Why does SW not assign seats?

[bicker]

Delilah: Many of your concerns, though, are more a reflection of the general inhospitability of US domestic airline travel, rather than focused on Southwest's specific detriments in that regard. The flying public, in its never-ending search for the lowest fare, have scared out of the market every last bit of incentive for providing a wonderful flying experience.

 

[Lewisc]

Bicker--I'd say Wal-Mart is evidence that the American public is searching for low prices in general and not just with airfare.

delilah--Couples just reserve the window and aisle seat and hope no one reserves the middle seat. Someone is going to get the less desirable seats. It would probably make more sense to base seat assignments on price. Those passengers who pay the higher fares get the window and aisle seats and those of us who book the deeply discounted fares get stuck with the middle seats. That would be a very unwieldy system but it makes the most sense.

 

[malibuconlee]

How many times have we read on this Transportation thread about people with assigned seats on other airlines LOSE them when flights are cancelled and reassgned? You need manpower to fix those issues, something SWA doesn't have to worry about.

pinnie

I think you hit the nail on the head with that one. Just imagine all the man hours they save by not having to do these things.

DH calls SW a flying bus. He used to fly it in Texas all the time especially for day trips.

 

[jmminarik]

I always thought SW employees secretly enjoyed watching the A queue passengers standing in line like soviets waiting for TP an hour and a half before the official boarding.

Assigned seating or not, we'd still rather drive 16 hours than fly for 2. We'd fly Midwest....if only they didn't fly their "saver" planes from Milwaukee to Orlando. Seriously, what's the point of being a first class airline when you fly coach seating?

-Joe

 

[bicker]

Lewis: I think we can pretty-much say that there are signs of this phenomenon all over the consumer marketplace. While we consumers talk a good game about wanting quality, and how shrewd we are to insist on "both price and quality" the truth is that our tactics provide incentive for precisely the opposite behavior of the marketplace itself.

 

[debster812]

IT Geek checking in here ​

Another way no seat assignments helps keep pricing down is that it is a piece of software that SWA does not have to use, maintain, and support.

In my 20 or so flights on SWA I have NEVER seen a small child completely separated from 'their' adults. The Flight Attendants are very skilled and helpful in at least getting one parent/one child together. (non including unaccompanied minors of course). I've relocated on several occasions so that a parent and child can sit next to each other.

 

[deltachi8]

You know whats great about Southwest? You can choose to fly them. Can there be some downside for some folk? Sure, depends on how you feel about things. If your not comfortable, you can always choose a different airline. It may cost more or have a different schedule, but its your choice.

I love Southwest and prefer to fly them. However, I have used Delta a coule of time recentlly as they have had great fares and flight times that fit in with me. I wanted SW for the direct flights, but there is always a tradeoff.

 

[inkkognito]

I just think it is fundamentally rude to look around at a line boarding an aircraft, with no assigned seats, being a party of two, and taking an aisle and a window seat, forcing another adult to take the middle seat.

Why is it rude for people who took the trouble to get an A pass and to get to the airport early to have their choice of seats, even if those seats happen to be window and aisle? Obviously you don't like the middle seat; maybe the couple doesn't either. They made the effort to get the best seat choice; if you had been there earlier, you could have had it.

I say this from experience...my husband likes the window, but if I don't take my Xanax, I need to use the restroom more than once (nervous bladder from flying). If I don't feel like crawling over the middle person, I take the aisle. It's not my responsibility to worry about the seat preferences of others and to modify my life accordingly. If you don't like middle seats, get an A and get there early. Don't put the blame on couples who got there before you.
Barb

 

[Lewisc]

Barb--reread the post you quoted. What was rude was the fact that the couple talked to each other, over the poster, throughout the flight. It's kind of rude to have a conversation over someone else. If the couple is going to talk to each other throughout the flight they should, if possible, sit next to each other.

I don't have grounds to complain if I wind up sitting between you and your husband but I don't really want to spent the entire flight in the middle of your conversations. The problem is many couples think they're selecting 3 seats for the price of 2 and get annoyed if someone dares to sit between them. Not saying that's what you're doing but many couples have that philosophy.

Why is it rude for people who took the trouble to get an A pass and to get to the airport early to have their choice of seats, even if those seats happen to be window and aisle? Obviously you don't like the middle seat; maybe the couple doesn't either. They made the effort to get the best seat choice; if you had been there earlier, you could have had it.

