Southwest Boarding pass question

[bubba's mom]

Villainess--
i agree...i can relate to people with SMALL children boarding early...to sit together and keep them situated (2 hour flight with small kid can be trying)...but, i think if you have a teenager or older child you don't need to keep content (they can keep themselves entertained) during the flight, they shouldn't need to "preboard" those families.....i'm guessing the "preboard" is to be sure little kids sit with their parents... i don't believe a 16 yo NEEDS to sit with their parents (unless they need some extra attention or care)......
sorry to hear you had a bad experience....will let you know what happens with us!

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by Villainess
I recently flew SW out of Philly... my first and last experience with SW. It was the first flight of the morning (7am), and we were there at 5:00am already checked in with C boarding passes. I think the preboard to a destination like Orlando is a bit ridiculous, as not only did they have the 5 and under boarding, but also passengers with children under 12, and passengers with any other children who need prior boarding.

What SW told me was that for places like Orlando since there are so many kids a lot of the times they don't preboard young children! Thanks but no thanks, I will stick with Jet Blue with every seat having their own TV and nice big leather seats and ASSIGNED seats!!

 

[bubba's mom]

Jet Blue don't fly outta Philly.......prefer to fly non-stop, and USAir is only other option....prefer prices on SW....

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by bubba's mom
Jet Blue don't fly outta Philly.......prefer to fly non-stop, and USAir is only other option....prefer prices on SW....

SW flies out of an airport 15 minutes from my house but I still go 45 minutes to JFK to fly Jet Blue...I guess if I didn't have a choice I would be forced to fly SW but I have the option to not and I will take that option.

 

[mrskay9]

I believe is rather random. Each ticket, or groups of tickets, is assigned a letter. There are rails to make lines in front of the check in gate. You line up at the assigned letter. Then when they are ready to board, they call handicapped individuals, preboarders, and then A, then B, and then C people.

I have flown SW tons of times w/ and w/o my baby and never had troubles w/ this. It's never even crossed my mind that I wouldn't get to sit w/ my baby. Or my mother who comes w/ us occasionally.

On some flights the only thing preboarding gets me is a few seconds head start before the A people start banging in to me while I'm trying to get the car seat either down the aisle or installed. (I've never seen grown men run so fast as to get from the gate to their seat!)

Good luck!

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

we have flown SW out of Kansas City to Orlando many times. One time there was 13 of us including a 1-1/2 yr old. We preboarded only 1-1/2 yr old and his parents. The rest of us were polite and waited. We still got to sit very close together. SW has GREAT PRICES, decent service and non-stops from Kansas City to Orlando. I think they are a great airline and they have made any concessions needed to help their customers every time I have flown with them. We always make sure to check in early. I think the inconvenience is well worth it.

 

[dcfromva]

going to fly SW in a couple weeks for the first of many times.... i've been reading what you all been talkin' about and i'd like to inquire what exactly an "A" boarding pass is? i'd like to be able to sit with my 5yo and husband--and yes, we plan to be at the airport very early to get checked in early!! thanks!

bubba's mom,
It is good that you plan to get there early. Are you also going to use the on-line checkin option to get your boarding passes at 12:01am on the day of the flight?

I just wanted to point out the official pre-board policy is not children aged 5 and under, rather it is children under the age of 5:
"Customers with disabilities, unaccompanied children, and families with children under five years of age will preboard."

link to swa travel center for more details.

We have never qualified for pre-boarding, but there has only been 1 flight when we have not sat together (I have lost track of how many flights we have taken, but I believe it is more than 15 round trips...) . Getting to the airport early has been key to our success.

-DC

 

[gottaluvdis]

We only fly SW from Manchester to Orlando - at least 2x/yr. Never had a problem. We used to pre-board when our daugther was under 5 (now she's 7), but regardless, we've always been able to sit together. The pre-board to/from Orlando is a long line because the majority of the flights are families. I can see why they sometimes don't even bother pre-boarding families, although this has never happened to us. It will be nice when SW makes it so you can print boarding passes for everyone in the party who is on 1 reservation. Still, the MHT-MCO flights are always sold out and we have never had one problem sitting together. We always check bags curbside and get boarding passes there. Sometimes group A, sometimes not. The convenience and price can't be beat. For those who refuse to fly SW, just makes more room for the rest of us. SW is adding more direct flights from MHT to MCO and TPA later this year, so they must be doing something right.

 

[bubba's mom]

thanks a whole bunch...i feel better about flying on SW. it's our first experience, so we'll see what happens. we are unable to check-in online because we will be at a hotel at the airport the night before (we live just a little over an hour away and decided this was a better option (for $15 extra bucks!) than getting up at 3 am!!)... but we will be able to check-in online coming home since we will be at my in-laws and they have internet.
i am sure we will all be together...and when our son is older, if we're not, where's he gonna go?? as long as he's on that plane with me, he's going where i'm going!! are people really uncooperative to switch seats to let families sit together?? i can't believe some people would be like that!! (we ALWAYS try to accomodate!)----especially those on their way to the "magical land"......

 

[psimon]

We are flying Philly / Orlando in Oct/Nov (Jersey Week). There are 5 of us, with two 7 year olds, and one teenager.

We have a 3:20PM flight out of PHL. Coming back we have seats on the sold out 2:55PM flight.

How early should we get to the airport prior to our flights? Is it different in MCO vs PHL?

Thanks...

----Paul in Southern NJ

 

[bubba's mom]

in my past years experience with MCO (haven't been on SW yet), MCO is much more organized than PHI....i like that airport much better and seem to move thru it quicker. (coming home there is sometimes a line at security cuz of all the disney folk coming home) but, they have a LOT of metal detectors, so your wait isn't usually toooo long! but, i have found they seem to keep most of their flights on time (vs phi who's always delayed)....i would say get to the airport sometime 1-2 hours before your flight and you should be okay....that's what we usually do every year!!
good luck!

 

[LeftCoaster]

Originally posted by gottaluvdis
We only fly SW from Manchester to Orlando - at least 2x/yr. Never had a problem. We used to pre-board when our daugther was under 5 (now she's 7), but regardless, we've always been able to sit together. The pre-board to/from Orlando is a long line because the majority of the flights are families. I can see why they sometimes don't even bother pre-boarding families, although this has never happened to us. It will be nice when SW makes it so you can print boarding passes for everyone in the party who is on 1 reservation. Still, the MHT-MCO flights are always sold out and we have never had one problem sitting together. We always check bags curbside and get boarding passes there. Sometimes group A, sometimes not. The convenience and price can't be beat. For those who refuse to fly SW, just makes more room for the rest of us. SW is adding more direct flights from MHT to MCO and TPA later this year, so they must be doing something right.

See if you can use a computer at the hotel. you may not be able to do it at 12:01 am but, maybe when you get up in the morning. Call and ask what they can do for you.

 

[gottaluvdis]

Thanks for the advice, but I'm not too worried about the flights this time around. I'm still recovering from a nasty knee injury that happened on our last trip down in May and still need crutches, so we'll be able to pre-board with no problems. Hopefully the next time we go down, they'll have the computer system set up to print passes for everyone on the same reservation. I would have put us on 3 separate reservations to begin with, but I was using a 20% coupon that required all of us to be on the same reservation number. It's really never been a problem, even on sold out flights. My husband is paranoid, so we're usually at the airport 2 hrs prior to flight. Even so, sometimes enough people have beaten us to it that we get B boarding group. I was told by a SW skycap that people show up way early for the MCO flights in general.