But they also won’t help you if someone wants that seat. As someone else said, shame on you for skirting the system. Customers like you are what is causing the change. If you don’t have the $200 you shouldn’t be going.
If you fly a lot with the three legacy airlines you should know that SW boards faster than all of them by a decent margin. SW budgets 30 minutes for boarding and usually pushes back early. The legacies budget 40 minutes for the same plane and are often late, but very rarely early.
According to the article i read, couldn't find it in the link provide - 2025 after they modify the seating to have more leg room.
I’ve been on legacy airline flights that boarded quickly. It usually just meant sitting on the tarmac longer until we’re cleared for takeoff. Same with delayed boarding, though, because we missed our scheduled slot. Is Southwest actually taking off earlier than scheduled on a regular basis or just pushing off the gate early?
Statistically, yes. But based on where I fly, the reality is different. The last 6 flights I’ve been on have pushed back 10-15 minutes late because of how long it took for people to find a seat. The FA’s repeating over and over “This is a full flight and only middle seats are available. Please take the first available seat so we can push back on time.” And then the pilot once we are in the air “we got a bit of a late start but we can make up the time in the air.” The routes I fly are typically full, and popular for leisure tourists who may not be experienced travelers, or who are just entitled and think they can board last minute and get 3 seats together by making people move.
How much of that time savings is due to less people on Southwest are trying to bring carryon bags to avoid the bag fees? How much time could be saved by the legacy airlines if checked bags were free but using the overhead bins cost $100? I'm guessing at least 10 minutes.
I wonder how you are going to feel when SW starts charging for the privilege of picking a specific seat, like most other airlines do these days.
The times I've been late recently were all on SW flights LOL
Sure, Jan. You mentioned they didn't say "no", that is not yes. At this point, I think you are trolling. Have a nice day and bless your heart!
Tbh I would pay the use the overhead bin anyway for MCO flights. Baggage claim there is such a mess. Same with my home airport (BWI). It's why I do carry on only for that route.
And if you want to upgrade, you're going to have to pay for each one instead of saving seats like what happens now.
Well your flight time is based on gate to gate using an average taxing time as well. The PP is talking about boarding the quickest. Whether there is weather, a back up of planes or something else is out of any airline's actual control but isn't related to when they are pushing off the gate which is based on "is this plane ready to go".
More airlines should adopt Alaska Airlines policy of giving you 2,500 miles per bag if the bags aren't at baggage claim within 20 minutes of the aircraft door opening.
I imagine they'll block off seats together like other airlines sometimes do for these situations, at least up to a certain age.
