I travel SW within Calif about 12x per year, and I don't have kids. But I absolutely agree with comments above that families have to be able to preboard. The new boarding policy actually slows down boarding, creating a mess onboard prior to takeoff as people move around to accommodate families, and has the opposite effect of the one intended. Don't fool yourself that business folks try to sit far from families; if families are in the front, the biz folks sit right behind them in order to get out of the plane in a hurry.
But also, I am saddened by SW's decision to raffle off 'A' line places to the highest bidder. The 'check in at home' prize used to be A, but now everyone will try to figure out how to get a B, as the ideal tradeoff between paying too much or too little, being able to avoid screaming babies (*I absolutely defend the right for kids to scream, as long as I can sit a ways away) and being fairly sure you can keep your carry on luggage with you.
I hope an anthropology PhD student is interviewing and taking footage of our antics in the terminal and on board, plus the strategies folks are utilizing in order to optimize the outcomes we want. Is there a way to just get on a plane and go somewhere without a lot of game playing? At least it is giving us all a lot of things to talk about as we figure out where the B & C folks should stand while the As are lined up.
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