Gary,
As a company owner, the staff of my organization, Premier Rides (don't worry, we're a roller coaster manufacturer -Revenge of the Mummy, The Italian Job Stunt Track Coaster - not a fledgling competitor), do think of you as The Company Plane. We literally fly hundreds if not thousands of segments annually. While I agree with some of the comments that point out that your most loyal customers (like ourselves) enjoy knowing how the system works and thus being able to secure A passes consitantly, I have to say that that the bad of the "cattle call" overwhelms the good. There is no more pleasant flying experience that one can have considering tyour planes are typcially relatively full. Your pilots are polite and your flight attendants by far the best in the industry - they can put a smile on the worst sour puss! However, the preboarding experience can be a frustrating and sometimes dangerous experience. Spend a day at the airport in Vegas where due to the fired up attitudes from "What happens here, stays here" you find line cutting, pushing and shoving when the lines start moving, and on several occasions I have seen fights over line position. I once watched a classic ambulance chaser scene where a lawyer gave his card to a passenger in line who had been in an altercation with the classic line "Let me take car of this, the airline has deep pockets" - made me ill to watch.
Of course if one goes to the smaller cities on your routes especailly down South the situation is typically more humane and the "events" are less evident. But you are a national company, not that small regional airline from so long ago. Perhaps one approach would be to identify the locations where uncontrolled lines are a challenge - Vegas, LA and only focus the reserved seating for those locations. I wish you luck wiith your tests.
Jim
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