printing boarding passes for southwest and checking luggage?

[POOHDRMR]

I am not sure if you still can print your boarding pass online for southwest if you will be checking baggage.Thanks for any help!

 

[katallo]

Yes you can. We did it last week.

 

[maine_jennifer]

Yes you can print your boarding passes at home. Then most airports you can check your bags curbside or go to one of the kiosks inside to check your luggage. I had the same question in October and had no problems. At the kiosk, my experience was it was just like checking in as if you hadn't printed a boarding pass. It will ask you if you need to print a boarding pass again or not. I said no, and went to the next questions. VERY simple!

Good Luck!

 

[100AcreWood]

This is my first SWA flight. Any tips for making sure my family of 3 can sit together?

 

[clkelley]

Check-in online exactly 24 hours before your flight, then arrive at your gate at least 3 hours before your flight and park yourself in the A line with a good book. You should get seats together.

That is the extreme. However, as long as you have an A boarding pass, then you should be able to sit together. It may be further back in the plane, but you should still be together.


Carol

 

[JRJohn]

Check-in online exactly 24 hours before your flight, then arrive at your gate at least 3 hours before your flight and park yourself in the A line with a good book. You should get seats together.

That is the extreme. However, as long as you have an A boarding pass, then you should be able to sit together. It may be further back in the plane, but you should still be together.


Carol

You mean the SWA "Cattle Call"?

 

[owtrbnks]

As long as you get A's or B's you'll have no problem if you're boarding in the originating city. If you're boarding a continuing flight, better get A's to be sure. But it's really not as hard or as big of a deal as everyone makes it out to be. Many flights are not full and getting 3 seats together is probably more the norm than not. Have a GREAT VACATION!

 

[ccgegg]

It doesn't matter if you're A, B or C. If you have little kids with you, right as you step onto the plane, tell them that you're not really going to Disneyworld. Then as they scream their heads off while you walk down the aisle, say "Oh, you kids being SO much better than our last flight." That should empty a row in no time. Glad I could help.

 

[100AcreWood]

It doesn't matter if you're A, B or C. If you have little kids with you, right as you step onto the plane, tell them that you're not really going to Disneyworld. Then as they scream their heads off while you walk down the aisle, say "Oh, you kids being SO much better than our last flight." That should empty a row in no time. Glad I could help.

LOL! Oh that would definitely work!

 

[Princess Patti]

what time can you check in online if your flight is 8:00 a.m.

 

[kaytieeldr]

See post # 5 for that information

 

[salmoneous]

A couple of tips here, because I see confused people all the time staring blankly at the Southwest kiosks. (If I seem the slightest bit cranky in this post, I've been running late and stuck behind clueless folks wondering what to do. In these situations, I suddenly become the nicest, mostly helpful person you ever met.)

1) If you have logged in from home, your airport procedure is exactly the same as if you haven't logged in from home. You stand in the same lines, use the same kiosks, etc. When you get to the kiosk, you "log-in" the same as everyone else - which is easiest using your reservation number. If you've left your reservation number at home but printed your boarding pass, the reservation number is that 6-digit code printed right there in big digits on the boarding pass.

2) Speaking of which, since you have to go to the kiosks anyway, there is no need to print your boarding pass ahead of time. Which makes it easy to have a friend (or pay service) log you in if you aren't available exactly 24-hours before your flight. But if you are at home when you log in, you might as well print the thing. If nothing else, it's another piece of paper with the reservation number on it.

3) Note that when you log-in at the airport kiosk after you have already logged in, it won't ask you a yes/no question about whether you want to reprint your boarding pass. There is just a button labeled "reprint boarding pass" with the word YES on it. If you want to print a boarding pass, hit that button. If not, you do nothing.

As for the sit together thing, note that on the vast majority of Southwest flights, an A pass guarantees you will sit together. Heck, in general, unless you are the front of the A line and can snag an exit-row seat, there is no advantage to standing in the A line. So A-pass relax people. Wonder around, sit in the chairs, whatever.

The one exception to this rule are flights where a lot of people stay on the plane from the pervious leg of the journey. This can happen on flights from cities that have many flights, into airports that only have a few (the closest thing Southwest has to hubs). Vegas -> Reno is a good example. I would be very surprised if this were common on flights to MCO.

 

[JDietz40]

SWA only lets you preboard with very small children I believe 2 and younger. I would do your best at checking in 24 hours in advance to get A boarding passes. I would expect alot of people preboarding on a flight to MCO since quite a few small children will probably be on board so an A pass may be very beneficial. I have been told that if there a to many children they will suspend preboarding at some point to allow other passengers to have resonable seating options. I don't think you will have much of a problem with A boarding passes and most likely will have no problem with a B pass.




John

 

[justcruisin]

salmoneous,

Regarding checking in online --- if we don't have a printer, we can still "check in" 24 hrs early and be "A's", then print our A boarding pass from the kiosk when we arrive at the airport for the flight? As long as we have internet access there's no need to bother the concierge to "print the boarding passes"?

This is great info if I'm understanding correctly.

Thanks

 

[clkelley]

This is correct. I did this just last week from my wireless card at Ft. Wilderness.

Carol

 

[salmoneous]

salmoneous,

Regarding checking in online --- if we don't have a printer, we can still "check in" 24 hrs early and be "A's", then print our A boarding pass from the kiosk when we arrive at the airport for the flight? As long as we have internet access there's no need to bother the concierge to "print the boarding passes"?

Yes, that's the way the system works. And if you have luggage to check, there's no reason to print your pass ahead of time (just bring your reservation number with you). But if you don't have checked luggage, it's still probably easier to get your pass printed at the resort and head straight to security at the airport, rather than having to trek down to the Southwest counter and use the kiosk.

 

[3AmigosMom]

Just to clarify, at both MCO and MDW's gate, we were told in order to pre-board with a young child it is 4 years old and younger. We did pre-board with our 4,5, and 6 y/o, and were never asked their ages. I wasn't sure what the policy was(apparantly it varies from gate agent to gate agent) so had A boarding passes as a "back-up".

 

[salmoneous]

From Southwest.com

Boarding Procedure

* Each Customer will be issued a boarding pass grouped by A, B, or C (in that order) based on when the Customer checked in online at southwest.com, at the Skycap Podium, Ticket Counter, Departure Gate, or RAPID CHECK-IN Kiosk (where available).

* Prior to general boarding, Customers with disabilities, unaccompanied children between the ages of five and 11, and adults traveling with a child under five years of age will preboard. Customers who choose to preboard cannot sit in an emergency exit seat.

 

[dsneygirl]

salmoneous,

Regarding checking in online --- if we don't have a printer, we can still "check in" 24 hrs early and be "A's", then print our A boarding pass from the kiosk when we arrive at the airport for the flight? As long as we have internet access there's no need to bother the concierge to "print the boarding passes"?

This is great info if I'm understanding correctly.

Thanks

Yes, we did this on Monday. We actually had BIL checkin for us from home, we only had carryons so just printed the passes when we got to MCO.

 

[crazywig]

Many flights are not full and getting 3 seats together is probably more the norm than not. Have a GREAT VACATION!

we fly PVD to MCO 2 to 3 times a year and every flight, no matter what time or day or time of year is completely full (this year we went jan, may and sept)

check in exactly 24hrs prior even if you have small children. we preboard but still get A passes in case something happens on the way and we miss the preboard (has happened...security took forever in pvd on time)