Southwest to finally offer assigned seating.

[White Cat]

I have never flown this airline because I have heard of too many issues with seat saving and so forth. I much prefer to have an assigned seat. I know for some reason a lot of dis people love this airline.

 

[Marrila]

There is a discussion on this topic here.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/southwest-to-have-assigned-seating.3950706/

 

[georgina]

I have never flown this airline because I have heard of too many issues with seat saving and so forth. I much prefer to have an assigned seat. I know for some reason a lot of dis people love this airline.

I am one of those that loves SW. I have flights to/from MCO in Sept for $37 each way. My December flights are about 4000 points each way, which is also very cheap. I am usually solo or with DH, the boarding/no assigned seats is fine with us. Free checked bags, when DD went to college across the country we flew with her and had 6 total free bags. Free changes, credits if a flight goes down (which a lot of airlines are doing now but SW started it)

 

[tvguy]

They experimented with assigned seating years ago on flights out of San Diego. I flew Southwest in March for the first time in 4 years and did notice that the seats and rows were numbered, something they never used to have on their planes so I wondered if something was up, The lack of assigned seating has been the number one complaint their received in all their customer surveys for years, so I suspected it would have to come to be eventually.

 

[Disneefun]

With the way people are acting on airplanes these days, I'm sure they had no choice. Assigned seating just takes away one more thing to fight about.

 

[White Cat]

We prefer to purchase a seat and priority boarding. Would never use an airline that didn’t offer both. We prefer seats up front. I’ve heard horrible things about SW.

 

[RangerPooh]

I actually don't mind the way SW handles seats. We purchase Early Bird so that we can choose our seats through priority boarding.

 

[BrianL]

Yeah, I liked the open seaing too. Of course, I am often travelling on my own, so it's not so hard.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I actually don't mind the way SW handles seats. We purchase Early Bird so that we can choose our seats through priority boarding.

Agreed. Most times it seemed to us filling a Southwest flight with open seating was a couple minutes more efficient than other airlines with assigned seats. For those who didn't fly SW often, it definitely seemed confusing, though, and it seemed inevitable they were going to change it. Can't tell you how often we saw people looking at their boarding pass, and looking at the row/seat numbers, trying to figure out where seat B23 was....... The change will make things more consistent across airlines.......

 

[sk!mom]

With the way people are acting on airplanes these days, I'm sure they had no choice. Assigned seating just takes away one more thing to fight about.

Agree. We fly SW often and have for many years. I used to never mind the seating. As long as you checked in 24 hours ahead, we could board no problem.

Then SW started offering priority boarding for a price. That seemed to work fine for a long while, as well. But as time has gone on, I’m noticing more and more issues and it’s gotten tense at times.

Things like families boarding late and insisting that they “had” to sit with their children. Or people paying for one priority boarder and then trying to save seats for the rest of their party.

In my experience, SW flight attendants don’t want to get involved in sorting it. Although they will ask if anyone is willing to move for a family. I was given free drinks one flight for being willing to move.

It was time to offer assigned seating or enforce some policies like no seat saving.

 

[NotUrsula]

I prefer open seating, as do most people I know who frequently fly on SWA (which is most frequent flyers where I live, because SWA operates 2/3 of the flights out of the local airport).

The upside to open seating, besides not having to pay a "seat selection fee" on top of the cost of the airfare, is that you get to choose who you do NOT sit next to, and the choice of where you do sit is under your own control, not that of the airline. (And yes, I know, nowadays people can pick when purchasing online, but the airlines routinely block off some seats, and if the equipment changes, the majority of passengers without status still get the luck of the draw.)

What SWA has not yet announced is the fee structure; including *if* there will be selection fees for the standard seat rows (I think it's probable that there will be some fee, but they may surprise us by structuring it differently than most airlines.) However, presumably no one will be able to sit up front anymore without paying extra or getting a complimentary upgrade for status, because they will be changing the front 1/3 of the plane to extra-legroom configuration.

Those who think that open seating had a faster load speed are absolutely correct, it does, and SWA really depended on that to keep their turn times down, because every minute that a commercial aircraft is on the ground is a minute when it is operating at a loss. That is why they resisted assigned seating for so long. The change to assigned seating is a big factor that is driving the other aspect of the announced change, which is the expansion of the schedule to have planes in the air 24/7 by offering several red-eye flights. (There will be other costs to that choice as well, because the crews don't like those night flights, so there will be extra pay needed to keep them staffed..)

