briantroutman

My wife and I are both A-Listers and fly Southwest almost exclusively. And neither of us gets a boost through employer-paid travel: We’re self employed and pay every dime of the thousands of dollars we spend annually with Southwest. It’s safe to say that we’re both seasoned travelers—and also experienced in traveling with our infant daughter, having taken more than a dozen paid flights with her in her first ten months.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the three of us were traveling back home on a 9:45 p.m. flight from PHL to MCO. At about 9:00, we were still waiting on some unusually pokey TSA agents (Pre line was closed) to finish screening our belongings when my phone buzzed. To my horror, I was greeted by an alert on the home screen: NOW BOARDING.

We ran to our gate and arrived at 9:14 (according to Southwest’s own monitors)—a full minute before the first medical pre-boards were scheduled to roll down the ramp—only to glimpse the tail end of the last Cs disappearing down the jetway.

We boarded to find neither a half-empty plane with dozens of open seats nor a jam-packed plane that would have suggested boarding so early was necessary. Instead, it was dead average—many open center seats scattered throughout the cabin. By FAA regulation, we needed a window seat for our ticketed infant plus one adjacent seat for one of us. Not a single pair of open seats remained from nose to tail.

Stranded at the rear of the aircraft, a flight attendant finally took to the PA and asked for volunteers to move. After a few minutes of embarrassing begging and silence from the passengers, a couple in the next to last row volunteered.

In a decade of happily flying Southwest, I’ve never been angrier. I emailed customer service...thinking that the airline that LUVs me would at least give me something of an apology. To my shock, I got a nearly automated boilerplate defense.

I cut out all of the additional canned paragraphs on how open seating works, that they’re not responsible for the TSA (I never suggested they were), and that they pride themselves on their flight attendants being helpful. That they would send me such a thoughtless, prepackaged, and essentially unapologetic response is as infuriating as the incident that prompted my complaint.

But more importantly, they’re dodging the primary issue. If the boarding pass says in large bold letters Boarding Time 9:15 and Southwest’s own website says (emphasis added):

I’m inclined to take them at their word. If Southwest wants to board 45 minutes, an hour, or whatever amount of time before departure, fine, but I think that they should be honest with me—and all Southwest passengers—and publicly declare that as their policy.

nsx

Today my flight, a 737-700, had completed scanning of all C's 30 minutes before departure. No skin off my nose, since I was standing by and almost the last one on. But I can imagine some people with A's didn't get the seats they wanted.

PAX62

Here is the key to your story..."The Saturday after Thanksgiving"

On a weekday early flight where there are a lot of seasoned and business travelers WN can lock and load a full flight in 20 min. On a Holiday weekend however, you are inundated with inexperienced travelers that have no clue and take twice as long...hence the earlier boarding....even on weekends they will board a bit earlier than a weekday on certain legs.

I experience this this when I fly Virgin. I status matched them with Gold and get to board their flight first as well...and it is a PAINFUL process to watch as most of Virgin passengers are not frequent flyers as most the business folk will fly WN or one of the other legacy carriers.

In fairness to WN, they do post suggested arrival times...we just take for granted knowing that boarding is usually regularly 30 min out. They would probably rather have a few ticked off A Listers than late flight from all the jackwaggons taking for ever how to fit their luggage overhead and get out of the aisle.

smmrfld

TL;DR, but stuff happens when you fly. Board early, board late...somebody is always gonna ...... I've had this happen also, but it's part of travel. Time to move on IMO.

Big4Flyer

I share your frustration, had the exact same thing happen at SEA where the entire aircraft was boarded 30 minutes before and we were flying with our two young kids. Fortunately the check-in agent was able to radio ahead and the FAs held the last row for us so I could sit with the kids while the wife got stuck in the middle. Sometimes I appreciate WNs open boarding, other times, like in your case, it sucks.

Yellowjj

Aren't the 737-800's scheduled for 45 minute boarding times instead of 30 or am I remembering wrong?

irishguy28

What FAA regulation?

All I can see is the following "tip":

If it were mandated by the FAA, then the airline would have moved people as required by law, and not had to merely request people to move.

Orange County Commuter

So you arrived late and then when SW was efficient it's "their fault"

Seriously, on a holiday weekend you think that being in a position where you were still in line 45 minutes before the flight was acceptable?

And the "tip" above was apparently selective reading since on the page below the paragraph above the "empty seat" idea says you have to put the car seat in the window seat. The Flight Attendants could have made someone move. They just didn't want to force it.

https://www.faa.gov/passengers/fly_children/

•Reserve adjoining seats. A CRS should be placed in a window seat so it will not block the escape path in an emergency. Do not place a CRS in an exit row.

palmetto86

Nope. 30 min, just like 737. When early boarding has happened to me, it's usually on 738s. If I know my flight will be on a 738, I'll try to be at the gate a little early just in case.

Often1

I cannot conceive of a reason to hold a flight when the aircraft, crew, and passengers are ready to go and ATC is clear for the route. Sorry, but while I am no WN fan, I credit WN for putting the pieces together and getting this flight out early.

As to the whole window thing, there either is an FAA rule (or WN safety and security policy), in which case the FA's (or the Captain if need be) must order someone to move or there is no such rule in which case you are exaggerating. I think that you need to get this straight if you fly a lot because A-List or not, these things happen.

There are also all kinds of reasons why carriers board early. People at ops centers monitor all kinds of factors and, for all you know, the crew is creeping up on timing out and there are ground delays creeping up as well. Therefore, boarding early and hoping to push early may mean not having to cancel. Or it may mean that the flight makes it to MCO, but crew request requirements delay that crew out of MCO the next AM.

ExCrew

Never been a fan of WN's open seating b.s. The OP's problem wouldn't have existed with assigned seats. Were jetBlue to offer more city pairs out of OAK, I'd be ALL over them.

expert7700

sure it would have. OP (or a family like his) statistically would have bought seats too late after all were assigned. or we'd be reading a thread based on WN's flexible change/standby/etc policy on to a different flight last minute.

/board too late? complain. board too early? complain.

pinniped

All airlines do this from time to time. Although I can understand where open seating, plus an evening flight that probably has some connecting pax, causes some heartburn.

I love it when they start everything early for the first flight of the day (regardless of airline). This is the one case where a little RJ can work in your favor: odds are greater that all ticketed passengers are actually onboard, and you can be in the air 15 minutes before the departure time on your ticket.

jeffandnicole

The OP wanted an apology. Southwest offered an apology ("Nonetheless, we are sorry for your inconvenience, especially if the three of you were unable to find seats together"). I guess the OP wants more of an apology.

If the OP flies as often as he does, including 10 times with their infant child this year alone, he's probably well aware that sometimes things don't always go perfectly, and no doubt has seen this happen to others on other flights.

I think the most irritating thing is that he is very upset, writes to Southwest, gets a very prompt response, doesn't like their response (what were they exactly supposed to say anyway?) and then writes here to complain about Southwest and their response.

As noted, it's Thanksgiving weekend, which is known to every man, woman and child to be the business weekend in the world of aviation. It's been mentioned for an eternity to arrive early at the airport, to prepare for long lines, etc, etc.

There was an issue, and Southwest resolved it. A little grumbling is fine. A full out rant about changing their policy isn't necessary.

Often1

OP simply did not like the seats available to him and then claimed that there is an FAA rule which there is not.

Note that WN apologized for the "inconvenience" as it always does, not for having boarded early, as that is perfectly OK.