Southwest/online passes UGH!

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by polyfan
Leaving a stroller, carryon, etc.. even past security is not a smart or safe thing to do. Just because you are past security doesn't mean that someone couldn't take it while you are chasing a child around.
Personally, I wouldn't want a child of age 5 or 6 to sit separated froma parent.

While that is true, where would they take it? Also, with a small child, you don't need to go more than 20' in any direction to let them let off some steam.

If sitting apart from your 5 or 6 or even older child bothers you, there are alternatives to flying SWA. It is a choice to select them, not a have to do.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by Julma
We flew Song last year and SW this year to MCO. We love SW, but this time I will say, it seemed different. I got up in the middle of this night to get a boarding pass for our flight out of Providence. Not fun, right before a vacation. The preboarding was crazy. At least half the plane was preboarding! We had to line-up with "A" passes an hour before take-off. On the way back, got to MCO more than two hours in advance and got "C" passes, again had to get in line over an hour in advance and we were split-up. I will say at MCO the preboarding was not near as bad. Song was much easier. I will say the staff at SW was top-notch, we had no problems. However, they should limit people from bringing half of Disney home with them. I think Song and Jet Blue out of Boston will give SW a run for their money.

Why did you "have" to line up an hour before boarding? I am generally up past midnight, so, getting a pass online won't be a big deal for me, but, I sure don't feel forced to do it. I am sorry you feel you are, especially given the fact that the passes are equally disbursed between online, skycap, counter and gate.
Perhaps they will give SWA a run for their money, but I would rather drink draino than fly out of Boston. And, with Song changing flights every time the whim hits, they don't need my business.
I will take the open seating, the very reasonable fares, the fun FAs and the set times (rarely if ever, does SWA change anything once the flights are announced) over the uncertainty of my flight with Song.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by mgilmer
FWIW, I made a copy of this thread and mailed it to SW customer service along with my pithy comments concerning preboarding of hoardes of family members. Maybe they will read it and do something.

Mike

Thanks Mike!!!! A very positive action, indeed.

 

[NotUrsula]

If SWA was the only airline that separated children from parents in terms of seating, then choosing a different airline would be effective to prevent it. Unfortunately, it isn't.

I travel a lot and I file my itineraries. According to my records, in the past 7 years, I have been refused contiguous advance seat assignments for my son and one parent on 18 separate occasions by US carriers: once on United, once on NW, twice on Delta, and 14 times on American/TWA. I've had it happen on AA twice in the past month alone. I've gotten VERY good at evaluating available single seats for their relative trade value, but it shouldn't be necessary to hold up the plane's departure while I wheel and deal with the passengers around me.

If the airline contends that my child isn't old enough to safely fly alone without my paying a supervision fee, then he isn't old enough to safely fly with the adult who is responsible for him sitting half a plane away. If it is really about safety, then they should not be able to have it both ways.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

NotUrsula
How does this happen? Don't you select your seats at the time of reservation? I am very curious about this.

 

[robinb]

Originally posted by GAIL HAYDEN
LOL, me too!!!! Actually, the hum and a few Gin Bloody Mary's put me right to sleep.

Have you watched "Airline"? After watching them "86" a number of happy, yet not drunk, passengers for drinking at the airport bar, I would wait until I got to Orlando!

We'll be flying SWA for the first time in August. We got a great rate that I couldn't resist! I know that I'll be avoiding the bar .

 

[luvabargain]

Originally posted by robinb
Have you watched "Airline"? After watching them "86" a number of happy, yet not drunk, passengers for drinking at the airport bar, I would wait until I got to Orlando!

I actually saw this show too! I don't think we'll worry about drinking right before our flight to Orlando. We're taking our two kids, 6 & 9 with us and we're leaving at 7:35 AM.

