Oh Southwest

Sometimes you can have the best plan in your head...and come game time it just does not work that way.  On Saturday, the kids and I flew to NH.  We normally don't fly for these trips but we were coming for a short five days and losing a day on either side with driving did not make it worthwhile.

I have never been a huge fan of Southwest.  We fly them a limited amount and the few times that I have flown with them, I have ALWAYS encountered problems.  My friend Tara, loves them and raves about the service....me not so much.

I had allocated about 1.5 hours in the Philly airport for check in, security and lunch.  Enough time to get a little run in for Jackson and plenty of if this does not go right time....or so I thought.

At check in...I presented my three boarding passes...Jackson is a lap child so he flies on my ticket.  Well, the check in agent started asking questions.  How old is he?  Am I sure he is not two?  Do I have ID for him?  I have never been asked for ID for any of our kids  to fly domestically....never.

So in conferring with her manager..they determine that Jackson is indeed not one...he must be two...he is just too big for a one year old.  They are not going to let me fly with him as a lap child.  Back and forth we went...bottom line was they wanted proof of age or no dice.  Finally in desperation...as the clock was ticking...I asked to just buy a ticket...I need to get on the flight...I will deal with the proof of age when I get to NH..

So get this...nope we are not going to sell a ticket as it is too close to boarding.  Really????  I can't fly with him as a lap child and I can't by a ticket. This went on until about 10 minutes before the flight was going to depart back and forth we went about ID for a one year old.
So in desperation, I asked to check him as luggage...ha ha right....Finally they relented and allowed him as a lap child but assured me that TSA would not allow me to fly with him without ID.. WHAT?  I had 10 minutes to get through security and to get to the gate, three kids without lunch, and two that needed to use the bathroom....FANTASTIC!

Low and behold TSA had no problems with us flying with no ID.  Southwest noted our return flight, so Ryan needs to FED EX  Jackson's passport so he can fly home with us.  We ran to the gate and then of course they were calling final boarding.  When we got on the plane there were no seats together...so I sat a screaming five year old who wanted her mommy in a row and promptly the row cleared out. 

Hopefully the rest of our trip goes better...