Southwest boarding problems coud be taken care of very easily

[MagicKingdom05]

I think that the major problem is not the preboarding since all airlines do this, it is the fact that they don't assign seats.

Obviously this works for them because SW is a very popular choice for WDW vacations. I just think that people might enjoy there flight experience more if they didn't have to go through the whole ABC thing.

 

[seashoreCM]

(I flew SW in 2001 out of Chicago and) never again will I do this.

Congratulations, you did the right thing by you. Some other folks consider it a non-problem and still like Southwest.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

<small>You can't run away from trouble. Ain't no place far enough. (source will remain unnamed but Splash Mountain is a hint)</small>

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

One of the reasons SW can fly people more cheaply than other airlines is that they don't serve food and they don't assign seats. The cost of hiring many more additional reservation agents to make, and sometimes change, those seat assignments would have to be paid for somehow. (Assigning seats is a big time-consumer for reservations agents.)

I believe that SW is currently studying going to a system of assigning seats, but my guess is that they will have to heavily rely on the customer to process those seat assignments online to make the system work at a reasonable cost.

 

[dcandmc]

Southwest claims that the major benefit to not assigning seats is a quicker turnaround time at the gate. Less gate time means more flying time for each aircraft, which means more passengers carried each day, which means more revenue, which means the ability to offer lower fares. Is this sound logic? I don't know, I'm not an expert. But I'm sure Southwest has done studies that can back up their claim. Look at the correlation between airlines that don't assign seats and airlines that are profitable. Southwest is doing something right.

Does not assigning seats mean passengers get onboard and in a seat quicker? Probably. Without an assigned seat, your goal is to get the best seat you can before the guy behind you grabs it. If you have a boarding pass with a seat number on it before you even get to the gate, you have less incentive to get on the airplane quickly. Your fellow passengers are less rushed to get onboard, and the result is that it takes longer to get ready for the plane to push back.

 

[Pinnie]

dcandc,, you pretty much nailed it.

You are right about the turnaround time and the assigned seating issue. I once flew another carrier with assigned seats. The gate agent was assigning seats to standby pax. Only problem with that was, there were pax IN the seats already on the plane. By the time that mess got fixed, our push back was delayed and we lost our slot and got stuck behind a bank of planes for takeoff. Needless to say, if there had been UNassigned seats, those standbys could have come in, parked their behinds in a seat and off we would have gone.

I fly SWA 10 - 12 time a year and prefer them over all the other legacy carriers I fly. I also know that once SWA puts up a schedule they will NOT change or cancel it, unless there is weather or mechanical problems.

My advice is if you don't like unassigned seating, then fly a carrier that has it. SWA IS doing something right.

pinnie

 

[Luckymommyx2]

Well said pinnie and dcandmc. Personally I will fly SWA every chance I get! I have had no problems. I always get my boading passes at midnight or first thing when I wake up and get to the airport early. If I see it's going to be a very full flight then I'll line up a little earlier. My family of four has always sat together. I feel I have more control without the assigned seats. Our last flight from MCO back to BWI only had 20 people on it so we all enjoyed spreading out wherever we wanted and had a great flight. Everyone was so nice!!

 

[CarolA]

SW doesn't think they have a problem, so they see no need to fix it.

Judging by their financial numbers, I am inclined to agree with them. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

[debster812]

I agree with most of the other posters here. I have flown SWA both for business and for vacations, and the no pre-assigned seating has never been an issue (and YES, we've flown, with DS in tow, in and out of MCO).

Another added expense to preassigned seating, is software as well, SWA would need to buy, install, train on, maintain, and update some sort of new software to handle seating as well. Again, this cost would have to come from somewhere.

I am firmly in the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp.

 

[inkkognito]

I've become gunshy due to the horror stories, but now that ATA is pretty much gone I am going to have to find out firsthand. My husband and I have booked two MDW to MCO flights on Southwurst, so we'll see...
I'll be sure to post a full report!
Barb

 

[chasbos]

Just returned from our cruise and we flew SWA out of BUffalo with 4 kids - 13, 11, 9, & 6. So there were 6 of us travelling and we had absolutley no problems at all. Our flights left on time and arrived early each way and we did not print our boarding passes before hand and we were in the A boarding both ways. The preboarding line maybe had 10 people in it each way and they were families with carseats and those in wheelchairs.

I had been very worried about flying with SWA after reading these boards and was very relieved when everything went off without a hitch. I will fly them again in an instant.

 

[4formickey]

I've become gunshy due to the horror stories, but now that ATA is pretty much gone I am going to have to find out firsthand. My husband and I have booked two MDW to MCO flights on Southwurst, so we'll see...
!
Barb

I t looks like we will be joining you. I have tried to stay away from them but since ata is going way south, we have been booked on swa.