Southwest Airlines and Check In and Boarding

[Princess Patti]

Does anyone have any knowledge of the online check in for SWA. Once you check in online do you get your boarding pass then, and if so, does it have the A, B, C letter on it. I was also wondering if yu had to wait in a line at the gate at that point also.

Thanks guys for the help.

 

[mommyrom]

Southwest boarding passes show A, B or C. They also have four boarding areas/aisles, all labelled by signs above railings - Preboards, A, B and C. You are wise to line up in whichever area you are assigned to a bit early, as the lines can build quickly. The boarding order we experienced was: First, wheelchair passengers/Blue preboard ticket holders; Second, families with children under the age of 4; then I believe they began the A, B and C areas.

SHould you have a stroller, be sure to gate check it at the desk at the gate area, as they will provide you with a separate tag for it. Happy flying!

 

[Princess Patti]

I see thanks so much. So even if you have the B on the preboard you still have to wait with the other B's to board.

 

[Princess Patti]

Sorry one more time, so when you check in online, do you get a boarding pass with the letter on it.

 

[esrade]

Yes, check in online and it will show you a boarding pass with the letter on it. Print out the boarding pass and you're all set.

Oh, and check in at midnight of the day of your flight and you'll most likely get an A seat. Southwest boards their planes by the letter - A's first, then B's, then C's.

 

[mommyrom]

We learned in late September for our first time with SWA that they have changed the online checkin rules. You can now go online 24 hours before your scheduled flight time and print the boarding passes then. Also, we stayed at All Star Sports and they were happy to help me print the passes at the Guest Services desk the day before we left, so bring your confirmation numbers with you and you should be good.

 

[Princess Patti]

thanks to you all. I heard that you did check in online 24 hours prior and then you had to run to the airport hours before and get in lines with your sections to get seats together. I do guess, however, that you do have to be there early to get those seats together especially if there are alot of preboards and Section A people. Am I correct?

Have a great Saturday !!!!

 

[bicker]

Does Southwest still suspend pre-boarding for families with small children on flights to/from Orlando?

 

[patsal]

In February families with small children were able to preboard.

 

[Gary M]

I think the pre-boarding differs from airport to airport. We flew SWA last Dec. from IND to MCO and more than half the plane pre-boarded, I kid you not. Some of the children had several people with them pre-boarding. I was the only white-haired person that didn't pre-board. Several of the white-haired people had the golf tans and raced the kids on the plane. In IND they were not strict about pre-boarding. DW and I had A boarding passes and got seats together without a problem.

When we flew SWA to Vegas from Ind a couple of months ago fewer than 5 people pre-boarded and they were in wheelchairs. No young kids on the flight.

 

[mommyrom]

Just a month ago, we had no problems with preboarding with our three kids (7, 4, and 2) out of Providence and MCO and back...Just as long as the wheelchair passengers got on first, we were next in line!

 

[misslissa]

Is is possible to print out the boarding passes at the airport the day of???

 

[tjmw2727]

thanks to you all. I heard that you did check in online 24 hours prior and then you had to run to the airport hours before and get in lines with your sections to get seats together. I do guess, however, that you do have to be there early to get those seats together especially if there are alot of preboards and Section A people. Am I correct?

Have a great Saturday !!!!

No - relax SWA is ok, fun and happyness. If you have a child 4 or under you can preboard "immediate family" this dosen't mean aunt or uncle or nana and papa however. This does mean mom/dad and siblings. When you check in online 24 hours prior you will be able to print your boarding pass and it WILL have your priority on it A, B or C.

So - if you don't have a child 4 or under then definately check in online. If you do then let your family check in first or check in for them ie, nana- papa etc.

Then get to the airport a normal time, enough to allow for checking luggage and getting through security. You CAN'T line up hours early from most airports as there will be a flight ahead of yours using the queues. So get to the airport on time - be ready and hang at the terminal. If you are preboarding they will preboard wheelchair/disability first and then young children. Don't even line up if you have preboard you don't have to! Then A then B then C will board. I lined up in A when others started we were about 4-5th in line and sat in a row of three close to the front, wonderful!

It really isn't to complicated and it really isn't a 'cattle call'. We did SWA for the first time from Philly to MCO and it was just me and my dd's 8 and 10. My 8yo was sooo afraid of sitting alone but we got A passes online and it would not have been an issue even if we didn't line up.

I worried for nothing so I hope you won't.

TJ

 

[kaytieeldr]

thanks to you all. I heard that you did check in online 24 hours prior and then you had to run to the airport hours before and get in lines with your sections to get seats together. I do guess, however, that you do have to be there early to get those seats together especially if there are alot of preboards and Section A people. Am I correct?

Have a great Saturday !!!!

There won't be "a lot" of any section passengers. The boarding passes are issued approximately 1/3 of the available seats with an "A" on the pass, 1/3 with a "B" and 1/3 with a "C". WWW.Seatguru.com will tell you exactly how many seats there are on Southwest's planes, and you do have to keep in mind that depending on your starting point, there may already be passengers on board before anybody gets on the plane at your airport.

Yes, unfortunately there could be a lot of preboards; even if the particular airport restricts preboarding to children under a certain age and their immediate families, those passengers could easily hold seats for friends/relatives still inside the terminal.

