Southwest and boarding w/children

[jpurnell]

Ok I just got off the phone with Southwest regarding their preboarding policies. According to this lady only the child who is under 4 may pre-board with one parent, the other members must wait. Does anybody know if this is true? I find it hard to believe that my wife would take our 3 year old on first while I wait with my 7 and 6 year old. I wasn't planning on getting up early to print boarding passes but maybe I have to now.

PS Flying out of Midway tomorrow Disney here we come.

 

[Lewisc]

Normally SW would allow your entire family to pre-board but sometimes they enforce the rules, or even ban all family pre-boarding, on flights to MCO.

Really isn't fair to the rest of the passengers when more than half the plane pre-boards on flights to MCO.

 

[jpurnell]

Thanks for the reply, however how is this not fair? Based on my past flying experiences with a variety of airlines and destinations there has always been pre-boarding with young children, regardless if the destination is MCO or not. If it is about a matter of fairness one should eliminate pre-boarding for all airlines. I do understand the frustration one has when others take unfair advantage.

 

[Lewisc]

Thanks for the reply, however how is this not fair? Based on my past flying experiences with a variety of airlines and destinations there has always been pre-boarding with young children, regardless if the destination is MCO or not. If it is about a matter of fairness one should eliminate pre-boarding for all airlines. I do understand the frustration one has when others take unfair advantage.

The difference is other airlines have assigned seating. SW has open seating. A handful of famlies pre-boarding isn't a big deal. Allowing more than half the plane to pre-board doesn't do much to improve the boarding process but really isn't fair to other passengers.

 

[akrake]

actually, during the past 18 months we have been flying ALOT with our 3 children....6, 8 & 20months........so they ran the gambit of ages......as I stated in a previous post....only on one airline did I get to preboard with the kids & a carseat (had carseat on all flights) and that was in April when I was flying by myself with the 3 kids & pregnant!!! Song, delta, united, us air & SW did not let us preboard.
If I remember correctly, it's pre 9/11 since they allowed preboarding with kids.
Plus, how is it not fair? It would make sense if one of you went with the carseat & left the baby at the gate with the others bc it's hard to put in a carseat & hold the baby at the same time. IF you don't have a carseat, no need to preboard.
akrake

 

[safetymom]

Many times sitting in airports waiting to fly back to Orlando have I heard the announcement that there will be no preboarding of families with small children.

If the children are small sometimes waiting until the end is better than boarding early and waiting for everyone else to get on the plane.

 

[jpurnell]

Lewisc I stand corrected.

 

[Suzanne74]

I have a 3yr old and we have flown SW countless times and many to Orlando. I have never seen them not allow anyone to preboard with a child under 4yrs old - this is because there are strollers to check, carseats to fit, getting the kid and carryons on the plane. Personally, I rather preboarding families when I am adult only flier. I hate standing in the aisle waiting for others to get their kids situated, put carseats in etc... I rather be in the terminal sitting and relaxing. I have never seen families, esp w/ ones with carseats only allow one adult to board. How do they put the carseat in?

I think what SW enforces is big ole families with Pops and Granny and cousins and aunts etc... all preboarding for one child that is 3. That is abusing the system.

 

[SueM in MN]

Many times sitting in airports waiting to fly back to Orlando have I heard the announcement that there will be no preboarding of families with small children.

If the children are small sometimes waiting until the end is better than boarding early and waiting for everyone else to get on the plane.

I depends on the flight and the number of children who will be boarding. I've heard it on all sorts of airlines.

 

[seashoreCM]

Boarding early if you have children is to benefit the airline, not you. You quietly do it the same way regardless of whether you board first or last. However if the gate agent announces early boarding you should use it.

Letting families board early may depend on the mood the gate agent is in. But there may also be a rule of thumb whereby there may be no benefit to the airline when the number of families is large.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[tweetsie]

We flew Southwest two weeks ago to Orlando and back. When we boarded at RDU there was a family of approximately eight or nine people boarding with one small child. I am talking people other than immediate family members such as brother, sister. mother, father.

I don't have a problem with immediate family members boarding with their small children, however I think others should wait their turn like everyone else.

 

[goofyforlife]

We took our then 15 mth old nephew on SWA from BWI to MCO. In Baltimore they let two adults and the child under 4 board. Our daughter was only 11 and we said we weren't leaving her in line by herself so she boarded with us.

But if I had 5 or six others with me...I would leave them in regular boarding lines.

But does it really matter who pre-boards because from what I seen from flying SWA as a normal A group passenger over the last two years is that many pre-boarders save seats anyway....

 

[LisaS]

We flew Southwest two weeks ago to Orlando and back. When we boarded at RDU there was a family of approximately eight or nine people boarding with one small child. I am talking people other than immediate family members such as brother, sister. mother, father.

