Southwest Tickets question(Updated JUST CHECKED IN)

[DisneyNewbiie]

So this is our first trip coming up.Its also ou first time Flying on a plane so Im totaly clueless?Let me start with I went with Southwest and noticed I never got any seat arangments its me My wife and 4year old daughter Are they going to seat us together or break us up?

 

[a1tinkfans]

OKAY, DO NOT PANIC. They do not assign seats!

Heres the SW drill as best as I can recall. You need to CHECK in EXACTLY at the 24 hour mark before your flight leaves.
You will then be assigned a SECTION, Am B, C, etc.....
They will do PRE BOARDS first, those in wheelchairs
THEN those that have the blue sleeve, (usually medical issues)
THEN those with that Business "guarantee A thing)
THEN if I recall correctly A's..OR they allowed A parent with VERY small kids....then A's, etc etc...
The BIGGEST thing to do with SW is to check in online at the 24 hour MARK and even minutes can make a HUGE difference as to where you'll be sitting, most people go for front.....
Meanwhile, you will very likely sit together, even if one of the adults goes on first and saves a seat (flames???) for the other family member.....
We fly SW all the time, they are excellent, efficient, timely and very consumer oriented (no I don't work for them ) But I do use their rewards program and they are really wonderful, no change fees, no luggage fees and best of all ON TIME very very very often.

HAPPY FLYING , have a GREAT vacation.....by the way, even if you are in a park or hotel at the 24 hour mark, go to guest services, have a photo ID and your confirmation number and they will check in FOR you...so you'll likely get that A section!!!

 

[dacky041208]

PP is right, you should be fine. If you can check in at the 24 hour mark, you will have no issues at all. Even if you check in a little later, they do family boarding with small children after the A group, and I am thinking a 4 year old would qualify. You might not get to sit wherever you want, but you shouldn't be split up at all.

 

[PrincessYessenia]

I actually took a short flight from Jacksonville to Tampa about 2 months ago and I didn't do the 24 hour check-in because their system would not allow me for whatever the reason, and I was MAD!

BUT, how they do it now is give everyone who checks in online their boarding passes online and then the boarding passes are given at the airport for everyone else first come, first served. They now give everyone a number in the group they are in. I was luckily in group A. But they only give 60 people boarding pass A, and I was number 58! So I got lucky!

I know if this happens often but I certainly got lucky. I've flown SW several times over the years and always did the 24-hour check-in and have never gotten any boarding pass besides A. Oh and even if you happen to be the last numbers in boarding group A, like I was, don't fret! When I saw how many people I had ahead of me I began thinking irrationally and thinking to myself "now there will be NO seat left for me!" Boy was I wrong, there was still tons of seats to choose from, and TONS of empty rows.

Hope this helps.

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[tjmw2727]

So this is our first trip coming up.Its also ou first time Flying on a plane so Im totaly clueless?Let me start with I went with Southwest and noticed I never got any seat arangments its me My wife and 4year old daughter Are they going to seat us together or break us up?

Calm down, Southwest is awesome. Go back to the SWA website and read the section on the boarding process - here is a link.

http://www.southwest.com/help/boardingschool/

Southwest dosen't assign seats, it is first come first serve and you line up by boarding pass group and number. So - just log on to your computer 24 hours prior to your flight departure time to check in. Then you will get a boarding pass with a letter and a number, starting with A there are 60 passes - with 136 seats on the aircraft you will sit with your wife and dd.

Worst case senario is that you board with the family boarding, available for families with children 4 and under. This happens after the A boarding and before the B boarding. With family boarding you will still be able to find 3 seats together - but you may have to sit toward the back of the wings.

Honestly, when traveling the "legacy" airlines with assigned seats I have been separated from my dd's more times than not. Its a total pain to arrive early and try and get the seats fixed. With SWA I have never been separated from my kids, just check in 24 hours prior and then choose your own seats.

FWIW - I feel your title is very misleading. You would have fail to check in at 24 hours and then arrive very late to the gate (after family boarding) to have an issue sitting with your 4yo daughter.

TJ

 

[Darcy03231]

With a 4 y.o. you can do family boarding. Its between group A and B. There will still be plenty of seats together.

 

[TDC Nala]

Southwest does not assign seats for anybody.

See the above posts as to the things you need to do in order to ensure that your child is seated with a parent.

Because your child is under 5, if you do NOT get an A boarding group pass pay attention to the gate agents when boarding the flight regarding family boarding. Families with children under age 5 who have B or C group passes are permitted to board the plane AFTER the A boarding group but before the B boarding group. Even if you do not get an A pass, you will be able to sit together if you do the family boarding. The only snag will be if you are adamant about sitting in the front of the plane - if you are boarding after the A group you will probably find your three seats behind the wings.

 

[audeodream]

On my last flight with SW I was in boarding group B along with my DS (9). Due to the airlines practice of fewer flights and completely booking the flights by the time we got on the plane the only remaining seats were middle and none were in consecutive rows. It just so happened that when I asked the steward for help he basically said "you will have to find a seat" and walked off. The passengers saw my son standing in the middle of the aisle with tears starting to roll and look of panic (he has severe flying anxiety) and graciously rearranged themselves to allow us to sit together.

