Starting November, Southwest will change its completely “grab any seat” policy. Instead, you will get assigned a letter and number. When your letter is called, everyone in that group lines up in order by number, boards, then grabs any seat they feel like. In case this is difficult to understand, Southwest has an interactive minisite set up to explain the process.
Southwest Airlines puts an end to ‘cattle call’ [CNNMoney via More Than Points]
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“According to a Southwest statement, when a gate agent calls a boarding group, passengers will take their place in their numerical order.”
WTF? What could possibly take longer than lining everyone up in numerical order for each letter after the letter is called? I’ve got a even better idea, Southwest! How about each person is assigned a letter and an animal, and then they have to line up based on how fast that animal can run and then they have to hunt for a seat with a picture of the food the animal eats.
Seriously, though, won’t people just cheat? That’s what they do now with assigned seating airlines (when they call seats 30-25, I see maybe 50% not in those rows get on board). I guess it’ll be up to the SW gate agents to filter those people out.
And we all know that won’t add any time on to the boarding, either.
Southwest has been trialling this boarding process in SAT for months now, the response was so overwhelmingly positive from both gate staff and passengers they decided to keep it while they roll it out to the rest of the country.
It should work well since you’re put into groups of five, it really doesnt matter whether you’re at the beginning of the group of five or at the end of the group of five, compared to the big difference if you’re at the beginning or end of the A group (45 people). You don’t have to stand in a line for an hour or more to get a good seat (especially if you’re in the B group).
Curious as to how this changes the “grab any seat” policy? All this seems to do is make the line-up more formal. It is still the first person on the plane gets their choice of seats.
@doormat: Ahh, groups of five. That makes much more sense than a grammar-school style lineup. The linked CNNMoney article didn’t mention that at all.
@Javert: Yes, its still open seating, its just breaking the letter groups into smaller subgroups to keep people from standing in line forever…
Last group allowed to board: passengers in miniskirts.
@kimsama: Yea that is something a number of news outlets and even southwest is still not clear on – whether or not the individuals in the groups of five will also need to be in numerical order (26,27,28,29,30) or just that the groups themselves are in order (1-5,6-10,etc).
There is also a video in addition to the “Boarding School” flash animation…
[www.swamedia.com] (20MB WMV) that goes over how it works and feedback from customers.
This seems sensible. I’m glad they aren’t assigning seats.
I fly Southwest more than any other airline, and I think this is a great idea. It keeps what is fast about Southwest boarding (which is key to them having their planes fly more hours than other airlines), but also will reduce the amount of time that you must waste trying to get in the A, B, C group, etc. This will make for a much more relaxing experience in the airport. I love it.
To my mind, this is the best part:
Q: Do families still get to pre-board?
A: Beginning October 2, 2007, an adult traveling with a child four years old or younger will board between the “A” and “B” boarding groups, unless you have an “A” boarding pass. Those Customers holding an “A” boarding pass should board with the “A” boarding group. With an all-jet fleet outfitted with comfortable, leather seats, our families traveling with small children are easily accommodated together.
It always seemed unfair that people with kids never had to worry about group assignments. Now at least they don’t get a jump on A.
I thought they already do this? Maybe just on the east coast or something? I’ve flown Southwest around the Northeast for a few years, and we’ve always had boarding passes labeled A, B, or C, and had to line up the the corresponding lines. It’s not bad, but it’s best to print out your boarding pass as soon as possible to get in the A line, and get in the line early so you get your choice of seats.
I love SWA, and it amazes me the lengths people will go to game the system. Last time I flew, I saw variations of this scheme- jerk has B boarding pass. He gets at the end of the A line. Blammo, he just got to the front of the B line.
I imagine this new scheme is to prevent this.
BY ADAM291 AT 12:12 PM
“I thought they already do this?”
You didn’t do well on the reading comprehension tests, did you?
@King of the Wild Frontier: Zing!
Based on that sketch, it seems Southwest is switching from “cattle call” to “zombie call.”
@Adam291:
They’re adding a number to the letter code. The number and letter combo are assigned in the order that you check in to get a boarding pass. Now, instead of lining up in a group of ~50, you’ll line up in a group of ~5 (well, 10 groups of 5, per letter), by crowding around the kiosks (see image above).
@jeblis: What’s with the snark?
“It always seemed unfair that people with kids never had to worry about group assignments. Now at least they don’t get a jump on A.”
You apparently haven’t tried bringing a couple of young kids on an airline flight before. Just getting to the gate intact is sometimes an accomplishment. OMG they boarded before you, when you made sure to spastically hit reload on your browser exactly 24 hours before the flight to get your “A” pass while they were dropping their kids off at daycare?
You won’t know where they’ll be sitting now… there’s no avoiding them when they board after you. Maybe they’ll sit their kids next to you when they board with their kids between “A” and “B”, so the kids can spill their juice on you and cry louder than your iPod’s max volume.
Wouldn’t it have just made more sense to increase the amount of letters they use to break everyone into smaller boarding groups? It’s essentially the same thing, but I can imagine that a letter and a number will be more confusing for some than just a letter. Perhaps instead of A,B,C, they could go A-M or something.
This is a great idea. So much time is currently wasted just waiting in line. Now there’s not such a need to arrive at the gate early. And the policy on kids is great. It encourages these families to check in early too.
