BoardFirst caters to Southwest's line change

The boarding changes Southwest Airlines announced Tuesday may have upset families traveling with small children and business travelers hoping for assigned seating, but Phoenix entrepreneur Kate Bell was nothing but pleased.

The changes could drive more business to BoardFirst.com, the service she started a couple of years ago to help people snag a good boarding pass. [...]

If the Dallas carrier had switched to assigned seating, as it had considered during a lengthy boarding and seating experiment, Bell would have been instantly out of business. [...]

But there is an important new twist: Instead of just piling into the A, B and C lines first-come, first serve, your place in line will now be determined by the order in which you checked in. If you're first to check in online, you are A1 and first in line. If you're 62nd, you're B2, or second in the B line.

"Since they will be boarding by numbers now . . . being on time to check in will mean more than ever," she said. [...]