I am a huge SWA fan. My husband and I don't fly more than a few times a year, but when we do, it's SWA. Why? The absolutely brilliant and logical approach to getting people ON the plane and OFF the plane as efficiently as possible. Couple that with the general positive attitude and professional yet approachable and genuinely NICE staff that you've managed to assemble, and we're happy campers. Er...flyers.
We have had to fly other airlines from time to time, and there was nothing about the experience that was better than what we find with SWA. Assigned seating is not all it's cracked up to be, and the other airlines just don't have the overall friendliness that SWA projects. First class, business, coach, it doesn't matter. That stuff doesn't get you there any sooner, you still have to put up with the hassles that EVERY airport now presents, it's meaningless to those of us who simply want to arrive at our destinations.
Those who turn their noses up at SWA for whatever reason, be it seating, lack of fru-fru frills, whatever, are not going to be convinced to switch purely on assigned seating. From the looks of it, SWA will lose its appeal to much of the faithful, and therefore perhaps a bit of its advantage, should assigned seating be implemented.
Assigned seating will mean I have less reason to fly. I won't bother switching to a different airline, but I certainly won't be as willing to fly, and will go back to roadtrips. Open seating means the least amount of hassle and delay for me, and that is why I am willing to fly. If I lose the option of the low-hassle airline I've come to luv, then I just won't fly.
Here's hoping for the dismal failure of the assigned seating experiment! 😉
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