Great question! Southwest typically begins boarding their aircraft 30 mins before the scheduled departure time. For example, if your departure time is at 10:00AM, you want to make sure you are at the gate no later than 9:30AM. I would recommend being there 45 minutes to be safe. And you absolutely need to be at the gate 10mins before departure, or else your boarding ticket may be deleted and given to a standby passenger. Southwest has an open seating policy, so instead of being assigned a specific seat, you'll be assigned a boarding position and number. The position will either be A, B, or C, and the number will be between 1 and 60. Southwest boards in alphabetical and numerical order (A1, A2, A3...B1, B2, B3... C1, C2, etc). The customer service agent will ask customers to line up in order next to the boarding posts near the gate. Make sure you check with the passengers around you to see if you are in the right order. Once you board the plane, you can take any open seat! Window, aisle, middle- your choice. If you have a later boarding position in the C's, you'll probably end up in a middle seat. Make sure you check in for your flight 24hrs before the flight to get an earlier boarding position.
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