Assigned Seats on Southwest Airlines
 

Finally, Southwest will allow passengers to reserve a seat on their planes. I would never fly on a plane without an assigned seat. And, don't ask me to change seats. The time to select a seat on a plane is when you buy the ticket, not when you get on the plane. Plan ahead. Rant over.

I am glad to see Southwest changing. I quit flying them due to this reason. I stayed with Jet Blue.

Since Southwest was the only airline that flies nonstop for wherever my family lives and still has free luggage it’s never been that big of a deal about not pre-selecting seats. You were always assign different sections and then you just pick your seats.
My guess is reason why Southwest is changing is because they are going to start putting a dollar amount on each seat or area.
So no more free seat flying with Southwest.

Our family visits in the summertime, so our sons are very happy with having an entire row to themselves. Now they have to pre choose, that luxury may not be as easy. In high season they just meet half way and drop a car at friends.
Neither has kids, so not a fan of flying during Mouse House season

Bags fly free may end sometime too. Once all the changes happen, they will be just another airline. :(

I like Sun Country: few screw-ups compared to some other airlines, but mainly because being based in Minnesota they fly a lot of nonstops between Orlando and Minneapolis (most of my family lives in Minnesota). Most other airlines route me through Atlanta, Salt Lake City or Denver. The only downside is that Orlando is Kid Central and a lot of those flights are packed with (at times) VERY noisy and unruly kids.

The seating system creates "Miracle" flights. Many passengers in wheelchairs board the plane (and jump the line) but somehow are able to run off the plane when it lands. I never noticed this same level on airlines that have reserved seating. This is most paravent with flights from the Northeast to Florida.

Hope not

This might not be popular, but IMHO, the problem with boarding (and eventual deplaning) is not assigned seats vs. group free for all boarding, it's the ever increasing competition for overhead carry-on bin space. Back in the sixties and early seventies, there were no overhead bins---all luggage had to be checked. A full plane could board in 5 minutes. Now, we have people tripping over one another, cheating on wheelchairs, and trying to sneak more than one carry-on aboard.

If it were up to me, I'd rip out all the overhead bins and go back to the way it was in years gone by.

Look at it this way---people think they save time by skipping the baggage claim area, but it may be an illusion. I find the wait to claim a bag at the carousel is usually 10-15 minutes. But the time to board is 25 min and to deplane about 20 min. Is anyone saving time as opposed to a 5 min board and deplane????

I should add that the biggest waste of time that has sprung up in the last few years is off-site car rental locations----wait for a shuttle, wait at the counter, wait to get a car---then rinse and repeat for returning it.

[QUOTE=golfing eagles;2353141]This might not be popular, but IMHO, the problem with boarding (and eventual deplaning) is not assigned seats vs. group free for all boarding, it's the ever increasing competition for overhead carry-on bin space. Back in the sixties and early seventies, there were no overhead bins---all luggage had to be checked. A full plane could board in 5 minutes. Now, we have people tripping over one another, cheating on wheelchairs, and trying to sneak more than one carry-on aboard.

If it were up to me, I'd rip out all the overhead bins and go back to the way it was in years gone by."


Those overhead bins are all too often the subject of rule-bending. I don't know though about ripping them out: often families with young children have necessities in their carryons that they need accessing during flights. But...stricter rules for sure.

Agree about the boarding though. Stricter regulation of carryons would certainly help that. The best boarding I've ever seen was at a layover in Taipei. When it came time to board (747), the first class passengers got to go first, then everybody else. Two jetways, and as I recall your seat number indicated which jetway you used. But that was the only differentiation. As I recall we boarded over 300 people in maybe 10 minutes.

Personally, I'd rather not see it change. I don't have a problem with lining up in the A,B,C,D preboarding system. We always buy the early bird option for $25, and have always been in "A" group. We always bring an empty bag or two so we can load up on the local and ethnic food items we can't get down here, so the 2 free bags work for us. I guess I can live with the new seating since I already pay extra to board early, but the free bags going away (if they do) might lead me to change airlines.

I agree. But I think one reason for the overhead bins is to reduce the cost to the airlines to handle luggage.

Good point! They probably save quite a few $$$ by transferring the responsibility of lugging luggage from the baggage handlers to the passengers, at the expense of a zoo-like boarding process. And then charge $35-45 per bag for checked items. But it's all due to the internet search engines and people who select to filter by "cheapest flights first"----they advertise the "best" fare, then nickel and dime you to death.

I flew from Knoxville to Dallas a few weeks ago and the gate nazi (as some folks were calling her) loved her job. She didn't let a thing on that plan that was beyond the allowed carry ons and I must say the boarding process was smooth as silk. She started warning people 15 minutes before boarding to gate check early or end up waiting at boarding time. When the entitled tried to slip by her while she scanned tickets she directed them to the side to be dealt with when everyone that followed her instructions boarded. I love it when someone knows their mind, the process, the rules and how to run a tight ship.

If only they were all like her. Now how do we deal with the fake "wheelchairers" without violating the ADA?

That topic will really get me fired up.

I managed a data center in Dallas a few years ago and I got a request from the systems manager to increase the number of handicap parking spots. I took a look and we had 12 handicap spots for about 150 employees (500 spaces total so plenty of spots to convert). The problem came when I got the company I used to stripe the spaces said all my spaces were too steep to meet the ada regulations (must be under 2% grade), I was going to have to tear up a bunch of concrete, repour then paint the handicap symbols. A simple project turned into 25k spend and budgets were getting tight .I went back and looked at the typical ratio of accessable spaces needed and I should have been able to get by with 7 or 8 spaces for the number of employees I had, with 12 in place there should have been plenty of spaces. I directed security to post a guard at the handicap spaces the next morning and ask each person to provide their placard number and fill out a parking permit. Texas is great, if you have the placard info you can get the backing information from the state. Of the 14 employees vying for the 12 spaces there were 3 that had valid handicap placards.

I called each of the violators and told them there was a $1250 fine and 50 hours of community service for accessable parking violations and I would be calling the sheriff to come out and check the spaces that afternoon. There was a rush to the parking lot, no one hobbled, shuffled or needed a wheel chair.

I had plenty of empty spaces from them on.

Bastards.