Southwest Car Seat Question

[Jan/Ma]

Does anyone know if Southwest Airlines will allow you to gate check a car seat along with a stroller?
We have a large family group going to Disney next week, some are driving and the rest of us are flying. All the luggage is being driven down ahead of us. We will not have any checked luggage. Upon arrival we will need the car seat for the rental car. We would prefer not to check the car seat and proceed right to National. We would use one car seat on the plane for the 2 year old, but the 7 mo. old will be a lap child. Will Southwest allow us to gate check the second car seat? Thanks for any help.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Yes - we have gate checked both a stroller and a car seat for our son who did not have a ticket when flying SWA.

 

[Jan/Ma]

Anyone else have experience with this?

 

[bubbasmom99]

Yes, they will gate check the carseat. Actually, when we flew in October with our 4 1/2 mo. old, the gate attendant checked to see if the flight was full (it was potentially full - waiting on standbys), and encouraged us to go ahead and pick out a seat for DD, and said we could gate check the seat if they needed it for a paying passenger. Turns out we got the last available seat on the plane, for free! So I would say go ahead and plan on checking it, but see if you might be able to use a free seat. It will be much easier (and safer!) than having a lap child during the flight.

 

[chucked]

I flew SW in October and when I checked in at the counter, I put the car seat with the checked luggage as our 18 mth old was traveling on our lap. The girl at the counter checked the flight, said that there were empty seats and asked if I wanted to take the car seat with me and use it on board for our son. Excellent airline with excellent customer service.

 

[Jan/Ma]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I appreciate your advice and will put it to use this Saturday.

Jan