Southwest Airlines Community

great idea!! I fly 50+ round trips a year on SWA. Agree with Mr. Coleman, etc. above. Would be a nice perk for your road warrior, frequent fliers & Business Select passengers. Yes, require head sets & no phone calls. I prefer to rest on planes while traveling on business and won't be able to if lots of "phone calls" occurring. Great work SW!!!! ... View more

I agree with Tim, Kyle O & others above. I love the new system if the gate attendants enforce the boarding procedures. Please keep the new system. It's great to be able to have time for food, bathroom, work, relaxing, etc. Saying "A1-30 can now board" confuses the passengers & encourages line jumpers. I fly SWA roundtrip every week on business. yes i get the A16 boarding pass. PBI has been pretty good about explaining the system. BWI has been erratic at best. The Gate Attendants need to announce how boarding process works every time. i'm afraid they are going to have to keep announcing the process every time for a long time as many SWA passengers fly one or 2 times a year or less. As stated before, it is disheartening to your 50 plus round-trip per year SWA flyers to be holding A16 and watch several line jumpers cut in front of us (with A30 to 50's) and the Attendant does/says nothing. I also agree that it is frustrating to board when the Attendant says NOTHING about the new boarding procedure. i unfortunately have heard "OK A group can now board". what a disaster that is. Saying A1 thru 15 can now board works. Then say A16 thru 20. etc. People then start to understand the process. Thank you SWA for making difficult changes that were necessary. Please educate the Gate Attendants and keep explaining the process every time!!!. ... View more

Don't give up on the new boarding system. it is starting to work. As you know I fly SWA round trip every week on business. my flights this week were handled pretty well by the gate attendants. as many have been discussing, the gate attendants need to provide clear, proper direction to the passengers (explain it every flight as alot of passengers haven't flown under the new system so they still think they need to rush the gate) and I think we all will have a civilized boarding process. the best boardings I have had involved the GA saying we will board in numerical order, A1, 2, 3, 4, etc. or A1 is up front and A30 is back there. Saying OK A1 through 30 can board now creates a disaster. As I have said before, the missing A1 through 15 passengers creates many line jumping situations. not sure what you can do about that. The secret lies in the Gate Attendant providing succinct directions announcing that "hey folks, we have a new boarding process so listen up here a second" and not allowing gate jumpers to rush the gate. Please don't be supportive of the rude line jumping behavior or you will be losing customers. The new system can work well with proper instruction from the Attendants. Please hang with it and please do not go back to the old system where I had to fight for my turf in line for 2 hours before the flight; unable to go to the bathroom or get a bite to eat for fear of getting booted out of the line. ... View more

The new boarding process has been going pretty well until my last flight on Thursday Dec 6th. Don't get me wrong. I love the freedom that the new boarding process gives us. not defending my turf for 2 hours before the flight and being able to go to the bathroom & get a meal instead of sitting on the floor is priceless. i am not asking you to change anything just enforce the boarding order. at PBI on Thursday morning, i had (as I usually do) the coveted A16 slot. There were no BS A 1-15's. No less than 14 people somehow boarded in front of me!!!!! This is not right at all. Is this what i have earned? The 2 gate attendants not only totally ignored the boarding pass order/numbers, they were making fun of it. i strongly encourage you to enforce the order or there will be fights once again in line. This really made me angry. You can't create a new system then not follow the rules. this just encourages the line jumpers and causes the folks that were obeying the rules to now cheat as well. they know you are not enforcing the rules so they cut in front of those of us following the rules. You need to remember that we are the reason you changed the rules. those of us that fly round-trip flights every week on business. I applaud the several gate attendants that have been policing the boarding process. they explain the process well and check the boarding passes. For the incompetent PBI GA to say "gee, where did all the A1 thru 15 passengers go" is misleading, studid, not funny and just encourages line jumping. You are heading for trouble if you don't educate your GA's and your passengers!!! Saying "OK A1 thru 30" is causing problems. they simply need to say A 1-15, then A1 - 20, A 1 - 25, A1-30 in rapid succesion & everyone will then get the idea. Thursday's boarding was a disaster that will now just encourage rude passengers to continue that behavior. not happy at all.......... ... View more

I have been meaning to write to Southwest Air for many months. Your recent changes have prompted me to take the time to finally write. Before I start, please note that I have flown a Southwest round trip flight almost every week for the past 2 years. I am approaching approximately 100 round trip flights in 2 years; 95%+ on Southwest. I really feel like you all are part of my family. I mainly fly for business but several flights a year are pleasure as well. My wife and 2 sons, travel on Southwest as well. First off, CONGRATULATIONS on the changes to the boarding process. Thursday November 8th was my first chance to experience the new process at PBI. I have flown about 6 flights under the new procedures. These changes have been a long time coming. For 2 years, I have been defending my turf in the A line, observing shouting matches, shoving matches, fights, ignorance, rudeness, etc. Thank God for this boarding process change. It worked very well on Thursday. I now have time to relax after the fun security process and before boarding. However I do agree that your boarding agents need to provide much better direction on the boarding process. Saying "A 1 through 30 can now board" causes much confusion, anger and angst. I suggest that they call out for A 1-5, then A1-10, A1-15, A1-20, etc. I have unfortunately already seen many fliers try to cut in front of others. e.g. those with A30 or higher going to the front of the line and not being stopped/questioned by your agents. I think that your new boarding process has been well thought out including the family boarding. The prior system has been abused for way too long. And may I say "shame on you" to the many pre-boarders that blatently abuse the pre-board/wheelchair process. I have been shoved out of the way many times exiting the plane by those (now quite mobile walkers/runners) that came on via wheelchair. Miracles in flight, yes there are......every flight?!? I am very pleased to hear about the new Boarding Pass priority A selection process as well. I guess this is as close as we will get (on Southwest) to priority boarding for frequent fliers like me. Thank you!! It would be great if we Priority fliers could get the boarding pass greater than 24 hours but I understand if you can't make that happen. I am very close on the Companion Fare opportunity as well. I am somewhere in the 90 to 95 flight range. Guess I need to get a SW VISA to get a few extra credits. May I thank you for your on-time, non-stop or direct flights, and affordable fares. Your flight attendants, pilots and gate attendants are very professional and helpful. I even appreciate their humor. Now if you could only invent Southwest airplane toilet seats that stay up while "us guys" are going to the bathroomà ... View more