Post all SW questions concerns, etc. here...

[ultimatefans]

Thanks for your reply. Would the taxes and fees be turned into travel funds upon cancellation or would they be refunded to the credit card?

If booking a WGA or WGA+ fare they will turn into a travel fund. If booking an Anytime fare I'm pretty sure they would be refunded.

 

[Wood Nymph]

My biggest gripe with SWA boarding procedures is the growing amount of perfectly healthy-looking people who get early boarding passes. I've seen whole families ranging in age from senior citizen to young child that had early boarding passes. I've seen them limit the wheelchair passenger to having only one person boarding with them. But then you see the agent totally aggravated that they can't do anything about all the other pre-boards that look suspicious.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

My biggest gripe with SWA boarding procedures is the growing amount of perfectly healthy-looking people who get early boarding passes. I've seen whole families ranging in age from senior citizen to young child that had early boarding passes. I've seen them limit the wheelchair passenger to having only one person boarding with them. But then you see the agent totally aggravated that they can't do anything about all the other pre-boards that look suspicious.

we were one of those family groups with all having preboards but in our case what would you do differently? group was myself, adult daughter who needed the preboard and her 3 sons ages 7, 6 and 4. I was to preboard with daughter so what would have us done with the 3 boys if only been the 2 of us preboarding

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

we were one of those family groups with all having preboards but in our case what would you do differently? group was myself, adult daughter who needed the preboard and her 3 sons ages 7, 6 and 4. I was to preboard with daughter so what would have us done with the 3 boys if only been the 2 of us preboarding

I'd say in your case it would be separated into "needed assistance" vs didn't.

If your daughter needed physical assistance to pre-board with that situation I can understand the flight attendant making that determination with the ages of the children to allow all to Board. If your daughter didn't need physical assistance than you could have stayed back and Boarding with the children in their Boarding positions.

SWA separates out those who need additional time vs those who need specific seating or assistance. Those who just need more time board before Family Boarding but after A, those who need specific seating or assistance pre-board.

In practice I'm pretty sure most just use pre-board.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My biggest gripe with SWA boarding procedures is the growing amount of perfectly healthy-looking people who get early boarding passes. I've seen whole families ranging in age from senior citizen to young child that had early boarding passes. I've seen them limit the wheelchair passenger to having only one person boarding with them. But then you see the agent totally aggravated that they can't do anything about all the other pre-boards that look suspicious.

It's really hard TBH, everyone does need to understand healthy looking means nadda, it just doesn't and we can't judge someone like that. However it can be frustrating when you suspect that odds are after so many times of seeing it there's some abusing it.

When we flew to Puerto Rico from Orlando in late January this was the scene greeting us:


Because there were so many when it was time to board they said if you can physically walk please do so, they also had said just the 1 person to help. 80% of those in wheelchairs got up and walked on their own. In this case it was just older people but not necessarily elderly. We had A19 which should have been good but was not. In the end we were able to easily get an exit row but only because almost all the plane didn't speak English and were unable to sit there. We joked with the FA about the amount of pre-boards and he joked back "oh you must not have done a Puerto Rico route before, unusual would be only 2 pre-boards"

On the way from Puerto Rico to Orlando it was the same situation, tons of pre-boards specifically in wheelchairs, tons that walked on their own, and majority not speaking English so exit row was still fine.

The issue I actually had was all these passengers who pre-boarded medically got off the plane like normal but they severely impacted the time it took to get off. It was 20mins for one of the flights from the exit row to get off the plane. And SWA (or any airline) should not let that happen.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

I'd say in your case it would be separated into "needed assistance" vs didn't.

If your daughter needed physical assistance to pre-board with that situation I can understand the flight attendant making that determination with the ages of the children to allow all to Board. If your daughter didn't need physical assistance than you could have stayed back and Boarding with the children in their Boarding positions.

SWA separates out those who need additional time vs those who need specific seating or assistance. Those who just need more time board before Family Boarding but after A, those who need specific seating or assistance pre-board.

In practice I'm pretty sure most just use pre-board.

daughter was the one who needed the assistance and would have left the boys to board themselves. I have heard so many say preboard should only be one needing help and person helping but then you have our group. and yes we were all preboarded together. I was just responding to OP post about why a group could all be preboarded together

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

daughter was the one who needed the assistance and would have left the boys to board themselves. I have heard so many say preboard should only be one needing help and person helping but then you have our group. and yes we were all preboarded together. I was just responding to OP post about why a group could all be preboarded together

No I get it. What I was saying is if your daughter didn't need physical assistance you could have boarded with the children in their own boarding positions leaving your daughter to pre-board. If your daughter needed physical assistance I understand why the gate agent would just let everyone board together more so with the ages of the children.

Not every person who pre-boards needs assistance and not every particular issue a person has means they qualify for pre-board. SWA has where customers who just need additional time board after A's but before Family Boarding as an option as well.

I'm not disputing your situation, just giving more of an expanded viewpoint as there isn't just one way that could be handled at the gate.

