SWA & families abusing the preboarding......?

[npmommie]

I have seen talk on here about the old pre boarding for families with small children and how some abused it by having mom dad, and all other 20 relatives preboard too............but I am wondering with the preboard now after the A group.........are they still allowing families to board with everyone, or have they cracked down and only immediate family can preboard?
why didn't they just crack down on it to begin with if it was such a problem?

 

[lawgs]

I have seen talk on here about the old pre boarding for families with small children and how some abused it by having mom dad, and all other 20 relatives preboard too............but I am wondering with the preboard now after the A group.........are they still allowing families to board with everyone, or have they cracked down and only immediate family can preboard?
why didn't they just crack down on it to begin with if it was such a problem?

the "official" SWA policy now is "supposedly" child under 4 and one parent, but "everyone's mileage may vary" depending on the whims of the "gate agent of the day"

if you are able to get A boarding passes by checking in at the 24 hour mark, you would be able to board with the A grouping ...and your "position" in the boarding process would be designated on your BP

you would not likely see A1 to A15 since they are being held back for a new fare category called Business Select ( BS for short ) ....but they do now issue 60 A's up from 45 A that they used to used

sometimes in the past when there were a LOT of family preboards at places like MCO, they would suspend the family pre boards altogether.....

why did they not crack down before.....as with everything....some gate agents applied the rules, and others did not ....

the inconsistency allowed the abuse to get out of hand.....

 

[Esmerelda]

We just flew SW about 3 weeks ago from Indy to Miami. I saw two families that tried to jump in front of the "A" group but they were stopped. I'm sure it was explained to them how it works now. This stops all the 12 family members from boarding with the 3 year old....(how goofy is that anyhow..?) Plus the business folks can sit up front so they can get off first because they are usually quicker and alone...its a win win situation.

The 2 families boarded between A and B passes..and guess what...they all still sat together and we left on time. yippppeeeee....!

KUDOS to SW....way to go.


Esmerelda

 

[adisneymama]

We are flying SW next month. Are all the boarding passes being marked A group with a number now? We are flying out of Houston. Thanks!

 

[helenk]

We are flying SW next month. Are all the boarding passes being marked A group with a number now? We are flying out of Houston. Thanks!

No, there will be A.B and Cs, each alpha group will now have a number as well. So when you get an A boarding pass you will be A-25, 26 etc, then the B group will have numbers and so on. They will call A 1-25 or whatever, and that group will board, then it will go on from there

 

[DVC-Don]

Back when the "old" system was in play, we once (the one and only time) had C's to board in Las Vegas and were at the very end of the C line to board. A young 20 something lady got in line behind us then. After a minute or so she walked over to the family pre-boards and asked one family if she could be their daughter and they agreed. She boarded with the pre-boards. I think I'm going to like the new system.

 

[npmommie]

Back when the "old" system was in play, we once (the one and only time) had C's to board in Las Vegas and were at the very end of the C line to board. A young 20 something lady got in line behind us then. After a minute or so she walked over to the family pre-boards and asked one family if she could be their daughter and they agreed. She boarded with the pre-boards. I think I'm going to like the new system.

but thats what i am wondering, are they still allowing foolish things like that to happen, it just happens after the A group, which still isn't fair to the B group.
I am just thinking ahead in case we don't get an A pass. I have a 4 yr old. So I am just wondering if in the preboard we will compete with families who are dragging along grandma and grandpa in the preboard.

 

[TDC Nala]

I fly SWA a lot, usually between IAD and MCO.

Since the switch to boarding families between the A and B group, the gate agents at both IAD and MCO have been announcing that only parents and siblings can board with the child.

I don't know what, if anything, they did to enforce this, but I haven't seen anybody try and sneak in grandma, grandpa, Uncle Joe and Cousin Lucy yet.

 

[npmommie]

I fly SWA a lot, usually between IAD and MCO.

Since the switch to boarding families between the A and B group, the gate agents at both IAD and MCO have been announcing that only parents and siblings can board with the child.

I don't know what, if anything, they did to enforce this, but I haven't seen anybody try and sneak in grandma, grandpa, Uncle Joe and Cousin Lucy yet.

well thats good, thats what I was wondering.
I wonder why they didn't just do that to begin with when it was preboard before the A group
oh well, hopefully they enforce it now.

 

[disneyag]

npmommie, I know you are worried about this, but you will be fine. I have flown SWA for many years. We flew with an infant and with infant/toddler and with small child/toddler and always managed to sit together. Now my kids are 14 and 10 and we are still able to sit together if we get our boarding passes at the 20-24 hour mark. We have even had "B" passes and gotten to sit together. My husband printed his pass this morning for his flight to Vegas this evening and got pass "A-56". (He printed it at the 8 hour mark versus the 24 hour mark.) SWA just takes a little advanced planning, but I think you are willing to do that. ENJOY your trip!

