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Seating Policy

wc-itover
Explorer A
Can someone please clarify SWA's seating and boarding Policy?  I was told on flight #3902 by flight attendant Barbara that the official SWA policy is that passengers can save as many seats as they'd like. However, upon thoroughly researching southwest.com, I came across just the following policy: "We have an open seating policy, so feel free to sit in any available seat when you get onboard." Based on the sentence above, one can safely assume that as long as no one is sitting in a seat, then one can claim it as their seat. So if the policy on the website is correct, then that would mean that Barbara doesn't know the company's policy and is giving misinformation to a plane of passengers.  So what is the policy?
16 REPLIES 16

Re: Seating Policy

wc-itover
Explorer A
Btw, I'm only concerned because my companion and I were boarding a completely booked flight and tried to grab the last two seats available. Someone was saving the seat for their friend who was boarding way behind us. He freaked out and refused to give up his seat so I asked Barbara, flight attendant, for help as I understood that it was open seating and I have a right to any available seat.  Barbara was extremely rude and declared that it was SWA's official policy to save seats. If true, this would be ironic because we had friends on this flight in the A group who didn't save us seats at the front because they were polite and tried to be fair to everyone else on the plane. Barbara was very unfair to my companion and I. She took away our rights to available seats by misquoting official policy.

Re: Seating Policy

spacecoastbill
Frequent Flyer B

She was wrong.  Sit where you want to.  If there is not a person in the seat, you can sit in it.

Re: Seating Policy

chgoflyer
Aviator A

She was right. Southwest allows seat saving, by "not having a policy for or against it."

 

You are also free to take a saved seat from someone, should you want. Southwest says they expect passengers to "work it out among themselves."

 

Southwest doesn't care that there are passenger altercations over saved seats aboard their planes. In fact, they encourage them.

Re: Seating Policy

spacecoastbill
Frequent Flyer B

How can you say whe was right and then contradict yourself?

 

Saved seat would mean nobidy can sit in it (SWA has signs, and other ways to denote this),  If a person claims a seat is saved and someone else sits in it, then it is not saved as claimed.

 

But yes, SWA is just setting up a confrontation by not being more specific in their policy and enforcing that as well.

 

Those who are inconsiderate enough to try to "save" seats are responsible when it is totally preventable by boarding with their party and not using means to board first either by faking a medical condition or buying one priority boarding and trying to save rows for their friends in the C group.

 

Generally if you are not trying to save a seat in the bulkhead or exit row then you will most likely be sucessful in keeping a seat open for someone boarding later, but then you should have boarded with them in the first place and not put anyone in this situation anyway.

 

Re: Seating Policy

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Ugh, let it go. 

Re: Seating Policy

spacecoastbill
Frequent Flyer B

I did, and as has been stated and proven, there is no way for you to save a seat without a body in it.

Re: Seating Policy

chgoflyer
Aviator A

Someone is saving a row of seats, and you come up and take one of them. They have still successfully saved at least one other seat. You've failed to stop them from saving a seat. It has been proven time and time again -- you can save a seat on Southwest.

Re: Seating Policy

spacecoastbill
Frequent Flyer B

No, I always travel with a companion thus denying your version of Schrödinger's cat.

Re: Seating Policy

chgoflyer
Aviator A

If, by referencing Schrödinger's Cat you mean to imply that a seat is both saved and not saved at the same time, then we are getting slightly closer to an understanding, as this obviously negates your position that it is only one way, and not the other. As I've tried again and again to get you to see, it's both

 

Saying that "there is no seat saving on Southwest" is incorrect. 

 

The statement that, "I can take any seat that someone is trying to save," does not negate this.

 

There is always the possibility that someone is trying to save more seats than you or anyone will be able to take away from them. 

 

Is there seat saving on Southwest? Yes.

 

Can someone try to take a seat away from a seat saver on Southwest? Yes.