Southwest and seating

[Magic4UsZ's]

Can you pick your seat for a price? How does their seating work?
We are thinking of using SW for our first trip to Disneyland and would like to sit together as a family. Kids are 11 & 15 but I want/need them near to me as I hate flying but for Disney I will tough it out!!!

Thanks!!!!

 

[DebbieB]

Southwest has open seating, there are no assignments. You can pay for earlybird check-in, which will give you an earlier boarding #. $10 per person/each way.

http://www.southwest.com/flight/early-bird-faq.html

 

[Magic4UsZ's]

Thanks DebbieB!!

Do you think it is worth it? I mean you dont even get assured a seat just the opportunity to be in group A it sounds like to me. I may do it though just to make sure we are together, at least on the way out.

how many people are in the group A? do they go buy first to buy this early bird are more likely to be in the A group?

if you dont buy how do they determine your boarding schedule?(which group are you in,a,b, or c?

 

[DebbieB]

The people who buy full fares or have elite frequent flyer status are A1-15. Then it goes A16-60 in order of check-in (early-birds by the date of early bird purchase), then family boarding (children 4 or under), then B1-B60, then the rest are C (15 or 20 people).

There's a long thread on this board with people's experiences.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2273607

 

[Magic4UsZ's]

Thanks again!!!

 

[backyardponder]

Personally, with older kids, I don't see the need to pay $10 per person to sit together. They'll do fine, and so will you...but...that's your choice.

Have a great trip!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

If you check in right at the 24 hour mark you should get decent boarding pass numbers and be able to find 4 seats near each other. Granted, they may be near the back, but you should still be able to find seats.

 

[Zerosinthecloset]

The people who buy full fares or have elite frequent flyer status are A1-15. Then it goes A16-60 in order of check-in (early-birds by the date of early bird purchase), then family boarding (children 4 or under), then B1-B60, then the rest are C (15 or 20 people).

There's a long thread on this board with people's experiences.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2273607

A1-15 are for Business Select fliers. A-List members start at A16 to whatever, then EBCI.

 

[Hannathy]

If it is really important that you have the best chance possible pay the money for early check in.

Head to the back when you get on.

Decide ahead of time which person in your party you want to sit next to the most and then be pleasantly surprised if you get to sit next to more than 1 person in your party rather than be disappointed when only 2 of you end up near each other and the others scattered around.

And lastly please don't pass your fear/uneasiness of flying onto your kids, they are old enough to think of this as fun and have no problem dealing no matter where on the plane they are sitting -ie near parent or not.

 

[goofy4tink]

As long as you don't want to sit in the first 8 or so rows, you should be fine, even if you get a mid-B boarding pass. As others have said, head to the rear of the plane. The front fills up quickly. In fact, my dd and I were about 9th in line (back before you could checkin early...had to just get to the airport and line up, truly first come, first served), the A line. The only way we could get seats together was to head to behind the wing!! All other rows had someone in the window seat and the aisle seats!! I think they were probably together and hoping that no one took the middle seat, thereby allowing them to spread out. That didn't work since it was a completely full flight. Lots of scrambling happened when that was announced!!

If it's really important to you, then pay the addlt $10 pp to get the EBCI. That way you'll know you'll be among the first to board.

 

[pamjb]

Remember that SW's seating configuration is 3 + 3 so you will have to split up some how anyway. I have never had a problem getting seats with my 2 kids, even the one time I had a C boarding pass.

I have only purchased the Early Bird Check in on a flight from Denver to Philly, as we weren't going to be near a computer 24 hour before and I know the time difference would of made it a nightmare to try and explain the "how to" to my mother-in-law to check us in. That trip, we ended up with A25 and A26.
I did not purchase Early Board In for our last Disney trip in November. We had middle A boarding passes and had no problem checking in.

Here is a link to SW boarding school
http://www.southwest.com/help/boardingschool/index.html

 

[Mish]

I flew the first time on SW last November and was so nervous about not sitting with my family. We did check in exactly 24 hours ahead and got A seating. I will tell you that on the way home the flight attendants held the last few rows for people with children and they did their best to make sure that families sat together. I was very impressed and would defiantly us them again. Though if someone would like to sit next to my fidgety son I don't mind. Only kidding. Michelle

 

[rie'smom]

If you're flying during a holiday or other very bust time, I suggest getting EBCI. If not, save your $$$. Just be sure to checkin right at 24 hours before your flight.
As for the advice to head to the back og the plane, we always do this. We like talking to the flight attendants.

 

[richmo]

Personally, I don't bother with the $10 boarding fee. Just flew Southwest last week on two full flights. Didn't pay boarding and got high A (46-49) going down and low B (2-5) coming home. The four of us had no problem sitting together.

Maybe I'd go for it if I had little kids and no computer/smartphone access at T-24, but otherwise I'd save the $80 ($40 each way) and have a nice meal.