I'm on my phone so unfortunately can't bold, but you say, " Parents who want a better CHANCE of sitting together pay extra." That's exactly ALL you're paying for! I could also be in boarding A without paying any extra by checking in at 24 hrs. If by CHANCE I land in boarding B though, I'm still pretty confident I can find seats together w/o inconveniencing anyone. Again, I'm not walking in to the gate at T-:30, and DO NOT "expect" anyone to accommodate me. You're really into trying to put words in other peoples' mouths.
No they didn't, they paid a premium price to be thrown into the boarding pass pool 12 hrs earlier, with hopes (and most times granted) that they'll be in group A. But that DOES NOT mean you paid for any one specific seat or section, or a right to seat with anyone! Again, if you pay for EBCI on a continuation flight, do you get pissed & demand a refund from SW if you have to seat somewhere you didn't want to?? That is a ridiculous belief of entitlement that SWA will quickly bring you back down from should you try.
But those paying for EBCI will ALWAYS have earlier boarding passes than those who have not paid. Thus, they are paying a premium cost to board earlier, thus maximizing their chances to get seats together. Yes, you may get A without EBCI, but you will get the A's that are left over after the EBCI people. You may also get B. Last flight I took, not even a major market, I checked in at exactly the 24 hour mark. I was logged in and had my hand hovering over the send button, hitting it as soon as the 24 hour mark happened. I got very, very late B's. One of the latest B's you could get. That means all the people who paid for EBCI were the ones who got the A's and B's.
I could not imagine asking any of those people to move to accommodate me because I was too cheap to buy EBCI. They did pay for it and they got to walk on the airplane before me. As they should
Exactly, which should be the case for ALL SW flyers! I'm not expecting anyone to be responsible for me or my group - I'm just saying that should I come into a position where I boarded the plane ON TIME & within my boarding class but couldn't find 2 seats together, I would HOPE that the single riders on the plane would not be so rude as some of the people I've seen here (and I have never seen anyone carry out the threats of behavior described here, so I'm pretty confident no one would be).
Why? If you boarded that late that there were no two seats together, that would mean that only middle seats were available. You really think you have the right to ask somebody to give up either their aisle seat or window seat next to an empty middle seat and move to a more uncomfortable middle seat just to accommodate you? No. If you want to sit together, buy EBCI.
Again, no. I didn't label the world cruel, just some of the acts a few of you in this thread have said you would personally do in order to make someone who was only trying to keep their family together, feel uncomfortable in doing so, or just flat out refusing to be nice b/c you paid $12.50 extra to get on the plane before the "vagrants" that didn't. If you pay EBCI and get a seat that I'd be requesting should I need to (would most definitely be the least convenient seats on the plane), you really should be complaining to SW or using a different carrier because they swindled you, not me.
No, I wouldn't be ripped off, because I would be sitting in a seat. And since it would have to be next to an empty one for you to want it, it would most likely be a more preferred aisle seat or a window seat. So, my EBCI would have worked just fine. I got one of the better seats. You would be the one who is looking for seats because you did not buy EBCI. And no, I would not give up my aisle or window to move to a middle seat if I had paid the EBCI fee to get that aisle or window seat. You would just need to suck it it up and take the two seats that were left over, which is exactly what Southwest promises. They give you the opportunity to get better seats, but if you don't take advantage of it, you have to live with your decision.