toomanybooks

I flew BWI-MCO on Jan. 12, flt. 1758. I had boarding number A28 or so. I am not A-List, but am a CP holder.

On boarding, I spied 11D open. Score! So I headed there but the guy in 11E said, "This seat is taken." I asked, "By whom?"

Response: "He's coming."

I turned to the FA standing nearby and said, "I thought there was no seat saving on WN." His response: "It can go either way."

IT CAN GO EITHER WAY.

What kind of idiot response is that?

At that precise moment, the guy I thought was taking 12D moved away, so I took that seat. However, I've been musing over what I'll say if this ever occurs again. I think it will be: "OK, if it can go either way, I want it to go my way, since I am the guy who at some inconvenience to himself got online at exactly T-24 to get a decent boarding number."

Out of sheer obnoxious perversity, I watched to see when the "savee" boarded. We had a full flight, and he boarded exactly 24th from the end. So he was approximately passenger #113.

Thus, at least 85 people were prevented from having a shot at an exit row seat, because some guy who didn't care enough to get his BP until he got to the airport had a friend boarding early.

WN, may I politely suggest you need to craft a better policy on this subject? I have a suggestion for "seat saving"situations. It's quite simple, and I hope you adopt it forthwith, in which case we can discuss my consulting fee afterward.:

"Passengers may save only non-exit-row middle seats."

Problem neatly solved in 9 words. No one cares about middle seats in general.

In case the FA was erroneously making up his own policy on the fly and WN would like to have a word with him, I got enough of his name from his ID to uniquely identify him. PM me.

That is, if anyone at WN cares about this extremely annoying problem.

HtomSirveaux

They don't. The policy is that there is no policy.

ljknecht570

One time I had an A ticket and my daughter had a B ticket. They would not let her board with me--she is 12! You bet I am going to save her a seat! And I will fight anyone on that! (I know she can't sit in the highly coveted exit row!)

toomanybooks

Save her a middle seat.

Literally no one will object.

toomanybooks

Except that every time I get on the plane and start walking down the aisle, the FA comes on and says, "We have open seating at Southwest, so please sit anywhere you like."

That sounds like a policy to me.

They don't say "...unless some guy is saving that one for his dilatory buddy."

mritty

Exactly. So why didn't you sit there? Why did you let that random guy with no official standing, to whom you paid no money, tell you what you could or couldn't do? Why appeal to the FA at all? The correct response was "Sorry, you shouldn't try to save such a highly coveted seat" and then sit there. If he doesn't like it, he's free to move and save his friend another seat.

mritty

You were welcome to board with her. Why should she get to cut in front of up to 60 other people, rather than you give up your prime boarding position to wait with her?

GottaLuvCruising

It is just wrong for Southwest to offer better boarding at a $10 premium, then allow snipes to steal the most coveted seats.

The one time someone tried to tell me that the exit row was saved, that someone was a preboarder holding the whole row for family members with higher boarding numbers. I advised her that as a preboarder she cannot be in that row and wasn't going to save it. Despite her protests, hubby and I took two of the seats and we called the FA. FA told her that as a preboarder she had no claim to that row. Preboarder was wild and kept calling us rude during the entire boarding process and several times during the flight. I just enjoyed my exit row and the satisfaction that she was giving herself an ulcer over it. How obnoxious to think she could stake out that territory as a preboarder (we were the 1st 2 passengers in general boarding).

GottaLuvCruising

It has my vote! ^

SKIEL

Saving a seat in any row it is basically up to the fellow passengers that come along that will "allow" the seat to be saved. If you feel strongly about a specific seat then put yourself in it. It's your choice. Deal with it or go get an assigned seat. I do not see how WN could mark the Exit Row no saving.

Out of all flights last year I had one flight that had pre-boarders attempt to take the exit row and the FA moved them along. I do understand and APPRECIATE the fact that pre-boarders do not have access to this row.

I'm not so sure I would board ahead of my 12 yr old. I think I would do the best I can to get them the highest boarding pass and then just board with them as long as I was sure we could get seats together.

Xelint

1 bottom in 1 seat = seat saved...other than that they can say what ever they want and can move to another row if they want to be seated together.

toomanybooks

Well, if 12D hadn't opened up at that moment, I guess I would have. I had my 82-y.o. M-I-L with me, and I didn't want to make a scene unnecessarily.

Perhaps I should have.

brkandjfk

The only time I've ever "saved" a seat was one time when my wife and I boarded (Me @ A16 and her @ A 22 from T-24) and found empty seats in the same row (and it WAS exit with legroom), she dropped her stuff and went on to the restroom prior to takeoff...

However, as people boarded, I didn't say "I'm saving that seat, I clarified by saying, the woman who is sitting there went to the restroom." We still had one person try to upseat her stuff during this, but he backed down when I stood up to grab the attention of a FA who had seen us both board.

num1bearsfan

+1

I agree. The correct thing to do would be for YOU to board with your daughter in her boarding position.

Steve M

One interpretation of "It can go either way" is that it was not a comment on whether saving seats was allowed, but a comment on the issue of some people falsely claiming that a seat is saved in order to increase the chance that they'll have an empty seat next to them when the doors close.

I think that people that do that quite often find a late-boarding passenger who is among the least desirable to sit next to gets that seat because it's the only one left. I do sometimes think karma comes into play here.