Southwest travel

[TheChildOfAtom]

My family is a part of boarding group B. We're numbers 50, 51, and 52. Tell me the truth how bad is it? We'll any of us be able to sit with one another or will we all be separated. We're flying on a Saturday morning if that makes any difference.

 

[katyringo]

Do you have a child 6 or under?

It depends really but that's toward the end of the groups and 3 seats together by then might be hard..

 

[kristensideaoffun]

My family is a part of boarding group B. We're numbers 50, 51, and 52. Tell me the truth how bad is it? We'll any of us be able to sit with one another or will we all be separated. We're flying on a Saturday morning if that makes any difference.

Do you have young children in your party? If so, you’ll be able to board between the A and B groups. If not, there are between 140 and 175 seats on the planes Southwest flies. You might be able to get seats together in the back.

 

[PlutoIsHere]

I always assume that if I'm in the back half of boarding group B it will be pretty iffy in whether or not our party can sit together. Plan on going straight to the back of the plan and grab the first row you see. The earlier boarding groups will take aisle and window seats but you may have luck towards the back of the plane depending on how many pre boarders there are. Into C it starts becoming very unlikely unless a kind soul is willing to move so that your family can sit together.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Unlikely that anything after B30 will get 3 seats together unless flight is not full.

You can add Early Bird Check In to at least your return flight if sitting together is a must.

 

[ColoradoLime]

If you can’t get seats together ask a flight attendant to make an announcement to see if anyone’s willing to move for a family to sit together. That happens all the time and people are usually pretty good about it.

 

[lalasmama]

I fly almost exclusively on SW. BG B means there will be anywhere from 82-ish to 111-ish people in front of you. (Each BG has 60-ish prople.) The variance is based on how many early bird and business class people are in A1-30. Sometimes it's just A1-15 for early bird and business class. I've had A28 before and had just a handful in front of me, and other times, A32 and every spot A1-30 was filled.

If you have a kid under the age of 6 or 7, they will generally have you board between BG A and B (so a max of 60-70 in front of you). Their standard rule is 6 years and under. I've had the airline staff tell me to come between BG A and B even when my daughter was turning 8. Both times we've taken our grandsons for their first trip at 7yo, we've been invited for family boarding as well (even being taken out of line when we were near the back of B-group).

 

[PirateBrigade]

That's pretty bad, but you might luck out with seats in the back, assuming you're not in family boarding.

 

[Didi8367]

We fly SW almost exclusively and that far back in B, I’d say it’s 50/50 as to whether you could get a full row of empty seats. That said, there’s a decent chance you could get 2 together on one side of the row and a single on the other side of the same row.

You might try booking early bird boarding for just one of the adults. Then that person could at least save a middle seat for the child (no one’s going to want the middle seat that early). It would only cost $25 extra each way to do that. That person would board first, then the other adult boards later with the child, drops the child off with the previously boarded adult, and looks for a single seat nearby. If the first person picks a row in the back, you might get lucky and end up together.

 

[amyg1975]

We fly SW almost exclusively and that far back in B, I’d say it’s 50/50 as to whether you could get a full row of empty seats. That said, there’s a decent chance you could get 2 together on one side of the row and a single on the other side of the same row.

You might try booking early bird boarding for just one of the adults. Then that person could at least save a middle seat for the child (no one’s going to want the middle seat that early). It would only cost $25 extra each way to do that. That person would board first, then the other adult boards later with the child, drops the child off with the previously boarded adult, and looks for a single seat nearby. If the first person picks a row in the back, you might get lucky and end up together.

We do this as well (Early Bird for one person). It helps!

 

[Didi8367]

We do this as well (Early Bird for one person). It helps!

It does. That’s how we do it in our family. We have two kids, so it works a little differently, but it’s still an effective strategy. We’ve never not been able to hold that middle seat until the B group comes in (no one’s ever even asked for it)—and we’ve done it hundreds of times at this point.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I fly almost exclusively on SW. BG B means there will be anywhere from 82-ish to 111-ish people in front of you. (Each BG has 60-ish prople.) The variance is based on how many early bird and business class people are in A1-30. Sometimes it's just A1-15 for early bird and business class. I've had A28 before and had just a handful in front of me, and other times, A32 and every spot A1-30 was filled.

If you have a kid under the age of 6 or 7, they will generally have you board between BG A and B (so a max of 60-70 in front of you). Their standard rule is 6 years and under. I've had the airline staff tell me to come between BG A and B even when my daughter was turning 8. Both times we've taken our grandsons for their first trip at 7yo, we've been invited for family boarding as well (even being taken out of line when we were near the back of B-group).

Business Select is A1-A15 and is NOT for Early Bird Check In (EBCI), Early Bird is AFTER A-Listers (A-list Preferred and A-list) and Anytime Fare EBCI is ahead of WGA EBCI. EBCI is assigned based on purchase date of EBCI.

So the number of people ahead is completely dependent on each and every flight and the combination of Business Select/Upgraded Boarding purchased, how many A-listers there are and how many EBCI there are IF you haven't purchased EBCI. Business Select does not always sell out (there's only 15 tickets sold) but people can pay at the gate for Upgraded Boarding which fills in the leftover slots of A1-A15.

To make it a bit easier to understand Business Select and A-listers are not eligible to purchase EBCI because they already get the perk of being assigned a Boarding Position 36 hours in advance.

ETA: and with SWA's introduction of WGA Plus they also adjusted Anytime fares where EBCI is included in the fare although I don't know when that adjustment officially starts.