I love SWA and have embraced the boarding philosphy, never complaining even if I really goofed and was in the C group. As someone who thankfully has a less grueling schedule now but used to fly at least 2 times a week on Southwest, I was extremely disappointed yesterday upon learning that my flight from San Antonio was undergoing an "evaluation" for a new boarding process.
Imagine checking in for your flight at the counter (2 hours and 10 minutes early) and the attendant checks in your child, prints the boarding pass and gets interrupted by another employee needing assistance. A few minutes later my check in is completed. With the new boarding process this means that my daughter is now assigned a "position" number that is 15 numbers below my own. We are both in the A group however the position numbers determine when we board within the A group.
I questioned the gate attendant because I was concerned about my daughter boarding and being out of my sight and asked if I could just keep her with me and board together. She said that my daughter would be ok and should board with her own number group. I got an annoyed look when I chose to keep her with me but nothing was said. I sympathize with the gate attendant, she was doing what she was told I'm sure but this is far from what I have come to expect from Southwest. Just in case you have an infant you still want to be in the A group if you fly from San Antonio. Preboarding for families with children under 4 has changed to "family boarding time" and happens after the A group has boarded. There were a lot of unhappy parents at my gate yesterday.
Hopefully this will not be adopted as the new process, it's really not any faster from what I saw and experienced.
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