SWA preboarding show!

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

I can understand why people are upset about huge numbers (or unfair-advantage-taking) pre-boarders, but I do still believe that SWA does need to continue to pre-board families with small children. Without assigned seats (which is one big reason SW can offer low fares) parents who don't arrive at the gate way ahead of time could end up separated from their children, and that isn't in the best interests of anyone. Since a 3 year old realistically must sit with a parent, the flight attendants would have a whole new career on their hands just trying to get people to shift their seats around to accomodate late boarding families. Then no one takes off on time.

We fly SWA all the time, and although we have never been in a pre-board category, most of the time we get decent seats just by routinely arriving at the gate really early. I think Orlando is in a class by itself because of the number of children who fly there, which creates an abnormally long line of preboarders, but generally we haven't found the SW system to be a big burden.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Ohmy. I'm glad I read this thread- I could NEVER fly on a flight that didn't have pre-assigned seating. I realize sometimes seating can be changed or lost- but that's less of a risk than flying on an airline that doesn't do pre-assigned seating.

If I'm reading this right- there would be a risk of me not sitting with all my children. Either because the older ones weren't allowed on pre-boarding with me and the youngest one (if that's correct?) or alternatively having to wait and not pre-board because of the older children and not wanting to be seperated but then by the time I got on-no guarantees that I'd even be sitting next to the youngest one let alone all three! Trust me- none of you want to be sitting next to my children without me there. Don't get me wrong- they have never misbehaved on a flight but I keep them busy, have snacks, stop any arguments before they start- and we're all "talkers" (quietly- but talking)-- you'd rather they be talking to me, trust me. LOL

 

[robinb]

If I'm reading this right- there would be a risk of me not sitting with all my children. Either because the older ones weren't allowed on pre-boarding with me and the youngest one (if that's correct?) or alternatively having to wait and not pre-board because of the older children and not wanting to be seperated but then by the time I got on-no guarantees that I'd even be sitting next to the youngest one let alone all three!

If your youngest child in under 5, then (as the rules stand now) the entire family can pre-board and you would be all together. Once your youngest child is over 5, then you need to board with your Group: A, B and then C. What a lot of people are saying is that they feel that too many pre-boarding families are taking up all the good seats and that families that wait their turn are either separated or in the back of the bus. You are not guaranteed to be together, but you can make your chances better. You can check-in at midnight and print off your boarding pass. That'll put you in the "A" Group. Then you can get to the airport early and stand in the "A" line so you would be one of the first to board after the pre-boarders.

For some people the hassle just isn't worth the savings. Honestly, I've only flown SWA once. I think I would fly them again ... for the right price . Obviously, SWA isn't for everybody!

 

[BigTigger]

Children under the age of 5 must be accompanied by an parent or legal guardian.

"Accompanied" under the FAA regulation means to get the child under 5 on and off the plane. It does not mean the parent or legal guardian has to sit with them on the plane. That is purely an accomodation by the airline and makes good sense. The regulation does allow unaccompanied children 5 and over to fly alone. Airlines have taken this mean they can charge you to watch the unaccompanied minor and safely move them through the airports.

 

[Dancind]

So Southwest lets "seniors" pre-board? I didn't know that. On our last return flight from Orlando, we were first in A, so had a good view of the pre-boarders. There were some big 4 year olds! And one couple that looked about 60 and quite able-bodied, not accompanying any of the families with kids. We were discussing them with the two 70ish couples behind us in line.

 

[dznyntnh]

That's why after my last two trips to wdw, I vowed that I would never fly SWA into MCO again.

When I go in September, I will be flying JetBlue, even though that means going through BOS instead of MHT. The flight is cheaper and the seats are reserved.

Every move SWA has made in the last few years to 'help' their customers has done nothing buy make flying with them more time consuming and hectic. Getting up at midnight to get a good boarding pass?? Just so you can watch all the families that just barely woke up get on the plane before you?!?!

Never again!

 

[NotUrsula]

"Accompanied" under the FAA regulation means to get the child under 5 on and off the plane. It does not mean the parent or legal guardian has to sit with them on the plane.

Actually, as defined by all nearly all US commercial carriers, "accompanied" means "flying in the same cabin." If you escort a child under age 5 into a seat in coach, but then you go sit in FC, you will feel the wrath of the FA, and one of the people seated next to your child is going to get a gift of your seat in FC unless you pony up the "unaccompanied child" service fee. (This isn't an issue on SWA, of course, as the whole plane is one cabin. SWA also doesn't do an "unaccompanied minor" escort service.)

