?

 

[EACarlson]

Thanks for the responses! I just have no idea what it actually looks like. Maybe I'll just get the EBCI for on the way home, definitely more likely I miss the check-in time while we are in a Disney Park than the morning before at home. I had no idea how feasible sitting two together would be.

We can give you generalities, but there is no hard and fast rule. My last flight out of MCO in October, there were still whole rows empty during C. The flight went out with two empty seats next to me in the exit row. Most if not all of family boarding takes either a whole row or a middle plus 1. On a 738 or Max8, you've got 57 window seats, 59 aisle seats and 59 middle. Many people early in the boarding process that want to sit together take either a window or an aisle and a middle.

I don't believe Southwest has hub cities

They don't call them that, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck. BWI, BNA, MDW, DAL, DEN and LAS. Large amounts of connecting traffic is funneled through those cities.

 

[Disneytam]

Interesting that on our recent flight from Albany, NY to MCO they announced that family boarding would be children 12 and under and each child could have 2 adults board with them. Very happy that we had purchased EBCI and we had A seats.

 

[bjscheel]

Booked 6 round trip flights last night for January and when I logged in today I saw I had achieved companion pass good through 12/31/24. We don't think we'll be flying anywhere else next year. I'm wondering if I would have qualified without DH's ticket, and if so, if I could cancel his and rebook as a companion. I'm sure I will have to call after work, but thought I would post here if anyone had experienced such a thing.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thanks for the responses! I just have no idea what it actually looks like. Maybe I'll just get the EBCI for on the way home, definitely more likely I miss the check-in time while we are in a Disney Park than the morning before at home. I had no idea how feasible sitting two together would be.

This was always the way I did things after once forgetting to check-in due to having fun in the parks.

I was easily able to check-in at the 24 hour mark on the way there but on the way home I would purchase EBCI so that I didn't need to think about it.

No need to purchase it now as my teen is okay if we need to separate. There was one flight where we were together and they made an announcement asking for someone to move and my DD immediately volunteered as she remembered what it was like that one trip when I forgot and we were the ones asking someone to move.

 

[bjscheel]

Booked 6 round trip flights last night for January and when I logged in today I saw I had achieved companion pass good through 12/31/24. We don't think we'll be flying anywhere else next year. I'm wondering if I would have qualified without DH's ticket, and if so, if I could cancel his and rebook as a companion. I'm sure I will have to call after work, but thought I would post here if anyone had experienced such a thing.

Nevermind but will post what I found if it helps someone else. I found out you can do chat on the mobile app, so I did that during lunch break and SW got his ticket cancelled and rebooked as companion. Points are back in my account.

From reading, you can also cancel and rebook yourself, but run the risk of seats getting snatched out from under you so best to call/chat.

He has a different confirmation number than the rest of us now, so for checkin maybe I should get him the app on his phone so we can do them simultaneously.

 

[ultimatefans]

Nevermind but will post what I found if it helps someone else. I found out you can do chat on the mobile app, so I did that during lunch break and SW got his ticket cancelled and rebooked as companion. Points are back in my account.

From reading, you can also cancel and rebook yourself, but run the risk of seats getting snatched out from under you so best to call/chat.

He has a different confirmation number than the rest of us now, so for checkin maybe I should get him the app on his phone so we can do them simultaneously.

Glad you got it figured out! Also no need to check him in, since he’s your companion he will automatically be checked in when you check in and you’ll have consecutive boarding numbers.

 

[holyrita]

Question- noticed one of the flights I have booked has dropped in price with the CYBER30 code. Am I correct that because this uses a discount code I can't change my flight but have to cancel and rebook?

 

[SkyGuy]

Question- noticed one of the flights I have booked has dropped in price with the CYBER30 code. Am I correct that because this uses a discount code I can't change my flight but have to cancel and rebook?

I modified my flight and got a sizable amount of points back. I didn’t need to enter the code. My husband (who has a separate reservation) modified his as well and saved $63 one way and $47 the other.

 

[bjscheel]

Glad you got it figured out! Also no need to check him in, since he’s your companion he will automatically be checked in when you check in and you’ll have consecutive boarding numbers.

My app shows him in a separate spot and says in red “must check in separately”. And I’m finding conflicting information. Some sites say companion will get next boarding number after you, Points Guy and others say companion must check in simultaneously with you or could end up in a different group.

 

[cgodzyk]

My app shows him in a separate spot and says in red “must check in separately”. And I’m finding conflicting information. Some sites say companion will get next boarding number after you, Points Guy and others say companion must check in simultaneously with you or could end up in a different group.

We've had companion pass for 6 or 7 years now. DH always ends up with the next booking number right after me. I do check him in after I check in, but I'm pretty sure his boarding number is already linked with mine.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

My app shows him in a separate spot and says in red “must check in separately”. And I’m finding conflicting information. Some sites say companion will get next boarding number after you, Points Guy and others say companion must check in simultaneously with you or could end up in a different group.

Our family has had two companions for two years now. The companion does need to be checked in separately but their boarding position should be consecutive with yours: when you check in their spot gets claimed too.

I say "should" because this failed to happen with one of my companions on one of my flights. System glitched and didn't check her in with me. This particular reservation had been a little weird because, after adding the CP, they completely messed up our flights and we ended up using our free change. The rep had a glitch where she couldn't move the cp to the new flight so she had to cancel and rebook. The old confirm number still showed up in some places on the app, but the email clearly showed a new confirm and when I called about the discrepancy the new phone rep definitely said to use the new CP confirm for the upcoming flights. I'm guessing that somewhere in the back end her CP reservation wasn't quite right and that's why she wasn't checked in consecutively with us. I guess that's a very long winded way of saying sometimes SW's system can mess up consecutive CP boarding, but it's unlikely.

 

[bjscheel]

We've had companion pass for 6 or 7 years now. DH always ends up with the next booking number right after me. I do check him in after I check in, but I'm pretty sure his boarding number is already linked with mine.

This makes sense and matches what several places are saying. We had CP once before but it's been a while. I don't remember it being a problem.