Airline family policies: JetBlue hero in pre-boarding
So, Southwest has decided to cancel pre-boarding for families with children 4-years-old and younger. (Now they’ll have to board after A group and before B group). After we had such a strong response to this topic, I thought I’d give all of you families out there direct links to family policies on popular airlines for the west coast.
The most important thing for you to know is that JetBlue allows family pre-boarding and I’m still trying to get the official word from other airlines.
***UPDATE*** United and American Airlines have returned my emails and said that they will also accommodate families with small children that request pre-boarding.
Southwest family pre-boarding blog posts:
Southwest Airlines: No family pre-boarding buzz
Southwest Airlines ends pre-boarding for families?
Airline family-related info website pages:
United Airlines: Children (FAMILIES WITH SMALL CHILDREN CAN PRE-BOARD)
Delta: Services for Children
American Airlines: Traveling with Children (FAMILIES CAN REQUEST PRE-BOARD)
Alaska Airlines: Traveling with Infants & Children Traveling Alone
JetBlue: Guidelines for bringing an infant & Unaccompanied minors
18 Comments on “Airline family policies: JetBlue hero in pre-boarding”
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September 24th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Southwest Airlines should reinstate the pre-boarding of children 4 years old and younger. The last thing any business or relatively sane traveler will want is to find a choice window seat and then have some sniveling, screaming little bastard plop down next to him or her. The little rug rats should be preboarded so that we will know where they are sitting and find a seat as far from them and their parents as possible.
September 24th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
As with any other policy, there are users & abusers. I’ve seen 10 people boarding with one infant in tow (extended family = maybe) and all the “choice seats” taken as this “extended family” didn’t sit near the screaming kid but in far, far away from it!
September 24th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I used to be against the pre board but now I have kids. Once you have kids then you will see the light.
September 25th, 2007 at 6:36 am
Aren’t all the seats already assigned??? Doesn’t seat jockeying make for a really confusing and extended boarding??? How can the old switcherue be used as an avoidance system when airlines always overbook??? Of course I don’t fly anymore because it sucks but I remember that’s how it always was. I had always brought along my Sony Walkman. Is Southwest the same airline that gave those babes a hard time because they said they weren’t dressed properly??? Geez, imagine how uncomfortable the business traveler would be sitting next to miss hot pants!
September 25th, 2007 at 8:55 am
To JB, I must respond you too were a sniveling, screaming little bastard once yourself, but all children aren’t always terrible to this extent, When you become a parent you won’t just consider your own selfish needs, have compassion for those that need a little more time with younger family members.
September 25th, 2007 at 11:06 am
It’s not children I have a problem with, it’s the parents who refuse to disapline or control their children on the flight. On a flight recently, I sat across from a woman’s who’s seat was contantly being kicked by a small child the whole time. The mother was in a window seat, listening to an ipod and oblivious to what her 2 boys where doing or throwing. They were out of control the whole time, fussing, arguing, getting up and down, they went to the bathroom 30 times. I so wish that United had kicked them off the flight, the passengers would have cheered if they did, but instead, everyone around these brats suffered. I still say that people would have the choice of adults only flights.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I just flew American Airlines today and I was told that I COULD NOT pre-board with my five month old!!! How stupid is that — they simply said I could go at the front of my group number — which makes no difference if you’re in the last group (which I was). Everybody who boarded behind me was cranky because of the extra time it took me to get into my seat and get settled with my baby. Needless to say, I won’t be flying American for a very long time.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
[...] Airline changing pre-boarding rules The Daily Travel Deal Blog reported some changes in the pre-boarding policies for families traveling with children. According to the article, Southwest airlines has decided to cancel this policy which in general allows parents and their children to board the aircraft before the rest of the passengers. The site also says that United and American Airlines will also accommodate families with small children only if they request pre-boarding accomodations. Interesting enough, most of the complains I have read about this change of policy were not from parents, but from adults who don’t want to be stuck next to a misbehaving child and they rather let those “little brats” board first. (I am not sure whether this makes a difference or not because all the seats are pre-assigned anyway) I have read plenty of complains from travelers whining than their entire trip was ruined because they had to spend “X” amount of hours sitting next to a child who would not stop crying/talking/moving/kicking/picking his nose, etc.etc.etc Every time I read comments like these, my blood boils. How soon do we forget that at one point in our life we behaved exactly like one of those kids? Perhaps those who complain about misbehaving kids do it because their parents never took them out of their home so other people wouldn’t complain about their misbehavior. Every time I have sat next to one of those “terrible children” I do something pro-active about it. I try to engage them and their parents and do little silly things like hiding coins and make them re-appear behind their ears (a favorite for all children), talking about school, and sharing anecdotal experiences with the parents. Believe or not, this works since children generally misbehave because they are either bored, tired or want some attention. After a while, most children will fall sleep, stop crying or get entertained in something else and forget about you. If the child is crying, carrying an Mp3 player putting the earphones on, and pumping up the volume will take care of it. Finally, I want to close this post with these two comments I saw in the Daily Travel Deal Blog : “When you become a parent you won’t just consider your own selfish needs, have compassion for those that need a little more time with younger family members” “Once you have kids then you will see the light” Indeed! All of us parents have seen the light! Posted: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 4:55 PM by jgomez65 Filed under: Southwest Airlines, pre-boarding, preboarding, traveling with children [...]
