boeing727

5 or ten places out of line? How about none? Why can't people simply line up in numerical order as inctructed. I do!

awayIgo

I am flying my first Southwest flight on Sunday. LGA-SAT with a change in Baltimore. I have paid for early boarding ( impossible for me to check in earlier than T12. I reserved months ago and have a low WGA fare so I realize I may be in a lower position. That being said I will not accept or tolerate seat saving. If I want a seat and the individuals backside is not in it I will plant mine and that will be that! When people save they are pushing ME backwards in line. They want their whole party to board early--then pay for it --stop being cheap!

lewisc

I'm assuming families, or even couples might not line up in order. I'm also thinking a family has A32,A33, A35, A36. Its possible the passenger who has A34 won't care if two passengers cut, particularly if that passengers wife has A37.

Sounding an alarm at 5 or 10 will stop the egregious line cutters without having the alarm constantly going off.

Years ago 6 Flags gave out sequentially numbered passes when you entered the queue. If you were more then 10 numbers off they bounced you out of the line. I was shocked by how fast a long line moved.

You could set the "alarm" at zero. Probably slow down the line for no reason.

edited to add setting the number at zero would be a problem when a passenger is a no-show. The next passenger will trip the alarm, for no reason. A passenger who is late (connecting flight/didn't allow enough time for security). A passenger who decides to let people cut so he can board with the rest of his family (board with the passenger who has the highest sequence number).

In a perfect world set it at zero but setting it 5 or 10 should take care of most of the exceptions.

A recent flight a B passenger tried to board with the As. Lined up with the right number.

pinworm

2 years ago SWABrian was promising that, but we have yet to see it. It could also be used to audit GA's

lougord99

I am fairly certain that the machines do audit the GA's enforcement, however, there is no audible sound.

jkburns1

screw the alarm.. throw in a lil bracelet that gives the GA a lil shock each time the GA scans a seat >5 off.

Then you'll see a new sense of enforcement now won't ya?

lewisc

I'd hate to be the GA for any flight which only has a handful of BS passengers. or any flight which had a number of passengers late due to a delayed connecting flight.

jkburns1

Minor pain in comparison to the poor GA's if the WN IT dept does the programming of such a contraption.

westau

Seems like a bunch of good reasons to do away with open seating to me.

toomanybooks

I don´t think you can make it an alarm with a number discrepancy of 0-1. Often my minor child and I end up with numbers 3-6 apart.

We then line up in the worse boarding position and such a system would trigger the guy ahead of us through no fault of his.

InkUnderNails

Actually, most of this silliness could be prevented with one very simple change, board by status. I do not think that most of us that are A+ mind that others that are A+ around us are out of order by a few places. The same with EBCI, A and other groups. The gate announcements would be:

1. Wheelchair
2. Blue Sleeve
3. "We will now board our Business Select passengers. You must have Business Select on your BP to board at this time."
4. "We will now board our A-list Preferred passengers. You must have A-list Preferred on your BP to board at this time."
5. "We will now board our A-list passengers. You must have A-list on your BP to board at this time."
6. "We will now board our EBCI passengers. You must have EBCI on your BP to board at this time."
7. "For those of you still in line, you can board early the next time with our Business Select Fares or by purchasing EBCI for your next flight. Please go to Southwest.com for details."
8. We will now take remaining passengers in the A group in numerical order.
9. Family boarding
10. B 1-30

(WN marketing folks take note. #7 is a great opportunity to encourage people to buy upgrades on their next flight.)

Okay, you know the drill from here. Maybe it is just me, but this seems simple now that the status in on the BP.

One more thing: The serendipitous late check in, clueless, travel-naive-early-boarder-filling-a-canceled-premium-line-position must be eliminated. It should be anyway.

One final thing: The companion pass holder should have the boarding status of the one that earned it for them, except for EBCI. For example, an A+ companion should have A+ Companion on the BP and board with the group. I know that I may be in the minority on this one.

Bottom line: All the computer would need to do is verify that BP is from the current boarding group or before (for late arrivals or persons that board with a higher number person in their party).

BonzoESC

That's a lot of steps, maybe even more than AA or DL. Boarding by number is simple, quick, and incentivizes people waiting in the gate area ready to go; and neatly encapsulates your steps 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10. It's a bummer that it's opaque how the A-list and EBCI sort out, but it's better than having to explain the difference between "A-list," "A-list Preferred," and having an A-number when somebody goes out of order.

Delegating the ordering to the computer makes the job in the airport easier to understand and less likely to turn boarding into the kind of charlie-foxtrot you see all the time at MIA or ATL. If you don't understand how good WN has it, look at some of the "gate lice" witch hunt threads in the Delta forum.

InkUnderNails

If people were properly incentivized and not rude, self-important, self-privileged, butts then that would work.

I do not disagree with most of what you say. And you are quite correct about the zone boarding circus. A list and A+ could be called together. We could even change the name of A-list to avoid confusion. Let's call it Southwest LUV and LUV You More. Call us anything just stop the crashers and do your job.

How do you handle the GA that does not scan the high number BP and waits until that group boards to do it. I've seen it happen more than once.

There is one very simple solution that defies implementation for some reason. Make the GA's do the job correctly. Some do and some do not. It is bad customer service, out in the open and tolerated. They are afraid of confrontation of one or two non-frequent flyers and they potentially PO a mass of high value customers and people that pay extra for a place in line only to see it stolen by a rude line crasher and the GA accomplice. UGGGGGH!

(OK INK, deep breaths........... Need a WT, neat. Now.)

Jim123

I don't see that as an improvement at all. It is the opposite. This would take us nearly back to when we boarded by A, B, or C. People would line up a half hour early if they were in the A group to try to be one of the first to board, and even the B group would jostle for position.

InkUnderNails

I am afraid I was not clear. Within groups it should be in numberical order, just as it is now. Or is it numerial. I can never remember.