seat38a

My parents and I flew to ABQ this past weekend on Southwest Airlines since United had some terrible schedules into ABQ. This was the first time I've flown WN since they implemented the group + line number boarding system. I paid for Early Bird checkin and was assigned Group A 26, 27 and 28. I was quite amazed at how orderly the boarding process was. The only "cattle call" was on my last 4 United flights. Gate lice are not an issue since everyone has a line number.

Couple observations that United should copy.
1. Families board AFTER group A has boarded but before group B.
2. Medical pre boarding requires getting a pre board pass from the counter NOT just randomly joining the disabled pre boarding group.
3. Boarding group A 1-15 is reserved for WN's version of "Business Class" Business Select fare payers. All other elites via A List level get assigned AFTER the paid Business Select boards.
4. Maybe implement some sort of line numbering system to prevent gate lice and ENFORCE IT.

For all the ills people talk about WN's boarding system, I thought it was a REALLY fair system, that they actually enforced and also rewards those who paid the highest fares, and elites. Also, WN is able to do this with only one line. Group A gets in line then boards, then B, then C without the {mess} of the 5 line system of UA.

GloballyServiced

Southwest dominates all other domestic carriers in terms of the customer experience in my opinion. It's not even close actually.

The boarding process is fine, employees are friendlier, employees don't seem on the edge of clinical depression, no change fees, no bag fees, directv, copious drink vouchers and random unbilled free drinks, generally cheap fares, easy website and app.

Focusing on the No Change Fees and basically a 12 month travel voucher if you cancel it altogether. That is a tremendous perk. How is it that only one airline has taken it upon themselves to do this? Bad business by southwest or bad business by the others?

seat38a

Well those features come at a price. Unless its on sale, airfares at WN is not the cheapest and that is taking into account the cost of 1 luggage. At least from my experience, those No Change Fee and 12 month voucher and free luggage has been priced into their fares. I compared WN, United, and Spirit for LAX to LAS and the order from Highest to lowest was (Including Luggage):

Spirit
Southwest
United

TA

Southwest does not have to deal with any codeshare/revenue sharing/complicated international ticketing arrangements or issues with travel agents that would make just storing a ticket $ value simple. UA and all the others have to deal with this.

As for the seating, Southwest has numbered boarding, but no assigned seating. Would you suggest UA add numbered boarding on top of assigned seating?

JBord

There are tradeoffs. I'd like to see UA adopt the first two, with families boarding after Group 2. They already have #4, although it's different than WN.

The "cattle call" on WN is when you actually board the plane and people after group A are scrambling for seats and begging each other to let trade seats to let their family sit together.

The other tradeoffs for WN include no assigned seats, typically higher fares (and sometimes to secondary airports), no real international routes.

I think for a business traveler who flies 100% domestic, isn't price sensitive, and whose home airport is well-served by WN, it's a great airline. Otherwise it's an airline tailored for infrequent fliers who are willing to give up certain things to save a few dollars. You CAN find good fares on WN if you're flexible.

Note, my experience on fares is based on Chicago, where WN rules MDW, so it may not be the case for other markets.

chrisp9446

Yeah, the last time I flew Southwest, I was amazed at how quickly the flight boarded, closed the doors, and pushed back.

Kacee

The people that criticize WN's boarding process haven't used it.

Although overall I prefer flying UA these days. WN killed the passenger experience when they slimlined their aircraft. Fares also tend to be very high and I get way better value from UA FF program.

seat38a

On number 4 I was thinking of the position number, so in United's case, it would be Group 1 Position 1-25 etc. So your position in line in that group is secured.

seat38a

Absolutely! It would solve the mad rush to the line, and sneaking into the wrong group issue. Unless United can come up with their own better idea, seems WN has a good system dealing with the lines.

PVDtoDEL

I flew WN for the first time in a while recently too, and it reminded me precisely why I love flying UA so much.

The checkin counter at SEA had a line that took an hour and a half to get through. I've never seen the UA counter take more than 15 minutes, and with *G it usually takes no time at all. The WN checkin agent said that the lines are like that every day, and I need to show up 2-3 hours before departure when flying WN.

Boarding the aircraft, the lack of an assigned seat is stressful. It requires thought to figure out at what point to stop going back and just grab whatever seat is available.

