Although I'm willing to look at how Southwest adopts assigned seating, and that might change my mind, my initial feeling is NO to assigned seating.
As a very frequent Southwest flyer over the past 30 years, and I have 7 zeros before the numbers on my Company Club/Rapid Rewards Card, I appreciate the current system.
On the legacy carriers you have assigned seats, but many times only if you hold elite status, otherwise you get your seating assignments at the gate. On the other carriers boarding takes forever. You have people blocking the aisles as they get into "their" seat. You have people stopping in mid cabin trying to figure out where the aisle numbers are located. You have people sitting in the "C" seat when they should be on the other side on the "D" seat.. Then you have the people who are in the wrong seat and then other people to accomodate them sit in another person's assigned seat which creates more problems until someone gets the bright idea to get the flight attendant over to mediate the situation. You also now have the risk of people NOT lining up because they have an assigned seat, and will board at the last minute.
Now with assigned seats there is the possibility is the last person to board is going to be sitting in row 30, window. The plane might not be full, but since we now have assigned seats, he or she has to walk to the back of the plane and possibly get two people to get up from the aisle and center of his row to let him in. Without assigned seats, he probably would just grab the closest open seat he could find.
With assigned seats, you have to sit next to: (pick out the one you like) screaming child/obnoxious businessman/person with a nasty cold because that is your assigned seat. With open boarding: you can pick out who you want to sit next to, plus if you don't like the person who choses to sit next to you, you can move to another seat.
Only upside I can see to assigned seats is for families traveling together, and with open seating if you check in early you will be in the first group, and you will definately be able to secure an entire aisle if you are a family of 3, and two aisles if you are a family of 6. If it doesn't work out you can try the social process of explaining the situation to someone who is sitting in a row by him/herself, and I'll bet if you are polite and locae another aisle or window seat for them they will move. Now with assigned seats there might not be three seats together, as this is a frequent occurance on the carriers with assigned seats, there have been times I couldn't even get two together.
I'll be interested in the outcome of the assigned seats test. Possibly Southwest can figure out a better system than what is available on the other carriers. Southwest has been able to continually make a profit over its career, something no other carrier can boast. Perhaps they can figure out a better way, or perhaps they will find that the system they have now is better. I'm glad to see they have an open mind to this and haven't decided to follow the pack and jump into assigned seating, but to see if it will work for Southwest.
Time will tell, and looking forward to watching this test as much as I enjoyed watching the over water evacuation demonstrations on my flights from OKC to STL.
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