Disneyhappy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2000
- Messages
- 2,146
In the last month, I have flown SW three times, twice for business and once to WDW. I do love the flexibility this airline offers with cancelling and rebooking flights. For most trips, that alone is worth giving up assigned seating, especially when I am flying alone. I just wanted to post my recent observations that is starting to make me think people are really starting to abuse the pre-boarding option.
First thing I should note is to make sure you stay with your luggage. Last Tuesday, DH and I were flying home from MCO and stood in the A line behind three pieces of luggage that someone placed there to save their spot. DH and I took turns saving our spot if we had to go to the restroom, etc. DH is 6'5" tall so we got in line early in hopes of snagging the exit row seats (which we did get) for the extra leg room. When the SW employee came to our gate to prepare for our flight, she asked us if we knew who the luggage belonged to whhch of course, we did not see. In the meantime, people also saved spots in line in the pre-board area. The SW employee made an announcement that passengers must remain with their luggage at all times and to immediately return. People returned to their luggage and the SW employee basically gave them the riot act, stating that technically, she should be pulling them and their carry on luggage out of line for inspection, regardless that the one group was sitting only 15 feet away and "never took my eyes off of my luggage". A man in line behind us told us that he was in the Buffalo airport a few weeks prior when they actually did pull the people out of line and TSA inspected their luggage. Just be careful about saving your space with your luggage. I see it often with SW but this is the first time I actually wintessed and heard of possible repercussions.
On our flight to MCO, there were obviously a large number of pre-board passengers with children. DH and I were the first in the A line, again so he could try to get the exit row seat. I did not count the number of people in preboard but there was a family standing in line next to us in pre-board. The group were two men, two women and three children who appeared to be the ages of 2, 3, and 4. There were two strollers for this group. I did not think anything of it, believing they were 2 separate families travelling together until we got on the plane and noticed that one man and woman started walking down the aisle in front of us just as we got on the plane. They sat in the one large exit row. The rest of their group were in the front of the plane. I thought wow, they just dumped their kids off with the other couple in the group? We sat in the smaller exit row seats across the aisle and came to realize that they were the aunt and unlce of the kids and apparently pretended to be their parents to pre-board as they had C boarding passes (they were talking about their C passes when waiting in line). They must have been watching us to get on the plane as they knew we were the first first A pass boarders and all preboarding was done. My DH hates any type of confrontation but if I had been by myself, I probably would have said something to them or reported them to SW. It was clearly abuse of SW policies.
Lastly, I flew out of Chicago about 2 weeks ago to PHL and was standing in the A line. There were two sisters in pre-board who looked to be in their early 20's. I have no idea what criteria SW uses for preboarding other than for children so I had no clue as to why they were in preboard. They did not appear to be handicapped in anyway that was visible but we al know that their are hidden disabilities. I didn't really care as I am just happy that I am healthy and do not require preboarding. As I entered the plane, I noted that both front row aisle seats were open and the center seats in the rows were occupied by each of the sisters. I went to sit in one of the aisle seats and a women behind me who happened to be their mother said that I probably do not want to sit there because her two daughters were sick and I may catch what they have. Say no more, I headed back to the middle of the plane (actually the exit row seats) as I did not want to catch what they had. Conveniently, the seats on either side of the sisters we taken by their parents. The other two seats remained empty in the front row as the plane was only half full . I heard them deter other passengers looking to sit in those seats with their illness as well. My thought is that if you are that ill that you need to preboard the plane due to a contagious cold/flu, you should probably not be flying at all. I hate to question that they were truly that ill but I stood in line next to them for 45 minutes and sw no indication that they were sick in retrospect. I did pull out the anti-bacteria lotion from my carry on after I sat down. I kept praying not to get sick since I was standing next to them for so long. I was leaving for WDW in 3 days! I had no tiem to nurse an illness!
My hope is that SW employees become a bit more observant and enforce their policies a little better.
First thing I should note is to make sure you stay with your luggage. Last Tuesday, DH and I were flying home from MCO and stood in the A line behind three pieces of luggage that someone placed there to save their spot. DH and I took turns saving our spot if we had to go to the restroom, etc. DH is 6'5" tall so we got in line early in hopes of snagging the exit row seats (which we did get) for the extra leg room. When the SW employee came to our gate to prepare for our flight, she asked us if we knew who the luggage belonged to whhch of course, we did not see. In the meantime, people also saved spots in line in the pre-board area. The SW employee made an announcement that passengers must remain with their luggage at all times and to immediately return. People returned to their luggage and the SW employee basically gave them the riot act, stating that technically, she should be pulling them and their carry on luggage out of line for inspection, regardless that the one group was sitting only 15 feet away and "never took my eyes off of my luggage". A man in line behind us told us that he was in the Buffalo airport a few weeks prior when they actually did pull the people out of line and TSA inspected their luggage. Just be careful about saving your space with your luggage. I see it often with SW but this is the first time I actually wintessed and heard of possible repercussions.
On our flight to MCO, there were obviously a large number of pre-board passengers with children. DH and I were the first in the A line, again so he could try to get the exit row seat. I did not count the number of people in preboard but there was a family standing in line next to us in pre-board. The group were two men, two women and three children who appeared to be the ages of 2, 3, and 4. There were two strollers for this group. I did not think anything of it, believing they were 2 separate families travelling together until we got on the plane and noticed that one man and woman started walking down the aisle in front of us just as we got on the plane. They sat in the one large exit row. The rest of their group were in the front of the plane. I thought wow, they just dumped their kids off with the other couple in the group? We sat in the smaller exit row seats across the aisle and came to realize that they were the aunt and unlce of the kids and apparently pretended to be their parents to pre-board as they had C boarding passes (they were talking about their C passes when waiting in line). They must have been watching us to get on the plane as they knew we were the first first A pass boarders and all preboarding was done. My DH hates any type of confrontation but if I had been by myself, I probably would have said something to them or reported them to SW. It was clearly abuse of SW policies.
Lastly, I flew out of Chicago about 2 weeks ago to PHL and was standing in the A line. There were two sisters in pre-board who looked to be in their early 20's. I have no idea what criteria SW uses for preboarding other than for children so I had no clue as to why they were in preboard. They did not appear to be handicapped in anyway that was visible but we al know that their are hidden disabilities. I didn't really care as I am just happy that I am healthy and do not require preboarding. As I entered the plane, I noted that both front row aisle seats were open and the center seats in the rows were occupied by each of the sisters. I went to sit in one of the aisle seats and a women behind me who happened to be their mother said that I probably do not want to sit there because her two daughters were sick and I may catch what they have. Say no more, I headed back to the middle of the plane (actually the exit row seats) as I did not want to catch what they had. Conveniently, the seats on either side of the sisters we taken by their parents. The other two seats remained empty in the front row as the plane was only half full . I heard them deter other passengers looking to sit in those seats with their illness as well. My thought is that if you are that ill that you need to preboard the plane due to a contagious cold/flu, you should probably not be flying at all. I hate to question that they were truly that ill but I stood in line next to them for 45 minutes and sw no indication that they were sick in retrospect. I did pull out the anti-bacteria lotion from my carry on after I sat down. I kept praying not to get sick since I was standing next to them for so long. I was leaving for WDW in 3 days! I had no tiem to nurse an illness!
My hope is that SW employees become a bit more observant and enforce their policies a little better.
