yesterday
Like I have said before, you can do acrobatics and back flips all the way to the gate, wear a t-shirt that says "I CHEAT THE PREBOARD SYSTEM", give an interview on Fox News about your abuse of the system, then self-identify as a person with a disability - PREBOARD.
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Wednesday
15 years ago, Early Bird really made a tangible difference. Automatic check-in, several hours before the other passengers could check in, almost always resulted in an low (or mid) numbered A boarding position. That was a time when smart-phones didn't even exist to alert passengers to log in and check-in exactly 24 hours before boarding. Now that we're all aware of that 24-hour-check-in timeline, more passengers try the Early Bird system. The number of seats on the plane remains the same. The value of Early Bird decreases, and the airline tries to leverage that by increasing the price in order to shrink the customer base who can afford the tangible benefit.
It wouldn't shock me if Southwest came up with an "EarlyBird+" option, to further parse out what their customers are willing to pay.
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and what if there is a short turn around time for a disabled person to get to their next flight? You expect them to be last off the plane and then try to hurry to their next gate?
I think you should have to show your disability parking tag to be able to board in the group. Anyone with a legit disability would be able to get this easily through their Doctor.
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Such practices would result in lawsuits until time itself comes to an end. There is no basis to require someone who boards early to wait until the plane is otherwise empty to exit.
It is my belief that your suggestion is designed to discourage people from preboarding via wheelchair.
The only way to approach a partial fix is to require a medical certification like we have to handicapped parking. However, there will continue to be preboarding as people would see a doctor to get the certification and those will be approved, I assure you.
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