Attention Southwest People

[gottalovepluto]

I was reading the other day someone reported that with the assigned seats, he finally experienced a flight that wasn't overrun with pre-boards. Sounds like the pre-board stuff got way out of control.

Bingo. The armadas of wheelchairs were getting out of hand. It was pretty crazy even just walking through an airport if you paid attention to wc use how many more there were at WN gates than all other gates.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

It was a cattle call prior to online check in, so early 00s. Back then you lined up as soon as you got to the gate.

They didn't come to Philly until 2005 ish.

 

[Mle8308]

I posted this on the dedicated thread, but thought I'd share here, too!

View attachment 1043294

I'll miss open seating, I'd miss free bags if I didn't have the credit card, but mostly I'll miss being able to rebook my ticket to take advantage of sales or changes in my plans. There is a "work around" but it's a PITA and I worry that once SW catches on, it'll be gone. I'll also miss pre-boarding. I have a knee that doesn't bend a full 90 degrees so I need a seat in a certain location to be able to sit during the flight. Between pre-boarding and open seating, I never had to worry. Now, I get to pay extra to guarantee a seat that will accommodate my physical issues.

We have willingly driven the 125+ miles from our home to the airport in Portland, ME, just to fly with Southwest. Not anymore. Once our miles are used up, we'll fly on American or Delta from the airport that is 15 minutes from our home. It's just a shame, because I believe that by becoming more like the legacy carriers, SW is signing its own death warrant. Anyone remember People's Express? Like SW, they'd carved out their own niche in the airline industry. They were doing great, until they decided it was time to become more like the legacies. Now... people don't even remember People's Express. Good luck, Southwest. The LUV is gone.

Love the old Coke/ New Coke comparison! It's perfect.

 

[Mle8308]

No more SW for me. It's JetBlue or Delta. I don't even look at the fares for SW anymore, they lost me. From where I fly, it wasn't really any cheaper, but sometimes more flights. JetBlue seems to have picked up more routes and there is definitely more legroom than SW (even in their cheap seats) plus screens on all flights. Bye SW!

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

You realize that New Coke was a huge win for Coke? When all the fuss over New Coke settled down. Coke was selling MORE product and making MORE money that before. And it REALLY hurt Pepsi, which was number two selling soft drink at the time. It has since fallen to number three behind Dr. Pepper.

Actually it didn't hurt Pepsi at all. While Coke was bottled up fighting the cola wars, Pepsi diversified and makes far far more revenue as a company than Coke does. $ 91.85B vs $47.06B Pepsico is now a diversified snack, and drink company. Coca Cola is not.

 

[longboard55]

Not a big SW fan, but will like it better with assigned seats

 

[Sweettears]

Actually it didn't hurt Pepsi at all. While Coke was bottled up fighting the cola wars, Pepsi diversified and makes far far more revenue as a company than Coke does. $ 91.85B vs $47.06B Pepsico is now a diversified snack, and drink company. Coca Cola is not.

Plus doesn’t Pepsi own Taco Bell? Could be wrong on that

 

[hardcorestitch]

Plus doesn’t Pepsi own Taco Bell? Could be wrong on that

It was spun off a la Versant in 1997. It’s not Pepsi owned anymore.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Plus doesn’t Pepsi own Taco Bell? Could be wrong on that

It used to. They spun it, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Pizza hot off into Tricon Global which became Yum Brands. There is a lifetime agreement for Pepsi to supply their drinks.

Back to Southwest. Southwest really ceased being a heavy discount carrier some time ago. And now there will be no more A cattle get into the chute. Moo Moo. No more bags fly free. No more flexible booking policy. Much more restrictions. A new basic non refundable pricing tier. They have added red eye flights so that is a plus.

 

[easyas123]

We fly Southwest a lot out of BWI and will be boarding our first flights since they changed things in about two hours into Fort Myers. We both have Southwest credit card so we get free seats and free bags and don’t feel any great change. I’ll report back!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We have not flown on SW for a while. I am looking forward to being able to select seats in advance. We are going to get the Companion Pass, but I have no idea how the new system will work. I would probably pay a small fee to select seats if the flight were over 4 hours. DH is tall and prefers the aisle seats.

I won't post the long comment I posted on the dedicated SWA thread but it was pertaining to Elliott Management who is at the the helm of just about all of the last couple years of changes (that is turning the airline into something unrecognizable and by many accounts it's not a good thing at all).

But regarding your comment this is what I said: "People who didn't fly SWA much thought they were getting just an airline now that would do assigned seats, that's only a small part of what has been happening with the company."

*Sidenote wouldn't count on it being a small fee. Also the seats are slightly reduced in pitch compared to previous in order to make Extra Legroom seats possible so keep that in mind, if you're husband is used to the old legroom of SWA he's going to need to get into an Extra Legroom seat (that will give more than previous set ups) as not being in those is less legroom than before.

 

[easyas123]

Flying now. No issues boarding at all. Full flight, little to no confusion which honestly- I was shocked by!
Gate agents reportedly reminded folks of one carry on and one small personal bag that went under the seat in front of you & that was that.
Also made announcements reminding folks that their one carry on should go in the bin above their seat, no where else- don’t put it in a bin up front as you move to the back of the plane.
Reminded folks that fancy packs & purses count as your one small personal item.
Early this AM I had gotten a text saying we had a full flight & those in boarding groups 7 & higher may need to gate check carry ons at no cost. While walking the terminal at BWI we saw one flight announce this with luggage trolley up by gate, however we didn’t see it on our flight. We boarded with group5, we had aisle seats in row 9 and no problem finding spot for our 2 carry ons.
In future I’ll probably just check, it’s free for us- but I’ve been on a personal mission to work on my over packing and was happy to reach our goal of 1 carry ons each for a week away! Plus 1 shared computer bag…I’m getting there I still probably overpacked.
very un scientific in nature my observation is there were more carry ons in general, don’t know if coincidence or due to folks looking to avoid bag fees.
All in all it was a very smooth process and all the passengers seemed to be game and aware. I’ll say the SW gate agents & flight attendants made things very clear and concise and repeated new instructions several times so no one should have been in the dark about how they should board.

