CSLewis

I've heard a few people say that when you jumpseat on Southwest, they prefer you board with the pre-boards so you can show the captain your badge and get that done with. Can some SWA folks chime in and say if this is true or not?
Does it make a difference whether or not you're in uniform?
I've done it a few times, and no one says anything, but I just feel strange because I'm used to staying behind and boarding after the revenue passengers.

G-Dog

I jumpseat SWA all the time. They folks @ SWA are awsome. The pilots and gate agents are very friendly. I never go in pre-board unless I am told to do so. I get about 50-50 on pre-board. I do not care if I am the last to board, because my commute is only 35 minutes wheels up to wheels down. I will gladly sit in the middle seat for the ride.

As for uniform, you do not need it for the jumpseat privlidge.

Widow's Son

When it comes to the jumpseat, the Captain owns the aircraft, but the ops agent owns the jetway, and there are courtesies for both.
As far as preboarding goes, I would never assume either way. I would ask the ops agent what they would prefer you to do. An offer to take a pre-board wheel chair down is a great way to score points with the ops agent and pre-board as well.
One issue with preboarding is that often times the Captain will be off on a food run. Most Captains will let the FO's meet and greet jumpseaters, but there are a couple who won't, ususally those who like to check the scab list first. Overall, SWA pilots pride themselves on the easiest Jumpseat in the industry, but you can't have almost 5 thousand guys without a handful of odd ducks. Also, because we are easy going on the jumpseat, we occasionally have jumpseaters who take that for granted and treat the privilege as a birthrite and act like they own the place.

Sr. Barco

Widow's Son is right on, especially his last sentence. I've experienced that many times.

I'll just throw in my dos centavos below:

You can usually pre-board, just ask the gate agent. You don't need to wear your uniform, just dress decent. The company tells us not to sit in the emergency exit row on the -700 that has like 10 feet of leg room. There's only two seats like this on the plane and the tall pax go for them. You're risking getting your neck rung by a passenger, flight attendant or both if you sit there. They also tell us not to sit in the front of the plane. I always sit at row 15 or aft.

That's about it. There's a LOT of commuters at Southwest so we're very jumpseat friendly.

S.B.

LUVGuppy

Our policy at SWA is that jumpseater may preboard as long as our customer preboards are on first. As a preboard, however, you are not allowed to sit in the exit row. They want a paying passenger to have it.