This was an out-of-the ordinary experience for me with SW so I of course wrote a letter. In my reply they apologized and said that in the future I could take him up to the gate-counter, let the ticket agent know that we need to sit together and they would give us the blue sleeve for pre-boarding . I think most airlines know that it makes more sense for children to sit with or near their parents it makes for an easier flight and less hassle for the other passengers.

 

[Laurabearz]

The title of this thread is extremely misleading and makes you think that you were on the plane and forced you to sit apart from your child, when in reality you just need to review the boarding school and boarding with families information on the SWA website.

To change the title of your thread, hit edit to the first post, then Advanced edit, at that point you can change the thread title to perhaps more clearly reflect your actual situation

 

[helenk]

On my last flight with SW I was in boarding group B along with my DS (9). Due to the airlines practice of fewer flights and completely booking the flights by the time we got on the plane the only remaining seats were middle and none were in consecutive rows. It just so happened that when I asked the steward for help he basically said "you will have to find a seat" and walked off. The passengers saw my son standing in the middle of the aisle with tears starting to roll and look of panic (he has severe flying anxiety) and graciously rearranged themselves to allow us to sit together.

This was an out-of-the ordinary experience for me with SW so I of course wrote a letter. In my reply they apologized and said that in the future I could take him up to the gate-counter, let the ticket agent know that we need to sit together and they would give us the blue sleeve for pre-boarding . I think most airlines know that it makes more sense for children to sit with or near their parents it makes for an easier flight and less hassle for the other passengers.

WOW, I have flown on Southwest numerous times, and on quite a few flights the flight attendants have gotten on the PA system and asked for volunteers to move around so that families can sit together.

 

[helenk]

So this is our first trip coming up.Its also ou first time Flying on a plane so Im totaly clueless?Let me start with I went with Southwest and noticed I never got any seat arangments its me My wife and 4year old daughter Are they going to seat us together or break us up?

I am not trying to be mean but did you not read the information on Southwest's website before you booked the flight?
I agree with Laurabearz, you really should change the title of your post.

 

[DisneyNewbiie]

I was also wondering my printer broke down ,So I dont have anywere to print out anything can I still check in 24hrs before the flight?

 

[rwdavis2]

I was also wondering my printer broke down ,So I dont have anywere to print out anything can I still check in 24hrs before the flight?

If you can't print boarding passes at home you can still get them when you check in at the airport. The key is checking in online. That guarantees you your boarding pass.
BD

 

[tjmw2727]

I was also wondering my printer broke down ,So I dont have anywere to print out anything can I still check in 24hrs before the flight?

Yes, check in and do everything as if you are doing to print. Then when you get to the airport you can just "reprint" the boarding passes.

TJ

ps - tx for changing the title!!

 

[DisneyNewbiie]

So I checked in online like you guys suggested had the alarm on for 7:00am
checked in at 7:15am.We got seats A54 A55 A56.So are these Good seats?Do I have more of a chance sitting together now?
'

 

[DisneyWalker44]

So I checked in online like you guys suggested had the alarm on for 7:00am
checked in at 7:15am.We got seats A54 A55 A56.So are these Good seats?Do I have more of a chance sitting together now?
'

Those are great numbers. You won't have any problem getting seats together. On almost all flights, they don't start to run out of seats together until the very end of the Bs.

Personally, I like being at the back of the As rather than the front. It allows you to see where a number of people have already sat, and choose your seat accordingly.

 

[Laurabearz]

So I checked in online like you guys suggested had the alarm on for 7:00am
checked in at 7:15am.We got seats A54 A55 A56.So are these Good seats?Do I have more of a chance sitting together now?
'

Those are great boarding numbers, and you will all be able to sit next to each other no problems

 

[DonnaL]

It depends on who's traveling with us as to whether we prefer A's or B's. If we have our 7 yr old grandson with us, we would rather have A passes so we can be absolutely sure we can sit together. If it's just DH and I, we would prefer an early B pass........ all the A's and the family boarding have already taken place.......so, with an early B we really can choose where we would like to sit.......please no flames......we've raised three children and have a 7 yr old gs who's been flying since he was 18 months old....... all of whom have had their moments on flights......but, there are times when as two middle aged adults flying for leisure....we would prefer not to sit next to, in front of, or in back of families with three children who all need naps and are not happy to be on that plane!

 

[turkeymama]

Just to be clear, those aren't your seat numbers. That is the order you will be in when you line up to board the plane. Once on the plane, you and your family will be able to choose the open seats you would like to sit in.

And yes, you should be able to find three seats together with no problem being in the order you are.

 

[eeyoreforever]

I'll just throw one thing out there that I haven't seen mentioned. One time we had boarding passes really near the front of the line and I thought we would have no problem sitting together. When we boarded the plane though, it was a continuing flight and was already half full. We were lucky enough to get one of the last empty rows so that all three of us could sit together. So, just because you have an "A" boarding pass, that is no guarantee of seats together - but I hope this doesn't happen to you.

Have a great trip!