Originally Posted by
betsifur
I saw $20 each way from HOU to FLL in early December. And $25 each way from HOU to LAS in early January. I used to always get early bird, but I'm passing on this. It's always a hassle to make changes, because we have a companion pass, and I guess $30 per trip was my mental limit. I will go back to checking in at T24, and having my A Lister husband save me a middle seat. I always sit by him anyway, he'll just have to get a little more forward about the seat saving, since he is leery of a confrontation over it. He tends to sit by the window, which draws couples to ask for the extra seats. I think he should sit in the middle, and tell anyone that asks that he's saving the window seat. If someone really wants to be a jerk and force themselves over him into the seat, he should have plenty of time to just switch rows.
I agree with you, and have found success with this strategy. My position is that it’s OK to (try to) save a seat as long as: a) it’s not a premium seat (bulkhead/exit row/first 2 or three rows), and b) you’re willing to yield the seat if someone challenges you on it. In other words, I don’t mind if someone tries to save a seat, as long as they realize that someone else may want that seat and say “Southwest has an open seating policy.” The seat saver can ask nicely, but be prepared to move if they tried to save a highly desirable seat.
To that end, if my wife is traveling with me, I’ll grab a middle seat and save her the window seat. She’s usually not far behind me in the boarding order, and if she were, I’d just move further back in the cabin. I’m not a small guy, so that window seat isn’t really attractive to most people. We used to pay the EBCI for her, but I think Southwest just priced themselves out of that additional revenue. With the new CC, we can upgrade her to A1-15 a couple of times if needed