For once, we are eager to leave WDW! We fly home on SW tomorrow. We rarely fly SW.
SW does allow carry-on. But we are in the last boarding group! Alaska and United ask people when they get to the gate to check in carry on luggage for free.
Does.SW also ask people to gate check carry-on luggage for free?
Thanks for your help!
I know they’ll gate check, and I’m pretty sure it would be for free.
SW has been guilt-tripping people to gate check carry ons, only for the overhead bins to only be 1/2 full by the time the plane doors close 
“If we don’t gate check 15 more bags, the flight may not take off, please bring your bags to the counter and have it checked, it’s free”
Yes. Either they will have space for your carry on, or they’ll check it for free. But just to be clear, it will get checked to Baggage Claim at your final destination. It will not be wheeled out to the jet bridge.
Thanks everyone! The ability to gate check means we can unzip our carryon suitcase to expand it! We have more stuff going home than we came with!
We are already checking in a large suitcase. So, we will not have any issue picking all luggage at baggage claim in San Francisco. At $45 a bag, SW is $10 more expensive than United!
Be aware that you might get flagged earlier than that for the carry-on luggage being too big. I know I’ve been asked to put my luggage into one of those sizing things that proves it is small enough. (I made a duffle to the precise dimensions of the allowed carry-on)
If I were you, I’d get to the gate with the carry-on zipped but extra stuff in something like a shopping bag. Then at the gate, unzip and add stuff.
Yes
This is is why I never give in even if I don’t need what’s in my carry on during the flight. They used to give it to you on the jetway and I used to comply more often. But no more
I’ve not yet seen this at Southwest
I saw it with Spirit
And Frontier is downright militant about it
But so far I’ve not seen it at Southwest
Same. I’ve never been asked to put my carry-on into a sizer with SW. I’ve had seven flights with them in the last nine months.
I did have it with Spirit every time I flew them. Haven’t had it happen with Allegiant…yet.
Makes sense. Looking back I think it was Frontier that was particularly militant about that.
They are downright mean.
We don’t leave for MCO until 4. There’s plenty of time to still shop!
I haven’t taken SWA since they switched to normal airline boarding procedures/seat assignments but I have flown them a lot in my lifetime and yes they gate check for free if bins are full. In recent years, I have always paid for the early checkin so I can get A boarding group so I have never been in C to know if they start forcing people to gate check prior to boarding the plane like American does for example. But I will say I also hate that other airlines do that because most of the time they’ve done that to me there was room when I got on the plane.
The luggage drop line is ludicrously long at MCO for SW!
SW does have a bag sizer.
My carryon does fit!
We typically fly Alaska direct between SFO and MCO. But Alaska has reduced its footprint at SFO!
If there’s a wildcard for SW at MCO, it is that luggage line. Sometimes it is amazingly long!
Most of the time it really keeps moving, but one time I think they had 2 people working and a more than full queue during the morning rush. They ended up just telling everyone who had luggage tags to just drop them and run.
It took 30 minutes to drop off the bag! Good thing we arrived really early to enjoy the AC at the airport!
Dang! We’ve had good luck with curbside check in for bags when it’s open. SW is so hit or miss.
After all this, SW did NOT ask for gate checking for our MCO to LAS flight even though our flight was completely full! Neighboring gates were militantly demanding gate check or they won’t be taking off!
We were in row one, which had lots of leg room!
But there was no storage under the seats! 
All personal items had to be stowed in the overhead bins. Row one also has the issue of only one overhead bin for both sides of the plane because one overhead bin was used by the flight attendants to store the trays for drinks and snacks! The overhead bins also couldn’t accommodate larger bags on their sides because the bins were smaller on the older plane! Our bag got stowed 7 rows behind us!
The choice to gate check would have eased the overhead bin issues!
Let’s see if our flight from Las Vegas to San Francisco will ask for gate check! Other flights around us are asking for bags to be gate checked!
We have to go pick up the larger bag anyway! We don’t travel light! Well, it’s more like the stuff we bought takes up space!
Our flight just asked for gate checking bags! It wasn’t militant! DH jumped up to gate check our bag! We will be in row 5, so we will have storage under the seats in front of us! DH just didn’t want to fight for overhead bin space!
