Help! I’m flying Southwest for the first time

asthejoeflies

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A lot of ink has been spilled about how Southwest Airlines is the best airline for families. And even though this purportedly is a family blog, I’ve never flown Southwest before
I know, Southwest is great because you can save money with price drops and bags fly free yada yada yada, but I’ve never had the opportunity.

Well, that all ends this weekend, as I need to be in St. Louis for a wedding for a very short amount of time. I wanted to minimize time away from my family which meant I needed a nonstop flight, and apparently Southwest is my only option. (Luckily, I was able to pay with US Bank Flexperks).



Anyway, for some reason, I find myself actually preparing for this Southwest trip in a way that I don’t for any other airline. In my mind, I envision a mad rush to secure my boarding group number and then a gate lice situation. Then, when I’m on the plane, who knows what’s going to happen as I board and push past old ladies to get my preferred seat.

I enlisted the advice of my two most trusted Southwest flyers, Leslie from Trips with Tykes and Sam from Milenomics to get some advice about what to do.

Leslie gave me some advice on getting the best boarding group number. She told me to have my browser open and that a “check in” button will be open before I can actually check in. The goal is to click on that button as close to 24 hours in advance of my flight time as possible. Leslie says, “as soon as your phone clock ticks to the time, click on the check in button.” So I plan to do just that.

Sam had great advice like this:


Considering making shirts for @SouthwestAir fanatics. Something like "My ticket might say C21, but my baby has B1 written all over him"

— Milenomics (@Milenomics) June 6, 2018


Silliness aside, he did talk to me about how Southwest doesn’t oversell and that I could see how full the plane is by searching for eight seats on my flight. He also prefers to be a low C than a late B to avoid the gate lice problem. But his best advice was that since bags fly free, I shouldn’t be fighting for overhead space. So that won’t be an issue.

I’ll be landing AFTER the 24 hour window for my return flight, so Leslie and Sam both told me to download the Southwest app so I could check in to my return flight for free from the plane.

Anyway, this post is mildly tongue in cheek, but I’d also love to hear people’s tips and tricks for flying Southwest. What do I need to know before I fly in a couple days? Leave me ideas in the comments or tweet me @asthejoeflies. I know that flying Southwest probably is just like flying any other airline, but Sam DID say I should live blog this so…maybe not? Guess I’ll find out soon!

But please, do leave me some advice, would be much appreciated. Thanks!

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