Check-in on Southwest when travelling with children

I am flying on southwest for the first time this summer since having kids. I have a 7 year old and 2 3 year olds. Do you think we need to do the earlybird check-in? Obviously the cost adds up when multiplied by 5 people so I want to be sure it is needed. Thanks! Laura

 

Do they charge for that now? That's lousy. The last time I flew was 2010 and they let anyone with small kids do it automatically. I was flying with a 10 month old.

 

I flew with Southwest several times recently. If ask before boarding starts, they will let families with small children board between the A & B groups. And there's no extra fee or anything. We always end up in the B section no matter how fast we check in, lol. So we found it very helpful.

Good luck!

 

I have flown southwest a lot, if you think you can check in exactly 24 hours before you flight, i would not worry about early bird check in. If you don;t get an A you can board between the a and b's. We have never had a hard time finding 4 seats near one another, I don't thing 5 will be a problem.

 

I just called yesterday and they responded by saying just what Gina said.

 

I never worried about early bird check-in until my kids turned 5 and we stopped being eligible for family boarding. I did pay for it the last time I flew with the kids, because I was on my own and didn't want to risk having to ask other people to move so we could all sit together. If DH were with us I wouldn't bother, because I'd figure at least we could sit two and two.