Pros and cons for Southwest

[Peace Mickey Lovers]

Hi,
I usually only travel Jetblue but Southwest is offering a great deal for April and I am thinking of booking through them. I have never flown with them before so can you help me out with why or why not use them? What is the deal with assigned seats?

 

[lauti]

The deal is they don't assign them. You are assigned a boarding position when you checkin (or you can pay extra for the computer to do this for you earlier than everyone else) then you sit wherever on the plane.

For me, this is the biggest con and I only fly southwest when I absolutely have to.

 

[Peace Mickey Lovers]

how do they decide who boards the plane and when they board? I figure family with children and those who need help but then is it how early you get to the airport?

 

[borgthe]

I love Southwest. There are no change fees, so you can make all the changes to your flights that you'd like. Just make sure you go online 24 hours before your flight and get your boarding pass. The better your boarding number, the better chance you have of all sitting together. I have never had a problem sitting with my kids and I have flown them at least 40 times.

 

[eyor44]

Group A boards first and then parents with small children. Then Group B.

If you do the Early Bird checkin or pay for a Business Class seat, you are in Group A.
I always checkin 24 hours ahead and almost always get in Group A and then get to sit where I want.

 

[mom2rose&john]

The biggest con for me is you log into the website and enter your confirmation # 24 hrs before departure and assigned a line up number based on how fast you hit the enter button. Not very convenient especially when we are at our destination and are not certain we will have access to the internet 24 hours before our flight. Therefore, I purchase early bird most times.

A pro/con is you can purchase an early bird pass (for $12.50). I think it goes in order of the purchased early bird. It is my understanding if you are the first to purchase early bird (not a ticket) you are first in the line up. I also noticed that you can purchase a business class and be 1-8(?) to line up for $40 but I am not sure about the specifics on this.

The biggest pro is 2 checked bags per person without an extra fee.

I use Southwest a lot due to the fact they have mostly direct flights to where I am going. A big plus when traveling with children. We were B58-62 on our flight to Phoenix and were the last to get 3 seats in a row.

People in a wheelchair are boarded first. Families with children under 2 are boarded between A & B linup. This alleviates the need to purchase early bird if you are a risk taker.

On the last flight I saw a lot of people where putting a sweater in the seat next to them to make look as if it was taken. I am not sure if they are saving the seat or are hoping that no one will sit next to them. Sneaky if you ask me

 

[tvguy]

If they have the best price, the only cons are the lack of assigned seating and sometimes they don't fly into the main airport in a city (like Houston).

Just make sure they have the lowest price...90% of the time they will, but a couple of times I found lower airfares on other airlines, especially when traveling on short notice.

 

[donkeyandshrek]

I always fly Southwest when available. Having been charged for baggage fees by Delta and AirTran, free bags are awesome.

I've never had a problem getting seats with my kids but I'm always ready at the 24-hour mark on my phone. You can use their mobile app to obtain your boarding pass without having internet service. It's not a big deal to just pause wherever I am and take care of that.

My last flight (yesterday) was the worst I've ever been on with the seat-saving issues, which caused us to depart 10 minutes later than scheduled and left people standing in the aisles unnecessarily. I was disappointed the flight crew didn't intervene.

Overall, Southwest is the best bang for your buck.

 

[Jimsig]

Another "con" would also be no in seat in-flight entertainment (TV or SatRad) on SW compared to JB. But that depends on it you use it on JB and if the fare difference is big enough to you to make a difference. if you have a laptop, IPad etc it may make no diffenence to you at all

 

[RooRach0906]

We have never flown Southwest but are considering it for our next trip. What about on board snacks? You get 2 checked bags per person right?

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

SWA decided by a number of factors

If you are disabled you will board first. Then if you are a member of the A List rewards members (aka-members who fly a lot) you get to board next, Then the folks who bought EBCI get assigned boarding numbers at the 36 hr mark. All of the rest of the public will be assigned boarding numbers once they check in for the flight.

Families with kids will board between the A & B boarding group.


Love the fact I can check 2 bags per person free. Right there is a saving of $50 to $70 per person.

IF the price of your flight has gone down after you bought your tickets you can rebook at the lower fare. The money is refunded to you in the form of a travel vouchure good for one year from the orginial date of purchase. Unless you purchased the refundable fare in which case your money will be refunding directly back to you.

Right now they have a credit card offer if you spend $2000 in 90 days you will be awards 50,000 points with in some cases be enough for more than 2 r/t . I just used mine to book 2 r/t and used 20,000 for each r/t to MCO!

SWA has the nicest staff. We were stranded in Nashville on our way home from Florida because of a storm. It was late like 11:30 p.m SWA brought out to everyone waiting free soda's and chips .

At MCO if you have not used the RAC at WDW you can use bag drop at MCO and not have to stand in the ticket counter line to check in you bags!
A lot of the planes are equiped with wifi and you can watch direct TV for free. So no there is no built in TV on the back of the seats but if you have a computer you can watch TV

On board snacks are free nuts or pretzels and soda, tea and coffee.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Hi,
I usually only travel Jetblue but Southwest is offering a great deal for April and I am thinking of booking through them. I have never flown with them before so can you help me out with why or why not use them? What is the deal with assigned seats?

