Southwest Airlines ditches family pre-boarding

I can't believe that! What about wheelchairs and other handicapped people? I fly constantly and usually alone with my daughter. It is difficult enough even if I don't have board with everyone else. I always fly with Southwest, but now I might change that.Thanks for letting everyone know. I am flying back from Europe. We will have to take Southwest for the last little bit in the US.

Reply

The problem with SW's new policy is parents traveling with a lap child (which we are allowed to do until the child turns 2) may NOT check in on-line 24 hours before their departure. We can only check-in in person. As a result, there is no way a parent may obtain an A boarding pass (unless the plane is pretty empty). I don’t understand why 60 passengers now get priority over parents who are traveling with infants.

My son is 20 months old. Since he was born, I have taken 7 roundtips on SW (plus 1 on AA), so I feel pretty comfortable commenting on why this change in policy is not a good idea.

It really does take an extra few minutes to get the child, an infant carrier or car seat if necessary, and a bag or two situated. If other passengers are standing in the aisle behind me while I’m doing this, everyone including the flight attendants will get very frustrated quickly and the child is more likely to act out in response to this stress. It will also take more time to board the plane, something that SW tries hard to avoid.

SW recently touted itself as a “Family Airline” during the Kayla Ebbert incident. I am very surprised they would be so stupid to make such an anti-family change this week.

Reply

I have only flown SouthWest a few times. It was my choice of Airlines because of the family policy for boarding. This was a big help to me because was able to make sure that my grandson and I had a seat together and we didn't have to stand in a large crowd of people with carry on luggage trying to keep him by my side at the same time. He was 3 and then again traveled with me at the age of 6. You know how hard it is to keep a young child by your side in a crowd of people. Some people do not respect others no matter what, especially children in a crowd. They shove and ignore everyone else which is true but sad in this society. Ater hear of this, I will no longer travel Southwest Airlines. I hope others with family chose to ditch Southwest because of this change!

Reply

I've only been on a commercial flight four times with my daughter (that's two round trips). the first time was wonderful the return flight not so wonderful but hardly bad. the second trip was the most horrific trip that I almost cancelled at the boarding gate! due to an ignorant mix up with stupid dumb hateful travelocity (those poopie heads!) I had to travel SIX MONTHS PREGNANT ALONE WITH MY 16month old daughter in my humongous lap! I was bumped from my flight WHICH HAD NOT EVEN BOARDED THE DAMN PLANE YET because I didn't get checked in in time! (i'm stewing now just thinking about it) but my luggage got to go 2 1/2 hours ahead of me! THEN my flight home was delayed for four hours!
I hate that they make families board the plane first! I think it is completely dumb and just asking for trouble. why should you have to be the first one on the crowded plane and be forced to sit there for a good thirty minutes while everyone boards and then of course you have to sit on the taxiway for a while waiting for your plane's turn to take off and the whole time you have to make your toddler sit in your lap perfectly still, lest you should make the childless bastards around you angry! I think families with small babies or toddlers should be allowed to board last! I hate flying commercial! but I'm spoiled because my dad is a pilot and he usually flies us everywhere.

Reply

Amanda- As far as I know, at least with Southwest, the family preboarding option is voluntary. You can board last but I prefer to board before the masses so that I can get a seat where it is convienent for my little one and I. This is especially important because Southwest doesn't assign seats; it would really suck to end up haiving to sit apart from Hubby (and his extra set of hands) because we had to board after everyone else....

Reply

I usually fly United or Northwest, and their family preboarding policy depends on what airport you're at. With family preboarding, I can set my carseat up, get my carry-on stowed, and have my son seated in about 4 minutes and be out of everyone's way. Without it, it takes closer to 10-15 minutes, because more often than not, I get stuck next to a militant cf person who'd rather bitch for 10 minutes than step aside for 2.

Everyone thinks I'm nuts for driving half way across the country, but it is much less of a headache than dealing with the airlines and it only takes about 6 hours longer.

Reply

on our last 2 trips (aug/sept) via united we noticed they had eliminated families with small children as part of their pre-boarding. so be warned it is not only southwest, but maybe with any luck if you fly another airlines you may get a nice gate agent.

Reply

I usually fly Southwest unless I find a better deal somewhere else. They have always been pretty family friendly in my opinion. They don't have changing tables in the bathrooms, but I don't think many airlines do. After this though, I probably will try to avoid them.

A year ago I traveled Delta and was surprised that they had dropped their family preboarding. I was turned off from Delta because I thought it was a very un-family friendly move and figured it set a precedent about how they would treat families.

I have also recently flown a couple times with Alaska Airlines by myself with a toddler and they were very helpful and friendly. Even though I had missed the preboarding call because I was changing a diaper in the bathroom, they made a point to come up to me and see if I wanted to board early and they also found a way to change some seats around so I could have an extra one next to me for my daughter.

