Mackenzie Click-Mickelson
Chugging along the path of life
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2015
- Messages
- 29,744
I did presuppose you might have (no offense intended) brought up the seating assistance (which is pre-boarding) and that's precisely why I didn't mention it because in your situation that does not fit with what you've explained.I respectfully disagree here. SW website specifies that customers that may need a specific seat or boarding assistance should tell the ticket counter or gate agent.
" Our Agents are trained to ask fact-finding questions to determine if the Customer meets the qualifications described above. Those Customers who qualify for preboarding will receive a new boarding pass with a preboarding designation. "
I genuinely don't know if an eight year old that has in the past tossed on an airplane is something that SW would say is worth them having a seat next to a responsible adult. Perhaps you are right and there are enough young people flying with motion sickness that it wouldn't flag as an issue for them. Perhaps they would want a parent with that child. It's their discretion and the mechanism they have established for making that determination is to ask at the counter or the gate. If they decide that it is appropriate, they can designate us to board between A and B. If they think the kids are fine to board in their assigned positions, we will do so and be prepared to get split up. I have no intentions of demanding accommodation but I will be asking if it is appropriate in our circumstances.
You keep mentioning that they could designate you board with Family Boarding but you have already said they are too old for this. I don't think you would be demanding accommodation, but asking in this specific situation puts the FA in a tight spot, unnecessarily. You're like "I'll just leave it up to the FA" except that puts them in a bind, their priority is our safety on board but unfortunately they at times get tasked with playing passenger jockey.
What you're saying is you understand you might be split up, your kids can sit alone but there's a preference to sit with an adult. Poster mentioned purchasing EBCI, you balked at that because you don't want to have to pay for it. Your situation as laid it is like many other people also flying. And also by suggesting multiple times that your family could just board with Family Boarding you're brushing off all those other passengers behind that who may have purchased EBCI (or not) who may also have reasons to have a preference to sit with someone, consideration for all is how I like to approach things personally speaking

It's not something we should really debate back and forth. Like another poster said a long while back about a different situation, if you post on this thread about advice for SWA and you're met with advice you don't like don't just ignore said advice and decide to go rogue basically just because you didn't like what you heard. This thread is primarily for informational purposes. So informationally you were given advice on what to do:
1) Purchase EBCI to increase odds of getting a better Boarding position
2) don't fly SWA if you need seats together (in this case you've said you're fine being split up)
I really hope you have a good time at the concert, sounds like a much deserved trip, but we'll have to agree to disagree here and I'll move on
