Loading Page...

How do I make sure no one sits next to me on Southwest?

Check in early. No seats are assigned on Southwest Airlines, but boarding positions are assigned at check-in. The earlier you check in, the better position you will secure for yourself. Check-In begins 24 hours prior to your departure time.



People Also Ask

Attempt to save the seat for someone else. Tell the other passengers that you have a travel companion with a later boarding position and you would like to save the seat for them. You can also say that your companion is in the bathroom, but will be returning to that seat.

MORE DETAILS

Southwest Family Boarding: How to sit together The best way to ensure you sit together and where you want, is to buy a Business Select fare, upgrade your boarding pass or have the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card or the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card.

MORE DETAILS

Table of contents
  1. Regularly Check the Seat map.
  2. Changing Seats in Flight.
  3. Make use of the Emergency Exit Rules.
  4. Ask the Gate Staff to Change Your Seat.
  5. Reserving Window and Aisle Seats.
  6. Sitting Further Back.
  7. Seat Blocking for Frequent Flyers.
  8. Most Important: Select Empty Flights.


MORE DETAILS

Do I have an assigned seat? Southwest-operated flights have open seating. Once onboard, simply choose any available seat and stow your carryon items in the overhead bin or under the seat in front of you.

MORE DETAILS

A seat selection fee allows you to reserve a seat in your class of service. Each airline ticket comes with a confirmed seat, but if you want to choose your seat location, most domestic airlines will charge an additional fee.

MORE DETAILS

After takeoff, passengers are free to move about the cabin without fear of disrupting critical weight distribution. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's OK to take over empty seats without warning.

MORE DETAILS

After takeoff, passengers are free to move about the cabin without fear of disrupting critical weight distribution. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's OK to take over empty seats without warning.

MORE DETAILS

If you're traveling with a group, the best way to avoid a seat selection fee is to book your seats at the same time. If the airline is assigning seats for you, it typically seats people under the same record locator number together.

MORE DETAILS

If you have a B group boarding position, the chances are good that you'll still be able to get a window or aisle seat or find 2 seats together if you're traveling with a companion. Hot Tip: If you are in the B group (or even one of the first numbers in the C group), head to the back of the plane.

MORE DETAILS

Re: Boarding together * Southwest boards in groups, A, B and C, 1-30 and 31-60 in each. Your best bet is to try and check in online right at 24 hours prior to departure. With A or B positions you should have no trouble sitting together, since one of you will be in a middle seat, and those are the last to fill.

MORE DETAILS

Up to two adults traveling with a child six years old or younger may board during Family Boarding, which occurs after the “A” group has boarded and before the “B” group begins boarding. There should be enough open seats to enable the child to sit next to at least one accompanying adult.

MORE DETAILS

A strategy that travelers have been trying for years to varying degrees of success is the middle seat trick — when checking in online, two people traveling together will each select the aisle and window seats in a three-seat row and hope that the middle seat remains open.

MORE DETAILS

Ask the gate agent for help.
If your flight isn't completely full, the gate agent may be able to make last-minute adjustments to the seating chart to allow you and your companion to sit next to one another.

MORE DETAILS

Speak with an agent If you don't heed our advice and find yourself at the airport with a less-than-desirable boarding group, Southwest advises that you speak with a gate agent or flight attendant. They will see if any passengers are willing to move to accommodate your family if you aren't able to get seats together.

MORE DETAILS

“A cardinal rule of seat swaps is that you should never take someone else's seat before they board,” the blog states. As for how requests to swap seats should be handled by travellers, both Gottsman and The Points Guy say that passengers should feel comfortable declining if they don't want to give up their seat.

MORE DETAILS

Originally Answered: Can you sit in first class if seats are empty and ask nicely? Short answer: no. The airlines don't want to encourage passengers to buy cheap seats and then pester the flight attendants for an upgrade. They want First Class seats going only to the people who pay full price for them.

MORE DETAILS

If the conditions are satisfied, airlines that assign seats and guarantee fee-free family seating will provide adjacent seat assignments to the adult traveling with a child age 13 or under no later than on the day before the flight.

MORE DETAILS

Unfortunately, if you've booked on a low-cost carrier, such as Spirit or Frontier, the only option to absolutely guarantee seats together will be to pay an extra fee, ranging anywhere from $1 to $50 per seat.

MORE DETAILS

Seat designation
On many aircraft, the rightmost seats have letter designations HJK, skipping the letter I. This is because each seat has a row number followed by letter; letters that may be confused with numbers (I, O, Q, S, or Z) must be avoided, usually for people with dyslexia.

MORE DETAILS

Best seat for peace and quiet: A seat near the front. Best seat for legroom: A bulkhead or exit-row seat. Best seat for sleeping: A window seat in a bulkhead row. Best seat for extra space without a seatmate: A seat towards the back.

MORE DETAILS

If you're heading off on holiday any time soon but get a crunchy feeling of dread in your stomach at the thought of flying, you might want to take note. A former EasyJet cabin crew member has revealed that the best place to sit if you're a nervous flyer is as close to the front of the plane as possible.

MORE DETAILS

However, statistically speaking, a seat close to an exit in the front or rear, or a middle seat in the back third of the plane offers the lowest fatality rate. That said, flying is still the safest form of transport.

MORE DETAILS