Southwest Airlines Question

[jboysen]

I am looking to fly SW on our next trip in Oct. We will fly out of HHH terminal in MN. We do not have direct flights to Orlando from MN, so we will have a stop and a plane change for the dates and times I am looking for. It will be my DH, my 4 yr old DD, my 22 mo old DD who will be a lap baby and myself. My question is about the boarding process the second time. Will we have the same number? I would like my family to sit together. We are not fussy as far as where on the plane, we just want to be together. Also on the way home my DD will have turned five, should we look at paying the EBCI fee? I have been a little hesitant to fly SW because of wanting the family together, so I'm wondering if anyone has any advice, especially with the plane change part. Checking in at the 24 hour mark is no problem on the way there, and will most like not be an issue on the way back as we will have a laptop with. Any advice would be appreciated, TIA.

 

[Poohlovr]

My first question-you say your 22 month old dd will be a lap baby. Is that the age she will be at the time that you fly (both ways)?

Regarding your change of planes-when you initially check in at the 24 hr mark, you will be given boarding numbers for both legs of your flight. It's doubtful they'll be the same number, but I guess they could be by some coincidence. It depends on how many people bought EBCI who are initially boarding at your layover airport. Also, some people on that flight may be laying over from yet another, though earlier flight, so got checked-in online before you. Others on your first flight who had numbers before you may not be flying on the second flight.

Don't worry about it-as long as you check in at 24hrs your family will be able to sit together.

On your return flight, I can see two lines of thought. 1-Even if you don't get checked in at 24 hrs, you can still board with family boarding and will be able to sit together. 2-If we're talking about Orlando, I (as well as others on the board) have seen family boarding suspended because everybody had young kids. In that case you will be glad you checked in at T-24. So, are you going to be able to be somewhere to check in? Will you remember to get to guest services in time? Do you have a smart phone? Will you remember to check-in on line in time (I would never remember).

It's probably just me, but I would buy it for the return flight. I'd be so worried about forgetting that I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself.

 

[deide71]

Southwest seems to have one flight per day from MSP to MCO with a stop but no plane change...you may want to look into that.

Are you going over MEA week? We booked for that week with Southwest and were able to get flights with a stop (I think in Chicago) but no plane change in both directions. This just seemed so much simpler than changing planes with our group of 9.

 

[tigger51276]

I am flying southwest from Logan (MA) to mco and they don't have non stop either. I did have two options where I wouldn't have to take a plane change, but since I have an almost 2 year old, I didn't want to be stuck on a plane for 1/2 hour or longer where it gets stuffy and she can't walk/run around. I figured it was best to take the layover (it's a little over an hour) and to be able to let her run around a bit and since it'll be almost lunch time I'm going to grab lunch at the terminal and take it on the plane to eat. Eating will keep her occupied for at least a 1/2 hour so then I only have to entertain her for about 45 mins. Going there I'm not worried about the boarding at the layover because we will most likely board after the A's since I have the baby. Coming back from MCO I have seen them change the pre-boarding to those with kids under 3 before, but thankfully I've never had them suspend it all together. I did actually forget to check in online at the 24 hour mark during last years trip coming home and even though I was several hours late, I still got a decent boarding number in the B's but again was still able to board after the A's.

 

[jboysen]

My first question-you say your 2 month old dd will be a lap baby. Is that the age she will be at the time that you fly (both ways)?

yes, she will not be 2 until Dec.

Are you going over MEA week?

Yes, we are planning on leaving on the 19th of Oct. My DD is turning 5 on the 20th. The flight we thought would be best had the plane change, the next one out, doesn't. We have an Early reservation at CRT for my DDs bday breakfast, so we thought getting in at 5:30 would be better than 7:30. My parents and sister are also joining us, so I'm hoping my DD 4 would beable to sit next to atleast one of us. Ofcourse I've read nightmare stories, so I was wondering how they did the boarding passes on the plane change.


On the way down I know we will also be able to board with the family boarding, but I thought that once they turned five you couldn't do that?

Thanks everyone for your imput.

