Originally Posted by COMMONC3NTS

I already hate having no assigned seats on Southwest, it is very unprofessional an unorganized-.no. The most disorganized gates are legacy airlines with 9 boarding groups and people circling not knowing where they belong. I fly AA and WN. WN gates are much more organized I was in a situation where I had to use southwest I have a group of 2.
I checked in exactly at 24hrs and it gave me B49 and B50 with no chance of being seated next to each other. Because others in front of you are flying together-no doubt-in parties-you are almost guaranteed to sit together. Unless one buys Bus Select, boarding positions start at A16.
Is Southwest doing this on purpose? No. With connecting passengers, A List and others on A list itineraries, that's where you are. You mentioned being offered upgrade to Business Select. That means A 1-15 has openings I cant believe that everyone is paying $20 extra per person per flight for the early bird.
The funny part is when I checked in, it gave me the option to upgrade to the A 1 to 15 for $109 per person. They are insane.
I cant understand why they dont have assigned seating. Because its much faster. They turn planes faster than nearly any other airline. You load the plane faster with assigned seats and then you dont have people stuck in seats they dont want. Incorrect. Many studies show planes board faster without seat assignments. Google it. Their customer satisfaction has to be very low. They are one of the most popular airlines in the US.