Southwest & Infant on Lap-HELP!

[SilverMickey]

In the PAST SW has let my DH DS and I board with my disabled son. The last 2 years we have had to have Mom or Dad pre-board with our disabled son and the other parent with our other son. We have seen this with the "Family" boarding lines also and we fly out of little tiny MHT in even smaller NH! They were pretty strict about one parent per family board child... hard as one parent might be gate checking a stroller and car seat while the other is handling a carry on, baby and diaper bag.

For us it works out just fine as we use preboarding to get my youngest settled... makes for a much nicer flight for everyone involved. The others in our party don't need it and often sit away to watch different movies on a dvd player while we spend the 3 hours chatting up the up-coming trip!


Have a great trip! I hope the boarding works out for you!

 

[ilovemk76]

Just want to start off by saying that this is the FIRST trip to WDW for my 6 kids (ages 1 to 15)! Dh & I haven't been since we were kids, so the entire family is BEYOND hyped up!! We leave in 15 days!

OK, glad I got that out of my system.

This is our first time flying on Southwest (aggravated with American and United lately) and have heard some great things, but there are still 1 or 2 things that are really bugging my Type-A personality...

1) Our 16 month old will be flying as a "lap infant", as paying for an 8th seat that she will not occupy seemed silly and exorbitant (yes, we've done this before. yes, we understand about safety. Let's all move on.) Because of this, Southwest will not allow us to check-in online; we are REQUIRED to go to the ticket counter and get a Boarding Verification Document (BVD) for her. While I understand that because we have 2 kids under 4, that we will be seated after group A but before group B, I'm still concerned about having all of us sitting even near each other. I have no problem with my 15 and 13 yo sons sitting together but away from us (heck, if their 10 yo sis could sit with them, that would be OK, too), I am worried that DH and I will still have issues getting even 2 sets of 2 seats for the rest of us (1 adult, 1 younger child in each set). Southwest CS's answer is to pay the "deeply discounted infant fare" (btw, it's 4x what we paid for 1 of our tix!), so we can do online check-in. Any thoughts? Are my fears just crazy?? Will we be able to get ANY seats together if we have to board btw A and B??

2) I have had 2 different relatives tell me that, based on their observations during other SW flights, that our family will not be allowed to board together because there are 8 of us. I am told that they will make our 4 older kids (15, 13, 10, 8) wait at the gate until their group (B or C) is boarded, while dh and I will be allowed to take on only the baby and the 3yo. To me, this is insanity. We bought the tix together as a family. All kids are under 16, and we DID NOT register them as unaccompanied minors... for a reason. I am not OK with leaving them at the gate, NOR being forced to wait until the end to board. SW's policy does not define a "family" by size, so I feel this would be discriminatory on their part. Again, any thoughts?

3) Yes, I stayed up too late last night reading internet reviews, so forgive me, but some of the reviews I read re: SW and minors sitting by themselves (unaccompanied and accompanied, but separated) made me sick. 2 stories of pedophiles, and countless others of children being subjected to adults verbally abusing them, not allowing them to go to the bathroom or eat or go speak with their parents. And, SW flight attendants ignoring the kids' pleas entirely. Please, PLEASE tell me this is just internet fodder!!!!

Other than that, we are over-the-moon excited to see The Mouse! And, dh has promised me the monogrammed ears I always wanted!

Thanks so much, all you awesome experts out there!!!

I fly Southwest very often. These have been my observations.

1) The plane can hold 180 people (the 3 groups of 60) or so. After group A less than 60 will have boarded since the first 15 are business select and I have never seen 15 of them ever. Plus a plane to/from Orlando will have mostly vacationers who do not normally pay the BS cost. As a result there will be over 120 seats available for you.

2) They have annouced, on many flights, that a family is the parents and all siblings. Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and cousins must board with their boarding pass. This should mean all of you will board at the same time.



Head more toward the back and you should all be sitting together.

 

[dudspizza]

I just wanted to clarify what you wrote above - on Southwest an unaccompanied minor is ages 5-11. Outside of those ages, a child is able to fly alone. I really think a 16 year old would be able to wait at a gate for 10 minutes alone. What do you think could happen at the gate? Not trying to be catty - just trying to understand.

Heck... I flew from LONDON to MINNEAPOLIS at the age of 15.......... ALONE!

 

[bumbershoot]

OP - Keep in mind that the policy about not allowing 8 to family board together is to keep families like YOURS safe from your 3 year old not getting a seat near mom or dad. Think about if you were the 6th family in line and all 5 in front of you had 8 per family all boarding together...Chances of you sitting next to your 3 year old would be slim. So it truly is there to protect you and your family and other families with very little ones. So I wouldn't argue too much with that rule - or maybe they'll let all 5 families in front of you board with 8 or more family members and then you'd be likely stuck.

That's such a good point.

SW's policy does not define a "family" by size, so I feel this would be discriminatory on their part. Again, any thoughts?

They define that special boarding period by AGE. Families with small children who need extra time. The older kids don't need extra time; the small child does.

DS, DH, and I are a family, but DS is 6 and we do not need extra time, so we don't get to be part of family boarding. (actually we only did the early thing once, back when it was boarding before most everyone else, and didn't do that after that one time...too much time on the plane doing nothing for a munchkin!)

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

One thing I want to mention - for your kids who are under the age of two take their birth certificates.

I saw a family who was told their kid did not look under the age of 2 because the child was big for a two year old and they would have to purchase a seat for the child. Once they provided proof that she was under 2 SWA would refund their money.

As luck would have it they had a friend who works at their doctors office and she was able to fax a copy of the birth cert to the SWA. So be prepared!

 

[bumbershoot]

One thing I want to mention - for your kids who are under the age of two take their birth certificates.
...

As luck would have it they had a friend who works at their doctors office and she was able to fax a copy of the birth cert to the SWA. So be prepared!

That's the point of the age vertification thing the OP will need to do for the lap baby.

How did the doctor's office have a copy of the birth certificate?

 

[tanker]

I fly Southwest very often. These have been my observations.

1) The plane can hold 180 people (the 3 groups of 60) or so. After group A less than 60 will have boarded since the first 15 are business select and I have never seen 15 of them ever. Plus a plane to/from Orlando will have mostly vacationers who do not normally pay the BS cost. As a result there will be over 120 seats available for you.

2) They have annouced, on many flights, that a family is the parents and all siblings. Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and cousins must board with their boarding pass. This should mean all of you will board at the same time.



Head more toward the back and you should all be sitting together.

SW planes only hold 137 not 180, if the plane is a 737-500 then it only holds 122. While there are 60 in each A and B group the C group will only number what is needed to fill the plane That is 17 if all the Business Select are sold or 32 if there are no Business Select sold

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

That's the point of the age vertification thing the OP will need to do for the lap baby.

How did the doctor's office have a copy of the birth certificate?

Not sure how the doctors office had the birth cert. I was waiting for my flight when I watched all of this take place. The family was on their return flight and the Mom said they were not questioned or asked to show birth cert on their out bound flight.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

he family was on their return flight and the Mom said they were not questioned or asked to show birth cert on their out bound flight.

That is very odd, because it has been my experience that SWA always requires a lap infant to be age verified (it is their policy), done by showing a birth certificate at check-in:

http://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/family/baby-on-board-pol.html