Southwest Airlines Community

@DancingDavidE wrote: I had to look that up, that's funny it is a real book.   About the seat moving between legs though, that's just the rules.    Do you have to pay for wifi to get on SouthwestAirCommunity or does that website pass through for free along with Southwest.com? I guess I can check tonight. The seat moving between legs actually isn't in "the rules" or policy. It's unwritten, so is not enforced either way. It's the same with the other annoying practice of seat saving - it's not written to be allowed or disallowed so FAs won't do anything about it.   When I've paid a lot more money to get a better chance at a priority seat, you can bet I'll speak up to a passenger who tells me a seat is saved. That's a whole other topic though...   Here's how business select is marketed: 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. Now of course I know that this isn't saying you are guaranteed any particular seat. However, I do think it's misleading or should be disclosed (maybe an asterisk on this claim) that clearly says Business Select is after pre-boarders and any passengers that were on the previous leg. "one of the first to board" is subjective, but when you are behind 10 through passengers and another 10 pre-boarders, I'd argue you're not one of the first. On a 143-seat 700, being #30 out of #143 to board is arguably not "one of the first to board". Either way, the info in this thread is interesting and personally I've already made my decision to take my frequent flyer to United unfortunately. Having consistently preferred seating is very important to my travel preferences. ... View more

@SorryIGuess wrote: Hey there! I was actually in the seat next to you as you typed this, which made me feel super awkward since it was about me and the other passenger. Guess I just wanted to say sorry? You must have been having a bad day if this was something you felt the need to post about. I didn't have BS, because that would've cost the same as the United flight that left at a similar time. I typically fly United for the very reason you're complaining about, so I'll be sure to keep doing that haha. I'm sure none of this will matter to you, since you were listening to the audiobook of "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" while on the plane.   Have a great day! Welcome! I actually don't blame you - I would do the same since Southwest allows it. What's frustrating to me is that Southwest allows it (it's not official or unofficial policy so they could change it but they don't). You probably then heard me talking to the FA when coming on board and expressing frustration - and her saying yeah, we are looking at ways to stop that. However, a single flight crew isn't going to be able to do anything about it.   And give the book a read - it's pretty good although not well titled. It's more about taking on personal responsibility. ... View more

@DancingDavidE wrote: Or look for flight numbers that originate at your destination. Oviously your plans may not be that flexible in all cases, but it is one of the factors that I consider but have quite a few options being home base at MDW.   1) For multiple flights that work for me, choose one on a 737-800.   2) Prefer flight numbers originating with my ticket.   3) if it gets that far for a tie-breaker, on-time statistics.   Why the 737-800? Is that the one that has more exit row seats with extra leg room, or is there something else? It's strange how only 4 seats have extra leg room on the 700s. ... View more

Good ideas - thanks! ... View more

Read my reply - the passengers next to me told me they moved for more legroom. All the exit seats were taken up   And how is this suggestion any different from Southwest telling people to line up in sequential order to board? Southwest can do what they want. And yes, they could tell people to stay seated until after the A group, or whatever else they want.   Clearly you 2 don't like my suggestion, which is fine. Do you know of a way to check whether there will be passengers from a previous flight on the plane then? So people don't waste extra money on BS. ... View more

You're expressing your opinion too.   Southwest's OPEN SEATING is referring to how people board the plane. It doesn't have to mean that passengers already boarded get to get up and move after the plane has landed.   Southwest's OPEN SEATING is not a complete free for all. They assign strict orders of boarding in sequence - it's not a first come first serve. So, Southwest is specifying the order of choice that passengers gets in boarding a plane. Southwest does not specify what happens if you already have a seat on a previous leg - they don't say "ok now first sequence is for existing passengers to go take another seat, and then we let our pre-boards enter the plane"...   So, I get your point, but you aren't getting mine. Southwest could indeed specify what happens to passengers already on the plane, just as they specify the sequence boarding for pre-boards, BS, A-List, families, etc.   They could say sequence is: 1. pre-boards 2. A groups 3. families 4. existing passengers 5. B groups ...   But they don't cover the existing passengers, which is essentially putting them at highest priority. ... View more

Yes it's open seating but Southwest has pretty strict boarding group and order policies. In my opinion, just because you were on the first leg of a flight doesn't mean you should have a chance to change your seat ahead of any priority boarding customers. Just like pre-board can't sit in exit rows.   In this case, I know that the other passengers didn't buy BS because they told me they changed seats for the extra legroom.   I'm wondering if there's any way to check that a flight will likely have passengers on it, so that I don't waste money on BS like this. My suggestion to Southwest is to make existing passengers stay in their seat until at least the "A" group boards for the next leg flight. Otherwise, if there is indeed no way to check whether passengers will be on-board or if Southwest won't implement this policy - then yes, I am considering either an airline that has assigned seating and gives upgrades to frequent fliers instead of paying SW $$$ and having elite status for an early boarding # that is pointless for hacks like this. ... View more