Southwest - How Many People Per Group?

[dhardawa]

Does anyone know how many people there are per boarding group? At exactly 24 hours, I got our boarding passes and we got A36, A38, and A39 (yeah, not sure what happened to A37, but no one is getting between me and my kids). My dad got his passes seconds behind me and he is B3 and B4. For some reason, I thought there were 60 per group, but I can't imagine 20+ people got boarding passes in those few seconds.

 

[floydfamily4]

Does anyone know how many people there are per boarding group? At exactly 24 hours, I got our boarding passes and we got A36, A38, and A39 (yeah, not sure what happened to A37, but no one is getting between me and my kids). My dad got his passes seconds behind me and he is B3 and B4. For some reason, I thought there were 60 per group, but I can't imagine 20+ people got boarding passes in those few seconds.

Just flew and there were 60 in each letter. You could hold 1 seat for your dad (I heard an agent tell someone to do that).

 

[PatsMom]

Official word from SW is that saving seats is not allowed. I've heard flight attendants tell a number of people that. If you go to the back of the plane the odds are better that no one will be seated in the row across from you or in front of or behind you when Dad gets on.

I wouldn't be all wound up about "no one is getting between me and my kids" either. When you line up to board, they group you by a pole and each group of five numbers is assigned a pole. So you and your kids will be at the same pole. If number A37 shows up and wants to line up strictly numerically, just let him or her in front of you. Not a big deal.

 

[ktlm]

Yep - I saw a man about get in a fight with a flight attendant because she told him he couldn't save a seat for his girlfriend and had someone plop down next to him. I thought it was kind of ridiculous when that single person could easily have sat somewhere else.

On our way to WDW the last trip, we had A19-A21. A Mom and a young son were A17 and A18, but the 10 year old got separated and was A23. The Mom put the little girl behind Mr. A22 and told her not to worry that there were only a few people between them and they would save her a seat on the plane. I told the little girl just to get in front of us as we were 3 of the 4 seats between them, it didn't bother us, and she should be with her Mom. Mr. A22 actually got irritated and said it bothered him. When everyone around him looked at him like he was crazy, he said he was joking, but I'm not so sure.

We love Southwest and usually fly them, but we've decided with their new deal that you can pay the extra fee and board ahead of everyone else (except the business select), we probably won't fly them anymore. What happens if most everyone on the flight pays for the early bird boarding? We are the type that always check in exactly 24 hours before the flight. I don't see where there is any way to tell how far back you will be in boarding the plane with the new deal. If someone knows anything about that, I'd love to hear it.

 

[disneyfan97]

We just flew SW last weekend. There are 60 people in each group. I checked in 3 of us (separately) and we were split by at least one person each. My DS and I just got in line together (yeah, he's 2.5 - he's not standing in line alone...I don't care what anyone in between us thinks!!) at the lowest number. The lady in between us said to just go in front of her at our highest number. Very nice of her - though in hindsight, she may have wanted to see where we sat so she could get far, far away!!! Put one of your kids in the seat that you want your Dad to have and leave the middle seat open on your row until he gets there. There's no way that anyone in the A group is going to want that middle seat and then you can just move your kid over a seat to let your Dad have the aisle. Have fun!!

 

[tscrapper]

Thinking about SW but no flights for end of March yet. Thanks for the info.

 

[brymolmom]

Does anyone know how many people there are per boarding group? At exactly 24 hours, I got our boarding passes and we got A36, A38, and A39 (yeah, not sure what happened to A37, but no one is getting between me and my kids). My dad got his passes seconds behind me and he is B3 and B4. For some reason, I thought there were 60 per group, but I can't imagine 20+ people got boarding passes in those few seconds.

I wouldn't worry about the 'no one getting between me and my kids' I'm sure that A37 will be more than happy to get in front of you to allow you to be together. I certainly wouldn't expect him or her to allow 2 people in front of him/her though....