Questions about SouthWest

[jjmatte]

We are planning a trip next summer with my wife's whole family.
We will have 4 kids by then ages 5,4,2, and 8 months. My sister-in-law called SW to get some info. They will allow any child under 5 to pre-board with an adult. According to her, we can ONLY take the 3 that are under 5. My oldest will have to wait till her section boards. Is this correct? That is insane, that they would expect a 5 yo to wait alone in an airport to board. They also said there is no guarantee that a family will all have the same seating group.


Has anyone run into problems such as this?

The family is now looking into leaving from a different airport with Delta, which isn't what I want.

 

[ccgegg]

I don't fly Southwest much, but I didn't know ANY airline had preboarding for flights to Orlando. Pretty much the whole plane would qualify.

SW isn't going to make your 5yo sit without the family. Are you sure these policies apply to Orlando flights?

 

[Stimpy]

SWA allows families with children under 4 to preboard.....immediate family only. So if your child is 5 and the other 3 children are your neices and nephews, their family would be able to preboard but you could not. If you have 1 child under 4 and the 5 yr old, then your immediate family, including the 5 yr old, can preboard. They have been really cracking down on this lately.

Also, SWA will not guarantee you will sit together as one whole family, but they will make sure atleast 1 adult is able to sit with the young child.

As long as you get there early and preprint your boarding passes, you shouldn't have a problem. We've only been seperated once and it was our fault. We were late for the plane with our DS 5 and DD1 on a full flight. The FA's were able to get a full row for DH and the 2 kids (we had a seat purchased for the baby and had her car seat) and I had to sit a few rows back.....darn!

 

[Coach Rick]

I fly SWA exclusively (gotta luv those Rapid Rewards!), and have noticed them letting on the entire "immediate" family, so I doubt very much you will have a problem. Last year I preboarded with my mom who uses a cane. This past May I printed my boarding passes at 12:01 AM so I got line A. Some friends were in C, and I managed to hold seats for them. I know, that wasn't very nice, but I also showed them how to get the boarding passes from a computer so they would get their own A boarding pass the next time.

 

[inkkognito]

It depends on the gate agent's discretion and the number of pre-boarders (which can be very significant in Orlando). I have seen them let whole neighborhoods board with one infant and have also seen them enforce the "one person" rule quite stringently. No rhyme or reason that I can make out.
Barb

 

[gw_lit]

Preboarding is for adults travelling with children under the age of 5.

Regardless of how, or if, they preboard, they won't make your 5 year old wait in line alone. Either one adult will be able to board with the children eligible for pre-boarding and one adult will have wait to board with the older child, or they'll let you all board together. I would imagine since the oldest is 5 and there are four children total, they'll let you all board together. Of course there are 12 adults with those 4 children, you all won't get to pre-board. And as others have pointed out, pre-boarding is at the discretion of the gate agent. If the flight is packed with kids, they may very strictly limit preboarding.


Here's the link to Southwest's check-in and boarding procedures: http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/checkin.html