MoreMilesPlease

Actually on WN the people traveling with you are not extended your "perks", well not officially anyway. If you want perks to be extended to traveling companions then you need to fly another airline.

mile ho

This won't be a popular answer but I will save a seat for my wife on the exit row as well. I've had many FA tell me that it's okay. I flew on Thursday and saved a seat. Asked the flight attendant who was also standing in the exit row. She told me what so many have... no official policy so it was okay. If someone had asked for the seat I would have refused and the FA would have backed me up.

I've never been challenged on it though some day I'm sure I will. I'll let the FA settle the dispute at that time.

And honestly, if WN doesn't officially say saving a seat is 'illegal' then I'm not opposed to doing it.

I don't see the problem with ECBI as my problem.

jamesteroh

Well if someone has EBCI, I would hope seats besides a middle seat would be open, so you shouldn't have an issue. Now if I board and only middles are empty I am going for the exit row ifit's empty. Just like you don't consider someone that isn't too cheap to pay for EBCI, I don't see someone not able to sit with their friend or spouse as my problem. On Delta though enough passengers sure seem to think it's my problem as many times as I have been asked to switch seats up front by people who don't fly Delta as much as me and/or who are too cheap to pay for a seat up front.

There are two easy solutions for people to be assured of sitting together, 1. paying for ebci or 2. boarding together with the last number.

jamesteroh

You aren't actually extended all perks anyway on a legacy. While the people travelling on my reservation get the 2-70 lb free checked bags, priority handling of their bags and access to the priority screening line and access to the better seats and boarding with sky zone, there are other benefits they don't get, on Delta anyway. Only one person can upgraded and that person goes to the bottom of the upgrade list, and I don't think they ever clear at the six day window like I can. They also don't get a free drink/snack box if they are riding in coach. On an international I am not sure if they get economy comfort seating or not.

On WN, I know an a-listers spouse doesn't board with them (although I have seen some GA's allow it) and it's my understanding they aren't suppose to have access to the priority screening lane.

InkUnderNails

If anyone at WN should wonder why the "cattle car boarding" complaint persists even after all of the changes to eliminate it, the free-for-all seat saving/line breaking without an official WN policy (at least on the line breaking seems reduced) should show that boarding on WN still retains some of the wild-west, no rules only suggestions quality of the former cattle car boarding.

"They do not stop it, so it is fine" attitude is based on the fact that the policy does not exist, one way or the other. It persists as the FA's can not enforce a non-existent policy, no matter how much inter-passenger angst it creates.

When WN started charging for line position through BS and EBCI, it was implicit that the line position had a rough equivalence to seat selection freedom. The relationship of A list to line position is also related to the ability pick the seat of ones choice.

When it comes to boarding, here is what EBCI and BS buys and you earn with A-list: You buy/earn a position in line, period. You can be easily denied the seat you want by those in front of you that wish to do so based on the lack of a policy. You also lose that ability to mass "throughs" that neither pay for nor earn the privilege, but get the advantage of seat selection anyway (that is fodder for a different thread). Finally, you can lose the value of that purchase or perk by OA's that refuse to enforce line order or allow excessive accompaniment for pre-boarders.

Bottom line, EBCI becomes a sucker bet for the gullible or the honest. Why buy the privilege if someone else can steal it with the implied blessing of WN. BS is more sure only because there are fewer in front to take advantage of their position, but the value is still reduced by through passengers. A-listers are only affected by earlier BS passengers or other A-listers and throughs. So, the EBCI get a guaranteed nothing except a place in line. If another earlier EBCI, A-list, BS or through wants devalue your purchase, they can do so with WN's blessing.

The mystery is why WN continues this practice that affects their high volume travelers or people that choose to pay more than it affects anyone else. It is supreme customer service stupidity. I can not imagine the meeting where someone said, "Hey, I have an idea. Let's charge more for boarding position to encourage people to fly with us and reward or build their loyalty, but let's not bother putting into place a policy that enforces it and guarantees its value." Stupid, absolutely stupid.

