Question about flying on Southwest with 3 year old

[tobin04]

We're flying SOuthwest. I don't know how we'll get our boarding pass the day before so we can be an 'A' for our trip home.

But I'm wondering if Southwest lets people traveling with a 3 year old board first anyway?

What does everyone else do about getting their boarding pass for their trip home??

 

[Princess Amy]

I'm trying to remember and I believe that any families with a child under 4 or 5 has priority boarding over other passengers.

 

[Patsfan7]

Last time we flew them, we were allowed to board first with under five yr old. Counting on it this trip too!

 

[casaazul]

The front desk at POR printed mine out for me. They seem to know exactly what to do, so it appears that it is a typical request.

 

[robin09]

We're flying SOuthwest. I don't know how we'll get our boarding pass the day before so we can be an 'A' for our trip home.

But I'm wondering if Southwest lets people traveling with a 3 year old board first anyway?

What does everyone else do about getting their boarding pass for their trip home??

No problems with southwest and Disney! Every year we've gone, disney prints out the boarding pass for me! Last year, the Wilderness lodge did it for me, just before we ate at Boma! Disney is great with printing the boarding for Southwest. As for sitting with your 3 year old they should allow you to preboard (Unless everyone there has children that young!) I've never had a problem.

 

[Mkrop]

DH called SW the other night to ask how does preboarding work and can we do this with our 4 yr old so we can all sit together. The cust svc rep told him repeatedly to not checkin online the day before but go to the desk and request this. He said oh "so we cant use the skycap" and she said "if you want to preboard go to the desk." "How about the gate" he asked. She said say it with me sir "FRONT DESK".

So I at first I was like was she saying this rudely and he said oh no she just caught on to the fact quickly that DH is sarcastic fool.

So we are going to do this and hope it works. We never flown SW as a family but DH flew them for business once and at the gate they pulled a letter from a bag and said ok today "B" tickets get to board first today, so he wasnt convinced about "A" tickets" boarding first.

SO I am not sure what others have experienced with SW but we are hoping for the best. If it doesnt work for the way down then we at least know for the trip home.

 

[SonicGuy]

I honestly do not understand why people fly Southwest - especially if you are concerned about sitting together. The only good think IMO about Southwest in a market is that they bring down the price on the other airlines. I am always able to find a flight for the same price as Southwest and I do not have to worry about fighting the "herd" to assure that my family and I can sit together. Just a thought.

 

[Patsfan7]

It's not my first choice either... but if you fly late at night (at least in my experience) only half the plane is utilized, and I couldn't beat the $49 each way I got from NH to Orlando. One year I got $39 each way!

 

[Manda]

Yes, you can pre-board SWA with a 3 year old. No reason to worry about checking in early because you'll pre-board any way. And you don't have to actually print the boarding pass - you just have to get Internet access and check in. I've got web access on my cell phone, so I just set an alarm on my phone to remind me to check in and I log into Southwest's site from there and check-in. I always get 'A' group that way and then I just print my boarding pass from the kiosk at the airport.

 

[Mkrop]

I honestly do not understand why people fly Southwest - especially if you are concerned about sitting together. The only good think IMO about Southwest in a market is that they bring down the price on the other airlines. I am always able to find a flight for the same price as Southwest and I do not have to worry about fighting the "herd" to assure that my family and I can sit together. Just a thought.

Not here, we could not find ANY flights as cheap as SW. It wasnt even close. We wanted (and needed but that is another story) to stay in the Contemporary this trip so we were looking for other ways to cut costs so we are giving SW a shot. And I read a thread on here where someone flying I think it was Jet Blue had their seats rearranged so she was no longer sitting next to her kids and the airlines would not move anyone until the day of the flight (we had this happen to us to when we flew to Tampa on USAir) so I dont find any seats to be "guaranteed" no matter what the arilines say!

 

[Princess Amy]

We just flew Air-Tran home a week ago out of Miami with a connecting flight. And in both flights we already had our seat assignments. But when we checked in to get our boarding passes, guess what, somehow all 12 of us were all scattered over the plane. We noticed that happened with a bunch of other families as well. We were delayed both flights just because of people switching seats to be near each other.

The times I flew SW I never had a problem sitting with my family . I would fly SW again in a heartbeat. Really, the not having seating assignments is not a problem.

 

[mdhkitten]

I've flown SW several times with my dd who will be 3 in June, and I've never had a problem with pre-boarding, but there are some folks on here who have said that they have seen during really busy times at MCO that there were so many pre-boarders that they wound up not pre-boarding and doing letters instead. Anyway, I've never encountered this, but apparently it could happen during extremely busy times such as holidays.

I used to get the desk to print off my boarding passes (or wherever), until I learned that I can check in on my cell phone. As long as you have a web enabled cell (which most are these days), you just have to log on and it shows your boarding pass. Once you get to the airport you can print it out from the kiosk or have the agent print it for you. This has come in quite handy when we were at a restaurant or clear across the park from any place that could print them out for us, not to mention that I didn't have to keep up with boarding passes! If anyone would like the SW link to put into your phone to do this, just let me know and I can find it. BTW, you DO have to make sure you have your confirmations #(s) with you, but you can write those down on a little piece of paper.

 

[tobin04]

My DH and family fly Southwest ALL the time, and they enjoy it. This will be my first time flying Southwest, but I don't fly very often! I'm not worried about sitting together so long as me or my DH are with my 3 year old...and I really don't think that'll be a problem. It's a 2 hour flight-I won't miss my dh too much!! LOL!

I agree-it forces other airlines to lower their outrageous prices. I live 5 min. from Pittsburgh International, which was a USAirways hub. I don't think it is still, b/c we FINALLY have other airlines to choose from. It used to be ONLY USAirways here. It's nice that we have choices now! And you can't beat Southwest's prices!

 

[mdhkitten]

BTW, here is a link to a thread that I started over a year ago regarding pre-boarding of me, dd, and my mom, but several people chimed in saying that they have seen pre-boarding suspende, much to my horror. Fortunately it's never happened to me, and I think if it ever did it would probably be over a holiday which is a time that we don't travel.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1092569

 

[tobin04]

I'd LOVE that link! Thanks!

 

[mdhkitten]

Here is the link:

http://southwest.com/travel_center/wireless_access.html


Just remember to bring your confirmations #'s! I forgot mine last time when we left the hotel and had to turn around and go back.

 

[tobin04]

Thank you!

 

[mdhkitten]

You're welcome!! There is an FAQ section on there if you need help understanding it.

 

[Manda]

Here is the link:

http://southwest.com/travel_center/wireless_access.html


Just remember to bring your confirmations #'s! I forgot mine last time when we left the hotel and had to turn around and go back.

On a phone, you can just enter mobile.southwest.com. A little easier to type with your thumbs.

 

[mdhkitten]

On a phone, you can just enter mobile.southwest.com. A little easier to type with your thumbs.

Yeah, I do that, too, that was just the link explaining about the mobile check in!