Originally Posted by
nd2010
I feel like the Southwest boarding process is better. Let me choose the seat I want once on board. I can sit far away from a baby, choose not to sit next to a POS, sit next to someone I met at the airport bar, etc. Even if I get a high group C I’d at least like to have a choice of which middle seat to sit in. And there are no arguments about seat poaching and people asking to swap seats.
One small improvement could be having families with kids and people traveling together board early, but only sit in the back third of the plane. Those people are most likely to be using the middle seats and so they’ll use up the less desirable middle seats. And also speed up the boarding process because they won’t block the aisle in front of the plane
I haven't actually flown any carrier but WN since about 2001. It's not a brand-loyalty issue or a features issue, it's simple practicality - my home airport is BWI, which is a major WN station, and WN consistently has the most non-stops and lowest prices from BWI to my destinations.
The current system has worked very well for me over the years. But I am biased. For the last five years or so, I have been a pre-boarder, because I'm a COS [FYI: I prefer WN's term Customer Of Size or COS, rather than Person/Passenger Of Size, because POS has a fairly negative double meaning in US English].
I recall the old days of cattle call three-group boarding, which stunk. In that old system, families with small children DID board at the beginning, right after the special needs pax, but were not restricted to any particular section of the cabin. And abuse was rampant, because a lot of the gate and cabin crews tried to avoid confrontation, so they'd often allow four or six adults board with one small child, and the families would clog up the pre-boarding lane at the gate so genuine preboarders like pax with mobility impairments would have trouble getting to the podium. Even if I checked in at T-24 and got into the A group, I'd have to camp out in the A coral for up to forty minutes before boarding began, which was very uncomfortable.
Whether the current system makes the actual boarding process faster than assigned seats or not - and I suspect it does, despite its flaws - it is far and away better and more comfortable than the old cattle call boarding system.