Seat selection system om southwest!

[Tonka's Skipper]

I am not good with computers!..That said.......how do you do seat selction on the SW site?

Is it part of the early check in system?

Thanks for your help.

AKK

 

[DebbieB]

I am not good with computers!..That said.......how do you do seat selction on the SW site?

Is it part of the early check in system?

Thanks for your help.

AKK

Southwest is all open seating, there are no assigned seats. What you do get is a boarding letter and number which determines the order you board.

http://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/airport-experience/boarding-school/

 

[goofy4tink]

Ummmm, you don't?? SW doesn't allow seat choice when booking. It's a first come, first served type deal.
When you check in, online, at the 24 hr window, you will then get a boarding group...A,B, or C. Then, within that grouping will be a numerical value...A16-60, B1-60, and C1-60. I say '60' only because I don't remember how high each group goes, but it's something like 60.
Business select and full fare passengers get A1-15. When they call you up to line up to board, the A group gets up, and goes to their position. There will be poles with numerical values...1-5, 6-10 and so on, in increments of 5. You find you slot and wait. Then, you board. Then, the B group lines up, followed by the C group. There are many times that those traveling with kids under 4 (and in the B or C group) are allowed to board between the A and B groups.
As you board the plane, you are free to choose any unoccupied seat.
Hope that helps.

Those who choose to pay the addtl $10 for EBCI are checked in, by SW, at the 36 hr window.

 

[6elginfans]

I fly Southwest 2-3 times a month for business. They are a great airline. I have some insight for you.

1. The board families, with children younger than 5, between the A and B boarding groups. This means you will be the 61st or so person the board. At this stage the plane will be about half full and you should have no problem finding seats together.

2. If that does not work for you. You can spend the $10 each way to get the Early Bird Check In. This will get your a seat either in the A group or first 30 of the B group.

They let an entire party board with the lowest number, so in old suggest just buying one early bird and everyone in your party can board with that person, no matter what thier boarding number is.

I hope this helps. Have fun.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Many thanks Everyone!......that surely explains why I couldn't find the seat selection button.

We are doing the Fantasy Nov 3rd, for our 35 weedding anny. We usually fly Delta but they are $250 more then SW and JB is $400 more, so I checked out SW........and will be booking them now!


Thanks agian!


AKK

 

[goofy4tink]

Many thanks Everyone!......that surely explains why I couldn't find the seat selection button.

We are doing the Fantasy Nov 3rd, for our 35 weedding anny. We usually fly Delta but they are $250 more then SW and JB is $400 more, so I checked out SW........and will be booking them now!


Thanks agian!


AKK

Wow.....35 years of weedding!!! How cool is that??? I can't get my dh to commit to 3 hrs of weeding!!!

 

[Zerosinthecloset]

I fly Southwest 2-3 times a month for business. They are a great airline. I have some insight for you.

1. The board families, with children younger than 5, between the A and B boarding groups. This means you will be the 61st or so person the board. At this stage the plane will be about half full and you should have no problem finding seats together.

They board children 4 and under between the A and B groups.

2. If that does not work for you. You can spend the $10 each way to get the Early Bird Check In. This will get your a seat either in the A group or first 30 of the B group.

They let an entire party board with the lowest number, so in old suggest just buying one early bird and everyone in your party can board with that person, no matter what thier boarding number is.

I also fly SWA 2 to 3 times a month.


Just a little of the old bovine excrement here. You do not get to board with the person with the lowest number, regardless of EBCI. For the most part, the gate attendents try to make sure boarding is orderly, and hopefully in order.

 

[Danibelle]

I fly Southwest 2-3 times a month for business. They are a great airline. I have some insight for you.

1. The board families, with children younger than 5, between the A and B boarding groups. This means you will be the 61st or so person the board. At this stage the plane will be about half full and you should have no problem finding seats together.

2. If that does not work for you. You can spend the $10 each way to get the Early Bird Check In. This will get your a seat either in the A group or first 30 of the B group.

They let an entire party board with the lowest number, so in old suggest just buying one early bird and everyone in your party can board with that person, no matter what thier boarding number is.

I hope this helps. Have fun.

They don't let your group all board with the lowest number but you can board everyone with the highest number. Even with Early Bird. And if you just buy one Early Bird, that is the person who will board early, not the entire group.

 

[mickey2000]

I also fly SWA 2 to 3 times a month.


Just a little of the old bovine excrement here. You do not get to board with the person with the lowest number, regardless of EBCI. For the most part, the gate attendents try to make sure boarding is orderly, and hopefully in order.

I agree !

 

[plutolovr]

Since this is a special cruise make sure you fly in the day before the cruise. You don't want a flight delay or cancellation to ruin your special trip.

 

[goofy4tink]

I fly Southwest 2-3 times a month for business. They are a great airline. I have some insight for you.

1. The board families, with children younger than 5, between the A and B boarding groups. This means you will be the 61st or so person the board. At this stage the plane will be about half full and you should have no problem finding seats together.

2. If that does not work for you. You can spend the $10 each way to get the Early Bird Check In. This will get your a seat either in the A group or first 30 of the B group.

They let an entire party board with the lowest number, so in old suggest just buying one early bird and everyone in your party can board with that person, no matter what thier boarding number is.

I hope this helps. Have fun.

