Southwest airlines priority boarding.

[natfrac]

I think the SW experience all depends on the flight attendants. DH is diabetic, on dialysis, and we boarded an early morning flight just a few hours after he finished his dialysis treatment. FA saw he was struggling a bit, and gave DH a disabled boarding pass. We boarded with the wheelchair folks (yes, I was allowed to board with him). A lady (I'm using that term loosely) game unglued when we sat down in seats she felt entitled to. She was giving the FA such a hard time, I asked him if it would help if we moved. The FA was grateful and I told the "lady" all she would have had to do was ask nicely.
It would be nice if all FA were as pleasant.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Return 10 days later from DEN, both tickets were booked simultaneously but we have two Confirmation numbers so SW can assign both parties a boarding position. I get A22 but spouse gets B1. Gate agent refuses to allow spouse to board with me. I get bumped from an aisle seat twice before he gets on & get told I cannot hold a seat for him. We end up in two different rows.

It REALLY stinks that your husband had an urgent medical situation and the Flight Attendants weren't willing to assist in any way. I'm confused, though, about this part that I quoted: did nobody suggest you board with him in the B position? That's allowed, and recommended when a party's boarding assignments aren't consecutive. And how did you get bumped from your seat twice, and end up in one where he ended up ahead of you?

How greedy (and unfair) is it to pax when an airline reserves the first 15 A boarding positions in order to sell them at the airport @ $40 a person! Shameful.

Not shameful because that's not what happens. The first fifteen boarding positions on every flight are automatically reserved for Business Select passengers.
Business fares are generally several hundred dollars more each way than the Wanna Get Away fares most passengers choose.
If some or all those boarding positions are still available when passengers arrive at the airport, they have the option to purchase the upgrade.
This makes the $40 PP upgrade a bargain.
Also, it should be noted that if there are no business passengers and nobody buys the upgrade, passengers with boarding positions A16-A20 will be the first to board (after passengers needing special assistance).

 

[sam_gordon]

Recently flew Phx to DEN with spouse on SW. Short flight, but decided to pay Early Bird Check-in fees. Booked in January for late May/June flights. Get to AP for outbound flight & we have two consecutive A boarding passes. Gate agent announces that families traveling together should board together. All goes smoothly.

Return 10 days later from DEN, both tickets were booked simultaneously but we have two Confirmation numbers so SW can assign both parties a boarding position. I get A22 but spouse gets B1. Gate agent refuses to allow spouse to board with me. I get bumped from an aisle seat twice before he gets on & get told I cannot hold a seat for him. We end up in two different rows. Spouse is insulin dependent diabetic & goes into insulin reaction during the flight. I see his head dip & try to go forward to check on him but I'm chastised & told to get back in my seat due to mild turbulence. (rudely). Flight lands & I now have a problem getting spouse out of plane with two small carry on bags. I get him off the plane but he's walking like a drunk & I'm trying to hold up a 6'4 200+ lb man from falling. It was a stressful time bringing him back to normal sugar levels in the lounge area. If my spouse had died from insulin shock, I wonder how SW would defend this flawed boarding policy. I totally support early boarding for families with small children & handicapped individuals. But I resent when I see families with teenagers & people in wheelchairs who are later seen running in the baggage claim area who were permitted to board ahead of everyone. Surely, there's a better system than the one SW currently uses. I disagree with SW claim on their website that they don't nickel & dime customers to death. How greedy (and unfair) is it to pax when an airline reserves the first 15 A boarding positions in order to sell them at the airport @ $40 a person! Shameful.

I'm sorry you had this problem. But I think part of the blame also lies on you for not knowing how the boarding process works...

1) You could have boarded with your DH (instead of him with you), and then you'd be together.
2) The only reason you could be "bumped" from an aisle seat would be if you're sitting in an exit row and wouldn't be able to fulfill the requirements.
3) If you were boarding an empty plane, unless there were A LOT of people utilizing family boarding, a B1 pass should have NO problem finding two seats together. There are at least 20 rows of 6 seats. It would take 80+ people boarding to leave only single seats.
4) Did you ask for help for your DH? When you were told not to get up from your seat, did you press the call button to explain to the FA what was happening?
5) Did you ask for a medical pre-board for your DH?

I'm not trying to attack you, but I don't think blaming SW's "flawed boarding system" is fair.

 

[seashoreCM]

... The family did start telling people ... that they needed the overhead bins on each side. That was not tolerated by the flight attendants. In fact they told the family they could not reserve even the bin above them. Needless to say, when the last 6 people showed up in late C, there was no bin space for them and the family was not happy.