I chose the united flight over SW mainly because we could choose our seats and I liked the flight times a little better. The $7 price difference pp was worth it to me. This will be our first time flying with kids, it's been 10 years since we've flown anywhere so will just sit back and see how it goes. I really don't like the idea of going on a family vacation only to have family members sit away from each other for several hours, I can't imagine my kids liking this at all.

The one problem is that on the first half of the return flight (we have a stopover) I didn't reserve any seats because the only available ones were all single. I've been checking to see if some may come available for us to sit together or at least a parent to a child. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Esmerelda]

NotUrsula....

I'm like Gail...I'm trying to figure out how you got separated from your child like that with assigned seats? I'm a single mother of two boys and have only twice (in about 12 flights) gotten separated and thats because we got bumped on Delta both times so our assigned seats were null and void.

Actually, I was more concerned about the passengers AROUND my boys than my boys when we were separated....LOL I warned them but Delta didn't listen... LOL.... Seriously, on all other flights I have sat with my boys or right across the row from them. I have never really had any problems other than the 2 I mentioned. Even with Southwest, I have always sat with my boys.


Esmerelda

 

[NotUrsula]

It happens because airlines won't always give you an assigned seat when you book They block certain seats for elite FF members and others, including airline staff. If an elite flyer calls 48 hours out and buys a seat at full price, they want a prime seat available for that person.

Here's an example. On February 12th, we bought three r/t tickets on AA from STL > ORD, for the dates Apr 3 and 14th. I was told that there were no open seats left on the plane for the outbound leg; that although we had confirmed reservations, that the system would not allow seats to be assigned for the flight. I was given seat assignments for the inbound segment, and told to keep calling back as I got closer to departure, that there were about 40 seats left unsold, but that there were blocks on them, and the blocks on the seats would "probably" be lifted as we got closer to the flight date. I called weekly, and was told weekly that they hadn't been released. By the final week, I was calling daily, and again, sorry, they haven't been released. When we got to the airport (3 hours early) we used the kiosk to get boarding passes, and the remaining seats were finally available for selection. Nothing there but single seats.

It happens all the time, and the cheaper your fare, the more likely it is, because higher-priced fare classes override the seat blocks. I'm really good a finding the cheapest fares available, so I get blocked rather often.

BTW, I don't think that AA does this any more often than other carriers. It just happens that they have nearly a monopoly at my airport, so I happen to fly them more often than the others. I prefer SWA, but many of my more frequent destinations are places that SWA doesn't service.

 

[robinb]

I usually fly NWA, AA or United. Most times, I don't have an assigned seat because I wait until the fare sales to buy my tickets. The airlines stop offering pre-assigned seating once the plane is a certain percent full and then you need to get your seat assignment when you check in. Since I live in Madison, WI I always have at least one connection and have to fly though Minneapolis, Detroit or Chicago. I usually get seat assignments (and boarding passes) for both flights when I check in for my first flight of the day. I can see that someone who lives in a hub is at a disadvantage when checking in for their flight because all the connecting passengers have already gobbled up the seats when they checked in hours before .

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by robinb
Have you watched "Airline"? After watching them "86" a number of happy, yet not drunk, passengers for drinking at the airport bar, I would wait until I got to Orlando!

We'll be flying SWA for the first time in August. We got a great rate that I couldn't resist! I know that I'll be avoiding the bar .

It is hard to 86 someone who waits till they are airborn before they order a drink.
Yes, btw, I have watched Airline and it cured whatever desire I had to work for SWA. I think I would last about 2.5 minutes and there would be a body count.

Hint to you and others. You can buy drink coupons very cheaply on ebay. do a searc and type in Drink coupons. There are some fab. deals out there. I just bought 4 books of 12 for 17.60 including shipping. One was due to expire this June, so, I sold it on ebay for 5.50. making my final cost for 3 books 12.60, which is only .60 more than one book.
Got another for 2.25 with free shipping.

