I think SWA is not as interested in equality and fairness in the boarding process as much as they are interested in getting people's butts in seats ASAP so they can push the plane back and get in the air. What they don't want is the late arriving family "needing" to be together. Then the flight attendants have to get on the intercom and ask for volunteers to change seats so the mother can sit with her three small children. All this wastes time, and wasted time means wasted $$$$$. SWA would much rather get the family on early (no matter how late they arrived) than be fair to John Q Average. Fair? No, but it gets the planes out on time and keeps flight schedules on time so unfortunately that's life. Yes, in a perfect world the family would look ahead and realize they had to be at the airport early, but then again, the world is not perfect.