Southwest Airlines, kid seating

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Agree with this -- even when my kids were 11 or 12, gate agents often asked me to do family boarding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I literally had a SW worker give me a hassle about letting my 6 year to board with me in my group because she was booked in the next group. So I was the end of the A's and my daughter was the beginning on the Bs.

I would not let an 11 year board by themselves on SW. People are not nice.

[Anonymous]

My 11yo and I do family boarding. No one has ever said anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I literally had a SW worker give me a hassle about letting my 6 year to board with me in my group because she was booked in the next group. So I was the end of the A's and my daughter was the beginning on the Bs.

I would not let an 11 year board by themselves on SW. People are not nice.

So you do family boarding but no, you can't both board during A boarding. If you were already at the end of A you would be next anyway. Not worth getting into a fight with the agent over this.

[Anonymous]

I thought they officially increased family boarding to age 12 anyway. At least they said they were going to.

Agree with others they are not asking for ID from the kid at family boarding.

[Anonymous]

Just out him in a wheelchair like everyone else! Separately It is amazing how being on a SW flight cures so many physical disabilities. I was in a flight that had 13 people in a wheelchair and their companions board early. Not a single one needed a wheelchair when they got off the plane.

[Anonymous]

I am the one who suggested just paying $25 for early boarding for the kid. I have a small eight-year-old but I am otherwise a Ruel follower and I didn’t want to pay $125 for my whole family of five to get early boarding. I ended up going to the gate agent and saying I have this eight-year-old. I know she’s too old for Family boarding but just FYI I wanted to tell you in case you think it would do everyone solid let her on early. The gate agent did Family boarding and then said I’ll take anybody else with kids now basically for my daughter, which was nice of her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

This is the answer OP

We fly SW a ton.

Also another trick is if you get to the airport slightly early for your flight go to your gate ticket agents and you can usually buy up for seating to the west coast it was $40 a person. It might be more now. We have done that many times when getting a high B number or C seating. Given you are with a minor who is shy the PP advice is prob the safest bet.

Denver better than LA for Connections. Vegas isn't bad either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

11 year olds don't count for family boarding

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Agree with this -- even when my kids were 11 or 12, gate agents often asked me to do family boarding.

You absolutely can not count on this. It totally depends on the gate agent and the flight.
Flights to Orlando they are generally **really** strict about limiting it to families with kids 6 and under, and only one adult per kid. Obviously Orlando flights are the most likely to be packed with families, but I've seen them be strict on other flights too.

Just buy your kid the cheapest ticket, and pay for the early checkin option. That will generally give your kid an A or high B, and there will be more than enough seats together at that point.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks again for the detailed and helpful advice! I will get the cheap ticket, pay for early bird checkin, and connect through Denver.

[Anonymous]

Is your 11 year old young-looking? My 10 year old looks young and they always put us in family boarding.

But you could also check in 24 hours before and it will put you both in an early group. We haven’t had issues on southwest doing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is your 11 year old young-looking? My 10 year old looks young and they always put us in family boarding.

But you could also check in 24 hours before and it will put you both in an early group. We haven’t had issues on southwest doing that.

Checking in at exactly 24 hours definitely doesn’t guarantee an early number. We’ve had late B’s - using a world clock to countdown and everything!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Buy the auto boarding thing I forget what it is called. But, this is usually true. When my kid got older we were in line and they pulled us to go to family 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.

Honestly, this is a great opportunity to push your kid out of their comfort zone a bit. So what if they're shy? Perfectly socially acceptable to put on headphones on a plane, smile hello, and then not talk to your seatmate for the entire duration of a flight.