Originally Posted by
flyingstudent
It looks like not that people are buying BS fares.
The whole point of doing this is because they think they'll bring it extra revenue with the valued A boarding pass.
I think the following would make sense: If less than 30 people have bought BS fare, then offer people to up-sell for a priority A boarding pass via online check in or kiosk. Charge $10 for short haul and $15 for long haul or connecting flights. This will be easy incremental revenue.
Everyone else should be given boarding passes that start with B. SW needs to differentiate priority group A - no matter how early one checks in, they don't get A unless they buy BS fare, are a super frequent traveler, or pay for the up sell.
And that, I suspect, will send a LOT of folks to other airlines. Especially when WNs fares are not the best for a route.
It will be interesting to see how YX does as they convert the 717's to two-class seating (OK, they're calling it one class, with 2x2 in the front and 3x2 in the back). YX has officially decided that there will be no upgrades at all for elites, but the seats up front will either be given to certain high-fare classes or sold at check-in/at the gate. It seems that they are trying to accomplish what you propose in your last paragraph. But I doubt that they'll leave the gate with empty seats if someone is only willing to pay a cheap fare but there are no seats available in back.