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People already on board?

Loquat
Explorer C

Hi all.  Sorry for what I’m sure is a newb question.  First time flying Southwest today and when I boarded the flight, there were already a good number of folks on board.  

Didn’t realize that airlines did connecting with no plane change as I’m usually on American or Delta.  

Question, is there a way to tell prior to purchasing my ticket if the flight will already have folks on board? 

Thanks

7 REPLIES 7

Re: People already on board?

floridaguy
Aviator C

What was your boarding position?

Re: People already on board?

Loquat
Explorer C

My boarding position was C.  But these folks look like they were on the plane when it landed.  Like it was a connection for them where they didn't get off.  I've never boarded a plane where folks were already on board from a previous flight. 

Re: People already on board?

Loquat
Explorer C

From what I'm reading online, the people on the plane already must have been on a one-stop/no plane change.  So I guess my question is now, how can I identify a flight where the plane will already have folks on board that are part of the non-stop/no plane change?

Re: People already on board?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@Loquat wrote:

From what I'm reading online, the people on the plane already must have been on a one-stop/no plane change.  So I guess my question is now, how can I identify a flight where the plane will already have folks on board that are part of the non-stop/no plane change?


Flight aware is great. 

 

You can also Google search the airline and flight number and it will show all of the legs, if your city is in the middle then yes I would expect some through passengers. (Many times it may not be many, sometimes if it is a nice flow across the country without backtracking it could be 20-30.

 

I put one in at random and based on this it would be possible for through passengers, but might be unlikely for many AUS - IND passengers to connect through Panama City. Certainly there won't be many DEN - IND through passengers as there would be many better options direct or through MDW/STL/BNA saving a stop and reducing the backtrack.

 

DancingDavidE_0-1686242998859.png

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: People already on board?

bec102896
Aviator A

@DancingDavidE  

You making a trip to AUS 😂 

Re: People already on board?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@bec102896 wrote:

@DancingDavidE  

You making a trip to AUS 😂 


No, it’s the random one that came up searching WN 2345! 😂

 

But yes, a work possibility in September.

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: People already on board?

dfwskier
Aviator A
Solution

You can use flightaware.com. It'll tell you the flight path for a given flight number for a given day.

 

Here's SW 1229. For tomorrow it starts out in Orlando, flies to Chicago O"Hare, and continues on to Dallas. If the flight number has multiple stops, then there is always the possibility there may be continuing passengers on board. In this case it is unlikely there will be many passengers that fly to Chicago only to continue on to Dallas - but there could be some. I am unaware of a way to determine if there will actually be any continuing passengers on any flight.

 

If the flight number starts at your city, then there cannot be any continuing passengers.

 

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA1229