We are outraged at the new family boarding policy. My husband travels Southwest frequently for business. He has recently had to pay a a surcharge on rapid rewards that were expiring becasue he can't use them faster than he earns them.
We arrived at the airport last Thursday to be excoriated in front of everyone by the clerk as we tried to pre-board. This is the first time we have flown as a family with our new daughter. I am a nursing mother and all I wanted to do was get on the plane and start nursing before we take off. Getting through the security at the airport is hard enough with all the extra gear required when traveling with a child and she was ready to settle down and take her nap. Since I am a modest woman I will not nurse openly in everyones presence and my daughter does not take a bottle. By the time we got on the plane I had a very stressed and screaming child.
We talked to the flight attendant about the new policy and he explained it was because families hold up the boarding process. He used Orlando with the Disney area as an example. How stupid is that? That is only one place out of how many destinations Southwest flyies? That does not make sense. If that is the problem the families are going to hold up the boarding process no matter where in line they get on the plane.
It is a shame that this is such an unfriendly policy towards families and I can only think that Southwest doesn't want family business. I checked with the other airlines and they still have the family pre-board policy.
I am also offended that Southwest's customer service has no email address and the only way to get a letter to the CEO is via "snail" mail. I think they knew from the beginning that this was a bad policy so they would not have to respond to so many parents and non-parents complaints about the family boarding process.
By the way, you don't have to show any proof of disablilty to pre-board. Perhaps we should have all of our spouses line up in the pre-board line and save us a seat.
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