SWA Boarding Pass Question

[Princess Erin]

Good morning:

Can someone please tell me how to get the board passes so my family won't be separated. I am not sure when and how to do this. Thanks.

 

[floridasun83]

Check in for your flight at the 24 hour mark. If your flight leaves at 8, check in at 8 the day before. Right on the flight time too, don't wait until 8:15! If you are all on the same reservation, you will get them all in order, they will not be mixed up between other people. If you are really concerned, purchase Early Bird Check-In, which is $10 each way, per passenger. You are most likely to get an "A" seating assignment if you use Early Bird Check-In, but it is not guaranteed.

 

[ccgirl]

Good morning:

Can someone please tell me how to get the board passes so my family won't be separated. I am not sure when and how to do this. Thanks.

How old are your children and how many seats together do you need? SW does family boarding between groups A and B. This is usually children 4 and under along with their immediate family. My Dh and myself have never been split up from out children even with C boarding passes before. But, we were content with just 2 seats together so 1 of us could sit with each child.

As the previous poster pointed out EBCI (early bird check in) is $10 per person per way. SW will check you in 36 hours in advance of your flight. I have known people that purchased EBCI that got B passes so still had to wait until after family boarding to board. But, you would still get on before those that did not pay for EBCi.

Good luck.

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

I always opt out of doing the early bird but after checking in 24 hours right on the nose this past Friday night for our flight out of MCO for Saturday, I might just change my mind and pay the $10/pp because I was frankly bewildered at what happened.

I checked in right at 6:05pm on Friday night for our 6:05pm flight on Saturday night. I was A47 and my DH was B02. Not sure how that can even happen? It's never happened before . . .sometimes there is a 2 - 3 person difference between us, but never that large. I got on with the A boarding group and waited for DH.

 

[hpfan100]

If you check in 24 hours before you should have no trouble getting A passes for your whole family. Also if you have two adults you can have one board with the As and take luggage on, get settled etc. and then the other adult doesn't board till later.

Really if you have person with an A or B pass you should be ok. If you are really concerned buy the EBCI for one adult so you are almost sure to get an A pass.

 

[ccgirl]

If you check in 24 hours before you should have no trouble getting A passes for your whole family. Also if you have two adults you can have one board with the As and take luggage on, get settled etc. and then the other adult doesn't board till later.

Really if you have person with an A or B pass you should be ok. If you are really concerned buy the EBCI for one adult so you are almost sure to get an A pass.

Just wanted to add that with the advent of EBCi that is no longer the case (I have found). I checked in exactly 24 hrs in advance two weeks ago and got B15. It was just me so I didn't really care what number I received and I still got the exit row but I had never gotten a number that high checking in 24 hours in advance. When my DH and myself were split up with boarding passes we just boarded together with the higher number. It was a full flight and they made an announcement no holding seats as it was a full flight and it delays the boarding process.
OP - how small are your children?

 

[satorifound]

Southwest actually gave someone free drinks to switch seats with one of us, so we could sit with the younger kids.

 

[Ro Z]

I checked in right at 6:05pm on Friday night for our 6:05pm flight on Saturday night. I was A47 and my DH was B02. Not sure how that can even happen? It's never happened before . . .sometimes there is a 2 - 3 person difference between us, but never that large. I got on with the A boarding group and waited for DH.[/QUOTE]

In March on the way home we used early bird check in and when we got our boarding passes I had A29, DDIl A30 and DS B16I had made our reservations after we returned home in late Dec and never changed them. I asked at the desk and got the runaround.......The computer...blah blah blah! We sit 3 across anyway and noone sits in the middle seats until they have to so we were OK but baffled!

 

[lyonking3]

If you have children, you can family board. After the "A"s and before the B boarding group.

Never have to worry about checking in, etc, because you'll board together

 

[ccgirl]

If you have children, you can family board. After the "A"s and before the B boarding group.

Never have to worry about checking in, etc, because you'll board together

Just wanted to add that it is children 4 and under. Sometimes they decrease that age to 2 depending on how many young children there are on the flight. I still check in 24 hours in advance hoping for an A pass so I can board before all of the families.

 

[Jestocost]

If you have children, you can family board. After the "A"s and before the B boarding group.

Never have to worry about checking in, etc, because you'll board together

While this is true much of the time, I would never say, "never."

Consider the flight that we were on yesterday. We got off at the first stop, but 45 passengers were continuing on to the next city and remained on the plane occupying seats before anyone boarded where we got off. If there were a handful of medical preboards and unaccompanied minors boarding before the As and a normal A group of 50, that would mean that about 100 of the 137 or so seats would have been occupied before family boarding started! That could mean slim pickings for the family boarding group; much less the Bs.