TWATWA

I didn't even realize that SW flew a long-hauls. I thought they were a domestic carrier. I won't fly a U.S. carrier without assigned seating so I don't know much about this airline. I tried it once in Europe and airlines without assigned seating are too chaotic.

jamesteroh

I didn't even think of A-listers getting screwed out of a good seat by someone that buys one business select seat and then sits in a prime spot like an exit row and saves seats next to it. If people are too cheap to pay $10 for EBCI, I can see one person paying for BS and being too cheap to buy it for others in their party and saving seats, screwing the person who flies WN on a regular basis with A-list status out of a seat

jamesteroh

They are a domestic carrier for now, but are trying to get some international routes out of HOU.

They do some long haul domestics. Such as MDW to LAX or SFO. Once I flew DTW/LAS and was on the WN plane for a good six hours. The routing was DTW/MDW and then onto to ALB and then finally LAS and I wasn't allowed off the plane. Thank God, I didn't have to drive when I arrived in Vegas and had plenty of free drink coupons Once we landed at MDW (fortunately the leg was only about 45 minutes), I was able to snag the aisle exit for the rest of that trip (which is another area where a-listers and BS buyers get screwed out of a prime seat).

tcoat1305

There are people, like me, who are A list Preferred and are automatically checked in (usually 15-20 ish, unless it is is a frequent business flight with other preferred's) and even if I pay the 10 bucks for my wife's check in, she will be A-30-60, often on Vegas flights she's B group. Yes, I hold her a seat, don't see the problem with it since SWA has an open seating policy. If you want an assigned seat, there are plenty of airlines that offer that option.

I agree that the bag in the middle of the seat so nobody will sit there is bogus, but holding a seat for a traveling companion is perfectly legit.

nsx

That's a good point. For short-haul flights the difference between EBCI and T-24 is just a few positions. I was 90 seconds late for check-in last time and my wife got A45, just 20 past my A-list preferred slot. This was on a commuter flight that always has plenty of A-listers and on which I've drawn A40-something numbers in the past even as A-list preferred.

In this situation I normally hold a seat for her aft of the exit row, but it's a non-issue: Boarding passengers before slot B5 rarely walk past the exit row.

TSparky

Unless you are flying into BUR.

jamesteroh

If you are sitting in the back of the plane holding a middle seat I don't think anyone would complain. Now if you were holding an exit row middle and the other two seats were open I oculd see a couple complaining that boarded before your wife, or if only middles were open and someone was in the C group and wanted the middle exit row, or the first middle seat due to a tight connection, I could see there being an issue.

srk123

Once when I got on a SW flight, a guy was sitting in the exit row middle seat saving the aisle and window for his family with books on the seats. I told him I was taking the aisle seat as it was empty as it was an "open" seat. He argued, I held my ground and kept the seat. He was mad, left his seat and took another middle seat farther back in the plane, saving that row. There was no FA nearby to mediate, and I don't think an FA would have denied me my seat. The guy had guts trying to save the full exit row, and I didn't let him get away with it.

jamesteroh

^I would have done the same thing. If a window or aisle reclining exit row seat is available on WN, that is the first seat I am going to. I would also not hesitate to ask for someone higher up if the FA packed up the passenger, seeing I probably gave up a couple seats up front that were occupied by people with higher BP numbers.

If people insist on saving an entire row and are too cheap to pay for EBCI, then at least take one of the back rows. Don't take an exit row or bulkhead.

mile ho

Neither really guarantees that a couple will sit together. I can easily see situations where these two 'solutions' would fail. The only way I know is to save a seat. And I shall continue to do so.

Come to think of it, I can imagine a situation where even saving a seat won't be possible. 100 through pax? Middle seats all that's left? I could have my normal A-2X and it won't matter then, either.

In the end, the problem with ECBI and seat saving is WN's problem. It sure isn't mine.