SWA Family Boarding ?

[anpeck]

Our party will consist of myself, my husband, my stepdaughter 16 and our son who is 2. Will all of us be able to do family boarding, or just one adult with our son?

If we can't all board together, would it be better to just do early bird check in so that we can get on the plane together and find seats? Sitting together is more of a priority than getting the baby on the plane sooner.

TIA!

 

[magicwdw]

I think SWA official policy is one adult per child under 6 years of age boards with other families after A boards. However, I have seen most attendants allow the entire family board together, especially if just a group of 4 as in your case. I know I wouldn't have a problem seeing that while waiting with my B or C boarding pass. To be safe I would check in 24 hours in advance for all in party and you might get late A or early B boarding passes. To be super safe you can pre-pay ahead of time but that might not be necessary.

 

[BenandMorgsMom]

I agree. It depends on the gate agent. We fly very, very often on SWA....seen both scenarios. I would check in at the 24hr mark or buy the early bird to ease your mind, you will board after A group so if you are in B you will have no problems sitting together. Someone has to sit apart...there are only 3 seats across.

 

[Shanti]

Our party will consist of myself, my husband, my stepdaughter 16 and our son who is 2. Will all of us be able to do family boarding, or just one adult with our son?

If we can't all board together, would it be better to just do early bird check in so that we can get on the plane together and find seats? Sitting together is more of a priority than getting the baby on the plane sooner.

TIA!

I personally would just pony up for early bird, but that's because I'm fussy about seating on a plane. Don't count on being allowed to bend the family boarding rules. You might be allowed to, & you might not. It'll be gate agent discretion, and every gate agent has a different level of leniency.

 

[Meeko5]

I bought DH and DS6 EBCI and planned on family
Boarding for myself with Our lap infant last fall. I did see families with older kids in line for family boarding on the way down and they were able to board with the little one as well as the parents. I don't regret buying the EBCI for the peace of mind though!

 

[DopeyDame]

As others have said, totally depends on the gate agent and the flight at the time. Going down to Orlando, they are more likely to be strict and stick to the one kid/one adult. Especially since your other child is 16, not just slightly older than the cutoff. If all 4 of you being together is important, I'd buy ECBI. If you're OK with 2 and 2, then doing family boarding and 24 hour check in should be fine (recognizing that it's still possible that it will be 2-1-1, but pretty unlikely)

 

[kjw42]

We fly last year with grandma, Dh and myself we able to board with the kids (DS3 & DD7). Grandma has to board by herself. We made sure to check in 24 hours in advance so she had better boarding and it was never a problem.

 

[pd1138]

We bought EBCI for me, DH, DS 8, DS 6, and DD4. Also had a lap baby. All of us had the last of the A slots and DD4 had B1. I talked to the agent at the gate and she told us to have DD4 just board with us since she qualified for family boarding anyway and would be the next on the plane and not have to wait for the B group. So I think buying EBCI would be good, however it is not a guarantee you are still not boarding separately. Still we had no issue finding a seat over the wing.

 

[kamik86]

The two year old and one adult will defintely be able to do family boarding but as said above the others will be a bit more iffy since they will pretty much consider you 3 adults with 1 kid.

If there isn't a ton of family boarding they will let you on and not care. Alot of my business flights have been like this when there were only 2-3 kids on the plane total.

However if this is one of the flights that has 6 people boarding in wheel chairs and 15 kids that qualify for family (which is very common to orlando) then your more likely to see them stick to one additional person per wheel chair and one per qualifying child.

The only time there is a guarentee that they will let on more then one with family boarding are cases of one adult with multiple kids. Example one parent with an 8 and 2 year old. It would be a liability to leave the 8 year old at the gate alone since they aren't an unacommpanied minor with a staff member to assist so they let all three on.