I thought it was hysterical that people were complaining about the seat saving and the flight attendants just allowed it. But try to save a spot in an overhead bin, the flight attendants were all over it.s.

OT: Unlike people, pieces of luggage never get uptight about having to be next to someone they really do not want to be next to and also who really does not want to be next to them.

If the airport you are boarding at is a connection point for your flight, then a very large percentage of aisle and window seats may be occupied before anyone boards at that airport.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Recently flew Phx to DEN with spouse on SW. Short flight, but decided to pay Early Bird Check-in fees. Booked in January for late May/June flights. Get to AP for outbound flight & we have two consecutive A boarding passes. Gate agent announces that families traveling together should board together. All goes smoothly.

Return 10 days later from DEN, both tickets were booked simultaneously but we have two Confirmation numbers so SW can assign both parties a boarding position. I get A22 but spouse gets B1. Gate agent refuses to allow spouse to board with me. I get bumped from an aisle seat twice before he gets on & get told I cannot hold a seat for him. We end up in two different rows. Spouse is insulin dependent diabetic & goes into insulin reaction during the flight. I see his head dip & try to go forward to check on him but I'm chastised & told to get back in my seat due to mild turbulence. (rudely). Flight lands & I now have a problem getting spouse out of plane with two small carry on bags. I get him off the plane but he's walking like a drunk & I'm trying to hold up a 6'4 200+ lb man from falling. It was a stressful time bringing him back to normal sugar levels in the lounge area. If my spouse had died from insulin shock, I wonder how SW would defend this flawed boarding policy. I totally support early boarding for families with small children & handicapped individuals. But I resent when I see families with teenagers & people in wheelchairs who are later seen running in the baggage claim area who were permitted to board ahead of everyone. Surely, there's a better system than the one SW currently uses. I disagree with SW claim on their website that they don't nickel & dime customers to death. How greedy (and unfair) is it to pax when an airline reserves the first 15 A boarding positions in order to sell them at the airport @ $40 a person! Shameful.

I am sorry that this happened to you, but I'm a little confused. How is it that you couldn't find seats together? If your DH had a B1 pass, you should have easily been able to find seats together someplace on the plane. It may have been towards the middle or back, but surely there were 2 seats next to each other open somewhere...

 

[mdinme]

Sure. Try to book a seat for the flight online. If its booked itll show. It may also say "two left"

 

[HoosierDisneyDad]

There would have to be some unusual circumstances not to be able to find two seats together at B1 (maybe a very high number of through passengers and family boarders?).

 

[chasgoose]

How greedy (and unfair) is it to pax when an airline reserves the first 15 A boarding positions in order to sell them at the airport @ $40 a person! Shameful.

I'm sorry that happened to your husband. Unless it was pretty intense turbulence, its pretty unacceptable behavior by an FA not to let you go administer medicine to your husband. In the future, I would just ignore her and do it if he wasn't too far away.

That said, on the topic of Southwest's "greed" its more how they make enough money on each flight so they can charge cheap fares. They only sell the first A positions at the airport if they haven't been bought in advance by business travelers for hundreds of dollars more than the regular fare or given to people who have flown with the airline so much they get automatic A boarding passes. Essentially those people are subsidizing most of the other people on the plane.

It's the same thing on regular airlines. Those who fly more often/pay higher fares get elite status which grants them preferred seats or free upgrades to first class (so long as there aren't too many elites on the flight who are ranked higher than them). I can guarantee you if you fly a regular airline line Delta/United/American to Orlando more than half of the people in the first class cabin paid for a coach seat, but were upgraded to first because of their elite status.

 

[goofy4tink]

Well, it was very much allowed on our flight. The women would not let anybody into the row, they would stand up and block anybody, saying the seats were saved. This is 3 rows worth of seats. Since it was row 1-3, the flight attendant was standing right there.

The plane was at 100% capacity, which was announced every couple of minutes. People were told to take any seat available as every seat in the plane was booked.

People did try to take the nice window seats available, especially when they were boarding the C group and everything else that was left were middle seats. The women would not let them in and numerous people turned to the flight attendant for help. The flight attendant confirmed that the seats were saved for family. And told them to move on down the plane. The flight attendant was helping the family save the seats. So, she was obviously very much allowing 3 people to save 6 additional seats.

