Southwest Boarding Question

[Cruella102]

Hi All,

Thanks to your tips, I was able to book the $75 tickets on Southwest for early December. Now I have a question about boarding. I think I had read somewhere about preboarding for families with kids. As I will be flying with my sisters' family which includes 2 young kids and a baby, it will be very important for us all to be in the same vicinity on board. Do they preboard families based on their number system or is it any family with small kids goes first. Thanks in advance.

 

[Laz]

When we went in June, They allowed families with small children and those needing extra time. IMHO, I would still make sure you got to the gate early, just to make sure.

 

[Beanie]

We usually fly southwest airlines and they have always preboarded families with small children or people who need extra help, first...but I agree with Laz, I would get there early just in case...

 

[skeezixspud]

Especially if your flight is early in the am, or late afternoon on a weekday or Friday, I would advise being at the gate at -least- 3 hours early for a party that large, unless you will be using carseats on board. If the flight has a lot of kids on it (common for Orlando), they may not let all of the adults pre-board; they may restrict it to only the children's parents, or they may insist that one parent stay back with children who are 5 or over. If you can't get everyone pre-boarded, the ones who can should head for the back of the plane; it's pretty easy to save seats in the back, but in the front people may insist that you let them have the seat, especially the aisle seats. (SW's official policy is no saving, but if you have little kids and ask other passengers nicely if they mind, you usually can do it.)

Using a carseat for any child who is under 40 pounds and can still use a full-harness seat is the best guarantee, because the placement of them is restricted. IME, they will always let you preboard with carseats because they will not want to have to move someone to accomodate them.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Getting to the airport 3 hours early for a SW flight is not going to gain you anything. They don't even have gate agents there until 1 hour before boarding. I would think the max. early time I would be there is 1.5 hours early.
They only let the parents of the children board early, the rest of the group boards with the other passengars.

 

[Cora]

Actually, I've seen SW announce that there will be no pre-boarding period for families with young children. I've seen this happen when there is a large amount of young kids on a flight. My advise is: Get to the airport at least 1 1/2 hours ahead. Get yourself down to the gate ASAP and have one person sit in the line in front of the desk to get a low number for boarding.

Then what we've done in the past is one go on and secure the seats and get everything stowed. Then when they announce the last call, have the remaining adult(s) with kids come on board. This way everything is already put away and all you need to do is get the kids seated and you're off.
Cora

 

[skeezixspud]

... but at certain times on certain days, 3 hours early may gain you quite a bit. I can tell you that in St. Louis, on a Friday afternoon, there will always be at least 80 people in line 2 hours before boarding for any SW flight to a resort destination. Heck, my MIL went to -Kansas City- at 3:45 last Friday, and I got her to the gate at 2:10. She got number 73. In this town you could make a lot of money selling food to people in the SW check-in lines.

It has been our experience that even when they suspend family pre-boarding, families that need to secure carseats on board will still get on early, just after the disabled.

 

[vwrose14]

I hope they will let me pre boar. I have a 2 year old and my husbands 87 year old grandfather in our party of 6 and he takes forever

 

[AllanJ]

If they don't let you preboard...walk, don't run, and QUIETLY ignore anybody's request to run and not walk.

1. No sense getting sweaty and uncomfortable after you got to the airport early.

2. Sends a subtle hint to the airline to allow more pre-boarding, not less.

Also, feel free to let the kids use the restroom inside the plane before departure.

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

 

[denisenh]

We have never had difficulty having our group sit together on SWA. The past 3 times that we have flown from BDL to MCO, 2 of the flights were much less than full, our December flight was nearly empty both ways. This past February we had a party of 6, 3 adults and 3 kids, 16, 9 and 5. We arrived fairly late, about 45 mins. ahead of our flight time, and the line was long, plus many folks had there place numbers already. I got in line and we were of course in the last seating group. We went and stood at the rope for our group and waited, even though most people were still sitting and reading. I figured that maybe we could be near each other. But I didn't stress over it.
When the time came, they called for folks with small children under 5 to go ahead and preboard. My 9 tear old asked me if we could go and I answered "no, your sister is 5 now"
( she'd just turned 5) Well not 2 seconds later the boarding attendent pulled us out of line and told us to go around "the blue wall" and pre board. I told her that our daughter is 5 years old but she insisted that we pre board, all 6 of us.
I have also heard the attendents, once all are seated, ask passengers to switch seats so that families can sit together. They bribe them with free drinks and extra peanuts, its really quite humerous. SWA really does try to work with you. I have NEVER been disappointed with that airline.

 

[Cruella102]

Thanks for your responses. We too are flying out out BDL on the last flight on a Thursday night in early December. I'm hoping that the flight won't be too full and we can all get seated together as it is the first flight ever for the whole (nervous) family except me! I don't think anyone would want to sit near us!! LOL

 

[VickiVM]

Cruella, don't fret. I have flown SWA many, many times and have NEVER experienced a bad flight. I have seen families come on plane who are among the last boarding group and people will change their seats to accomodate them...without bribes. I think we don't give air travellers enough credit for their generosity. Maybe it's a Texas thing, but it just doesn't make sense to be so selfish as to let a family be separated all over the plane. I mean...you're still all getting "there" at the same time, right? And if it's really that important, it doesn't hurt to request when you check-in at gate to be allowed to pre-board.