@dfwskier wrote:
@MG718 wrote:
Regarding carryover/continuing passengers from previous routes on direct flights... What is the most crowded situation you've ever seen? Are we talking like, half the plane is already full when you board?
This is a great discussion board, I appreciate everybody's knowledge and enthusiasm!
I imagine I'll probably be back again some time. Happy I was able to book with Southwest!
Mike
Mike, there is no rule of thumb answer to that question. It is dependent on departure city, destnation city, time of year, time of day etc, etc, etc. Given your situation, I think the answer is "not normally enough to impact you." given that there are 40 plus or minus windows seats on a plane and window seats fill up later than aisles and earlier than middle seats.
Your greater risk is getting a high B or C boarding position. Again, given your situation, I think you should go for pre boarding, but it's your choice.
I think you'll be fine, but if you decide to request pre-boarding once or twice this year as a fellow passenger I wouldn't feel put out at all.
One scenario for high through passengers is service to a regional airport. Southwest in prior years had run a sort of a "wheel" where flights went from HOU-PNS-BNA and a separate route was going BNA-PNS-HOU. There seemed to be a large number of people that needed to get between BNA and HOU and either a lack of direct flights or other connections so that the planes going in and out of PNS were always full, but only half to 2/3 were going to PNS.
There might also be flights going to LAS or MCO that originate at an airport with limited service and then stops in a larger hub like MDW or DEN and people stay on the plane.
One way to avoid these is that you can check the flight number in Google (or flight aware or other tracking sites) and tell that the flight number continues all day, or if it originates at your home airport.
Then, as a tie-breaker only because none of us think this is a big deal overall, you could prefer flight numbers that originate at your airport if the timing is comparable when choosing between a couple of options that work for you.
Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.
