Originally Posted by
Kevin AA
The fact that ten times as many people "need" to preboard on Southwest but don't on any other airline with assigned seats tells me that about 90% of the pre-boarders are fake and abusing the system to get a seat up front. They simply want to pre-board and create a need to do so.
I have no doubt that there are people pre boarding that shouldn't on WN. However you can't really compare it the way you are doing. Less people need to pre board on other airlines precisely because they have an assigned seat. They've either selected the seat they need or the airline has assigned it based on their need.
You can't do either on WN so you have to preboard if your disability qualifies you to do so under the law and you need a specific seat or type of seat. WN cannot dispute the passengers claim so it is open to abuse but the open seating would almost always have more preboard passengers than the same passengers boarding another airline.