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Sit where ever!

Salay38
Explorer C

What is the purpose of zoning by numbers and letters if at the end you can sit where ever you want?   On my fight this past weekend to New Orleans from Orlando, we ever told to board by zone letter then stand next to our zoning number. We were a group of 4, in zone “C”, when we finally boarded, the plane was at full capacity, and our seats were taken!  All 4, when I politely asked about my seats the guy in my seat said, “ the flight attendant said we can sit where ever we want” 

 

we we ended up sitting in the last few seats available and YES THE MIDDLE SEATS, that were left scattered around! 

 

Someone in Southwest had no clue what they were doing when they came up with this “**bleep**ty” idea.

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Sit where ever!

dfwskier
Aviator A

 


@Salay38 wrote:

What is the purpose of zoning by numbers and letters if at the end you can sit where ever you want?   On my fight this past weekend to New Orleans from Orlando, we ever told to board by zone letter then stand next to our zoning number. We were a group of 4, in zone “C”, when we finally boarded, the plane was at full capacity, and our seats were taken!  All 4, when I politely asked about my seats the guy in my seat said, “ the flight attendant said we can sit where ever we want” 

 

we we ended up sitting in the last few seats available and YES THE MIDDLE SEATS, that were left scattered around! 

 

 

Someone in Southwest had no clue what they were doing when they came up with this “**bleep**ty” idea.


Sorry to hear that you were frustrated.

 

The way Southwest boards passengers is not like any other airline in the US. IT does not reserve seats for passengers. Instead, upon boarding, passengers can choose any available seat (sit anywhere). This is a process Southwest has used for the entire almost 50 years it has been in existence and continues to use as it allows the airline to be slightly more efficient than it's competitors.

 

Passengers get boarding positions based on when they check in for their flghts. So the people that check in first get A boarding spots, followed by people that check in later getting B spots, followed by people that check in last getting C spots. Passengers can check in starting EXACTLY 24 hours before the scheduled departure time for their flights, and people DO start checking in EXATCLY (to the minute) start checking in 24 hours before flight time.

 

Boarding happens by boarding position. So A1-A30, board first followed by A31-A60, followed by B1-B30, etc, etc,. As mentioned earlier, once on board, you can pick any seat that does not have a body in it.

 

I suspect based on your comment "when I politely asked about my seats the guy in my seat said" that you thought that your boarding posiition was a seat reservtion. As explained above, that is not so.

 

Southwest web site does a pretty good job of explaining the process. I'd advise taking a look at it

before your next flight (type" boarding the plane" in the select topic box):

 

 https://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/faqs.html

 

Also, for future flights remember to try to check in as close to EXACTLY 24 hours before departure time for your flight as you can. You can have the airline do it for you by purchasing Early Bird Check in.  You can get information about that by going to the web page mentions above and typing "early bird check in" in the select topic box.

 

Either of those options should result in your getting better boarding positions than the ones you got for your last flight.

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

 

 

Re: Sit where ever!

dfwskier
Aviator A

Sorry to hear that you were frustrated.

 

The way Southwest boards passengers is not like any other airline in the US. IT does not reserve seats for passengers. Instead, upon boarding, passengers can choose any available seat (sit anywhere). This is a process Southwest has used for the entire almost 50 years it has been in existence and continues to use as it allows the airline to be slightly more efficient than it's competitors.

 

Passengers get boarding positions based on when they check in for their flghts. So the people that check in first get A boarding spots, followed by people that check in later getting B spots, followed by people that check in last getting C spots. Passengers can check in starting EXACTLY 24 hours before the scheduled departure time for their flights, and people DO start checking in EXATCLY (to the minute) start checking in 24 hours before flight time.

 

Boarding happens by boarding position. So A1-A30, board first followed by A31-A60, followed by B1-B30, etc, etc,. As mentioned earlier, once on board, you can pick any seat that does not have a body in it.

 

I suspect based on your comment "when I politely asked about my seats the guy in my seat said" that you thought that your boarding posiition was a seat reservtion. As explained above, that is not so.

 

Southwest web site does a pretty good job of explaining the process. I'd advise taking a look at it

before your next flight (type" boarding the plane" in the select topic box):

 

 https://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/faqs.html

 

Also, for future flights remember to try to check in as close to EXACTLY 24 hours before departure time for your flight as you can. You can have the airline do it for you by purchasing Early Bird Check in.  You can get information about that by going to the web page mentions above and typing "early bird check in" in the select topic box.

 

Either of those options should result in your getting better boarding positions than the ones you got for your last flight.

 

Hope that helps.

Re: Sit where ever!

DancingDavidE
Aviator A
Solution

@Salay38 wrote:

What is the purpose of zoning by numbers and letters if at the end you can sit where ever you want?   On my fight this past weekend to New Orleans from Orlando, we ever told to board by zone letter then stand next to our zoning number. We were a group of 4, in zone “C”, when we finally boarded, the plane was at full capacity, and our seats were taken!  All 4, when I politely asked about my seats the guy in my seat said, “ the flight attendant said we can sit where ever we want” 


As mentioned in the other response - it isn't "zoning" like the other guys, these are boarding positions - they will also be referred to as "groups" -  and no seats are assigned. I'm sorry to hear that the boarding process wasn't clear, I hope you give  Southwest another chance now that you have been exposed to the boarding process.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.