I reason that little kids, especially babies and toddlers can't carry or put away their bags, some can't even walk and none of them can fully take care of themselves. No they are not disabled, but they are as much as a disadvantage for trying to board as those who are. If I was caring for my elderly grandmother who couldn't take care of herself, I would be able to board early, so why not if I am taking care of a young daughter who also can't take care of herself?

Reply

If you want to contact Southwest and let them know your opinion on the matter call their customer service relations line at 214-792-4223.
Or you can write them at:
Southwest Airlines
P.O. Box 36647 - 1CR
Dallas, Texas 75235-1647

Reply

We have had a few flights on other airlines that cut family/kids early boarding or give you a whole 1 min head start which is pointless...Yes, its a pain but at least you have assigned seats. The issue with SW is you dont have assigned seats. As a Mom to soon to be 3 kids I cant risk not having seats next to each other or being seperated from my husband. People arent exactly child friendly these days and getting someone to move so you can sit next to your 3 yr old can be a pain....sadly I know from experience when a different airline messed our seats up and left it up to me to figure it out. Ill be sticking to an airline that will at least let me choose our seats.

Reply

I don't fly Southwest, but I always board at the last possible minute with my toddler when I fly. Of course, I can do this because I send my husband on with all of the baby stuff, he gets it all stowed away (because we all know how easy it is to find room in the overhead bin!), and then I come in at the last minute with the baby.
If I did fly Southwest, without assigned seating....oh yeah, you betcha I'd be upset at this.

Reply

This does affect our decision to fly Southwest as a family. When flying alone, I generally avoid SWA. I'd rather have a seat, thank you. But family pre-boarding is vital for lugging kids and kid-related items. It is that attractive of a perk, and that's a perk that most airlines don't offer. And thus -- and up until now -- we flew SWA exclusively for family travel.

SWA must have no idea how much longer overall boarding will take if families are boarding with the masses.

Reply

That is horrible news! I recently traveled on SWA with a 3 yo and 20 mo. old by myself to visit my parents in San Antonio. I can't drive by myself with the two of them in the car for 4 hours, so I've opted to fly, but that is definitely not without it's own challenges, especially by yourself. Just getting the double stroller through security has been awful. Now it's going to be even harder getting on the plane without pre-boarding. I am really upset about hearing this news, and as a long term SWA customer who lives in Texas, I am definitely going to write them to let them know that this is a BAD DECISION and that I am quite unhappy!

Reply

I usually fly Delta. I've never actually flown SW before- now that I have my daughter I doubt I will, and really only for the fact that they DON'T have assigned seats
Delta lets you board first but I never do. I don't prefer sitting an extra 1/2 hour on the plane with my toddler on my lap. Also the bathrooms on the Delta flights DO have a changing table. (probably not the "connections" flights though, like SkyWest, etc. since they are much smaller airplanes.)
Anyway. Since there are generally several options for flights and often SW isn't even the cheapest, just pick another airline if their new policy doesn't suit you.
I try to rack up and save and then redeem skymiles as much as possible:)

Reply

This is GREAT news. FINALLY , breeders with a sense of entitlement are told the SHUT UP AND LIVE WITH IT!

You should be on greyhound anyway.

Reply

This is the worst bit of news I've received in a quite a while. I can't believe they would actually change their policy -- I fly SW a lot and there is never more than a handful of families pre-boarding. What's the big deal? Now we'll have to wait in line to board, then to get on the plane -- with wiggly little monsters in our arms and loads of other gear. This makes no sense at all.

Reply

The policy won't survive.
Those people who constantly complain about children on planes will be incensed when families board with them and take 'too long' to get their children settled into a seat.

Reply

Well,
Finally someone remembers that other people also need space in the overhead bins and have needs too.
It's about time everyone, from the elderly person with personal aids, to business travelers with suit bags should have a fair shot at seats and bins near the. Surprise parents, other people also have requirements and inconveniences. You aren't the most important people in the world. Fairness finally rules.

Reply

Great move Southwest! Now you have to get rid of "lap babies" AKA flying projectiles. It's a shame that the safety of paying customers has to be compromised by people to cheap to buy a ticket for "the most precious thing in the world".

Reply

It's not as bad as it sounds, I don't think. I would still fly SWA with my family. When I called to ask about the policy, she said people flying with lap babies will still be allowed to pre-board (so that eliminates the concern about getting on the plane last because of on-site checkin and not getting seats together). People travelling with small children (under 4 years) would board between A and B boarding groups, which still leaves plenty of seats together.

I'm not exactly sure why the change, since I don't understand how it will speed up boarding to have people with car seats etc going down the jetway with the other boarding groups, but families won't be forced to board last as we are sometimes with Northwest. The agent I spoke to also said if you ask to pre-board because you need extra time, they'd let you. So one parent alone with children could still pre-board if s/he asked to.

Reply