 

[Aliceacc]

I'm looking at airfares for the 5 of us for next August. (Early, I know. It's the psycho-planner in me.) My kids will be 10, 8 and 5. Aside from my son's trip to the US from Korea as a 7 month old, it will be the first time any of them will have flown.

This whole no-assigned-seating has me thinking that I'll avoid Southwest. I know their fares are supposed to be great-- I've suscribed to the Dings. But with 2 adults and 3 kids, going to a location where there are lots of other families in the same predicament, I WANT to be sure that my kids won't be sitting alone.

Do I mis-understand how things work, am I crazy, or is it worth paying a little more to ensure that my kids aren't sitting by themselves?

 

[TDC Nala]

You can't completely ensure where you're sitting even on airlines with assigned seating. The odds may be better with assigned seating, but airlines switch flights, they switch planes, and the seating assignments get changed sometimes.

If the open seating bothers you, and the assigned seating makes you feel better, then you have a reason for paying more for assigned seating, if indeed it ends up costing more.

If you don't care what you pay, your best odds may be buying the upper tier business fares (business select) on SWA.

 

[DVC-Don]

Boarding with the A group or preboarding, you'll have no issues sitting together.

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm looking at airfares for the 5 of us for next August. (Early, I know. It's the psycho-planner in me.) My kids will be 10, 8 and 5. Aside from my son's trip to the US from Korea as a 7 month old, it will be the first time any of them will have flown.

This whole no-assigned-seating has me thinking that I'll avoid Southwest. I know their fares are supposed to be great-- I've suscribed to the Dings. But with 2 adults and 3 kids, going to a location where there are lots of other families in the same predicament, I WANT to be sure that my kids won't be sitting alone.

Do I mis-understand how things work, am I crazy, or is it worth paying a little more to ensure that my kids aren't sitting by themselves?

I ended up trying SW after having every single seating arrangement I had made get cancelled. Now I was a college student traveling alone, but every single time it happened! So I'd get to the ticket counter to check my bags, and have to choose a seat. Again. When I had taken care of that already with the travel agent or person on the phone when I bought my tickets (pre-internet for me).

I figured, if I wasn't assured of the exact seat I chose with those other airlines, why not go for one where no one is assigned!

 

[n2mm]

I'm looking at airfares for the 5 of us for next August. (Early, I know. It's the psycho-planner in me.) My kids will be 10, 8 and 5. Aside from my son's trip to the US from Korea as a 7 month old, it will be the first time any of them will have flown.

This whole no-assigned-seating has me thinking that I'll avoid Southwest. I know their fares are supposed to be great-- I've suscribed to the Dings. But with 2 adults and 3 kids, going to a location where there are lots of other families in the same predicament, I WANT to be sure that my kids won't be sitting alone.

Do I mis-understand how things work, am I crazy, or is it worth paying a little more to ensure that my kids aren't sitting by themselves?

I've set up my dings but still have not gotten the nerve to try SW yet. We fly to WDW 4-5 trips a year and often just the 2 of us adults. I doubt we ever fly SW, but these changes have me looking again. Bottom line is, if you want assigned seating then you have to book that airline. We fly United exclusively out of IAD/Dulles. It is worth paying extra for assigned seating. In the last 25+ flights on United, only once did I not get my seat. I was standing at row 13 holding my ticket stubs and the people in my seats were holding the same ticket stubs. We got moved up to better seats. (I still think it was because we were in row 13!) Our tickets on United to Orlando are usually $150-168 rt, so it's not like I'm paying a huge amount more. I'll be watching to see how these changes work out and if I ever fly SW, most likely it will be the new business class.

 

[MissSixty]

I have flown SW several times, and I really have never noticed any "abuses" but then again, I never really understood why everyone was so busy paying attention to what everyone else was doing. I have my hands full enough minding my own business without worrying about who is doing what.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

n2mm - I have to disagree with you sharply. I LOVE SWA - and overall they have one of the best records for on time arrivals - although all airlines have had serious flaws in that area over the last few years.

I strongly prefer the open boarding over United. And I'll take SWA's customer service over Uniteds ANY DAY. I'll also take SWA's website over United's anyday. They are just SO much better.

I'm actually sorry to see the old system go, but maybe this new one will be better.

 

[seashoreCM]

(copied from another forum)
Who would like to critique this idea?

Let's imagine that in order to use the family boarding group (between the A's and the B's) one passenger has to take a middle seat, surrendering his boarding pass for a boarding pass with an "M" on it, for example. He can then select any one or any two others to accompany him.

Boarding passes, or at least part of them with the letter, will be held by the passengers during seating, must be displayed on request, and perhaps may be collected in flight.

Since the family boarding group is intended to let people sit together, do notice that in order for two or three passengers to sit together, at least one must be in a middle seat.

Under this scheme there is no need to limit how many people join the family group. Given a foursome who want to join the family group, two must take M passes.

There is now no advantage in saving seats when boarding in the family group.

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