Now, when they did board, it looked like grandma with two around 5 year olds and then some other adults. I can see not knowing and saving two seats for the two little ones, but the 3 rows for grandma, grandpa, aunts seemed a bit over the top.

I would have been on the phone to SW as well as sending email and snailmail about it. That's not right. That has never been allowed on any SW flight I have been on. In fact, on one flight when a family tried this exact thing? The FA made an announcement that it was a 100% full flight and there would be no empty seats, so any empty seat then was available for passengers boarding. You should have seen the people scrambling to get seated with their families. They had been trying to save that middle seat so they would have more room....did that in about 4 rows.

Recently flew Phx to DEN with spouse on SW. Short flight, but decided to pay Early Bird Check-in fees. Booked in January for late May/June flights. Get to AP for outbound flight & we have two consecutive A boarding passes. Gate agent announces that families traveling together should board together. All goes smoothly.

Return 10 days later from DEN, both tickets were booked simultaneously but we have two Confirmation numbers so SW can assign both parties a boarding position. I get A22 but spouse gets B1. Gate agent refuses to allow spouse to board with me. I get bumped from an aisle seat twice before he gets on & get told I cannot hold a seat for him. We end up in two different rows. Spouse is insulin dependent diabetic & goes into insulin reaction during the flight. I see his head dip & try to go forward to check on him but I'm chastised & told to get back in my seat due to mild turbulence. (rudely). Flight lands & I now have a problem getting spouse out of plane with two small carry on bags. I get him off the plane but he's walking like a drunk & I'm trying to hold up a 6'4 200+ lb man from falling. It was a stressful time bringing him back to normal sugar levels in the lounge area. If my spouse had died from insulin shock, I wonder how SW would defend this flawed boarding policy. I totally support early boarding for families with small children & handicapped individuals. But I resent when I see families with teenagers & people in wheelchairs who are later seen running in the baggage claim area who were permitted to board ahead of everyone. Surely, there's a better system than the one SW currently uses. I disagree with SW claim on their website that they don't nickel & dime customers to death. How greedy (and unfair) is it to pax when an airline reserves the first 15 A boarding positions in order to sell them at the airport @ $40 a person! Shameful.

I'm so sorry you had this experience but some of it was due to you not getting the information you needed.
First, you should have booked both of you on the same confirmation...would have put you a lot closer together. Then, you could have moved back in line to be with your dh. It is seldom allowed for a passenger to move forward in line, but they can always move back. If you have moved to B2, you would have found seats together quite easily.
As to your getting bumped from aisle seats? Not sure what that means. You are either sitting in the seat or you are not. There is no reason you would have to move out of a seat you are seated in, unless there were to be some extraordinary situation.

And those seats that are up for sale for an addtl $40? Those seats have been reserved for those paying full fare rates...you may have paid $120 for your fare, but those people have paid $300 for theirs. It is going to be either business fare or simply fully refundable fares. Both are eligible for various perks. And getting a spot in the A1-15 line up is one of them. IF any of those spots are empty, and they usually are, then SW offers them as an upgrade for that addtl $40. Not greedy, but perfect business sense.

 

[jreed1920]

There a couple of issues hat can cause problems even when purchasing ECBI especially when flying from Orlando.

1. The flight has often come from someplace else first and there are already people on the plane so you may be in the A group but already a bunch of people have been seated before you.

2. A lot of the flights are now being run by AirTran so people that book with AirTran directly are able to select their seats at booking leaving the remainder to those who booked with Southwest.

Those are just 2 of the issues I have run into recently.

 

[jayhawk74]

I get bumped from an aisle seat twice before he gets on & get told I cannot hold a seat for him. We end up in two different rows. Spouse is insulin dependent diabetic & goes into insulin reaction during the flight.
How greedy (and unfair) is it to pax when an airline reserves the first 15 A boarding positions in order to sell them at the airport @ $40 a person! Shameful.

I'm not sure how you got bumped out of an aisle seat, once you are in a seat it is yours. Since your husband was B1 every aisle seat would have had a center seat next to it when he boarded so the two of you could have sat next to each other.

When your husband went into the insulin reaction the F/As normally treat that as a medical emergency. They will even leave their seats during turbulence, even after the pilots had told them it is to dangerous for them to be up, during a medical situation.

The first 15 A positions are reserved for Business Select passenger, they pay the highest fare on any flight. Forty minutes before the flight leaves SWA will offer any of those unused positions to passengers on that flight. It is a way for SWA to bring in extra money so that they can remain profitable and not have to raise ticket prices.