I usually fly Alaska or JetBlue; I’ve never been on a Southwest flight! I know they don’t do assigned seating, but I thought I heard a while back that they were going to start allowing people to pick out assigned seating for a fee (but now I can’t find anything about it…it’s entirely possible I made that up in my head).
Soo…I think my question is the following: my husband and I want to sit together (obviously), if I was dedicated enough to be there right at the 24 hour mark to check in will that be enough to guarantee us seats together? If not, where do I find the fee to upgrade us to “priority” (or whatever it’s called)?
I suggest you book as soon as flights are available for your dates and pay for Early Bird boarding ($15/person for each flight). With EB they will check you in before those without it and you will have a better boarding number. We fly with extended family, seven of us total, and we have always gotten seats together with EB.
OK, another question… am I missing something very obvious, or is there no way to really tell how many seats have been booked on SW (aside from changing the number of flying adults to 8 and seeing if anything changes)?
[quote=“RiDE, post:1, topic:23815”]
if I was dedicated enough to be there right at the 24 hour mark to check in will that be enough to guarantee us seats together?[/quote]
Yes. If you’re just 2 people and you get and A or B boarding pass, then you’ll find seats together, particularly on Orlando flights, which have more families than many other flights (and since those families tend to sit together, they gobble up a lot of middle seats that would sit vacant on flights with more people traveling alone).
These days, you’ll probably get an early B boarding pass if you get in right at the 24 hour park, and that means maybe 30-40% of the seats will be taken before you board, leaving plenty of choices for you. The front rows and exit rows will likely be taken, but you’ll find seats together.
Remember that the 24hour thing means that you will have to be equally dedicated while you are on vacation as you are when at home anticipating your vacation. We found this was too hard to remember, even with alarms and such set for us, Once we forgot while squeezing all the fun out of MK and got C boarding. We got to sit 2 and 2 together but we were several rows apart from one another. Not a huge deal, but it mattered. We pay for EarlyBird now (but just when it’s the four of us - two traveling together will be less hard-pressed to be near one another)
Ah, now that’s a good point I hadn’t considered (checking in for the return flight when we’ll be at the resort). I just purchased my flights for December (jumping the gun I’m sure, but oh well! Nobody has ever accused me of not being prepared :)) and tacked EB onto all of them (since it’s just 2 of us it’s only $60 extra). Thank you everyone for your help and suggestions!
So this is a little trick. Four of us flew. I got Early bird for just two of us. But as I was waiting in line - I noticed. Hey all 4 tickets are on my phone - so all 4 of us boarded early and only had to pay for 2 to board early. Additionally if you have smaller children they allow families to board after a1 - a30
as an aside - we fly SW a lot. Service has always been good - the baggage fee - or lack there of is great. I don’t know why it is considered “discount” as the service is better than most other carriers.
We always fly SW, and we always pay for early bird check in. LOVE SW!! Have never had an issue getting the seats we want and with early bird check in you dont have to think about checking in on the way back. I flew AA with a friend and didnt have a good experience at all!! We payed to pick our seats, they downsized the plane, moving us to different seats without notifying us and we were no longer next to each other. I was not a happy person!
I just booked my friend for our Sept trip, he’s flying from Boston and I’m flying from Minneapolis, got my tickets weeks ago. Anyway, we were hoping to get him flight schedules even kinda close to mine to ride magical express together. Lo and behold, Southwest had practically the same time flights, out of MHT (smaller, easier airport, same distance from him as Logan), within $50 of the best price I could find otherwise (which was not a direct flight and was out of Logan).
All of this to say, when Southwest has good flights, they’re darn awesome. But for a single or pair, I don’t pay for Early Bird. I’m willing to save a few dollars and risk a less-pleasant seat.
No, the only way to do it as far as I know is to search but the highest number you need. I learned the hard way. I thought my son and I could change a flight to a cheaper flight (we both have our own account). I got the cheap price but his was twice the original flight! Now I search for two and let him book 1st since I have more flexibility in points and cost.
I know they don’t do assigned seating, but I thought I heard a while back that they were going to start allowing people to pick out assigned seating for a fee (but now I can’t find anything about it…it’s entirely possible I made that up in my head).