A place to discuss all things Southwest Airlines. Please read Sub-Reddit rules before posting. Not an official SWA forum.
To those complaining about how preboards are an SWA problem because they don’t assign seats…I present to you American Airlines who <checks notes> assigns seats.
Yes, this is a context-less social media video but the wheelchairs and gate board clearly says American and the destination the OP calls out so I have no reason to suspect it’s not what they’re suggesting it is.
All this was meant to demonstrate is that pre boards are not unique to SWA nor is a high number happening simple because SWA doesn’t assign seats
That’s all.
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The problem is worse on Southwest because of open seating. Nobody ever said the problem doesn’t exist on other carriers.
If you can assign / select a seat in advance, I don’t care if I board last , I know I have a definite seat!
Except when you don’t. AA screwing around with my assigned and paid for seat was one of the factors that pushed me from AA to SW. Had more problems with seats on AA than I ever have on SW, but then for SW I only care about the first available aisle seat and being A-List I get it in row 5 or closer to the front 99% of the time.
They board early to ensure they get overhead space in the section of the plane they want
The reason why this isn’t a problem on that American flight is none of those 15 people got on and saved prime seats for their family and friends. If they paid for only a middle seat they got a middle seat.
It is such a non-issue on carriers that assign seats like American the gate agents look for people that will be slow boarding and convince them to board early. My husband uses a cane, and is extremely slow. We also happen to also always be in the 1st boarding group, so he figures we will get on early anyway. Usually the boarding agent will pull him and his cane out of the bunch of group one folks to send him down first, without him asking at all.
AA charges for checked bags, and inevitably start force gate checking at some point after group 5. Pre-boarding gets your bag on.
Gate checking bags are free each time.
Yes, and did I say it was about the costs?
Checking bags adds time to a trip. Instead of walking off the plane and out of the airport, you have to go to the carousels and wait… sometimes for 30-40 minutes on AA.
If people are willing to fake a disability to get on/off a Southwest plane faster, you don’t think they’d fake one to get overhead space to avoid forced gate checking?
This seems to be a Florida problem, not an airline problem. I think the obvious way to avoid this is to never fly to/from Florida.
Southwest is the clear winner with the most pre-boards. Insane.
The poster is missing the point. Pre-boarders on Southwest can take all the good seats, but that doesn’t happen with pre-boards on other airlines.
Southwest considers all seats as the same. It’s only the passengers that think row 5 is much better than row 8.
I stopped flying Southwest because of this cattle herd way of boarding. I will pay more to avoid them. I will still fly Allegiant and Frontier.
It’s great that you’ve been able to decide which airlines are best for you and your needs.
My problem with other carriers is that assigned seating is not a guarantee of your purchased seat. My parents booked and paid for first class seats and ended up in economy with no recourse other than a refund of the fare difference. You see the same situation in the other airline subreddits.
Every airline has its own set of problems. For me, the benefits of Southwest (just grab an open seat, really good customer service, decently comfortable seats) outweigh the potential for problems.