southwest airlines - stop but not a plane change - can I get out?
 

I am taking a flight from the east coast to San Francisco on southwest airlines. It says there is a stop but no plane change. I can't figure out where or for how long the stop over is - it doesn't seem to say anywhere. Just that it leaves at 6:25am and gets in at 11:20 California time. So assuming a couple hours layover somewhere how does it work with letting us off. Do we get priority boarding to get back on so we get the same seat (assume we can leave our luggage in the overhead). Since southwest doesn't assign seats couldn't someone else take your seat. I did pay for priority boarding.

You should be able to find out how long the plane is on the ground - but in any case: When you land - ongoing passengers remain in their seats while the rest of the passengers get off. Then they count the remaining passengers and you can de-plane, leaving your bags in place. Then at re-boarding -- you get on first before they start calling the boarding groups. You can keep your original seat -- or move to a better one if you wish.

The layover is normally not very long and they will encourage you to stay on board. (Actually as fast as they board you won't really be boarding before folks and could actually lose your seats.) Without knowing where you coming from it's hard to say but.. I fly to California from Atlanta all the time and to make that schedule SW would probably be on the ground about an hour.. That includes taxi time, time for everyone to get off and time for eveyrone to get on....

Carol is right re the typical (and short) layover. My comments were only IF the plane is on the ground nearly as long as you calculated.

Normally you wouldn't have time to get off . . .

Well it's a mystery to me. I also posted this question on the US Board and got several answers similar to what you are saying - that normally they have very short turn around times. I've flown them a few times and that's what I remember. And obviously, I'll find out on Thursday, it doesn't matter all that much. I was asking because I wanted to know if I should pack food for an eight hour flight or if I'd likely be able to get out and get something at the airport where we stop. But the flight leaves BDL (Hartford/Springfield) at 6:25 and arrives in AK (Oakland) at 11:20 - that's five hours plus the three hour time difference = 8h hours, for what would be, were it a direct flight, about a six hour flight. That's where I get the two hours from. Can't find anywhere on the southwest site where the plane stops. I know I could call and ask but it's really not that important, just thought someone here who flies them a lot might know.

From Expertflyer, it looks like the flight number is 165. Is that right? Then checked that on Flightaware and today's schedule is 6:34am-7:36am (Hartford to Midway), then Midway-Oakland from 8:54-11:14.

Can't answer on getting off the plane though. I would think with that amount of time you would.

Two hours extra because first, the route is slightly longer even for Chicago. But more importantly, it takes a lot of extra time for approach, and then the airline has to add allowance for delays, taxiing, getting into gate, etc. Which is why non-stop is always preferred, unless it is not available.

Thanks guys, I got it figured out. Probably no time to leave the plane, guess I'll need to pack a lunch. Unfortunately there are no non-stops from my local airport. I'll try not to think about the fact that with an eight hour flight I could have gone to Rome and just hope for good weather in California.

1. The US is a big country.
2. Westbound flights takes significantly longer than eastbounds at our latititude.
3. You can't get to Rome in 8 hours from BDL, only from BOS.
4. Plenty of non-stops BOS-SFO.

More on point 2. While BOS-FCO is just over an hour longer than BOS-SFO, it's almost 4 hours longer for the reverse. 9:20 vs 5:40, and that's summer. Even bigger difference for winter.