Ongoing Issues

[TheMiddleSeat]

From the Business Select info page at https://www.southwest.com/html/air/products/business-select.html

"Guaranteed A1-15 boarding - Be one of the first to board with priority boarding. Pick the seat you want and have room for your carryon bags."

Key words are "one of the first", not the first.

If you are buying Business Select just for the boarding position you might want to consider buying cheaper tickets then purchasing an upgraded boarding position at the gate.  There would be substantial savings doing it this way.  The upgraded boarding position option still gets you A1-15, although there is a chance it could be sold out so there is a small risk it would not be available.

There's also the possibility that a flight you are boarding has through passengers on it.  Often people mistake the number of people already on the plane when they board as being preboarders when in reality they were on the plane when it landed and have been there the whole time.  Yes, with this it is possible that a Business Select traveler is actually the 50th person seated on the plane.

--TheMiddleSeat

[gsking]

I'd be shocked at anyone buying BS for the boarding position.    Refundability, more points, and a free drink... maybe.     But even then, my work demands we buy the nonrefundable tickets due to the much better price.  I only get BS when the upgrade price is so small it makes sense for TQP.

And even then...I sit in the back.  Why anyone would want to be squished up front (yep, no larger seats up there), watching idiots clamor for bin space with bags they could have checked for free,  and having the isle full the whole boarding process (especially fun during Covid)?  Oh yeah... And you're sitting next to one of those loathsome preboarders.  Sounds exquisite.

All for what?  To get off the plane a few minutes sooner?  If your time is that valuable, you're not flying Southwest. 

Y'all are missing all the cool kids who sit in the back of the bus.  Empty seats, relaxed people... And no scammers.

[shelbyusn]

Thanks Nicole, for reminding us of the Golden Rule.

In these times we all need to practice good manners.

[SWFlyer007]

@shelbyusn And you know what they say about sailors....

[TFLY]

It can be annoying, but more importantly, we should go back typical boarding procedures at Southwest.  The groups of 10 is useless.  Now that flights are full again, everyone is crowding the podium and area near the boarding door so let's make it organized by A1-A30  and so on and do it right.

[SWFlyer007]

@TFLY Agree, to only some extent.

I've not figured out how SWA GA is dropping the ball on this one on every single flight.  We are told to line up by the silly silver posts, yet nobody does and the GA does nothing to correct it.  ME AS G.A.  "If you're lining up by the ticket scanner and not in the designated area, I won't scan your ticket."  Please line up in the designated area/line."   That could actually work with distancing, but then again, it is nullified once you get past the GA and are in a line trying to get on the plane.  I'm A list so I am always one of the first on, and I can't figure out how the 6-8 people in front of me cause a backup from the get go....wth, all the seats are open just sit down already.