SW will usually allow preboarding for a family with a child under age 4 (keep in mind...parents and siblings, not extended family like grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc). However, they have been known to suspend preboarding especially if it appears a very large percentage of the flight will be preboarded. That's why it's important not to assume you'll be preboarded. They will make an announcement as to preboarding something to effect "Passengers who need assistance (meaning someone who is in a wheelchair, disabled, etc.) and parents with a child under age 4". So, always checkin and print your boarding passes as closes to the 24 hr mark as possible. That said, we travel SW several times a year (always on the PHL/MCO and vice versa flights) and have a few times got B passes and still were able to sit together. Usually if you head to the rear of the plane you have no problem unless there was an extremely high number of preboards. So, tell your DH not to worry and pay no attention to the show. Actually, we've found SW to have the nicest FA's and customer service in the industry. I've grown to really like their policy of no assigned seating.......because it allows ME to CHOOSE where I want to sit. I don't have to sit near someone who spent too much time in the airport lounge before the flight or a cranky child who's had too much vacation on too little sleep (not to say my kids and grandson haven't been there, also). DH and I always head for the back of the plane, especially when we're travelling alone without our kids and grandson because most families with smaller kids grab the first seats they see together and it seems it's mostly adults toward the rear.
