I have been a frequent Southwest customer for more than 15 years. And I've been a marketer with responsibility for understanding and adjusting to customer demands for longer than that. My advice to you...beware of making drastic changes to your business based on a very vocal minority of customers. keep in mind that people who are happy with service (including myself) tend to be pretty quiet....you won't hear from them until you've done something to make them unhappy. if you do the work, i'd bet you find that the majority of current customers prefer unassigned seating and that many of those (including myself) make their choices when flying partially based on the convenience of your system. If you switch to assigned seating, I for one will likely be flying Southwest much less frequently.
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