Go to Southwest's website. All of their policies are clearly explained, including seat selection, baggage check, snack and drink menu and boarding.

Southwest used to be the low cost airline. No more, you can often get better deals on other airlines, despite what has been posted here.

I don't fly Southwest, primarily because I don't like their seating policy, their Rapid Rewards program is useless to me (I fly internationally more often than domestically), I don't care about free checked bags as I can already check three 70 pound bags for free on United (due to status), and I cannot upgrade.

 

[lions1995]

I have never flown SW and am considering it as well for our next trip. However, it is with friends and there will be 3 families with kids. I am willing to pay the early bird check in, but I have read where it is becoming common place for one person in a party to pay the $50 to get into A boarding and them reserves a bunch of seats. I have seen responses from SW on the issue that basically says people should not reserve seats, but we really do not have a policy.

SO, considering United and USAir will probably match SW fares and get reserved seats, it comes down to paying for luggage. For the 5 in my family, I can pay for 2 bags ($100 round trip) or 125 for EBCI. Hmm, I think I just talked my way out of SW again.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

We really contemplated flying Southwest for our upcoming trip (we've never flown SWA before) but there were a couple of major draw backs for us. #1 Sitting together as a family. If my child was older it wouldn't be an issue but there are no guarantees for a seating assignment. #2 Connections. Sure you can do EBCI but not with connections (from what I understand). If it was just myself or me and my husband, I wouldn't mind giving Southwest a try but not flying with young children.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I have never flown SW and am considering it as well for our next trip. However, it is with friends and there will be 3 families with kids. I am willing to pay the early bird check in, but I have read where it is becoming common place for one person in a party to pay the $50 to get into A boarding and them reserves a bunch of seats. I have seen responses from SW on the issue that basically says people should not reserve seats, but we really do not have a policy.

SO, considering United and USAir will probably match SW fares and get reserved seats, it comes down to paying for luggage. For the 5 in my family, I can pay for 2 bags ($100 round trip) or 125 for EBCI. Hmm, I think I just talked my way out of SW again.

It's not $50 for early boarding! it's only $12.50 each way per person. Don't forget is you are buying more than 8 tickets its best to call SWA to buy the tickets you will get a 10% discount. With other airlines they charge you a fee to call and buy tickets. SWA does not charge extra to call. Saving seats is not a big deal.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

We really contemplated flying Southwest for our upcoming trip (we've never flown SWA before) but there were a couple of major draw backs for us. #1 Sitting together as a family. If my child was older it wouldn't be an issue but there are no guarantees for a seating assignment. #2 Connections. Sure you can do EBCI but not with connections (from what I understand). If it was just myself or me and my husband, I wouldn't mind giving Southwest a try but not flying with young children.

Yes you can do EBCI with a connecting flight. I really would not worry about being able to sit together as a family. People for the most part are nice enough to switch seats. At least I am and have done it before. Give them a try you will like it.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I have never flown SW and am considering it as well for our next trip. However, it is with friends and there will be 3 families with kids. I am willing to pay the early bird check in, but I have read where it is becoming common place for one person in a party to pay the $50 to get into A boarding and them reserves a bunch of seats. I have seen responses from SW on the issue that basically says people should not reserve seats, but we really do not have a policy.

SO, considering United and USAir will probably match SW fares and get reserved seats, it comes down to paying for luggage. For the 5 in my family, I can pay for 2 bags ($100 round trip) or 125 for EBCI. Hmm, I think I just talked my way out of SW again.

Why do you have to buy EBCI for everyone? Those that get EBCI can save seats. You can get if for a few people and then do the 24 hr check in for the others. Oh I bought a ticket for a flight that was leaving in 6 hours and I checked in and fully expected to get stuck with a C board position. NOPE got an A for both me and DH.

 

[lauti]

Why do you have to buy EBCI for everyone? Those that get EBCI can save seats. You can get if for a few people and then do the 24 hr check in for the others. Oh I bought a ticket for a flight that was leaving in 6 hours and I checked in and fully expected to get stuck with a C board position. NOPE got an A for both me and DH.

Because saving seats is frowned upon by most.

 

[supertinyluckycat]

So what would happen if I boarded with my 2 year old and there weren't 2 seats together? Would I just put her in her carseat next to a stranger and go find a seat? "See you when we get to Disney, Kid!"

(I would never do that, but is that what happens?)

 

[dsneprincess]

We have used SW many times and PREFER open boarding. I have never been separated from my children on SW, nor have I purchased ECBI. I have, however, been separated from my children on both JB and AirTran with seat selection. On AirTran, I had to pay $6 or $8 per person for the privilege of having no seats together to choose from. I couldn't even get 1c/1a together either time. My kids like to fly SW, because they know we always get to sit together, so long as checking is done in advance. My most recent flight was the only time I've ever seen people try to save seats. I don't agree with that.