08-28-2017
05:33 PM
08-28-2017
05:33 PM
I, too, have a Companion Pass for my wife and we travel quite frequently. We've traveled together many times already this year and each time they let her board with me after all the A passengers. However, we were flying this weekend, waited for all A passengers to board and then attempted to board ourselves. The gate agent refused to let my wife board with me, and suggested I try to save her a seat on the plane. When I boarded the plane I was told I could not save seats as this was a full flight and all seats would be taken. I've emailed SW customer service and received the response that all passengers need to board in their assigned position as to not take the early boarding perk away from others with an A boarding pass, however, agents are encouraged to "do the right thing" when making exceptions. Apparently this agent felt doing the right thing was not allowing my wife to board with me even though it wouldn't have inconvenienced any other passenger nor slowed the boarding processs. While I can understand that, it seems to me if you have an A-lister with a Companion Pass, that individual has spent a considerable amount of money on SW, and should hold some additional privilege over a regular A-boarding pass holder or someone who paid $15 for an A spot (no offense to those individuals). An additional problem occurs when I fly with my children who are not A-list, but over 6 years old. Either I give up my benefit of priority boarding to board with them and risk not finding seats together, or they need to board by themselves & I attempt to save seats for them. It seems a simple solution would be to give everyone on the same reservation consecutive boarding pass positions. If a few A's get bumped, they still get to board between A & B groups, or let the companion/spouse/children board with the A-lister between A&B groups. I have no issue waiting until after all the A's board, and give up my low A spot, but having to wait until B50 doesn't seem fair.
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