ORMom2Four
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2006
- Messages
- 1,117
We fly direct/non stop out of Buffalo to Florida, but we have never flown them before. It was always Jetblue. We did pay extra for the early bird seating or whatever it is.
Can someone please tell me how this all works ? We are 2A and 2c. Do I still need to check in on line 24 hours prior? How early should we be at the airport for boarding? And what are the chances of getting seats together.
Flying SW makes me nervous not knowing where we will sit, as we've always had pre assigned seating. And hearing of people fighting for certain seats.
Thanks for your help !
Southwest boards in groups according to letter and number. You will not receive your boarding group letter and number until you print your boarding passes.
Because you bought the early boarding, you will not need to check in 24 hours in advance to get the "good" boarding group. You will be put in group A.
Those who check in the earliest get A boarding, then B boarding and then C. Families with small children, regardless of the boarding letter they received, will board between the A group and the B group. We have 6 children and are always able to find seats together when we board between A and B without paying the extra $12.50 per person.
For future reference, you can save $$ by either checking in 24 hours prior to flight departure or by doing family boarding (if you children are small). If you check in 22 hours prior though, you will likely be in group B. Any later than that and you risk being in group C, and in that case, odds are not good of even finding 2 seats together.
Don't worry about fighting for certain seats, I have never seen it. The only thing that happens is something that goes back to the school bus when you were a child. Everyone does the stare straight ahead, don't make eye contact thing so that you will not take the seat next to them. You can almost hear the sighs of relief as you pass each aisle, moving further to the back of the plane hoping to find more open seating
