SW and lap baby - ever mailed in a birth certificate?

[undertheseas]

I'm worried about not getting to check in early for our flight to WDW since our DD will be a lap baby. I figure everyone else will have a small child too so we'll all be boarding at the same time! I found this on their website, has anyone ever done it?

If you prefer, you may mail a copy of a valid picture I.D. or birth certificate proving age to: Southwest Airlines Customer Relations; P.O. Box 36662; Dallas, TX 75235. Please be sure to indicate the traveler's Rapid Rewards account number with your request, and submit your request at least two weeks prior to your flight.
The date of birth field in the account will be updated to reflect that age has been verified. Please allow two weeks for processing.
If you submit your request in writing, you will receive a confirmation letter in the mail once the date of birth has been verified.
Once the date of birth has been verified, you may check in online and request a boarding pass as long as the traveler's account number is present in the reservation for which you are checking in.
Please remember to provide the Traveler's account number when you make future reservations on southwest.com or through our toll-free Reservations number 1-800-I-FLY-SWA so that you can check in online.

I'm not crazy about mailing in her birth certificate but am I just being a worry wart?

 

[malibuconlee]

OK, so from what I can tell you would mail in the birth certificate to make a baby age-verified if you purchased an infant fare and to check in the baby online.

I have flown many times with a lap baby with SW. I always checked in at the 24 hour mark online. When I got to the airport I showed her birth certificate along with my and DH's drivers licenses when checking bags. We were then given our boarding passes and a boarding verification document. SW DOES require passengers with a lap baby to show the birth certificate to verify they are indeed under 2.

If you aren't checking bags (which I can't imagine with a little one LOL) you will still need to go to the counter to get the boarding verification document for the child.

Hope this helps!

 

[kaytieeldr]

I agree with the PP. That doesn't sound like lap baby age verification, but rather special fare (infant, child, senior) age verification/eligibility. A lap baby wouldn't have a Rapid Rewards account number.

 

[ltl engine]

We just flew with a lap child MDW to MCO. What you are showing is if you purchased an infant fare (bought a seat for them). I checked in for the flight at the 24 hour mark via my phone, got A boarding passes. I did not print the boarding passes in advance. When we got to the airport--we checked our bags, age verified and printed all boarding passes. The line had maybe 10 parties in front of us and it took maybe 10-15 mins total. A nice benefit is that if you get A boarding passes then you board BEFORE the other families with kids....Good luck!

Our flight from MCO was Tuesday at 5:30 so we were in line about 4:00...

 

[undertheseas]

Oh duh, that makes sense! Thank you guys so much! I'm so glad there's people here to help me!

 

[bumbershoot]

I checked in for the flight at the 24 hour mark via my phone, got A boarding passes. I did not print the boarding passes in advance. When we got to the airport--we checked our bags, age verified and printed all boarding passes.

Other people have stated that they cannot do checkin when there's a lap baby in their party.

Now if the poster who mentioned the above bit had already traveled with their lap baby and therefore had the verification process done, then it goes along with what others have said previously.


OP, I've read others saying that you can go to the airport 24 hours out and do the process then, then you can checkin online. I think. Maybe.

Hope your experience with a baby on your lap is better than mine!

 

[malibuconlee]

I guess Southwest never knew we had a lap baby until we checked in at the airport. I was never told we needed to let them know in advance. We flew at least 3 round trips so, with connections 12 flights and never had anyone tell me we needed to let them know in advance that we had a lap child.

Age Verification and Boarding Verification Documents are two separate things.

One side note, only one lap baby per set of three seats as there are only 4 masks in case of emergency.