Southwest Airlines Community

@Hdoyle wrote: I’m traveling solo with my 20 month old. Will a flight attendant help me insert the car seat? (Yes, he has his own seat) I only have so many hands and a very active toddler who doesn’t sit still. Just trying to figure out how to make it all work smoothly. Thanks!  Helping with the car seat is probably not allowed - a fellow passenger might be a better option for that if you make chit-chat with people in line with you and someone is comfortable to do it.   However the FA can probably try to entertain your kid for a minute while you get things put together - handling people is their domain.   Depending how active he is and if he's a little Houdini or not, I recommend the CARES harness if your little guy meets the size/weight requirements instead of a car seat on the airplane.         ... View more

  @DancingDavidE wrote: @Scrappinginont wrote: My understanding is that family boarding (between Groups A and B) is for 2 adult per 1 child age 6 and under.  Is this correct?   I've interpreted the policy which says "an adult traveling with..." to be an adult, and the other parent is also "an(other) adult".    But it does make sense that including the extended family at some point should be clarified so that people like yourself as you said can sit back and relax.   I'd certainly include additional young siblings for instance. Grandparents? Much more than that and then who is checking ID to verify all of these relatives...I think Southwest partly desired to keep the policy simple, and let the operations agents figure it out rather than having an overly prescriptive case that would cause too many problems.               And, for another opinion, I'd suggest that the ambiguity in the policy as written is exactly what leads to customer frustration.  😉   The policy pretty clearly specifics a single adult, but I often see complaints from passengers who are told only one adult may board with the child, likely because in general this is not enforced.   And extended family, to me, other than additional minor children, should not be allowed. (Even with the seat-saving caveat I mentioned earlier.)   I'd hate to see the agents' discretion further reduced, but that does seem like the direction things are headed at Southwest... so perhaps it would be prudent to dictate strict adherance to policy in this case as well.   Policy, for reference:   An adult traveling with a child six years old or younger may board duringFamily Boarding, which occurs after the “A” group has boarded and before the “B” group begins boarding. If the child and the adult are both holding an “A” boarding pass, they should board in their assigned boarding position     ... View more

@Scrappinginont wrote: You mention that you are a solo traveler.  I don't believe that airlines allow more than one car seat to a set of 3 seats.  At least, that was the case (for safety reasons) when my daughter was younger.  The car seat had to be placed in the window seat.   Personally, I chose to hold my daughter on my lap until she was 2 years old.  This worked well for us.   Once she was 2 I chose to bring her car seat on board for about 2 years.  After that I checked the car seat.  The reason this worked for us is that she was very comfortable in her car seat and travelled well in it.  She didn't feel the need to get up and down or squirm away as she was used to her car seat and played/slept comfortably in it.  One time when she was about 3 (we were travelling with a different airline that trip), we boarded at 10pm only 2 have a 2 hour delay on the tarmac as they fixed an issue with the plane.  As it was past her bedtime, once I installed her car seat and buckled her in she promptly fell asleep.  Our flight left at midnight and she slept the entire 5 hour flight too.   She woke up as we were taxing to our arrival gate and asked when we were going to fly. 🙂   For us, using her carseat on the plane for ages 2-4 really worked well. One of the references that I found said "not to block" anyone, so having two car seats would be allowable if they were the window and middle seat, but not in the aisle with an adult sitting between.   Or if you could show that the aisle car seat wasn't restrictive, maybe it would be allowed - I couldn't find anything from the FAA that was prescriptive like that, the wording was all in terms of performance.   I also recommend the CARES harness as an easily transported alternative to the car seat on the plane: https://www.southwestaircommunity.com/t5/Family-Travel/CARES-harnesses/td-p/75683     ... View more