6P&E

Unless I have no other choice, when a seat map shows nothing available, I go elsewhere to book. Either another flight, or another carrier.

Open seating is preferable to arriving at the airport with no seat assignment.

Dunbar

I book a lot of work travel under a week out and trying to find a flight with an open window or aisle can be difficult without status. Southwest is a far a better choice in this scenario even without status. US Airways is the worst IME, I'm pretty much guaranteed to have to pay $30-45 each way to get out of sitting in a middle.

LegalTender

I'd be surprised if a great many WN flyers book "a lot of work travel" less than a week out. Given that much travel, "status" to secure a aisle/window seat should be quick.

But the premise that airlines withhold seats so you will pay a premium is more than plausible. Seats, per se, are not "optional services" and artificially managing availability incurs almost no oversight.

Leveraging the desirability of seat location with revenue opportunities is not unknown to WN, either.

InkUnderNails

In most cases you would be correct. However, those of use using a mid-level, semi-hub like BNA or MCI do not have an opportunity to build status on just one airline. This is particularly true if ones travel is to multiple locations and not just back to the home office or three or four field locations.

I book a lot of travel inside of 7 days. That is when WN has the most competitive pricing from my home airport.

I have investigated the possibility of moving my travel to another airline and what would be required to gain status. Since my travel is domestic, it would require booking that airline when it is not convenient, or when it is more expensive. Some of my destinations favor DL, some US and some UA. Changing from WN which serves every city to which I travel really does not make sense. At least not yet. It is getting closer.

LegalTender

Really. I did not think it was possible to purchase a ticket on DL with no seats available. Their online seat map and the inventory are different. Even with zero status, actual purchase would have coughed up a seat assignment and there'd be six weeks to snag a better one. I understand it's a crap shoot, but late October is not peak travel.

Dunbar

My average flight length is probably 500 miles so it would not as easy as you think for me to build status on an EQM based system. I made A-List on WN in 5 roundtrips this year FYI. If I flew those same trips on the legacies I'd be using a combination of US, UA and AS. And low level elite status on the legacies doesn't get you much these days.

InkUnderNails

It was not that there were no seats available. There were no seats available to me, someone without status.

I have booked these before when necessary. They do not permit me to choose a seat. It is worse than open seating. I get to the airport and they tell me where I will sit.

LegalTender

With 4x the schedule of any rival at ONT, your choice is obvious. You've earned your status and the early-boarding perk.

I'm A+ Elite on FL with 6 roundtrips and sit in business class a bit under half the time.

Pretty clearly, it depends on the airport.

LegalTender

I don't see how WN out of Nashville with zero status is way better. I understand EBCI is a buy-in option. But as Southwest likely serves a ton of BNA elites, I tend to think newbies trying to avoid an upcharge and a middle seat are no better positioned than with a legacy. The clinching variable is schedule frequency and/or fares. WN wins.

InkUnderNails

I may have been unclear. I have all the status that is possible with WN, A+ and CP. That said, WN with no status beats legacy with no status, at least out of BNA.

Dunbar

Enjoy that business class while it lasts

LegalTender

A tie, maybe. As dominant carrier, WN would have more BNA elites and non-status flyers would queue near the end or pay an upcharge.

Like the legacies.

(And like MCI, arguably.)

WN should tell you what your check-in position will be before you purchase the ticket. They could even charge more for the highest spots if they wanted. At the very least, they could cap the number of EBCI sales so they can guarantee value.

InkUnderNails

It is less about the boarding and seating than it is schedules, convenience and price (in that order). And they do sell limited guaranteed boarding position. It is called Business Select.

And just for the fun of it, explain to me a process whereby they could tell me my boarding position as I purchase the ticket.

LegalTender

And as you observed, it is often a guarantee of nada:

What is the average BS fare differential?

InkUnderNails

I have no idea what the average differential is. When the schedule first opens, it is typically 2.5:1 or so. As the fare buckets sell out, it will top out in the neighborhood of of a 20%-25% premium. BS is fixed except for general fare increases. So, you know what the maximum is at all times, or close to it.

With my A+ bonus, a 20% differential is roughly covered by the point value. Anytime fares are always covered by the point differential at A+.

As an example, right now, BNA-LAX for the 24th is 557/337. After that, every Monday is 557/236 for the NS.

MCI, a shorter NS is 253/205 on the 24th. The ratio goes 253/99 farther out.