You are right that there is no FAA rule about the "accompanying adult" sitting next to the child, at any age, UNLESS there is a carseat in use. There *is* an FAA rule that says that when a child is in a carseat, the adult who is responsible for that child must be in an adjacent seat. Since carseats must be placed in a window position, in practice this means that jr's grownup gets the middle seat.

There is also an FAA rule that says that anyone responsible for supervising a child may not sit in an exit row. As it happens, SWA is the only airline I've ever known to enforce that particular rule. If you board with a child and then try to put yourself in the exit row with your child ahead of or behind you, SWA FA's will force you to change rows and sit with your child. This isn't for the child's safety, btw; this is because the FAA requires that persons seated in the exit row help others to evacuate, something that you won't realistically be doing if you are concerned with keeping track of your young child.

Just FYI, the UK does have a "proximity rule" when it comes to the seating of children. I've been writing to members of the US Congress' Aviation Subcommittee lately to try to get a similar rule adopted in the US. The UK's rule can be read at: http://www.caa.co.uk/srg/default.asp?page=1344 (Not that the the UK is perfect on these sorts of rules; they still allow airlines the discretion to categorically refuse the use of carseats on board. Still, a good idea is a good idea, and a rule that says that young kids need to be seated within a certain distance of their adults is a good idea, IMO.) If you want to write to Congress on the seating proximity issue, I suggest writing to your own representatives and also to members of the Aviation Subcommittee: http://www.house.gov/transportation/aviation/membership.html

 

[lindaso]

I was once denied pre-boarding when I was traveling alone with my daughter and her car seat. I told the gate agent "Fine. I'll wait my turn, but it'll be more of a pain for everybody." And it was. I took up the whole 3 seat section installing the seat while my DD and the person who was seated on the aisle (who was already there when I made it to my seats) had to stand in the aisle, blocking everyone behind me. Pre-boarding would have been much easier for everyone concerned.

That happened to me too when flying Delta a few years ago. It was miserable for everyone...me, my baby, our seatmate, all the people sitting in the aisle that I slammed accidentally with my bulky carseat. I learned my lesson though. The next few flights on Delta I approached the gate agent and explained I needed a few extra minutes. They all said it was their policy not to preboard but they would still let me on first to install the seat. They just didn't announce it...I waited close to the door and they would nod at me to go.

 

[Free4Life11]

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???

That just made me LAUGH! Aren't some people just nuts? Was she trying to give you a guilt trip or something?

 

[mickey12810]

Last August we flew SWA with my family of 4 (DH, me, DS13 & DS18), my mom and DH mom. DH Mom is in a wheelchair. On the way down from Providence we all preboarded. However, on the way back from Orlando we were told that only one of us could preboard with my MIL. (gate attendant said it was in the rule book) As luck had it when it came time for the rest of the "family" to board there were empty seats around us. But DH decided to go to the back of the plane. Smart him, he ended up with no one on either side of him so he could spread out. But when we got to PVD I told the attendant that I had to wait for DH from the back of the plane and explained why. She told me that she could not understand why they did that to us and that next time let the attendant know and they would help save seats so that we could all sit together. So I guess it just depends on who reads the rule book and follows it.

 

[Mickey Fliers]

This has certainly been an interesting thread to read. We have only used SWA once and we didn't have any trouble pre-boarding (me, DH, DS7, DS5 and DS2). I really like all of the wheelchair bound pre-boarders that then try to sit in an exit row. I saw a few of them be moved by flight attendants.

Any way. We choose to fly SWA from Baltimore b/c it is one of the only airlines to offer N/S flights. The price isn't bad either .

I will be needing a little pixie dust in a few months. I will be traveling alone with all three boys (still 7,5, and 2) and I fully plan on taking advantage of pre-boarding. As it is, my 7 yo will still have to sit across the aisle from me. I will also plan on getting my "A" passes the night before. SWA was the only logical choice for this trip b/c I didn't want a 2 hour flight to become a 5 1/2 hour flight with stops.

 

[Julia M]

SWA isn't too bad flying to other destinations. But MCO is a nightmare. On our last flight in August, there were people preboarding with kids who looked at least 8! It was ridiculous.

We have pretty much decided not to fly SWA to Orlando at Xmas. It's just not worth it.

Julia

 

[DBC]

That's why after my last two trips to wdw, I vowed that I would never fly SWA into MCO again.