 

[RangerPooh]

Things like families boarding late and insisting that they “had” to sit with their children. Or people paying for one priority boarder and then trying to save seats for the rest of their party.

I have seen this issue, but the one that I have been experiencing a LOT more are the families with young children or wheelchair users who are placed between the A and B group, when my Early Bird placed me in B. Where I am suddenly behind an additional 30 people. Not exaggerating on that number. They need to be better at that, being behind the last EB passenger in A or B. We have 4 kids, if we needed to sit as a family we booked an airline with fixed seats. Otherwise we did our best, but you can guarantee that we paid for EB for me and our two youngest so that at least part of our family was together.

Wheelchair users is another area that is abused. On my last few flights they tried limiting wheelchair users to one person accompanying them not their entire family. Sadly it still remains abused. I have flown multiple times out of our local airport where 50% of a large party was in a wheelchair so that they could get priority boarding. Doubtful that that many individuals in the party needed assistance. The largest group that I counted was a family of 14. Remarkably most were able to walk just fine once off the plane.

Before people flame me, I understand that individuals have invisible disabilities. However there are those who work the system, who ruin it for others.

 

[tazdev3225]

Wheelchair users is another area that is abused. On my last few flights they tried limiting wheelchair users to one person accompanying them not their entire family. Sadly it still remains abused. I have flown multiple times out of our local airport where 50% of a large party was in a wheelchair so that they could get priority boarding. Doubtful that that many individuals in the party needed assistance. The largest group that I counted was a family of 14. Remarkably most were able to walk just fine once off the plane.

Before people flame me, I understand that individuals have invisible disabilities. However there are those who work the system, who ruin it for others.

I am flying SW for the first time in a few years in a couple of weeks with my husband who will be in a wheelchair, while my grandson and I struggle with the carry-ons and his walker. We may use the walker to ease that struggle, plus it will make my walk a bit easier instead of a cane. My biggest fear is that we will have issues boarding. My DH has had 2 strokes and while he can walk with the walker, he has poor balance so I need to get him situated. My grandson is autistic and nervous about being left alone to board. It should be fun. I am also one of those who needs a wheelchair to get to the gate normally but can use a cane. I also forego the wheelchair at landing, use my cane and walk really slowly. I have knee issues and the knee hurts really badly at the end of a flight, Walking eases some of the pain.

I said the last time I flew SW they needed to do away with the open boarding as it was like being in a stampede to get on the plane.

 

[Babs Johnson]

Southwest is by far the dominant airline at my local airport but I dislike it because of the lack of premium and assigned seating. In many cases I’m willing to connect on other airlines instead of flying nonstop on WN.

I hope this diminishes the “miracle cure” so many wheelchair users suddenly experience by flying Southwest.

 

[mom2rtk]

I love not having assigned seating. If I get on and see some hacking up a lung, I can move farther away. If someone has a small baby, I just choose a different row. So sad this is changing.

 

[RedAngie]

I’m hoping the “premium seating” mimics First Class, 2x2 instead of 3x3. It doesn’t have to be walled off, just wider seats with more legroom up front. I’ll gladly pay for it.

Southwest’s boarding process is more orderly and efficient than other airlines.

I thought they revamped their system to accommodate red eye flights a few years ago.

 

[AttheParks]

I think I am in the minority! I prefer assigned seats and glad they are moving in that direction. I just read an article that said 80% of passengers prefer assigned seats.
I always buy early bird to be able to book early and sit with my family. We used to get A group no problem. However, within the last year early bird has consistently put us in B. Families board between A and B and depending on location (like Orlando) can add a lot of people before B boards.
Also, the amount of people that save seats is getting out of hand.

 

[declansdad]

I said the last time I flew SW they needed to do away with the open boarding as it was like being in a stampede to get on the plane.

The Southwest boarding system is the most organized system of all the airlines. There are two single file lines and you board in order. Airlines that use zone boarding always have numerous passengers crowding the gate long before their zone is called.

 

[MillauFr]

How does Southwest handle families that are coming from a connecting flight that is late and they show up after the C group?

 

[ronandannette]

We prefer to purchase a seat and priority boarding. Would never use an airline that didn’t offer both. We prefer seats up front. I’ve heard horrible things about SW.

We have no need to sit anywhere specific and I hugely resent having to pay for seat selection and baggage. I would LOVE to be able to fly SouthWest, compared to the exponentially higher prices, terrible customer service policies and increasing unreliability of Canada's two major airlines.