Southwest Airlines, kid seating

[Anonymous]

I’m a fed traveling for work. I’ve never flown Southwest, but have to for this trip. I will be on a YCA ticket, fully refundable and I think it comes with early seating.

Grandparents live in the travel city, so I am bringing one 11 yr old kid at personal cost for the flight. Reading Southwest’s rules, they say that a group should board together at the lowest level ticket. Is this different with a kid?

I’m trying to decide if I need to pay for the same fully refundable ticket for kid, so equal to what I have. Or can buy a cheaper ticket? The goal is to maximize our chances of sitting together.

Also does anyone have a favorite connecting city for west coast flights? Choices are midway, Denver, Las Vegas. Thanks a lot.

[Anonymous]

They probably will not say anything if you just board together. If that feels wrong/pushy to you, you can board first and save a seat for your child. At 11 he can board by himself.

I would not pay extra.

[Anonymous]

I’m a little confused with your question. Are you asking if you can board together? Or is your concern the refundable ticket. I could be mistaken, but I think 11 is too old for the family boarding. You can get an a or B boarding if you check in as soon as it’s available. That way you have your choice and seating. I have checked in as a sea group and still was able to sit with my child with no special accommodations because the flight was not full. I guess it just depends.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for the feedback.

Yes, I'm hoping to find a way to board together. Kid is shy and would want to be with me. I don't care if the ticket is refundable, just didn't know if I needed to have the same type of ticket so we can board together.

[Anonymous]

You're supposed to board at the lowest/latest boarding number of your party, so that's probably going to be your kid's ticket. But you shouldn't have to buy the fully refundable ticket for them to be able to sit together. If you buy the cheap ticket but add early bird boarding (~$25 each way), they should get at least a number in the B section and there will almost certainly be two seats together at that point. My family of 4 flies Southwest a ton on cheap tickets with early bird and there is always at least one full row plus another aisle seat left when we board.

[Anonymous]

I have flown SW for the government and I do not believe the YCA fares come with priority boarding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks so much for the feedback.

Yes, I'm hoping to find a way to board together. Kid is shy and would want to be with me. I don't care if the ticket is refundable, just didn't know if I needed to have the same type of ticket so we can board together.

Since you get to board early and you have a child with you, their own website says you can talk to the gate agent for accommodations. I can’t see why they wouldn’t let your child board with you.

[Anonymous]

My brother works for SW, and he is on 200 flights a year. I also fly SW all the time with kids. They don't enforce age on family boarding. He told me they never give parents a hard time about this. In fact, the staff are incentivized to get families on ASAP. Otherwise, they waste boarding time trying to shuffle people to keep families together. Bring your 11YO with you when you board, or worst case do family boarding.

[Anonymous]

Southwest boarding is based on the order in which you log in 24 hours in advance, with exceptions for people with disabilities, young children, and priority for people who pay a separate fee.

I would log in 24 hours in advance. If your boarding group begins with A or B you're fine. If you get C, then go ahead and pay for the advanced boarding. If you get different boarding groups, then you can board together with the later one.

[Anonymous]

When you buy your kids ticket I would just pay $25 for the earlybird check-in

[Anonymous]

Also don't fly through Midway. Of the three choices, I would go with Denver then Vegas. You won't have weather delays in/out of Vegas, but I'd look to see where the connecting flight is coming from.

[Anonymous]

The level of tickets don't matter when it comes to boarding. Buy the ticket that is most affordable.

When it comes to boarding, the family board is supposed to be for kids ages 6 and under, but the gate staff do not enforce this unless it is a flight to Orlando in a busy season (summer or holidays) when more than half of the flight are families (my mother lives in Orlando and we fly there regularly).

You get assigned boarding passes based on when you check in. They assign boarding passes in groups of 60, A1-A60, then B1-B60, then C1-C60. The will call the boarding groups up with A1-A30, then A31-A60, then B1-B30 and so on. Nowadays, the As are reserved for people who pay for boarding upgrades, so even if you sign in exactly 24 hours before your flight, you will likely get a B1-B30 checkin assignment. You are allowed to check in 24 hours before flight. Be aware that in the first 2 minutes of the boarding window, likely all or most of the B group will be gone. I've signed in 2 minutes after the window opens and gotten C group several times.

When I have two different ticket groups, I do my check-in on a computer and make sure I get set up about 5 minutes before the window opens. I open two browser windows, navigate both to the Southwest check-in and put in the flight confirmation number and my name in both windows. Then I wait. At the time, I open one, click check-in, switch to the other window and click check-in. I almost always get consecutive boarding passes. I once had one boarding pass slip in between the two groups and when we were at the gate, I just let that person go in front of our family. They were fine with moving up 2 spaces.

Alternatively, if it is a busy flight without too many family boarders, you can move to the family boarding group. That group (separate line) will board between the A and B boarding groups. Like I said, it's supposed to be for families with younger kids, but unless the flight has a ton of children, the gate staff will not stop you from boarding. I've actually had gate staff wave me and my family over to join family boarding when there were not a lot of kids traveling. Like the other PP said, they realize that families want/need to sit together and it saves time if they pick seats together in the first place, rather than having flight attendants have to move people around to get families together.

Last, if you don't want to risk either of the above (both are not guaranteed), pay for the early boarding for both tickets. I averages about $25 per person per leg of a flight (so if you have one transfer, then you'll pay $50 per person). More popular flights, the early boarding is more expensive. Less popular flights, early boarding is less expensive. You should be able to add early boarding to your tickets from the Southwest web-site. You should be able to do it with your Southwest confirmation number. If you can't, Southwest call centers are not that busy after 11pm. Wait until 11pm, call in and you won't wait long to get a customer service rep who can help you add the early boarding to both tickets.

I have twin 12 year olds and I understand. One would be fine boarding separately and finding us. The other is more shy and would be very anxious boarding separately. You know your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have flown SW for the government and I do not believe the YCA fares come with priority boarding.

This. Just buy the early bird seating or make sure you check in exactly 24 hours in advance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have flown SW for the government and I do not believe the YCA fares come with priority boarding.

I've flown SW several times for the government in the last year. Sometimes it comes with early bird boarding, sometimes it doesn't, and I have yet to figure out a pattern. But I could look at my reservation online and see whether it indicates early bird or not, so at least I was prepared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When you buy your kids ticket I would just pay $25 for the earlybird check-in

Definitely. Easiest solution.