During Southwest Airlines Check-In, you can select whether you want to receive the boarding pass via email, text message or view it on the browser.
You also get access to Mobile Boarding Pass, which is an electronic document that lets you pass through security and board the plane. Then fill in the information and retrieve your Southwest Reservations. Depending on the option you choose, you can check in anytime starting 24 hours (Online or Mobile. On the website open the main menu and click on ‘check-in’. When must I check in when traveling with Southwest Airlines. You can check-in online merely by visiting the official website or simply downloading the official app. Also, people with disabilities are provided with unique seating.
The entire family is allowed to board and sit together. Moreover, for families who travel with children aged six years and younger can board between A and B zones. Regular Southwest customers can earn Southwest A-list or A-list preferred elite status after several Southwest points. Same goes for Elite Status as you are automatically checked-in 36 hours before the scheduled departure time. Southwest Airlines’ size requirements for a carry-on are a little larger than most domestic airlines at 24 x 16 x 10. With the help of this, you are automatically checked-in 36 hours before the flight departure time. Customers with eligible reservations may check in online at or using the Southwest app available here. , you are guaranteed to be in the A1 to 15 boarding zone because of the priority boarding.Īnother way to check-in first is to buy ‘Early Bird check-in’. Secondly, Southwest Airlines Check-In and boarding depends upon the type of your ticket. So, if you check-in at the last minute, you can be the last person on the plane or you may have to pick a random seat with strangers and not with your companions. However, Early Bird Check-In doesn’t jump ahead of the 15 priority boarding spots reserved people who buy Business Select tickets (meaning the A 1-15 spots).Firstly, as guests can check-in up to 24 hours before the departure time, you receive your seat in order of the check-in. It’ll guarantee that you’re among the first to board if you pay between $15 and $25 per flight (meaning you pay twice for a round-trip booking). Frequent flyers with A-List status and passengers who purchased EarlyBird Check-In are automatically assigned a boarding position 36 hours before departure so there's no need for them to worry about. Southwest does have a program called Early Bird Check-in that gets around the whole issue of setting an alarm to check into your flight the second opens - to a point. Unless you purchased EarlyBird Check-In you will want to check-in as close to 24 hours prior to departure as possible. There are also Southwest A-List and A-List Preferred flyers who get their boarding number before the rest of the passengers can check in. If there are any passengers on flights that don’t require a plane change, they will already have their seat as well (Southwest doesn’t kick them out after they spend the first leg of a trip in a certain spot, after all). Southwest credit cards come with four upgraded boardings per year, so your position may depend on who is using their perks on your flight regardless of how early you check in.
Keyes notes that even waiting five to 10 minutes after check-in opens could mean getting bumped to the B or C seating groups (which means a lower likelihood of sitting with your group or getting an aisle or window seat). Like other airlines, check-in starts 24 hours before the flight for Southwest. Scott Keyes, founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, told Travel + Leisure that Southwest is one of the few airlines where it actually matters how early you check in because seats are first-come, first-serve based on check-in time. The better your boarding group, the better chance a passenger has of finding overhead bin space and snagging an aisle or window seat. Those boarding groups are, for the most part, assigned based on when passengers check in. Passengers get boarding groups (either A, B, or C with a subsequent number from 1-60 of where in that boarding group they stand) instead of assigned seats. There is one simple reason: Checking in as early as possible leads to a better boarding group.įor the unfamiliar, Southwest uses a different boarding process than other major airlines.