Well, today I had two interesting experiences with Southwest. First, was the new boarding process, which as a new process caused quite a lot of confusion. I think there is a big benefit to this process when there is a gate change, as those of us who came a little bit early to get a selected seat (one with enough room to work on a computer) would be at the end of the line. I found that I logged in 23 hours and 59 minutes prior to the fight and my pass was number 27. I have now lost my ability to get a selected seat by arriving slightly early and being in the A group. Is this a big deal, yes it is when you travel up to 46 weeks a year and a big part of your work day is in an airplane. I really believe simple is better and complicating the process isn't going to have a net positive affect.
Since I fly frequently, I find the question of having to stand in line isn't much of an issue because on Alaska, Delta, American, Continental, and United people are generally standing up waiting to board about 30 minutes to 1 hour and they have assigned seats,
The second disappointment is to find that the round trip air fare, should I choose to use the business class option, from SAN to SAT is overall 2 times higher than the regular fare, and on the return trip is actually 3 times higher than the normal return fare. I now will have to pay 200% more for a ticket to get the same privileges I had by arriving at the airport about 1/2 hour earlier. Additionally, I worked directly for several major corporations and now contract to about 20 major corporations and none of them will pay for a business class fare in the United States.
A last comment is: you still have the best and most firendly flight crews on the planet!! It does make a difference!
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