Have an Empty Seat Next to You on Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines offers some of the cheapest fares and is one of the only remaining airlines that does not charge checked bag fees. This makes it an ideal airline choice for many people. On the other hand, Southwest does not assign seats to passengers, leaving it up to them to battle for the best positions on the plane. Southwest also does not offer extended leg room or first class. All seats are exactly the same, so your best option for comfort is finding a row with an empty seat.

Steps

Getting a Better Boarding Position

1. Check in early. No seats are assigned on Southwest Airlines, but boarding positions are assigned at check-in. The earlier you check in, the better position you will secure for yourself. Check-In begins 24 hours prior to your departure time.
   • The earlier you board the plane, the more seating options will be available to you.
   • Set an alarm on your phone to alert you before you want to check in.
   • Depending on your departure time this can be inconvenient. You may need to wake up early, stay up late, or leave a meeting. Consider this when you are booking your flight.
2. Spend $15 on EarlyBird Check-In. EarlyBird Check-In gives you a head start of half a day on the average passenger. Southwest will automatically check you in 36 hours prior to your flight, giving you a better chance at an A or B boarding position.
   • Since the system checks you in automatically, you don’t have to worry about remembering to check in on time or waking up in the middle of the night to do it yourself.
   • After being automatically checked in, you can download your boarding pass to your phone, or print it at a kiosk when you arrive at the airport.
3. Purchase a Business Select fare. The only way to ensure that you are in Group A 1-15 is to purchase a Business Select ticket. While Southwest Airlines does not have a First Class or Business section, they do offer this perk for the extra cost of $30-$40 depending on your trip.
   • Purchase your ticket early to ensure that the Business Select fare is still available on your flight.
   • Additional bonuses include a coupon for a free alcoholic beverage, earning bonus reward miles, and access to the Fly By lane at security to ensure you make it through the airport and to your plane on time.
4. Earn points as a Rapid Rewards member. Once you have flown 25 legs of flights on Southwest Airlines, you will reach the level of an A-List Member. This will earn you preferred status and one of the A position boarding passes reserved for advanced reward program members.
   • After flying 50 legs, you will reach A-List Preferred status and you will be in the front of the line even above A-List Members.
5. Utilize the family boarding perk. If you are traveling with a child who is six years old or younger, you can board the plane during family boarding. Southwest allows Group A to board first to accommodate passengers who have paid for early boarding or earned status in their rewards program. After Group A boards, they take a break to allow people with young children to board.
   • Even if you aren’t able to find seats together, you are likely to find someone who will trade seats in order to allow children to sit with their parents. Ask around and get a flight attendant to assist you.
6. Change seats before take-off. Once everyone has boarded the plane, the flight attendant will take a head count of all the passengers. Once they have completed their count, you are allowed to change seats before the plane moves away from the gate. If you are seated next to someone, but there is a row with two empty seats, ask the flight attendant if you can move.
   • Don’t worry about offending the other passengers in the row, they will be happy to have an empty seat as well.

Choosing the Best Possible Seat

1. Head to the back of the plane. Planes tend to fill from the front to the back. Many people choose to sit near the front of the plane so they can get off quickly once it lands. The elderly may choose not to navigate the aisle all the way to the back. Choose a seat at the back of the plane. Less people will make it that far.
   • Once the aisle and window seats fill, the flight attendant will make an announcement to let people know they should take the first available seat. People tend to sit near the front once they hear this announcement.
2. Sit in the aisle seat. Obviously no one chooses to be sandwiched in the dreaded center seat, so your choice is between the window or the aisle. Sit in an aisle seat in a row where there is already someone in the window seat. People don’t like to ask someone to get up and will pass you by to find a less imposing option.
3. Get help from your travel companion. If you are traveling with someone, never sit next to them on the plane. One of you should sit in the aisle and the other in the window. This forces anyone entering the plane to choose the center seat when they get to your row, which is less appealing. You and your travel partner are more likely to have the row to yourselves.
   • If the plane does fill up and someone must sit in the center, it is likely that they will gladly trade with one of you for the window or aisle so that you can sit together.
   • If you aren’t traveling with a companion, you can still employ this tactic by sitting in a row where the window or aisle seat is already occupied. This will keep couples from sitting in the two available seats in the row.

Making the Seat Next to You Undesirable

1. Act sick. Whether you are actually sick or not, carry some tissues with you and do your best to look miserable. People on planes are usually on their way to work or vacation. No one wants to or can afford to contract your illness.
2. Make a lot of noise. No one wants to sit next to an annoying, loud passenger. Speak loudly into your phone. An even better option is turning up the music in your headphones. This is a noise that will continue for the duration of the flight even after cell phones are disabled.
   • Either way, you will appear not to be able to hear anyone or respond if they ask you to get up from the aisle seat so they can get into your row.
3. Use your size. Southwest Airlines will allow larger passengers to occupy two seats. They prefer that you let them know beforehand by purchasing an extra ticket, so they can reserve that seat on the plane. The distance between armrests is 17 inches. If you do not fit, you qualify for the extra seat.
   • Once you complete your trip you can apply for a refund of the cost of the second seat.
   • You can be awarded the second seat free of charge at the gate, but run the risk of the flight being full and not having an additional seat available.
4. Create an inconvenience. Put down your tray table and spread out. Use the things you have at your disposal to appear busy and spread across the empty seat while others are boarding the plane. You don't want to just set a bag in the seat and save it, but you can make sitting in the empty seat far less convenient to other passengers.
   • Put down your tray table on the aisle seat and start working on your laptop to make moving a disturbance. Spread your files across the empty seat.
   • Set up a meal on your tray table. Spread the bag of food and some of the food items on the seat next to you.
5. Go to sleep as soon as you sit down. This is especially useful in the aisle seat. Get out your neck pillow and close your eyes to deter people from disturbing you to enter the row.
   • You can also lean your head on the empty seat to make it seem like an uncomfortable seat option.
6. Attempt to save the seat for someone else. This is sometimes frowned upon, but not explicitly disallowed. Tell the other passengers that you have a travel companion with a later boarding position and you would like to save the seat for them. You can also say that your companion is in the bathroom, but will be returning to that seat.
   • Sell this by placing your carry-on bag under the seat you are saving.
   • Be prepared to be met with contention from boarding passengers wishing to sit in the empty seat.
   • If you don’t actually have a companion you are saving the seat for, you can be found out and lose the seat or anger some passengers.
7. Follow the rules. While the flight attendant hopes to help you have a comfortable flight, the main concern is every passenger's safety. Ultimately you want to follow the rules and do as the flight attendant says. In fact, if you are too unruly, you could be removed from the plane. Don't make your seat the empty seat!

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