I have never seen anyone allowed to board ahead of their boarding number..unless it was a B+ number and you have children that qualify for family boarding between A and B. Otherwise, no. Even if you pay for EBCI....you do NOT get to move your entire family up with you.

 

[MrMarv]

If you do choose to utilize EBCI, that only allows couples to move up as opposed to entire families, correct?

I've never used it, but it's nice to know that it exists nonetheless.

 

[DebbieB]

If you do choose to utilize EBCI, that only allows couples to move up as opposed to entire families, correct?

I've never used it, but it's nice to know that it exists nonetheless.

No. If one has A25 and one has B5, B5 cannot move up with A25. A25 could move back to B5.

 

[skeeter31]

How many people are in each group? Is it 60 per letter? 30 per letter?

My wife and I are looking to fly SW in December and I'm going to buy the Early Bird Check In for both of us. What are the chances we'll get into Group A? Even if we wind up in Group B is there a chance of us not getting to sit together?

We've only flown JetBlue in the past and love choosing our seats, and getting the Extra Legroom/Speed perks, but they are over $200 more than SW for this flight (Without adding in the Extra $30 per seat for leg room/speed).

I'm just extremely worried we won't get to sit together. I know it's probably an unfounded worry since it's only 2 of us, and we'll have the early bird check in, but it's still a concern. Should I be worried?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[dudspizza]

How many people are in each group? Is it 60 per letter? 30 per letter?

My wife and I are looking to fly SW in December and I'm going to buy the Early Bird Check In for both of us. What are the chances we'll get into Group A? Even if we wind up in Group B is there a chance of us not getting to sit together?

We've only flown JetBlue in the past and love choosing our seats, and getting the Extra Legroom/Speed perks, but they are over $200 more than SW for this flight (Without adding in the Extra $30 per seat for leg room/speed).

I'm just extremely worried we won't get to sit together. I know it's probably an unfounded worry since it's only 2 of us, and we'll have the early bird check in, but it's still a concern. Should I be worried?

Thanks in advance!!

60 per group.

 

[tjmw2727]

If you do choose to utilize EBCI, that only allows couples to move up as opposed to entire families, correct?

I've never used it, but it's nice to know that it exists nonetheless.

No- Each passenger has his/her own boarding pass with the boarding spot. You are expected to line up and board in your spot regardless of your travel party. Folks will be fine with you moving back to a higher position to board with family/friends but moving up to a lower position would be "cutting".

FWIW, the SWA website has a great section on their boarding procedure and policies - called boarding school.

 

[LisaS]

My wife and I are looking to fly SW in December and I'm going to buy the Early Bird Check In for both of us. What are the chances we'll get into Group A? Even if we wind up in Group B is there a chance of us not getting to sit together?

We buy EBCI and usually get low A boarding positions because I purchase our flights the day the schedule opens and purchase EBCI that day as well. On our last trip we got B10 and B11 (even with EBCI). I was concerned but we had no problem finding seats together. There were not a lot of family boarders on our flight, about 10 people boarded between the A and B groups so that helped. Our flight originated in our home airport so there were no "through" passengers already on board which also helped. There were many empty rows when we boarded and we ended up a few rows in front of the emergency exit row in a window and middle seat.

 

[DCTooTall]

I have never seen anyone allowed to board ahead of their boarding number..unless it was a B+ number and you have children that qualify for family boarding between A and B. Otherwise, no. Even if you pay for EBCI....you do NOT get to move your entire family up with you.

No. If one has A25 and one has B5, B5 cannot move up with A25. A25 could move back to B5.

The ONLY exception to this might be if one person in your party had A23 and the 2nd person had A25..... Of course this is usually because someone in the middle of your party might usually be kind enough to let you board together since 1 seat usually isn't going to be that big of a deal.

 

[Kiwini]

Three things to note:
1. Although if one family member has an earlier number than another, you can't board together, but the first one can usually set a bag or a coat in an adjacent seat to unofficially hold it for their partner. I've never had someone insist that I can't save "that" seat. It may be more difficult for larger parties, but you could probably get three together saved that way without any trouble or without feeling like you violated the spirit of the system relative to the spirit of letting people fly together!
2. My wife booked seats for herself and me at the same time, and bought the earlybird option for both of us. I ended up with A-27 and she ended up with B-2. Go figure.
3. Earlybird gets your boarding number 36 hours before flight time, versus 24 hours if you do it manually. What you may not know is that it is 36 (or 24) hours before the first leg of your flight, but you get boarding numbers for any subsequent legs of your flight if you are making connections on your trip. That gives you even more of a head start on anyone who is just starting their flight where you are making a connection. It works in reverse, too - I always wondered why I got such a bad boarding number even though I bought earlybird or checked in manually exactly 24 hours before. It's because I was on a flight that lots of people were connecting to from their earlier flights.

 

[dudspizza]

2. My wife booked seats for herself and me at the same time, and bought the earlybird option for both of us. I ended up with A-27 and she ended up with B-2. Go figure.

That is just stupid and a spot where there is a glitch in the SW system. If your tickets were booked together, the boarding passes should have been closer. I have heard that this can happen if someone cancels or changes a flight and then the order of numbers given our changes, but it is still very odd.

We got like A40, 42, 45, and 47. Our kids were 45 and 47 and we had them line up in proper order as they are older and have flown many times. I knew they would be fine. The people in between all of us told them to go up to us. They were all very nice... they knew that it wasn't going to make a difference. My wife and I could have also gone back to them.

Duds