Boarding with children

[mjmesanko]

My husband and I purchased our tickets several months ago for our vacation trip next week.  We also purchased earlybird for our flight.  Last week, our two grandsons (6 and 9) are going to go with us.  In case we get B or C boarding when we check them in, can they still board with us?  Since we paid for earlybird, we don't want to wait for the family boarding after the A group.  Will this be a problem? Thank you.

[franktravel]

"In order to maintain the integrity of the boarding process, we ask that earlier boarding positions board with the later positions. For example, if a passenger is assigned position A16 and wants to board with a passenger assigned position A45, the passenger holding the A16 boarding pass should board with the A45 passenger."

[TheMiddleSeat]

Additionally, the 9 year old is too old for family boarding which is for children ages 6 and under. I'd suggest you buy EarlyBird Check-in for the kids too, that will make things much simpler. Then, as franktravel said, you would all board at the highest number boarding position. 

[ksmith772]

But if she has a child thats 6 .. doesnt the family qualify for family boarding? Even if one of the kids are 9?

[TheMiddleSeat]

Good question. The way the policy is written it makes it sound like one adult could board during family boarding with the 6 year old, but because there's two adults the 9 year old and the other adult would board in their assigned boarding position. Here's the policy:

An adult traveling with a child six years old or younger may board during Family Boarding. 

In reality, yes, the whole family could probably get away with boarding during family boarding, but you're at the mercy of the gate agent. As the adults had already purchased EBCI, waiting for family boarding would probably be a downgrade (assuming they get A boarding positions with EBCI) so purchasing EBCI for the kids would probably result in a better boarding position and be more of a sure thing vs waiting to see how the gate agent interprets policy.