JMHO but I do like having my seat assigned before I'm at the airport. Before SkyBus went belly up, we flew them & they had that A,B,C boarding assigments and I hated it. You couldn't just sit & wait to get called to board when they announce, "rows 30-24 may now board" because with SkyBus, having no assigned seats, everyone arriving would line up under the A,B,C ques hoping to get a good seat so everyone ended up standing about 30-45 minutes before boarding. Maybe SW does it better than that, but never again do I want to do that
Southwest does do it better. They have boarding groups A, B, and C, but each person has a number within that group. You line up according to number and board in that order. Seating is then first come, first served. You sit in the gate area until your boarding group is called. Then you line up in order (there are posts with numbers to facilitate the process) and board within a few minutes of lining up.
Some people hate it, but I find it very efficient and orderly - more so than most standard boarding processes.