 

[RangerPooh]

I’m not a fan. We fly in 4 days and just upgraded our seats on one flight. It’s the people who were too cheap to purchase Early Bird and needed “assistance” to preboard. The same travelers where jetway Jesus allowed them to disembark minus the wheelchair they needed for pre boarding. I have had many flights out of my local airport where the preboarders (and their families) numbers close to 30!

I’m fine with those who legit need it, but it was manipulated. Where you might be Early Bird #A42, but after preboarders are closer to 65! Lord help you if you’re Early Bird assigned to B. Now you’re behind families with young travelers too. Been there! Not thrilled.

Go back to the old way, but crank down on recording. Where they can’t go before Early Bird.

 

[focusondisney]

I’m not a fan. We fly in 4 days and just upgraded our seats on one flight. It’s the people who were too cheap to purchase Early Bird and needed “assistance” to preboard. The same travelers where jetway Jesus allowed them to disembark minus the wheelchair they needed for pre boarding. I have had many flights out of my local airport where the preboarders (and their families) numbers close to 30!

I’m fine with those who legit need it, but it was manipulated. Where you might be Early Bird #A42, but after preboarders are closer to 65! Lord help you if you’re Early Bird assigned to B. Now you’re behind families with young travelers too. Been there! Not thrilled.

Go back to the old way, but crank down on recording. Where they can’t go before Early Bird.

Saw the 30 preboards many times too. I also saw preboards save 2-3 rows a few times. One time in particular, a woman thought she could bring her whole party of 9 with her. The gate agent held firm at only 1 family member. So her accompanying daughter brought a purse or hat etc from everyone else in their group in a big bag. The woman sat in the 1st row, with items on the other 2 seats. The daughter put items on all 3 sets in the 2nd row, then stood in the 3rd row with items on those seats too. She was closely guarding that 2nd row. When her group boarded in the C group, they all had saved seats right in front ready for them. One or 2 people made comments & the daughter got nasty in response. Those are the kind of things that annoyed me.

Not knowing where we’d be sitting gave me a lot of anxiety. When EBCI started being offered, I’d book on opening day & buy it right then. The last several years I started buying business select, again, usually on opening day. We had A 1 & 2 many times. Even then, with the number of preboards, many of whom took a window & an aisle, we would usually end up in rows 5-7. We flew Jetblue a few times the last 2 years because of it.

I’m on track to earn a companion pass in the next few months & I will have a lot of SW points. So we’ll fly them at least while we have those. We really like JB, so may just use them after that.

 

[Christine]

The the two posts just above mine, I never understood why Southwest just couldn't crack down? I get that it's very hard to make a lot of the judgment calls on the pre-boards, but it was clear that it was being abused. The seat saving was another problem. That one seems easy to control. Zero tolerance for seat saving or you're off the plane.

 

[Suger Mag]

The the two posts just above mine, I never understood why Southwest just couldn't crack down? I get that it's very hard to make a lot of the judgment calls on the pre-boards, but it was clear that it was being abused. The seat saving was another problem. That one seems easy to control. Zero tolerance for seat saving or you're off the plane.

sadly I think it is easier to change the rules than to deal with the hassle of arguing with rude entitled people on every single flight

 

[_19disnA]

Have flown on Southwest a few times in the past where it was the best option for where I was traveling. Since they have now changed their seating/luggage policies, not sure there is any advantage to traveling with them in the future. When airlines in the past started to charge for checked bags seems to have created the issue where people want to drag the luggage onto the aircraft to avoid paying that extra fee.

My favorite are the infrequent/clueless people who stuff they luggage in an overhead bin several rows behind them not realizing when we land, they will be one of the last people off the airplane...................LOL.

 

[Smugpugmug]

The woman sat in the 1st row, with items on the other 2 seats. The daughter put items on all 3 sets in the 2nd row, then stood in the 3rd row with items on those seats too. She was closely guarding that 2nd row.

Had this happen to me on a Southwest flight and I just sat down anyway lol don't really have the patience for that nonsense. The person didn't say anything to me but they glared at me like I was the most evil person on earth. Not like I care honestly.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

sadly I think it is easier to change the rules than to deal with the hassle of arguing with rude entitled people on every single flight

They didn't change the rules because of that stuff. Pre-boarding was especially an issue but SWA hasn't done an about-face on their entire company because people are annoyed at seat saving and pre-boards. It's because they wanted/needed more profits. They didn't change to not have 2 included checked luggage and try to keep that benefit as long as they could for any other reason than they needed more profits.

If it makes people feel better to think they were being more benevolent here merely listening to people complain about seat saving and pre-boards I can understand that but these changes were almost all brought on by Elliott Management not for a customer service perspective.

For pre-boarding they had to play a fine line there due to sensitivities with why a person would need to pre-board. It was abused for sure unfortunately so.

 

[Tink3815]

Southwest could have policed the seat savers if they wanted to. A simple announcement in the gate area that saving seats is not allowed. They chose not to, like they chose not to enforce the size of roller bags and personal bags that should fit under the seat. Pre boarders were impossible to enforce because of privacy concerns. The next thing will be allowing passengers to move to empty seats with more leg room without purchasing it.