I have been assimilated. It's a sad world where elites have to play the game of being pushy "gate lice," but what else can we do to guarantee our choice of overhead bin storage? On a recent flight, the GA made no elite pre-boarding statement at all. I and another man pushed ahead anyway, the man slightly ahead of me. He asked her in a polite but direct way why there was no elite pre-board. "Oh, you folks know you can board any time," she said. Meanwhile, my very polite SE companion was too shy to push ahead and join us and ended at the rear of the line behind most of the non-status pax. When the GAs don't make an adequate pre-board statement, it's the nicest guys who finish last. Is that the message NW wants to send? If we really wanted a battle of elbows to see who boards first, isn't that what Southwest is for?

No language barrier here, this was on a DTW-MSY flight. The flight didn't have a working lav in economy either. And my traveling companion and I had to split our can of Pepsi because, as the FA explained, they weren't catered enough cans. All in all, just not what we expect from NW. It was subcontracted by Mesaba but still, just a horrid performance.

Oh, and the flight was FULL, so if you assume this can only happen on an empty flight, and it won't affect you, hmm, not my experience. Fortunately, I had only a tiny bag and could hold my underseat storage for my bashful companion.