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

[LadybugsMum]

I was under the understanding that for family boarding, a child under 6 and one parent were allowed to board between A and B. Last Sunday in MCO, there were multiple families some with 5 or 6 members who boarded together. Several of the families had one possibly under 6 and 2-3 teenagers along with both parents boarding together Has the policy changed? There were close to 40 people in family boarding

It hasn't changed that I know of but it's really sporadically enforced and entirely dependent on the gate staff. ,

 

[focusondisney]

I was under the understanding that for family boarding, a child under 6 and o
Two parents were allowed to board between A and B. Last Sunday in MCO, there were multiple families some with 5 or 6 members who boarded together. Several of the families had one possibly under 6 and 2-3 teenagers along with both parents boarding together Has the policy changed? There were over 40 people in family boarding

That is still SW’s official policy. Enforcement or exceptions are always up to the gate agent. Most of the time, it seems they let the whole family board together. So siblings too, no matter their age. They are usually strict about not letting grandparents, aunts etc join them tho. And 40 people sounds like some of the lines I see. Between that & the 15 - 20 preboards, it’s a lot of special boarding.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

It hasn't changed that I know of but it's really sporadically enforced and entirely dependent on the gate staff. ,

Yup! I heard the gate staff on our recent flights make the announcement a couple of times that family boarding was for one child under 7 and up to two adults. But, when push came to shove, they weren't turning away the older siblings or grandparents to actually enforce the announcement they were making.

While it's frustrating to see those large groups boarding ahead of you in B group, it's really asking a lot of the staff there to keep stopping the line and pulling people aside. No one wants the flight delayed because splitting people back out of family boarding took too long; I'm guessing a lot go with the path of least resistance.

 

[Doug7856]

I was under the understanding that for family boarding, a child under 6 and o
Two parents were allowed to board between A and B. Last Sunday in MCO, there were multiple families some with 5 or 6 members who boarded together. Several of the families had one possibly under 6 and 2-3 teenagers along with both parents boarding together Has the policy changed? There were over 40 people in family boarding

We had the same experience in August. Our B boarding group was effectively a C boarding group.

 

[FCDub]

I was under the understanding that for family boarding, a child under 6 and o
Two parents were allowed to board between A and B. Last Sunday in MCO, there were multiple families some with 5 or 6 members who boarded together. Several of the families had one possibly under 6 and 2-3 teenagers along with both parents boarding together Has the policy changed? There were over 40 people in family boarding

The policy has no changed. Some gate agents are just better at enforcing it.

 

[focusondisney]

We had the same experience in August. Our B boarding group was effectively a C boarding group.

Exactly why I started getting business select. If I buy on release day, it’s not that much more than WGA & adding EBCI. And I don’t have to,worry about getting stuck behind family boarding.

 

[Doug7856]

Exactly why I started getting business select. If I buy on release day, it’s not that much more than WGA & adding EBCI. And I don’t have to,worry about getting stuck behind family boarding.

I guess that was Southwest's intent all along.

 

[focusondisney]

I guess that was Southwest's intent all along.

Probably & I fell for it too. Although, for our July trip I only booked SW one way & JB the other. I was sucked into SW several years ago with bonus points & a companion pass. But I actually prefer JB. Seriously considering closing my DH’s SW credit cards & having him get JB‘s for the free luggage perks. The older I get the less I can tolerate SW’s free for all.

 

[Henlady]

We purchased our flights within 2 hours of release along with early bird check in. We ended up being B 1,2 & 3

 

[kristenrice]

Question about WGA+, specifically, the same day change benefit...

My daughter and I are looking for flights to Boston in June and the (cheapest/fastest) return flight is at 5:30am. The hotel we are staying at is 30-40 minutes from the airport, plus we'd have a rental car to drop off. I would prefer not to take that flight, but the only other option is a flight at 12:30 and it is over $100/pp more. If I opted for the WGA+ fare, would we be able to make a same-day (what is that? after midnight??) switch to the 12:30 flight, if there are still available seats? And if so, would I have to pay the difference in price? If yes, then I am not sure what the benefit is of the "same day change" benefit. Couldn't I just cancel and rebook the flight using the flight credit? Or is it not immediate? I usually book with points so paying OOP is totally new to me.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Question about WGA+, specifically, the same day change benefit...

My daughter and I are looking for flights to Boston in June and the (cheapest/fastest) return flight is at 5:30am. The hotel we are staying at is 30-40 minutes from the airport, plus we'd have a rental car to drop off. I would prefer not to take that flight, but the only other option is a flight at 12:30 and it is over $100/pp more. If I opted for the WGA+ fare, would we be able to make a same-day (what is that? after midnight??) switch to the 12:30 flight, if there are still available seats? And if so, would I have to pay the difference in price? If yes, then I am not sure what the benefit is of the "same day change" benefit. Couldn't I just cancel and rebook the flight using the flight credit? Or is it not immediate? I usually book with points so paying OOP is totally new to me.

I'm not sure what time of day they consider "same-day" as in does it show available at midnight or not (it just says same calendar day) however here's a weblink for the same-day change benefit for WGA+. Scroll down too for the FAQs about it.

https://www.southwest.com/html/air/samedaychange.html

On there it does say with WGA+ you don't have to pay a far difference.

