I think Southwest should just bite the bullet and go with assigned seating. The current A,B, and C system is broken. As it is now, even if you do queue up in your proper letter corral to get a good seat, there is no guarantee that you'll get a good seat, because as soon as the gate attendant calls the letter, it seems that miraculously dozens of people magicallyy pop up and jump into the line where they claim they have had their space "held" by a piece of luggage, a friend, or an invisible piece of paper.
My elderly mother and I experienced this first hand in Philadelphia last week. We waited for 30 minutes near the front of the A line only to have 20 or so people jump into the line ahead of us as soon as the letter A was called.
As long as people persist in violating the spirit of the system, it can't work. Go to assigned seating. i can't imagine it would cost that much more.
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