WN operationally is a nightmare in the evenings - they try pulling 30-40 minutes turns all day and when the delays invariably stack up, their evening flights are all delayed. I nearly misconnected in DEN, and the fact that I was the last person to board the flight stuck me with a middle seat in the rear of the aircraft, despite my A55 boarding number. Since I had sprinted for the flight in DEN, I didn't have time to purchase food at the airport, and there were no options at all to get food on board (and no, multiple bags of pretzels does not make a meal).

When i fly UA, I turn up at SEA/BOS at T-30 (when the aircraft has already started boarding), sail through TSA Pre, and board the flight at T-20 with my exit row window saved for me. That, along with the Same Day Change policy, makes UA a far better experience for me. I simply value my time too highly to make flying WN worth it.

spin88

Numbering boarding makes you stand around in line in every rolling delay. I am not hot on that. Nor would I be cool connecting where any delay (caused by WN) causes me to not be able to get a good seat when I arrived for my flight.

It works for WN, but if you think for even a second about it, they reserve A 1-15 for Elites and people buying more expensive fares. So on a flight with 143 (-700) and 175 seats (-800) they have 15 elite/business travelers. On many UA (or DL or AA) flights actual elites/business travelers may be 30-50% of the passengers. WN just has a very different customer base which requires different solutions.

IMHO the UA effort to follow SW (with 5 different lanes) is silly. The real problem is that they gave "elite boarding" to everyone with a credit card, and trying to charge for it, and that combined with charging for baggage (so more people use roll-aways) causes a lot of folks who used to board with their group (see PM UA system) to crowd around to try to get on the plane.

I don't have much recent experience with AA, but flying DL or AS or VX I have not seen the same type of crazyness I see on UA.

findark

I agree. I'm getting tired of flying paid F and feeling obligated to lice Group 1 because the poachers will have taken all the bin space if I'm last to board in the cabin. WN has a great passenger experience, but as noted has gotten quite expensive, and doesn't have an F cabin. They still get most of my intra-CA business, where prices are competitive and their schedule blows everyone else out of the water.

Wait, what? If your place in line is already assigned, that's exactly what you don't need to do. In fact, I was just wishing this when I was trapped in front of two dozen G1 lice as my last flight suffered rolling delays for half an hour. I don't think UA should ditch assigned seats, obviously.

SEA1K4EVR

I have not flown WN in a long time..but I have booked a lot of tickets there recently for an A list friend of mine who is also a UA 1K..she does a lot of flights intra-California out of SMF in addition to her UA travel and WN works better in those cases.

WN does NOT have the lowest fares.. in fact their fares are often more than UA's for comparable flights. They compete.

While their website might have seemed nice, friendly, and easy for the simple round trip the OP mentioned...Their booking engine is horrible and cumbersome if you need to veer from the simple round trip even slightly, or when you start to frequently book trips with family members and have to re-enter their information every single time.

I have read that they are implementing a major upgrade soon that will bring them up to speed with other airlines. Not being able to book an open jaw or multi segment trip online without calling makes them a dinosaur in 2016. If you used it awhile you'd see there are tons of functions missing... booking travel for companions (saving traveler information for frequently booked companions under your profile, etc).

Having no assigned seats means they can board in the way they do. I'm fine with UA's boarding... but from a group 1 perspective.. I can see there's room for improvement..

seat38a

Exactly! Others on here are assuming I meant that United would get rid of assigned seating and implement line numbering. I'm suggesting United keep assigned seating and ALSO implement line numbering in the Groups, unless they come up with something better. If there are 20 first class seats on the plane, then Group 1-20 should be assigned to those first class passengers and then the rest can be behind them in the order they checked in or whatever.

Baze

And how does this help the battlefield upgraded passenger? The person who SDC's at last minute to the flight? The standby passenger for F on the flight? Part of the thing I like about UA and don't like about SW is that if I already have a good seat or been upgraded or paid for F I don't worry about checking in right at the window for checking in. If this got implemented would have to start doing the dance again at T-24 to get an earlier number. And if there are 5 people where this is their connecting flight they get the first 5 slots as they can check in at T-24 for the first flight in their itinerary. Just doesn't work with UA.