serenitynow
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2005
One of Southwest’s ongoing issues - people who pay for early bird seating to select their seats vs. passengers who don’t want to spend the extra money for EBCI, but once they board the plane simply have to sit with their family, in essence selecting their seats.You can most certainly buy EBCI for peace of mind. However, boarding order goes like this: handicapped folks, A group (usually people who purchase EBCI get A or early B), families with children under 6 (that’s you), then B, then C.
We have always just done family boarding and have always found seats together.
Any time we were on a flight where a family was unable to sit together (they probably didn’t board at the right time), the flight attendants asked people to move so that they could.
So, I don’t think it’s necessaey to but EBCI, but if you’re super anxious and it will help you, go for it.
Most people who paid for EBCI don’t want to trade seats with passengers who didn’t pay for EBCI and thus don’t volunteer to switch seats. Then a flight attendant has to threaten to hold up the plane until the family can all be seated together.
Officially, Southwest has NO policy on seat saving. A passenger can sit in any open seat, even if someone has put something in it to try and save it. The last couple of Southwest flights I have been on there has been an argument over seat saving on the plane. On two of those occasions, the person just sat down in the “saved” seat, regardless.
I suspect now that Southwest has raised the pricing on EBCI, we can look forward to seeing more of these seating scuffles. Some of the other airlines going to “budget” tickets don’t allow seat selection as an option. These tickets say the passenger cannot pick their own seat on the budget option and families won’t be seated together.
On a side note, the back of the plane usually has more open seating options on Southwest for those who chose to gamble on not purchasing EBCI.
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