Southwest - choose your seat?????

[trip]

Our local news just had a "tease" for their 5:00 program. They said something about Southwest airlines and them not having assigned seats. Then they said that is about to change listen at 5:00 to find out how.

Do you think they are going to have a small fee if you want to choose your seat ahead of time? Has anyone heard this yet?

 

[Danadisney]

No I have not heard of this....but keep me posted. I would love SW if you could choose your seats ahead of time!!

 

[safetymom]

I have heard reports that they are going to try assigned seating. Should be interesting to see what happens.

 

[deltachi8]

Could be a reason why the delay in new schedules.

In theory, assigned seating will slow the boarding process down, thus will end up with the need to alter schedules.

If this happens, I can see it backfiring on SW. Then again, they seem to know how to run an airline.

 

[safetymom]

It is supposed to be a test if and when they start assigning seats.

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

I'd be curious to hear about this as well.

 

[trip]

I'll make sure I watch the 5:00 news and post what they have to say.

 

[branv]

A post I made quite a while ago had a response from a poster that SW was going to start assigning seats after of 1/1/06. I kind of shrugged it off at the time...but mebbe they knew what they were talking about.

 

[safetymom]

I just did a search to see if there was anything new about this and didn't find anything. Let us know what they say on the tv please.

 

[mickeyfan2]

I'd be curious to hear about this as well.

Me too.

 

[TinkHappy]

I have heard that the FAA is requiring all airlines have seat assignments due to past terrorist attacks. I guess so the FAA knows who is sitting where??

 

[trip]

OK here is the info I got from the TV segment. There is a website http://www.boardfirst.com that will check you in at the first available time(24 hours before your flight departs) for a fee of $5.

From their website----

"With busy schedules, why wait by your computer for your departure time to come? Simply log into BoardFirst at your earliest convenience after purchasing your online ticket and let us assist you with securing your boarding pass. We are accepting orders up to 48 hours before your departure time. To print your "A" pass simply log onto southwest.com® and click on 'Check in Online', retrieve and print your boarding pass. Alternatively you may retrieve your boarding pass at the curbside sky cap check-in, Southwest check-in kiosk, or from a ticket agent.

BoardFirst charges $5 for each "A" boarding pass that we secure. You will never be charged unless we successfully secure your "A" boarding pass. BoardFirst's staff of qualified personal assistants are working hard for you and are always ready to secure your pass at the exact time it becomes available."

So.....still no assigned seats.......

 

[safetymom]

Thank you for the update. I am surprised someone hadn't thought of that earlier.

 

[Snoozan]

But what good is spending $5 to get an A boarding pass, only to have 2/3 of the plane get to pre-board??? I'm not sure I'm liking this idea. If they can greatly eliminate the pre-boarders, I'd go along with it, but not unless they limit pre-boarders to those that really need it and 1 parent to an underage child. Or better yet, only pre-board children with car seats as that's where it takes time.

 

[SB in KY]

Well I think this means if this service takes off that you won't be getting an A pass unless you pay them to get one for you....because their computers will log on automatically at the first nanosecond that boarding passes become available and they will nab all of the A passes for their paying passengers before the rest of us get there....

of course the good news is that it will probably take a year or so before they build up that much business...guess a lot depends on how much they advertise and SW promotes their "service"....

now you can usually get A boarding passes online up until a couple of hours before flight time (so I am not about to pay them $40 for our family of 4 RT to get A boarding passes for flights that may have 1/3 of the seats or more occupied by preboarders!!)

I wonder if there are that many people out there dying to get A boarding passes??

 

[Niagara2]

This stinks. Not only do they not have assigned seating, they charge you for the privilege of an A boarding pass? At MCO the preboard line is hugh. Southwest keeps taking things away that made them flyer's sweetheart. Getting free flights is now limited, based on availabilty, you pay for A passes, Remember the 8 segments and free flight that is now 16 segments for a free flight. If you don't check ding three times a day I find that low fares are not as frequent. Airlines are changing, most full service lowering prices and cutting services while Southwest seems to be cutting services and programs while raising prices and surcharges.

 

[deltachi8]

This stinks. Not only do they not have assigned seating, they charge you for the privilege of an A boarding pass? At MCO the preboard line is hugh. Southwest keeps taking things away that made them flyer's sweetheart. Getting free flights is now limited, based on availabilty, you pay for A passes, Remember the 8 segments and free flight that is now 16 segments for a free flight. If you don't check ding three times a day I find that low fares are not as frequent. Airlines are changing, most full service lowering prices and cutting services while Southwest seems to be cutting services and programs while raising prices and surcharges.

This is NOT a service of southwest. From the web page:

BoardFirst.com is owned and operated by Board First, L.L.C.

BoardFirst.com is not affiliated with any airline

Anyone could have come up with this idea.

 

[lawgs]

they have had a discussion about this on

www.flyertalk.com

the last person that tried something similar was shutdown by SWA

there is not indication of what SWA has decided to do with boardfirst yet as far as that discussion goes ( there was some indication mentioned there that the boardfirst server might be blocked by SWA )

who knows ....but i doubt the boardfirst server could "lock" up all the access to SWA as mentioned above and if they were able SWA would probably look unfavourably on that

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

Niagara,
Keep in mind that it is not SWA that is charging you for the A pass, this is an independent third party company providing a service.

That said, these are still NOT assigned seating, so if we check in at the 24 hour mark and get our A passes, we will still be among the first in line because of the time we get to the airport, not because some company checked in for us.

The other thing I'm wondering, does it make sense to give out all of your flight information to a company that no one has heard of before. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I certainly would not be comfortable trusting someone else to do this for me and hoping it goes correctly. I would rather do it myself and know one way of the other...

 

[Niagara2]

K - I jumped the gun - sorry. I thought that for $5 you got the A at 48 hours and everyone else tried at 24 hours. OK - first not many will know about Boardfirst and I don t' think families who have multiple reservations would pay 40 or 50 dollars to get an A pass. I think we will be OK for the most part. The other things I said about Southwest are still a concern if the trend continues.