A key thing to keep in mind it does explicitly tell you you will lose your Boarding position associated with your prior flight assuming you have already checked in for that flight (which I assume pretty much everyone will have already checked in who is using this benefit). So just keep that in mind. My husband has done same-day changes several times but he's A-list. And yes he has had C Boarding due to that but with A-list you get to Board after A so the negative effect wasn't a big issue for him.

 

[MinnieMSue]

We purchased our flights within 2 hours of release along with early bird check in. We ended up being B 1,2 & 3

Ugh I had that happen once. I think I had A60 and my (not little) daughter had B1. But when i went to line up a gate agent pulled me to preboard because I had a walker and she also had my daughter preboard with me. I didn’t ask for that or anything. I was kind of glad though. So many families on flights during family boarding. I did not ask to preboard. One other time I was A30 or 31 - the front person in that row and they asked me to preboard then with the walker. Definitely not necessary but nice. I think they were worried I would slow people down though that really isn’t the case. That’s why I never asked to preboard ever.

 

[Avery&Todd]

Points drop alert!!! We are booked RDU to MCO on Saturday, Dec. 3rd and just looked and that flight was 14k points CHEAPER than before - so I rebooked that leg and got back 14k points!! The return flight on Dec. 6th was no change...

but I'll take it!!

 

[Avery&Todd]

AND I checked our RDU to MCO for April 15-22nd and got back 9,728 (total) for our return flight on April 22nd..

WINNING!!

so that's a total of 23,781 for both flights back - that could almost be a round trip flight somewhere!!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Points drop alert!!! We are booked RDU to MCO on Saturday, Dec. 3rd and just looked and that flight was 14k points CHEAPER than before - so I rebooked that leg and got back 14k points!! The return flight on Dec. 6th was no change...

but I'll take it!!

AND I checked our RDU to MCO for April 15-22nd and got back 9,728 (total) for our return flight on April 22nd..

WINNING!!

so that's a total of 23,781 for both flights back - that could almost be a round trip flight somewhere!!

Thanks so much for the reminder! My return trip from Grand Cayman in April has been consistently only showing Anytime/Business fares for $$$$. Today, WGAs opened back up and I was able to save 19,000 points! We're hoping to use our points balance for a trip to Cali in August and that 19k is going to give us a much better chance of booking all of us on points then, too.

 

[Avery&Todd]

Thanks so much for the reminder! My return trip from Grand Cayman in April has been consistently only showing Anytime/Business fares for $$$$. Today, WGAs opened back up and I was able to save 19,000 points! We're hoping to use our points balance for a trip to Cali in August and that 19k is going to give us a much better chance of booking all of us on points then, too.

NICE!!!!!

I love it when we all remind each other of these price/points changes!!

Such a great thread!

 

[dez1978]

Thanks so much for the reminder! My return trip from Grand Cayman in April has been consistently only showing Anytime/Business fares for $$$$. Today, WGAs opened back up and I was able to save 19,000 points! We're hoping to use our points balance for a trip to Cali in August and that 19k is going to give us a much better chance of booking all of us on points then, too.

Nice! I keep checking on my flights mid december and they have doubled in price. And I'm going to Denver, not even anywhere warm and nice lol

 

[EACarlson]

I was under the understanding that for family boarding, a child under 6 and o
Two parents were allowed to board between A and B. Last Sunday in MCO, there were multiple families some with 5 or 6 members who boarded together. Several of the families had one possibly under 6 and 2-3 teenagers along with both parents boarding together Has the policy changed? There were over 40 people in family boarding

That's the policy, whether gate agents enforce the policy is another question. I've seen some be very strict and some probably would have let me and my wife do family boarding if we asked.

Question about WGA+, specifically, the same day change benefit...

My daughter and I are looking for flights to Boston in June and the (cheapest/fastest) return flight is at 5:30am. The hotel we are staying at is 30-40 minutes from the airport, plus we'd have a rental car to drop off. I would prefer not to take that flight, but the only other option is a flight at 12:30 and it is over $100/pp more. If I opted for the WGA+ fare, would we be able to make a same-day (what is that? after midnight??) switch to the 12:30 flight, if there are still available seats? And if so, would I have to pay the difference in price? If yes, then I am not sure what the benefit is of the "same day change" benefit. Couldn't I just cancel and rebook the flight using the flight credit? Or is it not immediate? I usually book with points so paying OOP is totally new to me.

Yes, after midnight local time at point of departure you can attempt a same day change. If there are available seats you would be confirmed at no additional charge. You would have to check in again and most probably have a low C boarding position.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

Finalized our summer trip and these flights for June are really tough to stomach. Before Covid we usually paid between $89-$125 one way. It’s $255 one way now. It’s so far out of the budget I cancelled our January trip just to put that towards our June flights. Do we see any chance of these coming down or is this still just post Covid travel demand?

 

[rangerxenos]

Keep checking your flights, my outgoing flight just dropped down to $39 for December 6th! Now BOTH legs of my flight are $39, I have NEVER paid under $100 round trip for a flight to MCO in all the years I've been traveling!