 

[CarlyMur09]

my family’s a bit of a mixed bag… two of us are a mix of deaf/special needs and another needs the time to get settled since he needs a extra seat, plus he’s still recovering from a broken femur last year, so having the preboard helps all of us, since the boarding process can be really chaotic, especially for the deaf ones.

 

[mrsstats79]

I still don't understand why you don't have to prove your handicap issue. You can't get a handicap parking permit without proof. Why can't it be the same way for the airlines.

 

[LadybugsMum]

I still don't understand why you don't have to prove your handicap issue. You can't get a handicap parking permit without proof. Why can't it be the same way for the airlines.

Not all disabilities are physical (or visible) and require a handicap parking permit.

 

[beldred]

My biggest gripe with SWA boarding procedures is the growing amount of perfectly healthy-looking people who get early boarding passes. I've seen whole families ranging in age from senior citizen to young child that had early boarding passes. I've seen them limit the wheelchair passenger to having only one person boarding with them. But then you see the agent totally aggravated that they can't do anything about all the other pre-boards that look suspicious.

You CAN NOT judge someone's medical situation by looking at them. I wish this had the same stigma as judging people by their skin color. It's wrong, and people need to stop doing it.
I have a non-visible medical problem. I get dirty looks when I line up with my husband (1 person) for XT boarding (this is between A & B usually, rarely they call it with pre-boards). I get dirty looks when I need a mobility device at the parks because I look perfectly healthy. People like me should not have to choose between staying home or dirty looks and snarky comments.

 

[EACarlson]

I still don't understand why you don't have to prove your handicap issue. You can't get a handicap parking permit without proof. Why can't it be the same way for the airlines.

Because it's illegal. Look at how much trouble it was to get rid of the "Emotional Support Animals." I also don't trust airlines with making medical decisions. There are absolutely people that game the system, just like there are people that take advantage of family boarding. But the outrage would be massive if SW tightened down on those things. Not something SW is willing to do, especially now with the fiasco over Christmas.

 

[Wood Nymph]

What do the other major airlines do about people who need extra assistance or extra time with boarding? We have only been flying with SWA since 2008 and haven't had experience with other airlines.

 

[EACarlson]

What do the other major airlines do about people who need extra assistance or extra time with boarding? We have only been flying with SWA since 2008 and haven't had experience with other airlines.

They have an announcement, PreBoards are PreBoards, extra time or assistance are usually after First Class and top tier status. This is really only an issue for SW because of the seating policy that incentivizes gaming the system to get on board earlier. There are many people that will claim they need assistance or a wheelchair just to get that seat in the first few rows.

 

[LadybugsMum]

What do the other major airlines do about people who need extra assistance or extra time with boarding? We have only been flying with SWA since 2008 and haven't had experience with other airlines.

Delta and JetBlue both have preboarding. I haven't flown any other airlines in the last 10+ years.

 

[Dakota731]

Wouldn’t it be easier if SW just had people choose seats when purchasing tickets? Then you wouldn’t have this scramble every time upon boarding?

 

[JC1984]

Wouldn’t it be easier if SW just had people choose seats when purchasing tickets? Then you wouldn’t have this scramble every time upon boarding?

That’s how they sell more seats. People like to think I they have a chance of getting a great seat without paying an up charge like on most airlines. It really is a clever marketing strategy and clearly works.

 

[EACarlson]

Wouldn’t it be easier if SW just had people choose seats when purchasing tickets? Then you wouldn’t have this scramble every time upon boarding?

Boarding time, IT limitations and plane turnaround were the historical reasons, now it's what they are known for.
When SW started out in Texas, being able to get everyone on the plane faster meant the plane could do an extra trip each day. May still be the case sometimes but not like it used to be. It wasn't all that long ago you were given a card with your boarding position on it that you handed in when you stepped on the plane.
SW regularly boards 30 minutes before scheduled departure and is not usually too far off from that, compare that to any of the legacies that regularly start boarding 40-50 minutes prior to departure with about the same success rate. SW loads a 180 seat plane in the same amount of time it takes Delta to load a 70 seat plane.

 

[mmouse50]

I have a different problem with Southwest - it is the Early Bird that I have paid for but for some reason I get a B boarding number. Now I have paid for a spot that is essentially after all the "Family" (meaning Mom/Dad, brother, sister, grandma, grandpa and aunts) because they have 1 small child but think that the rest of the family can board at the same time. I wish that Southwest would only allow 1 adult with the small child(ren) pre-board and the rest of the "family" board at in their personal boarding spot.

 

[jo-jo]

I have a different problem with Southwest - it is the Early Bird that I have paid for but for some reason I get a B boarding number. Now I have paid for a spot that is essentially after all the "Family" (meaning Mom/Dad, brother, sister, grandma, grandpa and aunts) because they have 1 small child but think that the rest of the family can board at the same time. I wish that Southwest would only allow 1 adult with the small child(ren) pre-board and the rest of the "family" board at in their personal boarding spot.

I agree. Family boarding should be after who bought EB gets seated. I’m way pass needing family boarding, but I thought they had cut down on the 12 count families with one child.