 

[debabe723]

No - relax SWA is ok, fun and happyness. If you have a child 4 or under you can preboard "immediate family" this dosen't mean aunt or uncle or nana and papa however. This does mean mom/dad and siblings. When you check in online 24 hours prior you will be able to print your boarding pass and it WILL have your priority on it A, B or C.

So - if you don't have a child 4 or under then definately check in online. If you do then let your family check in first or check in for them ie, nana- papa etc.

Then get to the airport a normal time, enough to allow for checking luggage and getting through security. You CAN'T line up hours early from most airports as there will be a flight ahead of yours using the queues. So get to the airport on time - be ready and hang at the terminal. If you are preboarding they will preboard wheelchair/disability first and then young children. Don't even line up if you have preboard you don't have to! Then A then B then C will board. I lined up in A when others started we were about 4-5th in line and sat in a row of three close to the front, wonderful!

It really isn't to complicated and it really isn't a 'cattle call'. We did SWA for the first time from Philly to MCO and it was just me and my dd's 8 and 10. My 8yo was sooo afraid of sitting alone but we got A passes online and it would not have been an issue even if we didn't line up.

I worried for nothing so I hope you won't.

TJ

This is a great post! I've flown SoWest many, many times with my DS and we've never been separated on the flight. There are approximately 130 seats and if you are in either the A or B group, chances are pretty good that you will be sitting together. The only time I'm not in the A or B boarding group is when I'm flying alone and don't care where I sit so don't mind boarding later.

One time, when leaving Orlando, DS and I were in the A group (even though he was only 4 and could preboard, I still like to get there early). A guy walked up to us as we were waiting in line and asked if I would pretend he was my husband so he could preboard too (he had a C boarding pass). I declined his offer and suggested that if he wanted to board earlier, maybe he should get to the airport a little sooner (this was before online check in). He kept trying to talk me into it but I told him unless he could produce a nice diamond ring to go along with his proposal, he was out of luck LOL. I did notice later when he boarded that he was flying alone, so I'm not sure why he felt he needed to preboard.

 

[Martha7]

Sounds like an inventive pick-up technique!

 

[DrTomorrow]

No - relax SWA is ok, fun and happyness. If you have a child 4 or under you can preboard "immediate family" this dosen't mean aunt or uncle or nana and papa however. This does mean mom/dad and siblings. When you check in online 24 hours prior you will be able to print your boarding pass and it WILL have your priority on it A, B or C.

So - if you don't have a child 4 or under then definately check in online. If you do then let your family check in first or check in for them ie, nana- papa etc.

Then get to the airport a normal time, enough to allow for checking luggage and getting through security. You CAN'T line up hours early from most airports as there will be a flight ahead of yours using the queues. So get to the airport on time - be ready and hang at the terminal. If you are preboarding they will preboard wheelchair/disability first and then young children. Don't even line up if you have preboard you don't have to! Then A then B then C will board. I lined up in A when others started we were about 4-5th in line and sat in a row of three close to the front, wonderful!

It really isn't to complicated and it really isn't a 'cattle call'. We did SWA for the first time from Philly to MCO and it was just me and my dd's 8 and 10. My 8yo was sooo afraid of sitting alone but we got A passes online and it would not have been an issue even if we didn't line up.

I worried for nothing so I hope you won't.

TJ

Yep, flying SWA is one of the big benefits we gained when we moved from Michigan (Northworst) to Phoenix, AZ (SouthBest!).

One note about lining up when you are LEAVING Orlando. Sometimes the flights that take you home do NOT originate at Orlando and already have folks on-board. We discovered this on a trip last December. We had a non-stop from MCO to PHX and had our A passes, so at first we didn't actually bother to get in line. However, as I see the A line forming, I said to DW "if we have to wait, we might as well get in line"; she rolled her eyes but said "OK". It turned out to be a good thing, because our flight originated in Fl Lauderdale, and there were a lot of folks already on board. A couple we had been chatting with in line (they were in the "B" line) ended up not sitting together - it looked like some A folks had to split up, too.

I <3 Southwest; just something to be aware of.

 

[aquaticmom]

Is is possible to print out the boarding passes at the airport the day of???

We just flew Southwest today. We had a laptop with us but not a printer. What we did was check in online without printing our boarding passes 24 hours before our flight. Then when we got to the airport, we could print out our boarding passes either at a kiosk or at the ticket counter and we had our "A" boarding passes because we had checked in online 24 hours earlier. If you don't have access to a computer you can call someone back home and give them your confirmation numbers and they can check you in.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Last week we had a very early flight home from WDW. Got our A passes the night before, all was good. Until we realized in the morning just as we arrived at MCO that we forgot to fill up the gas tank in the rental car. Having a few minutes to spare (or so we thought), we drove past MCO to the nearest gas station. Had there not been fairly long lines at both luggage check in and the gate we would have been fine, but there were, and we ended up having to practically run to the terminal.

When we got to the loading area it was empty and they were paging us with just 7 minutes to go before take off. I was kicking myself because I was sure we'd be separated from our kids which had happened on our evacuation flight last year just before Hurricane Frances (not fun). But luckily the plane wasn't full so we were able to get seats down back all together. Phew!

The moral of the story, particularly at MCO - get to the airport early if you want to make good use of your A passes.

 

[dwg]

If you can't check in online are there any restrictions on how early you can check in at the airport?