@mtaylor924: You’re right, that [A-M] would have been an option. But I think this way they accomplish several thing:
1. With only 3 groups, people THINK they’ll board sooner than if there were 13 groups. They’ll be more excited about being B40 than about being K
2. People know ABC and 1-50. It’s quite likely people will not remember whether G or H goes first.
3. It’s not a huge change — it’s an adjustment.
Just my thoughts.
As I like to tell my anal Southwest-flying friends who need to get a window seat, but check in late:
“The front of the B line is the same as back of the A line.” No longer will I be able to share that nugget of wisdom.
When I fly Southwest, I like being at the front of the line. Sure, I might feel like a complete tool for being the only guy sitting on the floor at the terminal an hour before the flight, but at least I get the totally useless satisfaction of being FIRST!
I guess my days of being a complete tool are over. At least when it comes to Southwest and standing/sitting in line.
I think the point is being missed by some. In the past, even if you were in the A group, you could still end up in the very back of the group line because you showed up only 1.5 hours ahead of your flight and didn’t sit at the gate. I’m sure other folks will agree with me that often they would get to the gate and there would be about 20-30 A group folks sitting right near the front about an hour before the flight will depart.
Now it just means more competition for check in time rather than time sitting at the gate. As long as you check in early, you’ll get on the plane early. If anything, it will drive more people to check-in online the day before the flight.
Personally I’m all for it, I like the idea that because I check in early I can get into line early, rather than have to sit on my bag at the gate for over an hour just so I can be in line at a good time.
As long as they’re assigning people a place in line by printing a number and letter on every boarding pass, it sure seems that they ought to just make that number and letter correspond to a row and seat on the plane.
I liked Southwest’s open seating policy, but now that all the other airlines have let you get online and select seats in advance, the benefit isn’t just as great anymore.
I would love it if SOME airline would grow a set and stand up to the business traveler with a roller bag, a laptop bag and a garment bag and tell him that he can only put ONE of them in the overhead compartment. God forbid he might have to put the laptop bag at his feet so I can actually get one bag in the overhead compartment. If they didn’t run out of space in the overhead compartments, maybe people wouldn’t make a mad dash for the gate as soon as any section is called (even if they aren’t in that section). One bag! That’s all I want to be able to put up there. I CAN’T check my laptops and cameras, they’ll be destroyed.
I liked Continental’s check in kiosk. They would let you switch seats depending on what was available. Everyone was jealous of my exit row seat. Also got the front section, right behind 1st class last time. It was frickin great.
Maybe the other airlines do that too, but COntinental always seemed to have something available for switching.
Wow… I guess I just don’t get it. This crap is why I’ll pay mucho extra to avoid Southwest.
If I’m flying first class, I board first and get my pre-flight drink and relax.
If I’m flying steerage class, I just hang in the terminal until the last call and relax, knowing I’ll have the seat I picked ahead of time waiting for me.
This SW system, whether new or old reminds me of younger days rushing to get onto a Greyhound bus getting dirty looks if you try to sit next to the wrong person.
I’ve seen Southwest gates with people sitting on the floor in their A, B, C lane and just don’t get it. I don’t get how it’s faster either. I’ll admit I’ve never been on SW because of this, but isn’t the last like 5% of people boarding walking around trying to find an empty seat and lots of chit-chat asking people to move so people can sit together?
(Personally, when I select seats for a flight I do my best to sit my wife elsewhere and then say “Sorry honey, there were no seats together when I booked the tickets” and then enjoy a peaceful flight. Muahaha, another advantage of assigned seating.)
Im confused as to why this is any better than simply assigning seats? Early check-in = best seat just like assigned seat carriers, but with the disadvantage that you can’t load the rear of the plane first. If they figured out a way to make sure I’d have space for my bag in the overhead bin, I wouldn’t worry about getting in line at all.
I wonder if Southwest’s servers will be able to handle the load of everyone trying to check in online, and refreshing, refreshing, refreshing to see if they’re finally eligible…
@Antediluvian: The snark was for being too lazy to read the article… and well I’m pretty much a dick.
@jeblis: Nice! I’m all for full disclosure.
Hi, my name is Brock, and I have an over-inflated sense of entitlement.
Still completely unacceptable in my opinion.
The only thing they are doing is removing the reward of showing up to the airport early.
I don’t think they will change the random method of handing out boarding assignments which seems to ensure that I never get to sit with the person that I am traveling with.
I’ll pay the extra cost of traveling on a different carrier in order to sit with my wife.
I *might* consider flying SW now. Never for business, but if the fare was cheap enough I’d give them a shot now, something I wouldn’t even entertain before.
I didn’t mind the cattle call as much as I did the fact that families with children got to pre-board. I fly in and out of Orlando primarily, and I’ve seen more than my fair share of four-to-five foot tall “four year olds”. I’ve literally been second in line in the A group and boarded a half-full plane full of families and their suspiciously mature four-year olds.
I’m more than sympathetic to parents travelling with genuinely small children, so don’t blame travellers like me, blame families abusing the pre-boarding priviledge.
@kimsama: But what if SWA uses Swallows to depict animals? What is the velocity of an African Swallow?