SW Early Bird - Do kids need it, or just parents?

[kcbedo]

If we decide to SW Early Bird, do we need to add it for our two 6-year olds, or just for the wife and I?

I would expect that SW would require the kids to board with us, but would that be based on our line position or theirs?

 

[Jestocost]

Everyone will be expected to board in the line position on their boarding card. If you have two people with lower numbers through EBCI and two with higher numbers, they will be expected to board separately. They will not allow two non EBCI passengers with higher boarding numbers piggyback on two EBCI passengers with lower boarding numbers. If you want all of your party to board together then you should all do EBCI or not.

Since SWA has no policy for or against seat saving, however, one tactic you could attempt (not that I would condone it) to game the system is to have EBCI for one adult (or one adult and one child) who could then attempt to save seats for the rest of the party. That can be tricky with a party of four given the SWA seat configuration and there's no guarantee that the the tactic will not result in a tense confrontation with another passenger.

I personally would either book four EBCIs or none.

 

[dburg30]

If we decide to SW Early Bird, do we need to add it for our two 6-year olds, or just for the wife and I?

I would expect that SW would require the kids to board with us, but would that be based on our line position or theirs?

As the PP stated, you are supposed to board in your order. Now, noone is going to complain if you have A17 and decide to stay with someone in B group. But if your kids have A50-51 and you have A16-17, either you board that way, or you drop back to A50 area.

 

[kcbedo]

How does it work if you do non-Early Bird and you get boarding numbers that are not in sequence? Do you basically just board based on the highest boarding number, assuming you don't split up?

 

[dburg30]

Yep.. If you get like a59-60 and B1-2 I would just get in line when the B's do. If you get wierd numbers like A24,25 and A40,41 for some reason, just drop back to A40.

 

[Danibelle]

Yep.. If you get like a59-60 and B1-2 I would just get in line when the B's do. If you get wierd numbers like A24,25 and A40,41 for some reason, just drop back to A40.

I agree with above; however,

I would recommend buying EBCI for all members of your party. I buy it and I am usually just traveling solo. I just don't want to stress about it.

 

[ccgirl]

Yes, everyone needs it. While you could try to save seats, people were told there was no seat saving on my last flight with SW. It appeared many groups had only 1 person with EBCI saving seats for the rest of the party. This held up boarding a great deal. As a result, the flight attendants told everyone to remove bags and people were free to sit in any seat. A lot of people were quite upset. I sided with the flight attendant. One time, I was assigned an "A" boarding pass and my DD5 a "B". I was told she could not board with me but I was more than welcome to board with her. I just hung back and boarded with her.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

people were told there was no seat saving on my last flight with SW.

Unfortunately, this is not SW's official policy. The actions of the FA on your flight were unusual for SW.

 

[blissventure]

Unfortunately, this is not SW's official policy. The actions of the FA on your flight were unusual for SW.

Hmmmm...not sure I agree. I've made two recent trips on SW, and on both the attendants (as probably mid group B, beginning of C from my estimation) were boarding they were firmly told repeatedly to quickly grab a seat. If there's not a person sitting in it, it's available. I was glad to see they seemed weary of the delays--it holds everyone up.

 

[Jestocost]

Hmmmm...not sure I agree. I've made two recent trips on SW, and on both the attendants (as probably mid group B, beginning of C from my estimation) were boarding they were firmly told repeatedly to quickly grab a seat. If there's not a person sitting in it, it's available. I was glad to see they seemed weary of the delays--it holds everyone up.

Unfortunately it is true. SWA does not say it is OK to save seats or that it is not OK to save seats. They generally will not stop passengers from putting bags, books, coats, arms, legs, etc. in an empty seat to save it for someone, but they also won't back up the saver if someone tries to take a seat that is not occupied by an entire person. Different FAs will have different approaches, however, so you may find some who are actively discouraging seat saving and others who are more tolerant of the practice. The only thing that might guarantee their involvement is some sort of confrontation; which their lack of a definitive policy would seem to make more likely.

I will say that if the saving is holding up the boarding process to any significant degree that it is much more likely that the FAs will take some action to address the situation. Again, it won't necessarily be consistent in terms of how they address it. Some might encourage passengers to grab any seat without a person in it and some might just tell people to keep heading to the back of the plan.

 

[dburg30]

Unfortunately it is true. SWA does not say it is OK to save seats or that it is not OK to save seats. They generally will not stop passengers from putting bags, books, coats, arms, legs, etc. in an empty seat to save it for someone, but they also won't back up the saver if someone tries to take a seat that is not occupied by an entire person. Different FAs will have different approaches, however, so you may find some who are actively discouraging seat saving and others who are more tolerant of the practice. The only thing that might guarantee their involvement is some sort of confrontation; which their lack of a definitive policy would seem to make more likely.

I will say that if the saving is holding up the boarding process to any significant degree that it is much more likely that the FAs will take some action to address the situation. Again, it won't necessarily be consistent in terms of how they address it. Some might encourage passengers to grab any seat without a person in it and some might just tell people to keep heading to the back of the plan.

And in that case, there is a chance there may be a couple of seats open up

 

[ccgirl]

As you can see, it is inconsistent. On more than one flight there have been announcements of no seat saving. Both times the boarding process was very slow due to all the bags, coats on the seats so that could be why. If you want to guarantee yourself a better chance of sitting with your entire party, purchase EBCI for everyone.

If you have a child under 4 you are eligible for family boarding b/w groups A and B. I never cared where on the plane we set as long as we were together. With family boarding we certainly never had an issue. Even when we had low C's we did not have an issue.

Have fun. They are a great airline.