Thanks for everyone’s feedback! Turns out the proper window seat was on the right side of the plane.
After this experience, I would honestly not recommend doing this due to too many favors in play. I booked my flight last year with Early Checkin and knew things were off to a rocky start when the system auto checked me in and I got B15. I’ve never seen so many pre-boarders and knowing Southwest, like all airlines, they’re not going to probe for legal reasons why you need to pre-board to people were requesting that left and right. I did not request a pre board and by the time I boarded, there was literally nobody left to board. Couple the pre-boarders with the media there, there were literally 30 people who boarded before they even started calling the A groups.
The staff at AUS were friendly and nice. They decorated the gate with some eclipse/stars and everyone got a snack bag with a luggage tag, eclipse glasses, starbursts, chocolate moon rice crispy treat, and a code to pay for an upgrade at Omni hotels to upgrade to their top tier loyalty program. We also got a choice of one of 3 speciality cocktails for free which was served on a branded napkin.
On arrival at Indy, there was a balloon arch to welcome us with a table setup by the airport for popcorn, stickers, and an airplane stress ball.
Seeing the eclipse through airplane windows is a gamble depending on how clean the window is and the position of the plane. I did not get a window seat and opted for an aisle. The pilot was nice and let everyone know when we were close to totality over Dallas and did an angled maneuver to tip the plane to one side for a better view. There was literally nothing on the left side unless you did a Timelapse of the sky changing colors. The best way to see it was lying down on the seats. Most everyone was friendly and left those on the left use their seats to see outside the window. The plane did not go out full.
If I were to do this again, I would opt for another airline with a guaranteed window seat and do my homework for where to look out the window. I would actually recommend not flying through the path of totality and instead taking a flight that flies parallel to the path of totality but at least a few states away that way the sun is not over the plane and you can see the sun and ground out the window at the same time.
Here are some pics that everyone airdropped during the flight.
For comparison, here was Delta’s gate:
