Sorry, SW and boarding w/young kids

[MyPrincessisaPirate]

We are a group of eight flying SW for the first time in September. We have 2 year old twins, a 5 year old and an 11 year old, plus 4 adults. Will we all be able to board early together? We plan on checking in at the 24 hour mark, but i wasnt sure if they limited the amount of people to board with the babies.

 

[Mom2SamandJames]

We flew SW with our sons ages 3 and 8 months to the World last year. We checked in at the 24 hour mark and were rewarded with the A seating which is the first seating group. If you happen to end up in the B or C seating group, don't stress, groups with young children are allowed to enter after the A seating regardless of whether they have B or C seating. They will allow your entire group to board and will check your stroller for you at the gate as long as you get the stroller tag at the SW counter. The stroller will be waiting for you when you get off the plane. Relax and enjoy. You will have a great time!

 

[kaytieeldr]

If you check in online 24 hours in advance, there should be no problem getting A passes. If you get B or C passes, the airline may prevent some of the adults from boarding between the groups. That's for immediate families only traveling with children four and under. If the two older children 'belong' to one family and the twins to the other, only the twins and their parents should expect to be allowed to board between groups. If all children belong to one family, the other two adults will be required to board as indicated on their passes. Ditto if only one of the older children is theirs.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

If you check in online 24 hours in advance, there should be no problem getting A passes. If you get B or C passes, the airline may prevent some of the adults from boarding between the groups. That's for immediate families only traveling with children four and under. If the two older children 'belong' to one family and the twins to the other, only the twins and their parents should expect to be allowed to board between groups. If all children belong to one family, the other two adults will be required to board as indicated on their passes. Ditto if only one of the older children is theirs.

I agree. Having young children in your group doesn't mean the whole group can board early. Only the parents of the young children and their siblings. No older cousins, uncles, etc.

 

[goofy4tink]

Question for the OP....is the entire group on the same reservation??? If not, it may be tough to get everyone in numerical sequence for boarding. When you checkin, at that 24 hr mark, be sure to have all the names checked off on the reservation before submitting the reservation for checking in. I always would forget to check everyone off and it would return me to that page before allowing me to check us all in.
If you have more than that one reservation, then have two people checkin...one for each reservation.
As long as you get checked in within 20 mins of the 24 hr mark, you should be fine. No, you may not get everyone seated next to each other, but you will be able to get the kids seated with adults, even if you end up with B section....and yes, the 2 y/o kids will be able to be boarded with their immediate family, in between the A group and the B group if you aren't able to get the A group boarding. But, the entire group won't be allowed to board at the same time...just mom and dad and any siblings.

 

[seashoreCM]

If at least two thirds of you can board in the A group or with families immediately afterwards, go behind the wings and sit in aisle and window seats leaving the middle seats between you vacant for the rest of the family.

Nobody (I mean hardly anybody) will take the middle seat between you back there until the plane really fills up, and if someone does, you do not have to move over and give the stranger the aisle or window even if you are loquacious seeing that you have another seat (where another family member was isolated) to trade.

Disney hints: http://www.cockam.com/disney.htm

 

[crashbb]

Nobody (I mean hardly anybody) will take the middle seat between you back there until the plane really fills up, and if someone does, you do not have to move over and give the stranger the aisle or window even if you are loquacious seeing that you have another seat (where another family member was isolated) to trade.

What the heck does being chatty have to do with moving over and giving a stranger the window/aisle seat?

 

[kevgraub]

What the heck does being chatty have to do with moving over and giving a stranger the window/aisle seat?

Imagine taking a middle seat between two people that are constantly chatting back and forth at each other. Now, imagine how likely you would be to agree to change seats with their family member that is sitting two rows back, also in a middle seat.

 

[NotUrsula]

We have 2 year old twins, a 5 year old and an 11 year old, plus 4 adults. Will we all be able to board early together?

No.

That's the simple answer. The more complex answer is that SWA no longer preboards families with young children, because too many people were abusing that privilege.

The new boarding pattern is that disabled passengers still may preboard, then A's (including any families with young children who happen to be holding A's), THEN any nuclear families that do not have A's but DO have children *under* age 5, then B's, then C's.

What you should do: Check in exactly 24 hours out, get A's, and head straight to the back of the plane. You should have no trouble finding 8 seats fairly close together.

FYI, Under the old system (as it was designed, not as it was abused) any NUCLEAR family travelling with a child under age 5 were allowed to preboard. No grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., unless they happened to be disabled and eligible to preboard on their own account. Lots of times the gate agents looked the other way when extended family took advantage and preboarded with only one baby present. People even did things like going up to someone struggling with carrying a child and baggage and offering to help if they could pretend to be an aunt. Or even just asking if they could pretend to be an aunt and not even offering to carry something in return for the favor.

 

[blissventure]

No.

That's the simple answer. The more complex answer is that SWA no longer preboards families with young children, because too many people were abusing that privilege.

The new boarding pattern is that disabled passengers still may preboard, then A's (including any families with young children who happen to be holding A's), THEN any nuclear families that do not have A's but DO have children *under* age 5, then B's, then C's.

What you should do: Check in exactly 24 hours out, get A's, and head straight to the back of the plane. You should have no trouble finding 8 seats fairly close together.

FYI, Under the old system (as it was designed, not as it was abused) any NUCLEAR family travelling with a child under age 5 were allowed to preboard. No grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., unless they happened to be disabled and eligible to preboard on their own account. Lots of times the gate agents looked the other way when extended family took advantage and preboarded with only one baby present. People even did things like going up to someone struggling with carrying a child and baggage and offering to help if they could pretend to be an aunt. Or even just asking if they could pretend to be an aunt and not even offering to carry something in return for the favor.

Good explanation! And I put in boldface something important, 8 seats fairly close together. It does not mean you're guaranteed to be all together. With 4 adults, it's easy to split up the the traveling group reasonably. That means put a kiddo or two with an adult, and find your seats.
The easiest thing would be to let the kids know ahead of time, should there be fewer seats together, who they will be sitting by (adult). Then everyone gets seated quickly. And if it turns out you find 8 seats together, lucky you.

 

[scard192]

PP is correct. SW changed their boarding policy last fall. Parties traveling with young children board after the "A" group and before "B". If you check in on line and get an A group number you may board with the A passengers. The boarding is now in numerical order, not by group. It's up to the Gate Agents to decide if they will allow "extra" adults to board with the others if you choose to board between A + B.