potential boarding changes

[christinef]

I heard that Southwest is going to stop using the Open Seating system! 😰😰😰 Everyone I talk to is devastated about this!!!!! Southwest is (was?) awesome, but if they become like every other airline we will all suffer! I wish they would've polled their loyal customers, and not the complaining folks who don't like the Open Seating system.

There are SO many reason the Open Seating system is superior... Tell me you agree! 💙

[dfwskier]

I suggest you let  SW know how you feel. Yo ucan do that by clicking on "contact us" below and proceeding.

[fltraveler30]

Where is this "contact us" button that you are always referring to?   I only ever see the following.

[DJ_Ran]

Actually they did poll all their loyal customers and over 80% of them preferred to do away with open seating. Everyone I talked to is excited about the change and all agree it was long overdue. So many that are boo-hooing are probably the ones who have been scamming the system. You know the ones claiming to have a disability so they can board first and bring a friend along.  The ones that need wheeled down the ramp in that wheelchair on the departing flight only to jump off and dash off the plane on their own two feet upon landing. And of course with can't forget the ones that would purchase one early bird check-in and then save an entire row of seats for the friends who are boarding in the C group.  

I totally disagree agree with you, open seating is terrible. Guess you'll have to move over to another airline with an open seating policy. Oh wait, there are none. Maybe that should tell you something. 

[dfwskier]

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@DJ_Ran wrote:

Actually they did poll all their loyal customers  

 Not true. SW did not poll ALL their loyal customers. I know plenty of AL and ALP members that were not polled.

I'm sure SW polled several thousand customers, but certainly not all their loyal customers.

[dm354t]

I don't know about who was or was not polled but I just had a long and miserable experience on a different carrier (six legs, round trip) and they were all uniformly awful.  Delta uses a numbered zone system that has ZERO to do with where you're sitting on the plane and everything to do with how much you paid for your seat.   Translation: It takes forever to board. On my first leg, I thought that was awful but deplaning should go much faster.  nope.  I didn't compare times on and off any of the legs but the one leg I did time, was unacceptably long.

Agreed, the scammers of the open boarding system deserve a special place in travel hell.  Still, I'd rather err on the side of trusting those who need accommodations can get actually get accommodations which may not be as easy as on the carriers with zones (even with pre-boarding).