Southwest Flight 1815 Chicago to Newark Trip Report

The horror - I forgot to check in at exactly 24 hours before the flight.  It wouldn't be such a big deal normally, since I am an A List member, but on this trip I have my youngest daughter with me on my Companion Pass.  I am usually really diligent, when she travels with me, but I was tired from my flight from San Diego to Chicago earlier in the day.  I am too cheap to buy the Early Bird Check In, but I was thinking that I might have made a mistake this time.

When I clicked "Check In" at 8pm, almost 2 hours past, when I should have done so, I thought that she would get a boarding pass in the B50 range.  Imagine my surprise, when I saw that she received B4.  I received an A16, so I can board with her without worrying about trying to sneak her on with me.  We got in line after A60 and boarded without a problem, something I had read about on Flyertalk.

Southwest Flight 1815 Chicago To Newark

We had to check two bags, since her foils cannot be taken on to the plane.  we were able to use the Priority Line, since I am A List Preferred.  Someone tried to cut in front of us from the regular line, but the agent, Fran, quickly rectified the situation and let us get our bags checked.  Going through TSA was easy, since we were picked to go through the PreCheck line, just like I had been able to do the previous Monday, when I was on my way to San Diego.

Our flight, Southwest Flight 1815, was taking off from gate A17, which is at the end of the A terminal, so it was a bit of a hike, but nothing like O'Hare or any other large airport.  As we were sitting by the gate, we noticed passengers deplaning at Gate A18.  It was the flight to Philadelphia that had already been 45 minutes late pulling back from the gate.  The plane had a valve issue and return to a gate to turn off the engines to get the issue fixed.  When they called our flight to line up, they were still sitting in the gate area.

When we got on the plane, a 737-800, all the way to row 10 was close to full, except for middle seats, so we made our way to seats 18E and 18F, the window and middle seat, since my daughter likes to look out the window - the window seats from row 10 to 17 are obstructed by the wings. The flight was not full, so I moved to seat 18D, leaving 18E empty between the two of us.  It was nice to have so much space!  The only issue I found was that the light over 18D did not work.

The doors to the plane were closed at 5:02 and pulled from the gate at 5:06pm, 4 minutes earlier than our scheduled departure.  We took off at 5:15pm, only 5 minutes after our scheduled departure.  Checking the Flight Tracker, I noticed that our estimated arrival time would be 7:42pm, 33 minutes earlier than our scheduled arrival.

The WiFi on the plane initially worked, when we boarded, but as soon as we backed out of the gate, the WiFi reset.  It was a pain, since I was typing this blog post in the plane at the time.  The WiFi returned at 5:14pm.  The WiFi is a must, when I travel with my 10 year old daughter.  Thankfully, it is free for me, because of my A List Preferred status.

When the flight attendant came by, I ordered a can of Coke Zero (with ice) and my daughter ordered a cup of apple juice.  We were given lightly salted peanuts and pretzels as a snack.

The flight was very smooth with only a few bumps as we descended through the rain clouds.  We landed with a bit of slipping on the wet tarmac at EWR at 7:44 and arrived at the gate at 7:52.

We only had to wait about 5 minutes for our suitcase at baggage claim and only a couple more minutes for my daughter's foils at the oversize baggage area.