My wife always uses cute, Disney inspired code names for the rest of us. Guess I should too. Hhmm. Can’t just copy hers.
I’ve got it! What would any good sys admin do. Here we are:
Me (J40)
Wife (J4*)
Daughter (J11)
Daughter (J7)
OK, so it what it lacks in poetry, it makes up in pragmatism.
Anyway - we leave tomorrow for the land of oh the anthropomorphic rodent.
So I made sure I was online at southwest.com at 9:34 AM this morning (our flight is at 9:35). Sure enough, couldn’t print out boarding passes yet. So I waited a minute.
Bingo. Got in with J7 in group A. Normally, that’s what I’d expect. For those unfamiliar, Southwest (the airline from which our plentiful American Express and Diners Club points we earn many free flights) does not use reserved seating. Instead, you get a group, and are allowed to pick the seat of your choice. Of course, in practice, this leads to long lines an hour or more before takeoff as people jockey for the correct seat. Not as big an issue travelling alone, but with kids it is indeed possible not to find the needed number of seats together. And as J11 needs to grab on to my arm during takeoff, and J7 would talk a stranger into a frenzy, this is key. Normally, almost all of the passes the first few hours online are A. No problem.
Until today. Enter J11’s confirmation number (because of our free flights and such, we each have our own confirmation numbers). B
What? J4*, J40, B. Hhmm.
Call Southwest. If we ask at the ticket counter, they might let us go on together (wonder if J7 could fend off all takers for 3 seats near here? She just might… No, bad idea). OK, we’ll see. if not, we’ll just have to camp out at the front of the B line.
Find out from my favorite Disney board (disboards.com) that this sort of thing can happen when the flight connects from elsewhere. At 9:35? Well, maybe someone is getting up really early tomorrow to fly to MCO via MDW.
Well, we will get there. Not as bad as when we went to Disneyland in ‘01 and American said I boarded while I was at the car rental return with my boarding pass in hand. Worse yet, they split us up, so J11 (then J6, not to be confused with this year’s J7 - maybe this nomenclature needs work…) was seated next to some stranger, while J4* (then J3*, oh you get the idea) was with J7 (yes THIS year’s J7) and I was forced to wait for the next flight.
But that’s a story for another time!
So got to finish working from home and get packed! Early day tomorrow!