Question about Southwest online checkin for fligh w/connection?

[BrerGnat]

What happens when you do the online checkin/print boarding pass 24 hours in advance for a Southwest flight where you have to do a connecting flight?

Are you given two boarding passes? Or, is it just one boarding pass good for both flights?

i.e. is your "place in line" (example A-25) the same for both flights?

Can I check in 24 hours prior to the FIRST flight, even if the second flight is more than 24 hours later?

I have never done this before. I have only flown Southwest with their "new" boarding procedure with direct flights, so I have no idea how it works with multiple connections involved. I'm flying to Orlando in March from Orange County, CA, but I have to switch planes in Las Vegas. I don't really care where I sit for the short trip from CA to Las Vegas, but I DO care for the longer flight from Las Vegas to Orlando, so I am wondering how this all works.

Thanks in advance!

[Beast_fanatic]

Bumping this up in hopes that someone with a definitive answer will see it...

[Fangorn]

When you check-in on-line with Southwest, you get a boarding pass for each segment of your flight, even if it's more than 24 hours out from the second leg.

For example: Last Wednesday I flew from Portland, OR to Baltimore, MD. Leaving at 7:10am. There is a change of planes in Las Vegas. At exactly 7:10am on Tuesday, I checked in online (24 hours prior to the flight). The online system came back with two boarding passes. The first one is for the flight from Portland to Las Vegas. I happen to get A20. The second one is for the flight from Las Vegas to Baltimore. On this flight, I'm A16. (it helps to be an A-List member, but that's another topic).

Note that at the time I checked in, it was 28 hours before the LAS-BWI flight, yet I received a boarding pass anyway.

Your case will be the same. Checking in for your flight from Orange County will snag you a lower number for the LAS-MCO leg since you'll actually be checking in before all the passengers starting in Las Vegas. Any passengers starting in Portland or Seattle, though, and changing to the same LAS-MCO flight as you will probably have even lower numbers since their flights start before your's does, hence they get to check-in before you.

This is why it's possible to hit "enter" on your computer at precisely 24 hours before your flight and still end up with a B boarding pass. There may be half a plane full of people connecting to that flight and they all checked in before you. It happens a lot in Las Vegas.

Steve

[BrerGnat]

Steve, thank you so much for that detailed response! That was exactly the information I was looking for. You rock.

My sister and I will be meeting in Las Vegas to fly into Orlando on the same flight. She will be coming in from San Francisco, though, and her flight leaves at 6:50am (mine leaves at 7:20am). I will be sure to have her wait until 7:20 to check in for her flights, so we can do it online together, so we will hopefully have boarding pass numbers near each other for the LAS-MCO flight (so we don't have to play the "I'm saving this seat for someone" game).

Thanks again!

[Fangorn]

I wouldn't really recommend that your sister wait until 7:20 to check-in. You don't really need to have numbers right together in order to sit together. As long as you both have "A" boarding passes, no one is going to give you any trouble about 'saving' a seat. I'd have her go ahead and check-in at 6:50. That way she'll get a pretty low number and can have the better seat selection on both flights. Your boarding number for the LAS-MCO flight won't be too far behind hers.

Have a great trip!

Steve