Southwest Airlines Community

When AirTran was serving CAK, they did so instead of serving CLE and it was one of their stations that grew into a decent sized station (It was such an important station for the airline that they once held their annual meeting there instead of Atlanta or Orlando..). But for Southwest, the numbers just didn't justify keeping the station open after they acquired AirTran.     TYS may be too small of an airport for Southwest.  The terminal has 12 gates, Allegiant and Frontier each have a gate, while American, Delta and United each have 3 gates.  There is a single common-use gate, but that would likely be inadequate for Southwest, as I would venture they'd want at least three gates and unless one of the other airlines would be willing to sublease gates (Assuming that those other gates use computer systems that allow any airline to access their systems via them.).  I worked at AirTran back when they served TYS and the only thing that kept them on the route as long as they did was the mail revenue (Same was true when they were flying to BDL.), as I remember sending out many an ATL-TYS flight with a few dozen passengers.  ... View more

If you're on a full flight, saving seats for those in a later boarding group does have the potential to create problems with other passengers.   If I was in the last part of the A boarding group and a huge chunk of seats are being saved for those in other boarding groups, I would definitely be a bit irked.  By saving seats, you're giving preferential boarding to those with later boarding groups that didn't pay for Early Bird.     As for saving overhead bin space, some people put all of their carry on items in the bin to fill it up and when the rest of their travel companions get onboard, they remove the items that will fit under the seat.  The overhead bin situation is even worse on airlines in which they charge checked bag fees.    A few years ago, I was flying on Delta and was sitting in the first row of Economy Comfort on a 757-200.  There is no underseat storage as the row is an exit row.  I get onboard and the bin over my row is already been filled by lower level SkyMiles Medallion members who got to board earlier than non-Medallion passengers sitting in Economy Comfort.  I ended up put my stuff in the overhead bin over the row of the people who put their stuff in the first open bin they came across instead of the one over their row.   ... View more