If you check in 24 hours before you should have no trouble getting A passes for your whole family. Also if you have two adults you can have one board with the As and take luggage on, get settled etc. and then the other adult doesn't board till later.

Really if you have person with an A or B pass you should be ok. If you are really concerned buy the EBCI for one adult so you are almost sure to get an A pass.

As ccgirl noted, this is not true at many airports on many flights today. We got B14-B17 checking in at 24 hours on our way down to Orlando last week and even with EBCI had A51-A54 (just seven away from the B group and after family boarding) leaving Orlando yesterday. I've even gotten B boarding passes for a connecting flight when using EBCI on one occassion.

The bottom line, IMO, is that if you are flexible about where you sit and how your party is distributed, checking in at 24 hours (or even later) is fine. However, if it's important for your party to sit together in a specific configuration and/or certain location on the plane, I would strongly suggest using EBCI.

 

[Melissalovespugs]

Just wanted to add that with the advent of EBCi that is no longer the case (I have found). I checked in exactly 24 hrs in advance two weeks ago and got B15.

This was my experience as well. I checked in at exactly 24 hours in advance and we were in group B.

 

[satorifound]

I was pretty sure last time I flew SW you had to pay an upgrade fee to get into the first boarding group.

 

[Jestocost]

I was pretty sure last time I flew SW you had to pay an upgrade fee to get into the first boarding group.

As noted earlier, SWA offers a service called Early Bird Check In for $10 per passenger (fee applies separately each way). EBCI does not guarantee that you get in the first boarding group and not using EBCI doesn't mean that you won't be in the first boarding group. All that EBCI guarantees is that you will be checked in automatically about 36 hours before your scheduled departure. Since the earliest you can check in without EBCI is 24 hours before departure that means EBCI passengers will be checked in before people who check themselves in.

The only way to guarantee boarding at the front of the A group is to purchase a higher-priced Business Select fare or to be an A-List Rapid Rewards member (their top-tier frequent fliers).

 

[DeeDeeDis]

We always fly SW, family of 5 and usually have one or two friends with us
and just by taking the initiative of checking in right at the 24 hour window we've never had a problem sitting together even when we didn't have consecutive boarding numbers.

The first 30 or so boarding numbers are set aside for business class passengers, the last few times i've flown no one was standing between #A1 to A30.

I actually just checked four of in and we are; A34 - A41 - A51 - A52 , guess someones finger was a half second faster then mine

 

[jodls01]

How do we get a family boarding pass? We are taking our 3 grandkids and the youngest is 4 yr. Do we still have to check in at 24 hrs?

We always drive to WDW. We were able to get a nonstop flight.

 

[tanker]

How do we get a family boarding pass? We are taking our 3 grandkids and the youngest is 4 yr. Do we still have to check in at 24 hr?

What you should do is check in at the 24 hr point. If you get an "A" Boarding pass you will board with the "A"s based on your number. If you get a "B" or "C" Boarding pass you will board when the Gate Agent announces "Family Boarding". This will be done after the "A"s have boarded and before they start boarding the "B"s. Those doing family boarding will normally line up where the pre-boards line up. Again if you get an "A" you will board with the "A"s and not do family boarding.

 

[DisneyCruiser83]

I am curious to see if anyone knows how boarding works for those with mobility issues. I have never flown SW before, but the flights I am looking at are $300 less on SW (plus the free bags). On other lines, my husband has been able to board first so that he may get settled before the remaining passengers get on. It is also extremely important for the two of us to sit together. On the trip I am looking at, we will be with DMiL, and would like to have her sit with us, but it is not a deal breaker. Does anyone think SW will work for our needs? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[tanker]

I am curious to see if anyone knows how boarding works for those with mobility issues.

On SW if a passenger is in a wheel chair they, and one person to assist them, are automatic pre-boards. Any other passenger who needs extra time to get down the jetway due to mobility or other issues just goes to the gate counter, prior to boarding, and asks the Customer Service Agent for a pre-board authorization. It is a blue sleeve that the boarding pass goes in. Once the passenger has that they, and one person to assist, will board after the wheelchairs and before the "A" boarding group. Once on the aircraft those that pre-board are not allowed to sit in the emergency exit rows.

 

[LisaS]

The first 30 or so boarding numbers are set aside for business class passengers, the last few times i've flown no one was standing between #A1 to A30.

It's just A1-A15 (or maybe up to A16?) that are set aside. But as you say, there are usually just a couple of people in that section of the queue so you could get A16/A17 and be the 2nd or 3rd person to board after the pre-boards.

I hope everything is OK in your area after the severe storms this evening.