Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Companions with Senior Traveler

frokey
Explorer C

Hey Everybody!

 

I'm getting married in April and need to fly my soon-to-be mother-in-law and two grandsons to my city for the wedding. She's 78 and needs assistance. It's also her first time flying. The grandsons are 19 and 22. My fiance is concerned about them being able to sit together for the flight and being able to board/deboard in time for the transfer. I called Southwest and they said that only one person is allowed to accompany the person who needs assistance.

 

My question is whether it's likely or not that they'll have any issues with sitting together. The cost difference between the other airlines and Southwest is pretty large, so I'm really trying to make this work and allay my fiance's fears about her mother not having a good experience. Thanks for any feedback or advice you can give!

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Companions with Senior Traveler

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A
Solution

There are many opinions regarding saving seats. My personal opinion is as long as you are only saving one or two seats in the back two thirds of the plane and not an emergency exit row you're ok to do it. I'd suggest whoever can preboard should, and then save seats for the others. Alternatively, the non-preboarders can purchase upgraded boarding after check-in, that puts them in A1-15 and greatly reduces the number of boarders between you all.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Companions with Senior Traveler

frokey
Explorer C

Thanks! I was thinking about buying an upgraded seat for one of the grandsons, but I didn't see any way of doing that on the site or in the app. 

 

So if I'm understanding you right, I could just get "Wanna Get Away" seats for all 3 of them since my mother-in-law and one of the grandsons would pre-board anyway, and then upgrade one of the grandsons to Business Select at check-in? 

Re: Companions with Senior Traveler

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

@frokey wrote:

So if I'm understanding you right, I could just get "Wanna Get Away" seats for all 3 of them since my mother-in-law and one of the grandsons would pre-board anyway, and then upgrade one of the grandsons to Business Select at check-in? 


That seems like a good plan. After you check-in you will be presented with the upgraded boarding offer, it should be around $40-$50 depending on the flight. It is also dependent space being available, which I have had no problems with, but there's no guarantee. It is per flight so if you have a non-stop then it's great, can be a little pricey if you have connections.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Companions with Senior Traveler

frokey
Explorer C

Thanks! This helps out so much. There is a transfer in ATL, so it would be maybe an extra $80-$100, but I'd still be saving at least $300-$400 overall, so I'd say it would be worth it.