Sitting with child on Southwest

[Anonymous]

I don't normally fly Southwest and I have no kind of status with them. A relative used points to buy tickets for me and my 10 year old to fly from BWI to Raleigh (and back) for a visit. These will be weekday flights in August so hopefully not crowded, but I'm still a little worried about seating. Is there anything I can or should do to ensure we have no trouble sitting together on the flights?

[Anonymous]

I thought that Southwest does not issue seats but group boarding. So sitting together is actually less of a problem than airlines with assigned seats.

[Anonymous]

Pay for early check-in or check-in right at the 24 hour mark. With a 10 year old you can not use family boarding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pay for early check-in or check-in right at the 24 hour mark. With a 10 year old you can not use family boarding.

While technically you should not, I've seen huge variability in this and it comes down to how assertive the flight attendants are during boarding. On one flight a big group parents and teens had the balls to go on during "family boarding" and the flight attendants allowed it.

Still, if you want to be confident of sitting together, pay the early-check-in fee.

[Anonymous]

I would check if you have early bird checkin— I think it comes automatically with some fare classes so some award tickets get it.

If you don’t have it and are worried, you can spend like $20 pp to get it. Early bird checkin has southwest check you in before anyone not paying for it so it will guarantee you boarding numbers low enough to sit together.

That said if you just set an alarm on your phone for 24 hrs before your flight and check in as close to 24 hours as possible it is highly likely you will be able to get a low enough number to sit together.

[Anonymous]

If you want the best chance to sit together, you can upgrade to early bird check-in, which costs $25 per ticket (usually).

The next best chance is to be sure to check in for your flight exactly 24 hours before. However, this is not a guarantee. I've purchased early-bird check-in recently, and still gotten a high B boarding group.

I don't know if it is guaranteed, but in my recent experience, you frequently can also upgrade to an A Boarding pass after you have checked in, but it costs $40-60 per ticket.

[Anonymous]

If you check in exactly 24:00:00 early, you will likely get B boarding which should be fine for 2 seats together. If you miss B, you can upgrade your boarding then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pay for early check-in or check-in right at the 24 hour mark. With a 10 year old you can not use family boarding.

Yes you can. They do not care at all. They have even told us when we boarded with our boarding group that we should have pre-boarded as a family.


That said if you check in as soon as it opens you will likely get around B50 or so and should easily be able to get 2 seats together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pay for early check-in or check-in right at the 24 hour mark. With a 10 year old you can not use family boarding.

These are your two best options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay for early check-in or check-in right at the 24 hour mark. With a 10 year old you can not use family boarding.

Yes you can. They do not care at all. They have even told us when we boarded with our boarding group that we should have pre-boarded as a family.


That said if you check in as soon as it opens you will likely get around B50 or so and should easily be able to get 2 seats together.

I posted above that we got B 58 and 59 after we purchased early bird. I wouldn't assume that it's easy to get two seats together using regular check in. But you usually upgrade later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pay for early check-in or check-in right at the 24 hour mark. With a 10 year old you can not use family boarding.

We did in December. No one said a thing.

[Anonymous]

The last flight they announced any MINOR could do family boarding. I don’t think you’ll have any problem. Set an alarm to check in right at 24 hours in advance to be absolutely sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would check if you have early bird checkin— I think it comes automatically with some fare classes so some award tickets get it.

If you don’t have it and are worried, you can spend like $20 pp to get it. Early bird checkin has southwest check you in before anyone not paying for it so it will guarantee you boarding numbers low enough to sit together.

That said if you just set an alarm on your phone for 24 hrs before your flight and check in as close to 24 hours as possible it is highly likely you will be able to get a low enough number to sit together.

"as close to 24 hours as possible" = the nanosecond that 24 hours hits. If you wait even a few minutes your boarding group may be much worse.

[Anonymous]

I wasn't able to sit with my 10 year old the last time we flew Soutwest. She was nearby though where we could see each other easily. It was no big deal. When she has a device she's barely aware of my presence anyway!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The last flight they announced any MINOR could do family boarding. I don’t think you’ll have any problem. Set an alarm to check in right at 24 hours in advance to be absolutely sure.

Call me horrible, but I think it should be limited to small kids. The Southwest policy is seven and under. I would not normally care, but I've had three flights recently where I paid for early check-in and wound up in the B group. I don't think it's fair that people who paid to board earlier should have to defer to those who did not pay and who don't fit the criteria for family boarding.