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Southwest Airlines Community

Early Bird check in or family boarding?

Sherlocked221B
Explorer C

Hey everyone- before I begin, just wanted to say this community is amazing!!! I have already had many questions answered in my hours of membership, so thank you!!

 

Anyways, my family and I will be flying on Sunday, may 21 and returning may 27, a Saturday evening. I purchased the tickets together and they all have the same confirmation number. There will be my husband, uncle, 2 year old and 5 year old( very very active boys 😜). Obviously the children need to be with us but I want to make sure my uncle is atleast relatively close, as more help means more peace for other passengers! They are not bad kids by a long shot but have LOTS of energy(especially the 2 year old) so more distractions are a good thing! So now that I've given a long winded description, does anyone have opinions or experience as to whether I should spring for early bird or family boarding? Of course any suggestions regarding the distraction thing would be more than appreciated too!!! Luckily it is under 3 hours each way and the first flight is early so maybe they will sleep a bit- a gal can hope anyways! 

 

Thanks in advance!!

1 REPLY 1

Re: Early Bird check in or family boarding?

yurausa
Explorer C

Early Boarding can be pricey for the whole family, and if you buy just for one person they would not let you board with kids unless they are in the same boarding group. With that said, if you use Family boarding, you are very likely to still be able to get seats together as literally max of 60 people will be ahead of you. I tried both ways and unless you really want to be in the front of the aircraft Family boarding works great.

With respect to entertainment, Netflix downloads are great option, my 2 and 5 y.o. love it. Or Dramamine - usually make them very sleepy about 30 mins after takeoff.