Southwest stop with no plane change

[AveryandLilysmom]

Just curious about this...

My parents are flying from Detroit to Orlando. They make a stop in Nashville, where we live and where we will board the same plane with them, same flight # continuing on to Orlando. Since they aren't changing planes, will they have to remain on board the plane, or does Southwest allow the passenger continuing on to exit the plane for a little bit and then get back on?

Thanks to anyone who can answer, I've made stops on Southwest before, but always had to change planes so I was not sure as to what to tell my parents to expect. They'd like to come out and help us on with all our stuff with the kids, but I have a feeling that isn't possible.

 

[ShelsGoingToDisney]

I've flown SW several times with a stop but no plane change. You are required to stay on board, you cannot exit. Nice thing for you though is after all the other people leave the plane your parents can choose seats before they load the new people. They could save seats for you so you could all sit together and in a preferred location.

 

[rwdavis2]

In some cases I thought you could exit if the layovers was long enough?
BD

 

[msmayor]

In some cases I thought you could exit if the layovers was long enough?
BD

It would be very rare if a continuing flight stopped 'long enough' for passengers to deplane and get back on. Gate space is at a premium, and they want to turn that plane around fast.

In addition, with Southwest, if you left the plane...you'd have no boarding pass to get back on. The flight attendants are far too busy cleaning to keep track of who got off and should be allowed to 'get on first' since they were already passengers on the flight.

As I recall, the last time we had a flight that made a stop like that, they asked us to PLEASE remain seated once all departing passengers had left so they could get an accurate head count to the gate to allow for standby passengers (if there was room), and then once given the all clear we could change our seats. We could use the lavatory but were asked to please try and keep the aisle as clear as we could so the flight attendants could get their cleaning done quickly.

I don't think we had but 10 minutes to ourselves before they started boarding the next group.

 

[ShelsGoingToDisney]

It would be very rare if a continuing flight stopped 'long enough' for passengers to deplane and get back on. Gate space is at a premium, and they want to turn that plane around fast.

In addition, with Southwest, if you left the plane...you'd have no boarding pass to get back on. The flight attendants are far too busy cleaning to keep track of who got off and should be allowed to 'get on first' since they were already passengers on the flight.

As I recall, the last time we had a flight that made a stop like that, they asked us to PLEASE remain seated once all departing passengers had left so they could get an accurate head count to the gate to allow for standby passengers (if there was room), and then once given the all clear we could change our seats. We could use the lavatory but were asked to please try and keep the aisle as clear as we could so the flight attendants could get their cleaning done quickly.

I don't think we had but 10 minutes to ourselves before they started boarding the next group.

This has been exactly my experience in the past flights that I've taken.

 

[monarchsfan16]

In many cases Southwest will turn a plane around in 20-25 minutes. I had a flight 2 years ago that was from Sacramento, CA to Manchester, NH with stops in LA (at LAX) and in Philly, without ever getting off the plane (yeah, my stepdad is no longer allowed to book our flights ). I believe turn time at LAX was 22 minutes. In Philly it was somewhere between 25 and 30 minutes, because there was some issue with ATC (big surprise in Philly...). From what I understand, these turn times are fairly typical for Southwest.

 

[davidb69]

In some cases I thought you could exit if the layovers was long enough?
BD

Generally if layovers were long enough they make you get off the plane but generally always have you stay on during a layover.

 

[AveryandLilysmom]

Thanks all!!!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I don't remember how long our layover was but in December 1997 when my family and I were flying Air Transat from Toronto - Orlando, we had a layover at St. Petersburg - Clearwater International Airport and had to get off the plane before we went onto Orlando.

 

[DisneyWalker44]

Note that technically, you aren't allowed to save seats for people on Southwest.