September 29th, 2007 at 10:01 am
At first I thought the new policy was right on. “Why should people get their choice of seats just because they brought some useless infant along?” But then I read JB’s post. He’s right: if you let them board first, you can at least avoid them like the plague they are. Much better for those of us who wish to avoid the constant screaming, crying, and drama associated with these kids & their clueless parents!
September 30th, 2007 at 2:28 am
See the light or want a perk? Pre-boarding for toddlers (3 and under), perhaps, but with only one parent. Having the whole family board early because one member of the family is young is just one more absurdity that delays boarding.
October 9th, 2007 at 8:06 am
As a former flight attendant and a parent of two boys (5 and 10) I am just thrilled with this new policy. Now I have NO reason to sit with my boys. Yup, you people who logged in at midnight to get your A pass and have gotten the aisle and window seat…I’m SURE that you won’t mind my 5 year old sitting right between you. Better watch out though, he’s kind of klutzy with his drinks - he prefers red juice - and tends to spill them. He is also good at forgetting he has a marker in his hand when he grabs your arm (might want to make a note to yourself NOT to wear your long sleeved white dress shirt sir!). The 10 year old is REALLY chatty and hyper….you’ll get to hear all about video games for the entire flight. And he doesn’t share armrests very well.
But that’s okay…due to SWA’s new policy…I’ll be 10 rows back blissfully drinking a beer and reading a magazine uninterrupted! Wow, its been years since I got to enjoy some quiet time…and who knew!….now I get to do it on an airline while someone else flies with my kids! Score!
October 11th, 2007 at 7:34 am
SIGN THE PETITION:
http://www.StopSouthwestPreboard.com
LUV Lost. Can I get it back?
It started 20 years ago. I had been flirting with a young upstart fun airline. I had heard through the grapevine that they were different. They were fun. Heck their Flight Attendants wore shorts!
So, it began. Cheap, clean, fun. Particularly for a young man out of college looking to save money.
Then I moved into Southwest territory, Phoenix, for business school and learned to LUV Southwest for quick, cheap and fun flights to interview for jobs, enjoy Las Vegas, and get to San Diego!
Southwest
The relationship continued strongly as I grew up, got a job, married and had a wonderful son.
As the son was born my Wife and I continued to use SW to get to family reunions and vacation events. The preboard policy was perfect for harried parents of a new born and we enjoyed the customer service and care that we received. That was 2004.
Now, the LUV is lost.
Last week, traveling alone with my 3.5 year old son, I was looking forward to a trip from BWI to PVD for a short vacation. I checked in online, got to the airport early, bought some food for us and decided to saunter on down to the gate agent and get my stroller checked in for preboarding.
Innocently she asked me, “Do you know about our new preboard policy?”
“No,” I answered.
She told me that children were no longer considered part of the preboard and handed me a leaflet that explained that 10.02.2007 the policy changed. The leaflet was like a divorce paper. Sterile, produced in a “legal” department somewhere in the bowels of Southwest.
All “fun” was gone.
All the guises of “customer service” was missing.
The LUV was lost.
October 12th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
I wonder how SW will deal with cases like my son. He is 21, looks like a “normal” 12-year-old, but functions at a 2-year-old level mentally. He also has serious balance problems when walking. Will we have to prove we need to preboard by bringing a doctor’s note if we have to use SW for future air travel? My son is normally well-behaved when traveling. He is nonverbal, so that source of trouble is avoided, but he can whine as well as a normal person if he is frustrated or bored. I think SW could be sued under ADA for the preboarding changes.
November 7th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
I’m sorry - but this program has been abused for years. and its high time Southwest shut it down. Its simply not fair that I get stuck in a middle seat because (and I counted once) 70 people preboarded with kids. And I had an A boarding card!
Here’s the thing, if you can get your kids through security, to the gate, and everything else in between, you can get on the plane without preboarding.
All of this is whining because now a child isn’t a free ticket to a great seat. You’ll have to play the game like the rest of us.
November 16th, 2007 at 9:35 am
“When you become a parent you won’t just consider your own selfish needs, have compassion for those that need a little more time with younger family members” “Once you have kids then you will see the light” Indeed! All of us parents have seen the light!
It is always incredible to me that parents say their needs should come first, but then call others selfish Or…one you have kids, you will understand. Has it ever occured to you that the rest of us DO understand, which is why we are not stupid enough to have kids or be near kids in the first place? Sorry your life of abject drudgery sucks…maybe you should have made better choices?
April 11th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
United does NOT allow pre-boarding with families, since we were denied pre-boarding with a 6-month old, so don’t give them any undue credit!
April 27th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
American Airlines denied us preboarding this weekend. We purchased a seat for our 13 month old and brought along a carseat. Since the size of the carseat is wider than the aisle, I had to lift the carseat over passenger’s heads in order to install it. I had to give my child to an attendant in order to make it to the seat. This caused two back and forth trips from my seat to the front of the plane. This would have been avoided with preboarding. Short-sighted since the airlines encourage car seat usage.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:07 am
United no longer allows preboarding for familes with small children.. Families have the option to pay for premier boarding if they would like an eaiser time boarding.