My family regularly flies on Southwest Airlines. Southwest has a hub in Dallas, and often we get great prices. I love that there are no baggage fees and that we can get a points refund if the price of our flight goes down.
I understand that some families avoid Southwest because of the open seating policy. It can be stressful not having assigned seats and not knowing where your seats will be. However, my family has never had an issue finding seats together on Southwest Airlines. In fact, I’ve had more issues with seats being reassigned apart on American Airlines!
Why My Family Has Never Used EarlyBird Check-In
My family has never purchased EarlyBird Check-In before because we’ve never had a problem getting seats together. My husband and I set an alarm on our phone for 24 hours prior to the flight to check in. Usually, when we’ve checked in at this time, we’ve received boarding numbers in the late A group or early to mid B group. Even when we’ve boarded in the middle B numbers, we’ve had no issues finding seats together.
But for most of our previous flights on Southwest, we’ve used family boarding. Families with children ages 6 and under can board together between the A and B groups. We have never been separated when we boarded with the family boarding group. We usually head to the back of the plane and find a few empty rows of seats.
Confession: We’ve even used family boarding when my daughter was 7. Yes, technically that is breaking the rules. However, a Southwest phone rep encouraged me to use family boarding if we needed it. She said that gate agents will not ask for proof of age.
So Why Buy EarlyBird Check-In now?
All of the stars aligned for our next trip to make it unlikely we will get seats together using our tried and true methods above.
In a few weeks, we are going on a Disney Cruise. We won’t be buying an internet package on the ship, and in fact we enjoy disconnecting on a cruise vacation. So, we can’t check in 24 hours ahead of our flights. By the time we get back in port and have phone service to check in for our flight home just a few hours in advance, I’m positive that we will be at the very end of the boarding queue.
In addition, my daughter is 8 years old now, and we are flying from the Orlando airport. Those flights tend to have a lot of children. Since my daughter is now two years older than the age for family boarding and there will be so many children, I imagine that Southwest will be a little stricter about who can use family boarding on this flight.
So, we decided to splurge on EarlyBird Check-in for just this flight. The cost now varies from flight to flight, but adding it to our flight costs $20 per person or $100 total.
Is paying $100 worth it to sit together on a 2 ½ hour flight? I’m not sure. My family does like to share things, like electronics and toys, on a flight. Sitting together will make that much easier. My daughter still wants me to accompany her to the restroom, and that would be difficult to arrange if we sat apart.
I also like sitting on the aisle, which is difficult to do when you’re last in line. So, spending the $100 ensures us a more comfortable flight home to what was hopefully a relaxing vacation.
Will We Buy EarlyBird Check-In For Future Flights?
No, I don’t plan to buy it. If we purchased EarlyBird Check-In for round-trip flights in the future, we could spend an additional $200+. Plus, as my kids get older, sitting apart will become easier.
In most cases, if we stick to our method of checking in 24 hours in advance, we will still get reasonable boarding numbers. I plan to only splurge on EarlyBird Check-In for cases where we can’t check in at the 24-hour mark.
Do you buy EarlyBird Check-In all of the time, some of the time, or never? Why or why not?
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Your logic sounds reasonable to me! I would be tempted to pay that $100 just to save the potential aggravation.
@Leana Yeah, I just really want to make this trip as easy and stress-free as possible.
Please report back on your boarding position! So far, we’ve been fine with family boarding and when we check in at the 24h mark, it still isn’t better than early B group. But yeah, if not checking in at 24h, we’d be in mid C group.
I think the Early Bird check-in can work, but it can also be sort of a scam. Every person in theory on that flight could purchase it, and if that were the case, some people would be among the last to board anyway.
I’ve thought about purchasing upgraded boarding positions at the gate, but that’s pricier and not even guaranteed to exist for that flight.
@Kacie You’re right, if everyone purchases the EarlyBird Check-In it’s kind of useless! I’m hoping that since we purchased it a few months in advance we will still get at least mid-B boarding numbers. I’ll report back in January!