SWA preboarding show!

[Pinnie]

I have flown many times on SWA from MCO, LAX, BNA and MDW. There have been numerous occasions that the gate agent allowed pre-boarding only to handicapped pax because there were so many familes boarding.

I have also seen a gate agent (male) at MCO ask the preboarding children how old they were. Quite a few ended up going to the correct "corral' for boarding.

SWA turns around it's flights MUCH faster with UNassigned seating than they do with Assigned. I have been on many flights on other legacy carriers that had assigned seating and the gate agents have issued seats that already had a warm body in it to standby pax. This caused delays, and on a few occasions, we missed our take off slot and had to get in line behind a bank of other planes.

Rumor has it that SWA will be "revamping" it's preboarding policy in the near future.

I guess one thing that I wish SWA would do is if you need to preboard because you need more time, then move to the BACK of the plane. It only stands to reason that if you need more time to board the plane, you need more time to DEplane. This way those of us who don't have kids and everything known to mankind on the plane can get off quicker!

pinnie

 

[SB in KY]

I love this thread...it comes up every couple of months...I actually like SW and fly them often (they get me and my baggage to the destination on time and they have a good time doing it)...but the pre-boarding show at MCO is really over the top...I swear they could sell tickets to it just for entertainment value. Get a seat near the boarding door and just take it all in...keep your sense of humor, after all I reason, I will get a seat somewhere on the plane, my kids are older and 2 hours away from them is not necessarily a bad thing, since we rarely get to sit together going or coming from MCO...

I used to get all cranky and bent out of shape over it...now I get there early for the show!! The excuses people come up with for needing to preboard are quite amusing and once the gate agent realizes you are laughing at them, they will usually egg them on...."oh, so your daughter just turned 8?" and then after they pass he looks over and says "Dang, not many 8 year olds wore D cups when I was in third grade!!" I actually busted out laughing at the woman who could not have been over 45 who wanted to preboard with her husbands AARP card (and he wasn't even with her!!)...it never stops.

Just keep your sense of humor...after all there isn't anything you can do about it so just sit back and enjoy the show.

 

[luvtoall]

I have not flown SWA. But this thread makes me wonder?
If I pre-board with my HUGE 17 y.o. son, (he does not look "special" but he is). Would we feel uncomfortable with the rest of the people? We do not care when we get on, but he MUST sit with me.
I called swa to book my Dads tickets, the lady on the phone told me he should "pre-board" he is not sure. He is 74, but healthly he would be very upset if people thought that was wrong. Should I tell him not to do it??
Thanks for your help, we want to do the right thing.

 

[inkkognito]

This is totally my own opinion, so take it for what you will. It is how I would do this if I were in your situation:

I would definitely pre-board with your son because there is a very legitimate need for the two of you to sit together. If people make comments or don't understand, that's their problem, not yours.

If your dad does not feel that he needs extra time to board, then he can go with his regular group.

My husband and I do not have kids that we need to sit by; we like to sit together, but it's not a necessity. Even with assigned seats, I once swapped my exit row seat to give it to a HUGE tall guy who needed it much more than me, even though it separated hubby and I. If people would just use common courtesy, so much unpleasantness would be avoided in air travel.

Barb

 

[beccasmom]

The rest of my family won't fly SW because of this policy; it doesn't bother me TOO much. It can be irksome, I agree. The line to pre-board at MCO was so long it was almost comical. I hope they begin their proposed seating policy soon because SW is the only one left for us if USAirways departs this year. We've never had luck w/Delta.

 

[jiminy14]