 

[prncess674]

Most of the '86ing' of passengers is for show. I live in New Orleans which is a huge party city. Basically any flight I take back home is full of partiers. The alcoholic consumption pre-takeoff is very high. Another big drinking destination that I frequent is Las Vegas. I earned about 5 free tickets on SWA just last year, which equates to MANY paid flights, and of all the flights into/out of party destinations not once have I seen them remove passengers for drunkeness., and believe me there were many drunk people on those flights.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by prncess674
Most of the '86ing' of passengers is for show. I live in New Orleans which is a huge party city. Basically any flight I take back home is full of partiers. The alcoholic consumption pre-takeoff is very high. Another big drinking destination that I frequent is Las Vegas. I earned about 5 free tickets on SWA just last year, which equates to MANY paid flights, and of all the flights into/out of party destinations not once have I seen them remove passengers for drunkeness., and believe me there were many drunk people on those flights.

I do remember one show that had three young females that were a bit tipsy, but, had filthy mouths. I think that is what got them 86 ed.

 

[tjmw2727]

Originally posted by GAIL HAYDEN
NotUrsula
How does this happen? Don't you select your seats at the time of reservation? I am very curious about this.

I am not "notursula" but I will second her experience. We fly mainly AA from Boston and this happens to me all the time even when flying as the solo adult with one or both of my young children. Even when booking a flight 6+ months ahead of time, and yes selecting seats together, somehow our seats always get "resassigned". Its blamed on computers, equipment changes etc but it forced me to try and fall in LOVE with Jet Blue.

I got so tired of having to beg single seated passengers to move, its very stressfull. One young women gave me such a hard time when I asked her to move one row forward to the exact same seat so I could sit with my then 4yo. She was traveling alone!!

Sometimes the gate agents were very helpful other times we got the your lucky to be on the flight speech. I am not even talking about a family of 4,5 more trying to sit together just myself and my 2 dd's. Now that my oldest is 9 I can deal with having her a row in front or behind if necessary but I don't find it ideal especially when booking flights well in advance with "assigned" seats.

Jet Blue on the other hand apologied in April because DH and 1 DD were separated by 2 rows from me and my other dd! I was totally fine with that btw but loved the gesture.

TJ

 

[robinb]

Originally posted by GAIL HAYDEN
It is hard to 86 someone who waits till they are airborn before they order a drink.
Yes, btw, I have watched Airline and it cured whatever desire I had to work for SWA. I think I would last about 2.5 minutes and there would be a body count.

Me too. I'm not sure I would even last that long! I had a class (Food and Wine Pairings, no less ) with a woman who just started working for United. She needs to work her way up to flight attendent and she's now directing planes into their gates. Next, she'll be a gate agent. Oh, fun. I know it's not in me. However, we love "Airline" and are now watching the original "Airline UK". Those gate agents are better dressed than their US counterparts, but they are real ... witches!

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by robinb
Me too. I'm not sure I would even last that long! I had a class (Food and Wine Pairings, no less ) with a woman who just started working for United. She needs to work her way up to flight attendent and she's now directing planes into their gates. Next, she'll be a gate agent. Oh, fun. I know it's not in me. However, we love "Airline" and are now watching the original "Airline UK". Those gate agents are better dressed than their US counterparts, but they are real ... witches!

I have watched the UK show also, and they are fun!!!! They don't take a lot of nonsense. I wish the airlines here would adopt some of their policies. The customer is NOT always right.

 

[robinb]

Originally posted by tjmw2727
I got so tired of having to beg single seated passengers to move, its very stressfull. One young women gave me such a hard time when I asked her to move one row forward to the exact same seat so I could sit with my then 4yo. She was traveling alone!!