I don't have a problem with immediate family members boarding with their small children, however I think others should wait their turn like everyone else.

We flew Southwest in early May. In the gate area in Orlando waiting to board the flight home, the gate agent made several announcements about preboarding, specifically saying that only the parents and children could preboard, but not the grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, etc. Each time the announcement was made I saw a family with grandparents present in the preboarding line reacting to the announcement and discussing something amongst themselves but each time the grandparents opted to stay put in the preboarding line.

Well, when they finally started to let preboarders board the flight, those grandparents were not allowed to proceed and were made to get in line with the rest of the non-preboarders. By this time all of the A, B, and C lines were very long and I saw them join the very end of the C line. They were NOT pleased. So it seems that when Southwest announces the preboarding rules for a particular flight, they stick to them! I was happy to see this, although I suspect that that family just saved seats for Grandma and Grandpa anyway.

 

[dcgrumpy]

We've flown with little kids at least twice a year since 2000. We've always been allowed to preboard. We've flown Delta, Song, Jetblue and SW.

Last month at MCO Jetblue announced they would only preboard familes with a child under two or if they had a stroller with them.

 

[DVC-Don]

Last year while waiting to board a SW flight in Las Vegas a young woman (20's) in line behind us in the C line went over to a family in the pre-board line and asked if she could be their daughter for boarding. They agreed to pretend she was their daughter. Some people protested, but the gate agent let her pre-board.

 

[Beachangel]

We flew Southwest in early May. In the gate area in Orlando waiting to board the flight home, the gate agent made several announcements about preboarding, specifically saying that only the parents and children could preboard, but not the grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, etc. Each time the announcement was made I saw a family with grandparents present in the preboarding line reacting to the announcement and discussing something amongst themselves but each time the grandparents opted to stay put in the preboarding line.

Well, when they finally started to let preboarders board the flight, those grandparents were not allowed to proceed and were made to get in line with the rest of the non-preboarders. By this time all of the A, B, and C lines were very long and I saw them join the very end of the C line. They were NOT pleased. So it seems that when Southwest announces the preboarding rules for a particular flight, they stick to them! I was happy to see this, although I suspect that that family just saved seats for Grandma and Grandpa anyway.

I've seen the same thing at MCO.

 

[inkkognito]

On my last flight, they kept making the "one parent only" announcement but did not enforce it at boarding time, even though the pre-board crowd was very large. But we were within the first ten people in the A line and still got great seats (exit row).
Barb

 

[DemoBri1]

The difference is other airlines have assigned seating. SW has open seating. A handful of famlies pre-boarding isn't a big deal. Allowing more than half the plane to pre-board doesn't do much to improve the boarding process but really isn't fair to other passengers.

Can anyone enlighten me as to why SW does their boarding in this fashion? Every other airline I have flown: US Air, Delta, ATA has allowed people to pick their seats. What does SW see that the others don't, if anything?

To me, if SW allowed you to pick your flight, it would be a no-brainer to fly with them.

 

[DemoBri1]

We flew Southwest in early May. In the gate area in Orlando waiting to board the flight home, the gate agent made several announcements about preboarding, specifically saying that only the parents and children could preboard, but not the grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, etc. Each time the announcement was made I saw a family with grandparents present in the preboarding line reacting to the announcement and discussing something amongst themselves but each time the grandparents opted to stay put in the preboarding line.

Well, when they finally started to let preboarders board the flight, those grandparents were not allowed to proceed and were made to get in line with the rest of the non-preboarders. By this time all of the A, B, and C lines were very long and I saw them join the very end of the C line. They were NOT pleased. So it seems that when Southwest announces the preboarding rules for a particular flight, they stick to them! I was happy to see this, although I suspect that that family just saved seats for Grandma and Grandpa anyway.

I can see only the parents being allowed to board and any siblings. I mean it would be rediculous in my mind that if you had a 5 YO and a 3 YO that only one of you could go on with the 3YO, while the other has to wait with the 5YO.

 

[Lewisc]

Can anyone enlighten me as to why SW does their boarding in this fashion? Every other airline I have flown: US Air, Delta, ATA has allowed people to pick their seats. What does SW see that the others don't, if anything?

To me, if SW allowed you to pick your flight, it would be a no-brainer to fly with them.

SW has found the open seating policy motivates passengers to get to the gate early. This facilitates getting the plane boarded and out of the gate on time. With assigned seats many passengers get to the gate at the last minute delaying the boarding process. You'll see SW passengers lining up before the plane is even at the gate. I guess there is some savings with the reservation system. With other airlines guests who book close to the flight might have trouble getting the better seats. With SW guests who checkin early get the better seats.

SW is one of the few airlines to show a profit. They're doing a number of things right.