I flew SWA for the first time this past Christmas and except for the low fares I was not impressed. The boarding scenario was a complete disaster. On the way down, I got my boarding passes on-line at 12:01 in the morning. Was thrilled to see the "A" come up. Got in the "A" line at the airport about 20 people back. Got onto the plane and discovered that 3/4 of the people on the plane remained on it. It was never noted on the SWA website that the plane was coming from another airport.
On the way back, we got to the airport three hours before the flight to get our boarding passes. Again got "A". Curbside check-in took over 30 minutes. Got to gate with plenty of time to spare. People started getting in the "A" line more than an hour before departure time. The pre-board line was longer than any of the other lines. The gate agent let everyone in the pre-board line on the plane including aunts, uncles, second cousins , etc. When we finally boarded the plane, we found that many of the pre-boarders had "saved" seats for other family members that were in the "B" and "C' lines. When I questioned a flight attendant about this "saving" policy, his response was, "You would save a seat for your daughter if she wasn't right behind you". I replied that she also had an "A" but that people were saving seats for family members that were holding "C" passes. He then positioned himself in one of the "saved" rows and did not let anyone sit there until the other family members arrived.
I also have to mention that we had two flights with the most subdued crews. I had heard from friends about jokes and singing from the flight crews. My family was looking forward to this new experience but nothing unusual happened on either flight.
My family usually flies USAIR but with all the uncertainty we decided to try SWA. I know that on our last flight to Orlando and also on the return, the gate agent announced that due to the large amount of children on the flight that there would be no pre-boarding for children, only for those needing special assistance.

 

[Luckymommyx2]

I too would really like to see SWA change their pre-boarding rules for children, especially for flights to/from MCO. There has been a rumor that it's coming but again, that's just rumor. There is nothing wrong for individuals that need special assistance. I'm still looking forward to flying them in May.

jiminy14, sorry you didn't have a "magical" experience with SWA. I would chalk it up to the Christmas time fiascos. I have had a flight or two that was pretty quiet compared to the "typical" SWA flight too.

 

[Erin12303]

No flames here....

I like the fares and NS availability I get with SW.
I don't love the entire family(grandma/grandpa/cousin/auntie/etc) boarding with the one 3 yr old.
I agree---Mom and Dad and any other siblings should board but it really does get ridiculous with extended family.
We had a woman who was traveling alone talking on her cell phone....we were in the A line. She walked up and tried to board ahead of us....we said no way, we've been standing here 30 minutes. She looks at us and says "really classy". What???
Another older woman was in a wheelchair to pre-board and then when we arrived in MCO, she was off the plane like a shot. We saw her carrying her luggage to the rental car counter.
Amazing how rude people can be when climbing on an airplane......

 

[MelessaG]

This was a huge source of frustration for me when I used to pre-board with my baby and her carseat. All the families with older kids would jam in front of me because they weren't carrying a baby, a diaper bag, and a car seat. t kind of defeated the purpose.

 

[momof2inPA]

The last time we flew USAir, the pre-boarding lady yelled at us because we were trying to get on the plane with our four and six year olds and their booster seats, but my quick-thinking husband whipped out his frequent flyer go-to-the-front-of-the-line card and she slinked back to her quiet spot behind the podium. We laughed so hard (mainly because she was nasty, so we felt justified in being amused).

Honestly, when you go to and come from Disney World don't you just expect a lot of pre-boarding? It's not the premier business travel destination.

 

[CaliforniaDreaming]

On most of my US Airways flights out of Orlando, they've explained that there is no preboarding for families with small children in Orlando. In Pittsburgh, though, they've always done it, and half the plane has lined up to board.

I just hope SWA goes to assigned seats soon, wasn't there some press release about that not too long ago?

 

[minkydog]

The last time we flew USAir, the pre-boarding lady yelled at us because we were trying to get on the plane with our four and six year olds and their booster seats, but my quick-thinking husband whipped out his frequent flyer go-to-the-front-of-the-line card and she slinked back to her quiet spot behind the podium. We laughed so hard (mainly because she was nasty, so we felt justified in being amused).

Honestly, when you go to and come from Disney World don't you just expect a lot of pre-boarding? It's not the premier business travel destination.

OOoooo, I hope, I hope someone goes off on me while I'm trying to pre-board with my 9yo autistic son. :jumping4: I will gladly let someone else sit next to him and try to keep him entertained and seated,while I have a 2hr break.

(just kidding..I would never do that to you...)

 

[chasbos]

minkydog - good thought though!! I am sure it would work, I could let some other person sit next to my 4 lovely DD's (boy can girls get loud, catty, chatty, giggly, pouty etc. in 2 hrs) I am sure they would gladly switch before the seat belt light is off!

