re: The Downfall of Southwest

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I swore them off before any of these announcements due to their treatment of their best customers, especially with the boarding chaos that is jetway jesus.

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I loathed flying SW out of MSY most of the time. I was not a fan of the boarding process, the "check-in 24 hr" game, 1 person booking early bird and saving a whole row, or the jetway jesus sham, but I played the game it if the price/route/time made sense for me.

With that being said, at one point I flew about 40-50 segments a year with them and had A-list/companion pass multiple years, but I was never loyal to SW. They provided a service that made the most sense for me at the time, but if another carrier provided better times/cheaper/faster/reliable, that's who I was going to take. If all else was equal, I was likely not booking a SW ticket.

I'm curious what kind of treatment occured before the transition back to a "traditional model" occured that had you ready to swear them off?

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I'm just enjoying seeing SW get raked over the coals.

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I'm not against it . I want to see more competition that will continue to put downward pressure on pricing in a slowing market. Don't care how it happens

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It’d probably be the gate agent seeing the same name on the PNR in multiple seats.

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But a passenger of size would have the same issue. Would be up to the gate agent to determine if you're too small to get an extra seat.

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Southwest is usually double the price of everyone else

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I see it both ways.

SW lowest available fares to sal late city for a mardi gras ski trip if I flew out on Sunday was more than first class on Delta.

Flying home on Sunday, SW was cheaper than united, delta and american.

They used to be cheaper MOST of the time and even when they weren't, sometimes the open seating (without a fee) and free checked bags made them cheaper in the long run.

That is definitely no longer the case.

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Multiple travel sites, myself included, have posted about Southwest fares being significantly higher than competitors after the recent changes.

People aren't flying them and they are running promotions like crazy to try and get butts in seats.

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Again, I'm not debating they have higher costs in certain markets/routes, but as I said, it's not across the board and to survive they will have to figure out their own strategy in revenue management or they will continue to underperform.

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Gave up compensating customers for issues (travel vouchers became non-existent for issues/delays that were their fault)

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They still compensate in my experience, but not as much. A recent late night flight of mine was cancelled due to mechanical issues then crew timing out. SWA promptly reimbursed me for my $400 airport Hilton stay without complaint, and gave me a $100 voucher. Seems like the vouchers used to be $300.

I generally don't see that many preboard passengers except for flights in and out of New Orleans, but I agree that is the most annoying thing about SWA.

I am going to miss being A-list and changing my flight at the last minute while traveling for business and still being able to board after the A group and snag a early row aisle seat. But I won't miss traveling with my family and trying to find seats together or hold spaces.

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was a-list preferred/companion and when you are a16/a17 and you end up being the 30-40th person on the plane half the time, something is wrong.

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That's probably the thing that irked me the most routinely.

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Why?

I generally don't understand why being the 60th person on the plane as opposed to the 20th person on the plane makes people so mad.

-You would still have the same access to exit rows as pre-boarders can't sit there; anyone in those seats would be those who had a lower boarding group
-De-boarding may take 5 more minutes if you're in say the 20th row as opposed to the 8th.
-There is still plenty of overhead bin space.

I don't get why this bothered people so much.

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De-boarding may take 5 more minutes if you're in say the 20th row as opposed to the 8th

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This probably means that you're part of the problem. GTFO the plane. Move. I don't even care if you don't have a connection, maybe I just want to be not in the airplane, or the airport, and home. Slugs that figure out they haven't unplugged their chargers until after we hit the gate, and need to find their leftover snacks before standing up should take Greyhound. Living in Atlanta and dealing with people like you made me this way.

To me it makes way more sense to have this outage at the people who block the way on boarding groups over 5 with other domestic carriers. Pre boarders clear the way for open seating so it speeds things up…just get the hell out of the way.

When assigned seating takes affect and the overhead bin space becomes more limited with no dedicated first class or priority storage, it’s going to be an issue for even mid B boarding positions. But those in A shouldn’t have an issue other than a few minutes extra getting off the plane.

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I don't understand how that affects people enough to bother them to this degree? The amount of hate for it is well beyond the affect is actually has and I just don't get it.

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I think it stems from the fact that the people who are following the rules feel cheated. Like many things in life these days, those of us that follow the rules sit by and watch as people disregard them and act like the world revolves around them.

Preboarding is offered as a service for those that need it. Unfortunately, people take advantage of it, especially on an airline that, until recently had no differentiation on its fare types.

Once the new seating policy goes into place, most of the benefit of gaming the system, aside from early access to overhead bin space, is gone. Sure you can pre-board, but you still have to pay to check that bag and you'll just be spending more time in seat 29B.

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Is it as simple as the traveler wants to feel important and someone being in front of them makes them feel less important, even if the people in front of them have essentially ZERO impact on their experience?

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As others have said, people are gaming a system that was designed to streamline the boarding process. If we all did it regardless of status, and the airlines wanted to curb the gaming it would require the airlines to require documentation, check the documentation, which would probably negate the time saved from offering it.

I'm not sure how it doesn't bother you to watch perfectly capable people take advantage of a system that allows the elderly and disabled a less stressful boarding experience. As well as it should give every other passenger on the plane a more efficient boarding process that hopefully gets us all where we want to go more timely.

As far as does it impact me? E.g. Travelling internationally on SW and having to sit in the back 1/3 of the plane because there truly are that many pre-boards and you have to clear immigration with 2 agents and now 80 people are processing before you, it can add significant time to your airport exit.

Also, I don't check luggage and I do appreciate being able to hop right off. When you go anywhere and your're stuck in a queue, is it acceptable for people just to go to the front of the line and get a ticket, get their food, or enter an attraction while you're waiting? It's the same principle. I appreciate when people are respectful of others, and when they aren't, it irks me as I said . Is that simple as you say.

To what degree it bothers me....I'll grab a beer and move right on, but it's disappointing to watch in the moment.