gregorygrady

I know you were probably joking, but that's actually a really good idea or incremental revenue (and we know SWA is always looking to increase incremental revenue). Offer buy up's at the counter for $20 from your "C" up to a "A", or just after family boarding, or something similar. I bet they could easily make $100 per flight doing this. I guess you'd hafta weigh that against the possible anger it would cause all the other "C"s who don't have the $20 to shell out though..........................

rove312

But that's a big part of the purpose of Business Select; fewer people would pay the big bucks for that then.

nsx

The LCI upgrade fee would be more than the difference between BS and Anytime, and the boarding slot would be much later than BS. Most BS customers would otherwise buy Anytime, so I don't see a problem with this.

gg, I moved this to a thread to promote a discussion of LCI. Thanks for getting me to think about it rather than just wisecracking.

InkUnderNails

It might be more interesting to instigate an informal bartering exchange. If I am A-16 I could swap boarding passes with B-2, for a price, of course.

GottaLuvCruising

I'd prefer Southwest offer the option to purchase assigned seats. People who don't mind the boarding hassles can still do open seating.

OAKtoSAN

And then people who came by their B's in regular course would be getting pushed back further in the line? Or are you suggesting the airline would set aside some A's for the anticipated LCI buyers? If so, then what's the suggested boarding order? Pre-board, Business Select, A-List/EBCI (not sure which goes first?), then LCI? I think I saw a thread on the order of A-List vs. EBCI, can't remember which is first. In any case, I think A-List should win vs. EBCI and LCI (mainly because I'm an A-Lister so it works better for me that way)

alggag

I think that they could conceivably do this by allowing the late checkins to buy their way into any lower boarding spots that have opened up as a result of cancellations/taking an earlier flight/whatever. I think it's more fair to buy the better spot at the airport as opposed to the way things go now with having somebody who is completely oblivous of the whole T-24/EBCI/A-List snagging an A-20 something at the airport after it opened up late in the day.

medic-again

let late comers buy into open BS slots at a percentage of their fare with some minimum/maximum. no promise you get one, doesn't offset anyone else's boarding position as nobody would be able to tell if it's a purchased BS fare or an upgraded.

I don't know anyone who moves from a WGA fare to BS fare just for a boarding number so you're probably not losing revenue, and the Anytime/BS tradeoff can be mitigated with the right pricing (e.g. make that the minimum or close to it).

they could also go with EBCI on a sliding scale that increases as you get closer to departure date, just like the regular fares do.

i doubt wn wants to get into paying for seats becasue they highly tout open seating and once you get to reserved seats you start running to the legacy issue and slower turns.

returnoftheyeti

I dont think I am in favor of paying a fee for somewhere between the A's and B's. Doesn't make sense to me. I am defiantly not in favor of assigned seating.

I am, however, one of WN's prized customers. I often purchase my tickets less than 24 hours in advanced, and I purchase WAY more BS and Anytime fares than I do WGA.

That being said, having recently made A list, I purchased an Inter-Cal flight the other day about 2 hours before the flight, that, much to my dismay, was pretty much sold out. Of course I had a C boarding pass.

It would be nice if they could have just bumped me to like A-15 or something, considering that I was A List. Of course, doing that would have lost them revenue as I went ahead and spent the extra $20 for A9. So, I guess, it is what it is.

MikeyZBT

They already have this. It's called "Business Select". If you are a late check-in person or late ticket-buyer, you can upgrade your ticket to Business Select and get an A ticket.

Hayden

Ah--like Deutsche Bahn's (now electronic, previously paper) seat reservation indicators on their ICEs. Free seats are shown as free. The challenge would be the time involved (or new equipment needed) to coordinate a combination assigned/free seating pool. As the rail companies have shown, it can be done, but absent a low-labor (i.e., low-time investment at time-of-flight) system, it's hard to imagine SWA being able to institute this given its goal of quick turns.

SWSNA

Am I missing something here? How could you upgrade to EBCI for a ticket purchased at T-2 hours?

This seems like a prime example where you might have purchased Latecomer Check-in because EBCI was not an option.

All that being said, I would like it if WN would automatically save seats for A-list and/or CP, but I know that would be a revenue hit.

lewisc

A few years ago the GA (BWI at least some flights) was giving passengers the opportunity to upgrade their ticket to business select. I didn't ask, I don't know if it was the full difference in fare or something in between. I don't know if they held back some of the A1-A15 BPs or if GA was going to just let those passengers board before A16.

edited to add I think SW normally only assigns A1-A15 to business select passengers. I guess passengers who accepted the offer would just get a new BP.

jamesteroh

I would LOVE that. I would gladly pay a reasonable amount for a long flight like DTW to LAX, especially if it's a RR ticket and it's an aisle exit.

Problem is Southwest stops in so many cities on a flight would be impossible for the FA to enforce it unless they put reserved signs on the seats assigned after deplaning. If I fly to Vegas or LAX and the plane stops at MDW and continues on, if the aisle exit is taken I will ask the person if they are exiting at MDW and if so (which is the case 95% of the time) I will take the closest aisle seat and as soon as they the passengers at MDW get off the plane I grab that seat. The FA's would have to be making sure the assigned seats weren't taken. Or even if they reserved just the exit rows and tell passengers they can sit anywhere but those seats, that could work out as well. If WN charged even $25 for the exit row seats that is extra easy revenue right there.

jrpaguia

Disagree. Assigned boarding is the way WN does it and I like it. The quality of "reserved" seating is in direct correlation to your boarding order.

I think that having assigned seating is too un-WN-like...kinda like putting front-wheel drive on a BMW.


+1. Just don't show up late at the gate and end up boarding in front of C1 (like someone I know).

It was probably an upgrade to Biz Select.