We are flying SWA for the first time this Friday so we will see how it goes - there are 6 of us but my 3 oldest can sit without DH or I, it is just the 6 year old that I like to keep an eye on.

We have had assigned seats on KLM and Air Transat and have never all sat together. We have been put 2, 2, 2 and 3 and 3 and one time 4 and 2. So airplane seating is never perfect.

I am going in Friday morning with the attitude that I just want to get out of this cold, miserable weather and it is only a 2 hour flight. I am sure we will have plenty of entertainment before the flight though!

 

[mrf777]

Just another reason I fly Continental.

 

[robinb]

minkydog - good thought though!! I am sure it would work, I could let some other person sit next to my 4 lovely DD's (boy can girls get loud, catty, chatty, giggly, pouty etc. in 2 hrs) I am sure they would gladly switch before the seat belt light is off!

I once threatened a group of very rude passengers with just that in the past year. We were flying United (I think) and somehow our seat assignments had been canceled. My husband, 4 year old DD and I were all seated in middle seats though no fault of our own. Not gonna work. All 6 seats surrounding the middle seats were occupied by men. All I needed was one of those men to move to a middle seat for me so my 4 year old daughter and I could sit together as we had to by law. Would any of them move? No sir-eee. The FA even tried to get one of them to move. No go. I threatened to allow my 4 year old to sit between two random men and let them entertain her, but the FA nixed that . Finally a woman from another row on the aisle agreed to take a middle seat and her selfish brother took her seat and my DD and I were able to sit togther.

As you can tell I am still steaming over how inconsiderate those men were. One day their bad karma will come back and bite them in the butt. The woman was my hero! I was able to spread a little of her good karma that same day. The very next flight my DD and I gladly changed seats with a family of 3 who was seated across from the bathrooms (not my favorite seats, let me tell you!). Those seats only have 2 oxygen masks and they had a lap baby. The look of gratitude on their faces was soooo worth it and I felt good being their hero .

 

[chasbos]

So true, so true - what comes around goes around! The next time one of those important business men are flying with there family for leisure and there are no seats available for the whole family that they find it reasonble and acceptable behavior - after all they acted like that and it was no big deal! I can just see them pulling a hissy fit instead!

 

[dis sjw]

I fly continental airlines to orlando airport from newark and there are NO preboards on orlando flights.Dis sjw

 

[treehugger]

I once threatened a group of very rude passengers with just that in the past year. We were flying United (I think) and somehow our seat assignments had been canceled. My husband, 4 year old DD and I were all seated in middle seats though no fault of our own. Not gonna work. All 6 seats surrounding the middle seats were occupied by men. All I needed was one of those men to move to a middle seat for me so my 4 year old daughter and I could sit together as we had to by law. Would any of them move? No sir-eee. The FA even tried to get one of them to move. No go. .

I'm confused, what law are you talking about? I know there are laws for unaccompanied children, which this was not. If a law was indeed being broken the FA should'nt have requested the PAX to move they should have ordered it; thus being a federal offense not to comply with the FA, which is very serious.

PS-I am in complete agreement with you that these men were rude, they should have moved.

 

[safetymom]

I can't speak for the men but not too many people that are traveling alone want the middle seat.

They may have been on a long business trip and just wanted to be left alone. Depending on the circumstances I probably would have said no too.

It never should have come down to asking the person in your row to move.

 

[robinb]

I'm confused, what law are you talking about? I know there are laws for unaccompanied children, which this was not. If a law was indeed being broken the FA should'nt have requested the PAX to move they should have ordered it; thus being a federal offense not to comply with the FA, which is very serious.

PS-I am in complete agreement with you that these men were rude, they should have moved.

Children under the age of 5 must be accompanied by an parent or legal guardian. I think the FA was trying to get someone to volunteer with a bit of honey before she brought out the "big guns" and ordered someone to move.

safetymom: You're absolutely right. Many people are reluctant to move from their comfy aisle or window seat to the middle. However, I think it's a shame that all 6 of them refused to move to a middle seat and inconvenience themselves for a couple of hours so a little girl could sit next to her mom. No reason is good enough to be that inconsiderate.

Edited for clarity .