I say this from experience...my husband likes the window, but if I don't take my Xanax, I need to use the restroom more than once (nervous bladder from flying). If I don't feel like crawling over the middle person, I take the aisle. It's not my responsibility to worry about the seat preferences of others and to modify my life accordingly. If you don't like middle seats, get an A and get there early. Don't put the blame on couples who got there before you.
Barb

 

[inkkognito]

If that's the rude behavior being cited, then I fully agree. I took the poster's intent to be a general hatred of the middle, with people talking over them as just one of the annoyances. When my husband and I sit on either end of the row, we make a concerted effort not to talk over the person in the middle, hand items, etc. Sometimes I will offer them the aisle, with the warning that I will be climbing over them multiple times.

Oddly enough, once on ATA hubby and I were assigned both ends of an exit row, with a person in the middle, and he did NOT want to change when I offered! It was a bulkhead exit, so I didn't care if I was in the middle, but he refused my offer twice.

Barb

 

[paulmc80]

As far as an airline have assigned seats or not having assigned seats its intersting.

Here there are two major interisland airlines, Aloha and Hawaiian. Both of them never used to assign seats. Both used to fly 737's for their interisland routes. Now, Hawaiian recently out of chapter 11 uses 717's on their interisland routes and assigns seats. Aloha, in chapter 11 if I'm not mistaken, does not assign seats.

Its further interesting that Hawaiian went to assigned seating while they were in Chapter 11. So, seems to indicate they found this less expensive than continuing the practice of on assigning seats on interisland flights. They have made a major turn around and are out of bankruptcy protection now doing well.

 

[dejavu]

We just returned from MCO on Monday and flew out of Midway on SW. I have to admit that I like the cheap fares and all but I hate Midway-much prefer O'Hare and I hate the no assigned seat thing- In fact I hate it so much that I highly doubt I would fly SW again and we had two on time , generally pretty good flights. So I think to some it does matter-I know it does to us. JMHO.

 

[delilah]

Why is it rude for people who took the trouble to get an A pass and to get to the airport early to have their choice of seats, even if those seats happen to be window and aisle? Obviously you don't like the middle seat; maybe the couple doesn't either. They made the effort to get the best seat choice; if you had been there earlier, you could have had it.

I say this from experience...my husband likes the window, but if I don't take my Xanax, I need to use the restroom more than once (nervous bladder from flying). If I don't feel like crawling over the middle person, I take the aisle. It's not my responsibility to worry about the seat preferences of others and to modify my life accordingly. If you don't like middle seats, get an A and get there early. Don't put the blame on couples who got there before you.
Barb

It wouldn't be rude to take an aisle and a window seat, but it is rude to talk over another person, pass things over them, and generally treat them like a rock in the road. I have never taken an aisle and window seat when travelling in a party of two. I have sat in the middle seat probably the majority of times we have travelled, considering that before we had our son, we were a party of two, and we sat next to each other. After our son, we put his car seat in the window seat, and, guess what, I sat in the middle. The specific time I sat in the middle seat between a lovey dovey couple was on another airline, People Express, who I believe also did the no assigned seat thing. I only travelled on that airline once, and I believe they went out of business years ago. It is not so bad being between people who don't know each other, and are considerate to their seatmates. I have travelled on business many a time in the middle seat. It is not optimal, but tolerable. It is intolerable to have to sit with somebody's elbow in your ribcage, because they think that their airfare included the armrest, when, I doubt very much they paid a higher fare than I.

 

[inkkognito]

I agree that it is rude to talk over another person, as I stated in an earlier response. Rest assured, if you ever end up between my husband and I, we will refrain from rude behavior. We fly often and have encountered enough rude behavior from other people to be very respectful of those around us. You shouldn't have to tolerate people reaching, poking, etc.
Barb

 

[PlaneJoy1]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0511060031nov06,1,582614.story?coll=chi-business-hed

The above link will also explain why SWA will be losing it's advantages. I have flown SWA many times along with other airlines and I think the no seat assignment being a big reason why they make a profit is over rated. JMHO

Thanks for the article, I thought it was pretty good but only scratches the surface at what SW will face in the coming years. If you look at their profits over the last few years, it is because of the fuel hedge that they make money. If you replaced their hedged fuel price with market rates, you will see that they would have lost money due to their high costs. Their fuel hedge for 2006 is ~50% I believe and only ~20% for 2007 if I remember correctly. When the playing field becomes more level, in terms of fuel cost, SW will be having to cut costs as well. They are heavily unionized, so the process will more than likely take a while.

 

[bicker]

Not to mention that their pension contributions will be increasing significantly in the years to come... they'll eventually have a pension-load comparable to the majors, unless they make changes that will likely adversely affect service quality...

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Bicker - Southwest has no pension obligations - not sure what you are talking about.

They have a profit-sharing program which funds each fall - but only if a profit is made.

 

[bicker]

Hmm... not sure where I had read that.