 

[PatsMom]

I am flying southwest from Logan (MA) to mco and they don't have non stop either. I did have two options where I wouldn't have to take a plane change, but since I have an almost 2 year old, I didn't want to be stuck on a plane for 1/2 hour or longer where it gets stuffy and she can't walk/run around. I figured it was best to take the layover (it's a little over an hour) and to be able to let her run around a bit and since it'll be almost lunch time I'm going to grab lunch at the terminal and take it on the plane to eat. Eating will keep her occupied for at least a 1/2 hour so then I only have to entertain her for about 45 mins. Going there I'm not worried about the boarding at the layover because we will most likely board after the A's since I have the baby. Coming back from MCO I have seen them change the pre-boarding to those with kids under 3 before, but thankfully I've never had them suspend it all together. I did actually forget to check in online at the 24 hour mark during last years trip coming home and even though I was several hours late, I still got a decent boarding number in the B's but again was still able to board after the A's.

Have you looked into flying from Manchester NH? Depending on where you are the drive might not be much worse than going into Logan. Parking is cheaper. And we have a few non-stop flights a day. A little over three hours and you are there!

 

[ShelsGoingToDisney]

I am looking to fly SW on our next trip in Oct. We will fly out of HHH terminal in MN. We do not have direct flights to Orlando from MN, so we will have a stop and a plane change for the dates and times I am looking for. It will be my DH, my 4 yr old DD, my 22 mo old DD who will be a lap baby and myself. My question is about the boarding process the second time. Will we have the same number? I would like my family to sit together. We are not fussy as far as where on the plane, we just want to be together. Also on the way home my DD will have turned five, should we look at paying the EBCI fee? I have been a little hesitant to fly SW because of wanting the family together, so I'm wondering if anyone has any advice, especially with the plane change part. Checking in at the 24 hour mark is no problem on the way there, and will most like not be an issue on the way back as we will have a laptop with. Any advice would be appreciated, TIA.

We've never had a direct SW flight so we've had to change planes or the plane stopped but we stayed on. When we've done plane changes the boarding for the second leg was no problem. You will have a different boarding pass than the first leg BUT generally your boarding # will be better for the 2nd leg than the first because when you check-in at the 24 hour mark for the flight you are checking in for the 2nd leg as well and it is BEFORE the 24 hour mark for that flight so generally a little better boarding number. Does that make sense?

If you check in at the 24 hour mark you will most likely have an A pass or a high B. With the young child you could also do the family boarding in between the A&B. Either way you should have no issues getting seats together. We've never had any problems getting the 5 of us together and we've never used the family boarding either.

 

[disny_luvr]

On our last flight with SW we had great boarding position for our flight down. We were in the A20's. We easily got seats together towards the front of the plane, which I prefer. On our way back home, my sister tried checking us in at the 24 hr. mark, but was having difficulties. Long story short, she did get us checked in, but we were positioned towards the end of the B's. We did use the family boarding between the A group and B group, but for some reason we had trouble finding four seats together. We ended up in the back of the plane - third row from the back. I hate being in the back; I don't know, I'm wierd I guess. Anyway, we just booked our tickets for our December trip with SW again, and at first I didn't buy the EBCI, but last night, after reading different threads, I caved and added it. I don't know if it was wise or not, but I do like knowing that we should have a good boarding position and will hopefully be able to sit together towards the front of the plane.

 

[IndianaPrincess]

My first question-you say your 2 month old dd will be a lap baby. Is that the age she will be at the time that you fly (both ways)?

yes, she will not be 2 until Dec.

Are you going over MEA week?

Yes, we are planning on leaving on the 19th of Oct. My DD is turning 5 on the 20th. The flight we thought would be best had the plane change, the next one out, doesn't. We have an Early reservation at CRT for my DDs bday breakfast, so we thought getting in at 5:30 would be better than 7:30. My parents and sister are also joining us, so I'm hoping my DD 4 would beable to sit next to atleast one of us. Ofcourse I've read nightmare stories, so I was wondering how they did the boarding passes on the plane change.


On the way down I know we will also be able to board with the family boarding, but I thought that once they turned five you couldn't do that?

Thanks everyone for your imput.

You'll still be able to do the family boarding because of your 22 month old. It's for families with small children, not just the baby and one parent.

Also, they will do a lot to seat a family together. I've seen them offer free drinks to people willing to move! The plane doesn't really start filling up until the C level - and those are the people who just check in at the airport... poor suckers.

 

[jboysen]

Thanks everyone for your imput, I think we are going to go ahead and try it. I like not having to worry about packing with the two bags free. It gets tiresome trying to pack four people in one or two checck-ins. I'm still debating EBCI for the return trip, but that's mainly so we don't have to worry about it at all.