SW and special needs child

[tacomaranch]

Our DS has autism and is not very good in lines. I have a letter from the DR. which we bring to WDW each time.

How does boarding work for our family on SW? Can the four of us preboard? Do we wait till last? Do they even accommodate special needs?

Where is SW 101 classes? I have read that we should book each way not round trip. Example is 1 person, we buy one way SLC-MCO, that is one ticket and then go out and buy the other MCO-SCL and that makes a second ticket? Not as all one reservation?

I recently bought a ticket and it was each way but come out as RT. Is that ok to do? Also should I only do 2 at time or is booking our 4 safe? We all need to be with the DS as I can't take care of him myself. Can the Ding fares book for 4?

Thanks, April

 

[Earstou]

For preboarding, they only allow one other person to board with the handicapped person. So one of you would board with your ds, while the other two would wait in line.
The seats are three across, so it will be difficult to save two more seats for the rest of the party. (We only have three now, so we easily can save the third seat for dh!)
Your best bet will be to try to get A boarding passes for everyone, by checking in online 24 hours before the flight. The A line boards first after the preboards.

 

[salmoneous]

Yes, SW will let you son pre-board. There's a chance they might not let all of your preboard together. Go ahead and get A passes for your whole family. If they only let 1 of you preboard with him, sit towards the back and you'll have no problem saving seats for the other two who will board with the A's.

As for the ticket buying schemes, don't worry about it too much. The suggestions you are reading are pretty advanced stuff that allow people to absolutely positively get the cheapest possible tickets that come along no matter what SW throws at them. If you want to read up, go ahead. The complicated reservation schemes aren't that much work and could save you a few bucks. However, I've been a SW frequent flyer for about a decade. I just go ahead and book my reservations "normal". And have never once had a situation pop up where I would have been better off with one-way, etc. reservations.

 

[shoegirl1020]

Everytime I've flown Southwest with ds8 here's what I've done:

1. Franctially obtained A boarding passes on-line the minute I was able to;
2. Checked in with the skycap;
3. Proceeded to the Southwest waiting area and inform them that we need to pre-board because of ds (by this time he has already made himself know ),.

I've always been able to pre-board with the entire family (5 total) without a problem.