When I go in September, I will be flying JetBlue, even though that means going through BOS instead of MHT. The flight is cheaper and the seats are reserved.

Every move SWA has made in the last few years to 'help' their customers has done nothing buy make flying with them more time consuming and hectic. Getting up at midnight to get a good boarding pass?? Just so you can watch all the families that just barely woke up get on the plane before you?!?!

Never again!

I'm sad to say we came to the same conclusion. I absolutely love flying out of Manchester, which is 20 minutes from our house.

But the preboarding situation has become too much for us. Our youngest (10) is autistic and absolutely freaks when in lines like this. Of course they allow us pre-boarding when we ask but the process of doing it and putting up with the comments from people (I don't even know that I blame them-well, thinking it but not being so rude as to comment out loud and get everyone else pissed at us) just isn't worth it.

We're flying out of Logan this time. The prices are similar, just the hassle of getting in and out increases tenfold.

SW is fine for 1 person or adults that don't need to sit together, but they've lost our business until they change their boarding policies. It may not be worth it to them, as they seem to be doing quite well. I hope they change it though, the flights are cheap and always on time for us. People are nice too.

 

[cbrfan]

We flew several times on an ATA charter flight from Flint, MI to MCO. They preboarded families with small children but their seating assignments were all in the back of the plane. Then the rest of the passengers could board and be seated without having to wait for the families to get situated. I also noted that the families were helping each other and we were usually able to take off earlier than scheduled because of it.

 

[Erin12303]

Reply to Free 4 Life 11--

The best part was after we rejected her line butting, she looked at the people behind us. It was a mom with her 8 yr old son.....they followed suit and said no way. The entire line did this to her and here's the classic-She ended up boarding in the B group! I think she was trying to slide by......

 

[donnac48]

After reading everyone's comments, I'm getting pretty worried about flying SWA in April to MCO. We have never flown SWA and don't have children under 5. i will try to print my boarding passes at 12:01am morning of my trip but what do you do on the return? Do any of the resorts have computers with printers that you can use to print your boarding passes or do you have to be at the airport 3 or more hours before your flight? Any info is appreciated.

 

[Trackerbee]

After reading everyone's comments, I'm getting pretty worried about flying SWA in April to MCO. We have never flown SWA and don't have children under 5. i will try to print my boarding passes at 12:01am morning of my trip but what do you do on the return? Do any of the resorts have computers with printers that you can use to print your boarding passes or do you have to be at the airport 3 or more hours before your flight? Any info is appreciated.

We just returned this past Saturday and OKW printed out our boarding passes at the front desk at 12:30am. I think it all depends on which CM you ask, because we got several different answers, depending who we asked. I quess just be insistent because they do do it, and they know how to do it. Good Luck!

 

[krystyana]

This thread has me totally paranoid....we listened to a travel agents advice (mistake number one) and bought tickets through southwest because of another airlines instability. We had NO idea about unassigned seating until after the tickets were purchased. Now I am terrified. My three year old will be unconsolable if he is separated from us for a flight. I would never expect to have a group of ten sit together...but to have to worry about not being able to sit next to my child is very scary. I don't think this will be an avenue for us again.

 

[safetymom]

You can check in online and not print the boarding passes. When you get to the airport they can print them for you.

The WDW with convention facilities will have business centers that you can use the computer and printer.

 

[NotUrsula]

To repeat again, there is no need to worry about at least one parent not being able to sit next to a child of 3, especially on the MCO routes. Even if preboarding is suspended, it is highly unlikely that there will not be at least an open pair of seats somewhere on the plane, or that noone would switch seats with you if the situation did come to pass. If you are using a carseat, you will ALWAYS get to preboard, even if most preboards are suspended.

Something that needs to be brought up in this regard is that forced separations that involve single-seats-only seldom happen on SWA on the MCO routes, specifically because most of the people flying those routes are parties of family or friends; they will sit together and use up the middle seats. Separations most often happen on routes where most of the passengers are travelling alone on business. The A's sit in the aisle and window seats only, leaving practically every middle seat on the plane for the latecomers.

As I've said in other threads, and I'll say again: if you are flying on a discounted leisure fare on a legacy carrier, the odds of not getting advanced seat assignments, or having your seat assignments changed, is fairly high. In addition, passengers on legacy carriers are less likely to be willing to switch seats in this situation; they are just as attached to their assigned seats as you are. I fly with my child a lot, and he has never been forced to sit by himself on SWA. Since he stopped using a carseat he has been forced to sit by himself several times on AA, Delta and United.