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Southwest Airlines Community

Preboarding

swafflyer
Explorer C

I have to say the preboarding process has grown from a valuable and reasonable exercise to an abused policy and potential safety concern. The criteria for eligibility needs reexamined and some thought as to the safety impact of populating the front row of the airplane with passengers of limited mobility would be in order. Reasonable minds would consider that an exit row with egress considerations. 

 

If you’re charging a premium for boarding position to those of us in Business Select and $40 to upgrade to A1-A16 it would seem reasonable that steps should be taken to ensure there’s some actual value in that purchase. 

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Preboarding

spacecoastbill
Frequent Flyer B

Well, thats not going to happen.

 

The word is out that all you have to do is fake a reason to preboard, you can bypass paying for the upgraded boarding.  Either that or pay for one and save a row or two for friends in the first couple of rows.

Re: Preboarding

tpegan1
Explorer A

The gate agents giving out this preboarding privilige are playing Santa Claus on someone else's dime.  I fully support the philosophy of preboarding but when these agents allow for abuse they are not inconveniencing themselves but those that have actually earned or paid for priority boarding.  I've flown Southwest for over 30 years and this is a rapidly growing problem that Southwest management has turned a blind eye to.  If they don't believe it's a problem I'd suggest they show up at BWI and watch the group of preboarders on a few flights.  The people that actually deserve this preferential treatment should be the first to complain about the abuse.  Instead they seem to get defensive.

Re: Preboarding

tpegan1
Explorer A

I couldn't agree more.  I've complained about the obvious abuse of preboarders a couple times to Southwest and the response was the same both times.  They told me that they have a well defined policy.  I should have rephrased my complaint.  The policy is not being adhered to by Southwest employees so the fact that a policy exists is irellevant. Today a couple came up to the the gate and told the agent that they had a 2 month infant and would like to preboard.  The agent no problem accommadating this request.  I'm pretty sure this does not fit within their policy guidelines.