The last time we went to WDW, we missed our flight out of TPA. We left in plenty of time (or so we thought), but a huge traffic jam had us stuck for a long time and we just missed our flight. We were leaving from my in-law's appartment about 10 minutes from the airport and it took over 90 minutes to get there! The airline put us on stand-by and we were on the next flight out ... but our seats were all middle seats and we were the last to be boarded. My DD is only 4 years old. Out of 6 possible people, no one would move. I don't care about sitting with my husband, but I need to sit next to my 4 year old daughter! I said "OK, which one of you gentlemen wants to entertain my daughter? I'll put her in the seat next to you! ", with a big grin. No takers . Finally a woman from another aisle seat exchanged seats with one of our middle seats and asked one of the gentlemen to take her seat, giving us two together.

On the very next flight, I repaid that wonderful karma by exchanging both my seats with a family who had a lap baby in the last row. The last row on that equipment doesn't have 3 emergency oxygen masks, unlike the rest of the plane. Everyone was pleasantly surprised when I agreed so readily. They don't know how much I hate the last row .

 

[Belle0101]

Well, I've read this entire thread and now I have a few questions just to make sure I understand things, okay?

We are: Me, DH, DS9 and DS4

Here's our plan: We'll be flying SWA. Leaving from IND on 8/28 bound for MCO. I already told my DH that we need to be to the airport no later than 2 hours before takeoff.

Return flight is 9/6 from MCO and bound for IND. Again, I told my DH that we need to be to the airport no later than 2 hours before takeoff.

Questions: I plan to purchase our 4 tickets online. Do I also need to to go somewhere and print boarding passes?

As I understand it, at least one of us will be in the pre-boarding line with DS4 and the other parent will be in another line with DS9? But on occasion they allow the entire immediate family in the pre-boarding line?

What determines "A", "B" and "C"? Order of boarding is pre-boarders, "A", "B" and then "C"?

Sorry for all the questions, I've only flown once with a child and that was last year with my DS who was 3 at the time. We flew Delta ... never again.

Thanks in advance for your help!!

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by Belle0101
Well, I've read this entire thread and now I have a few questions just to make sure I understand things, okay?

We are: Me, DH, DS9 and DS4

Here's our plan: We'll be flying SWA. Leaving from IND on 8/28 bound for MCO. I already told my DH that we need to be to the airport no later than 2 hours before takeoff.

Return flight is 9/6 from MCO and bound for IND. Again, I told my DH that we need to be to the airport no later than 2 hours before takeoff.

Questions: I plan to purchase our 4 tickets online. Do I also need to to go somewhere and print boarding passes?

As I understand it, at least one of us will be in the pre-boarding line with DS4 and the other parent will be in another line with DS9? But on occasion they allow the entire immediate family in the pre-boarding line?

What determines "A", "B" and "C"? Order of boarding is pre-boarders, "A", "B" and then "C"?

Sorry for all the questions, I've only flown once with a child and that was last year with my DS who was 3 at the time. We flew Delta ... never again.

Thanks in advance for your help!!

HI,
You will most probably be allowed to preboard with your entire family of 4. It is not an occasional thing, it happens all the time.

From the SWA website:
Prior to general boarding, Customers with disabilities, unaccompanied children, and families with children under five years of age will preboard. Customers holding boarding pass "A" will begin general boarding, followed by Customers with boarding pass "B," and then "C."

What is occasional is they don't allow preboards because there are mostly families in the preboard line. Then they only allow folks with disabilities to preboard and unaccompanied children.

What determines a, b, c? The boarding pass.
No, you don't need to print out boarding passes, they can be received at the counter, sky cap, gate or online.
It is explained well here: http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/checkin.html

 

[Mouseteacher]

Why does SW not allow seat assignments in the first place? I am assuming it is to save money. However, with jetblue and song and others offering low fares, newer planes, seat assignments, and TV in the seat backs - SW may have to reconsider their policy in order to compete.

I will be flying SW for the second time this July. I got an incredible fare of $49 ea way from MHT to MCO non-stop. So, I'll put up with the preboarding, A, B, C nonense. All I really care about is more space in my seat area - breathing room which SW does do. Delta Express was the worse! I felt crammed in and claustrophobic on those planes. I am glad they are history!