Don't go to assigned seating, Gary. You will kill the bird that laid the golden egg.
I am a frequent traveler, and will fly Southwest when ever possible precisely because I need to change my flights often, and when I do, I have an even shot at getting a seat I want. With ANY OTHER airline, I am guaranteed a center seat, and also am paying hundreds more for the privelege. With the loads these days, I am virtually guaranteed a center seat on any flight I book less than 7 days out. Again, for the pleasure of paying a full Y fare. It's absurd.
The boarding pyschology is such that you are using the "herd mentality" to your advantage. You've often said that the faster turn times are what separates your airline from others and allows you to generate profits when others cannot. I expect that the difference between profit and loss translates into just a few minutes. Messing with the boarding times would seem to me to be very dangerous. Why on earth would you want to emmulate what others are doing as they go broke?
The general equality of the system sets up a very interesting interpersonal dynamic. Passengers are just generally much friendlier on Southwest flights, and that is not an accident. Part of that is, of course, the friendliness of the flight crew, but the equality of the boarding process contributes significantly.
Your marketing team needs to really dig deep into which customers are requesting assigned seating. Are they loyalists, or simply echoing what they think they want because it is what had on the one other flight they took somewhere.
Remember too, Coke thought it was a brilliant idea to change their formula a few years back, and look what happened.
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