john398

maybe they should do like this commercial
http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7Yaf/southwes...ction-showdown

I guess they do say choose any Open seat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fagAJ5YSx8

rsteinmetz70112

This is in my opinion exactly what they should do and what I think they will do relatively soon.

I'm sure the open seating fans will dispute this but I think it makes a lot more sense than selling places in line with an indefinite result.

joshua362

Well I'm done offering opinions since they already been expressed multiple times in multiple ways, its definitely a polarizing thread in many directions!

A sort of similar issues occurs at a lot of General Admission concerts I've been to in recent years. And a regional difference exists, on the West Coast, coats or blankets or tarps spread out in prime front of house location are generally respected to save spots for late arrivals while that doesn't happen in the East.

And for a good laugh regarding seat saving watch this. It is not sped up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgQ-IyK4RAs

sethb

What do you mean by "someone else already has"? Who is the someone else?

Whoever boarded previously already has a different seat.

Whoever boarded later doesn't "already has" any seat.

wedgeclose

I flew Southwest once (because I was using up my AirTran miles and absolutely, positively HATED EVERY MINUTE OF SOUTHWEST! I had a B6 (whatever that is supposed to mean) and boarded there were a middle and aisle open in row 4...I took them...I and my wife each had 1 LEGITIMATE CARRY ON BAG...I look in the overhead from row 1 to 10 all stuffed...there were at best 10 of 30 seats filled in those rows! and noone seated other than at windows from row 3 to 8....screw this....I called the FA and told her to take a bag roll call on the 10 seated...she hated me....I stood in the aisle and told her either take the call or i'm gonna start doing it myself.........i did and when I started pulling bags people in row 16 and 17 started screaming......I calmly took their bags back to them and put mine where they should be..........amen..............

ursine1

Yeah, that's not how it works.

<Just when you thought this thread would die>

Tizzette

Surely that was the original intent. It is an abuse to buy one Early Boarding and save an entire exit row of three seats.

nsx

I flew RyanAir twice last year. Both times the line was orderly, albeit long. Boarding was not by number. It was a simple queue (plus a very short priority boarding queue). This procedure apparently differs from airport to airport.

Both times I was not anywhere near first to board but I nevertheless was able to sit in the exit row. As I understand it they have changed their policy to prevent people like me from having that success in the future.

BerenErchamion

The problem is with you, of course. You wrongly thought you were entitled to a specific spot of bin space, but of course you're not.

You're entitled to overhead bin space. You're not entitled to a specific piece of overhead bin space.

You're the one in the wrong here.

SpartanTraveler

Understood. Like I said I haven't flown WN but since I moved to a new city where WN flies out of I have been considering it.

I think in regards to whether seat-saving is or isn't WN policy though each side has a point. Yours makes a lot of sense, since there is no policy against it and since the FAs stay out of it you can argue that it is allowed. However others can argue that they already do have a policy against it because they have a policy (like all airlines) that you get 1-seat for 1 passenger. Also add in the policy that you can take any unoccupied seat when you board. Both of those to me sound like policies that contradict the idea that seat-saving is an unwritten policy, since both of those policies are actually written and negate seat-saving as an allowable option.

Agreed though it would be nice if WN spelled it out. Clearly they have a reason for not doing it, they are afterall aimed at the leisure flying crowd so they might think it will scare off too many budget-minded travelers who worry they won't be able to sit next to their companions.

Nonetheless, I'm the type who probably would not care too much either way. I'm one of those rare people who doesn't even mind a middle seat, all seats are bad anyway on domestic airlines whether they be window, aisle, exit row, or first class. But at the same time I think fair is fair, and the fact that each passenger is entitled to only 1-seat and when you board you can take any unoccupied seat, I hate to see people with the entitlement type of attitude that they can save whatever seats they want for their (perhaps equally boorish) companions. Any seat someone saves is at the expense of someone else boarding who has a legitimate right to that seat.

BerenErchamion

Making a perfectly polite request of others isn't an "entitlement attitude." It's perfectly okay to ask people not to do something they have a "right" to do, and reasonable people in reasonable situations will respect that request.

john398

True but deboarding you would have a tough time going back a few rows to grab your bag and probably have to wait until everyone got off, isn't it common courtesy to use the bins above your seats?

fireworksboy

Common courtesy is no longer applicable. On any airline.

SpartanTraveler

Oh I completely agree if someone is making a perfectly polite request and asking if you mind sitting elsewhere because they want to save a seat its a different story. But what is an entitlement attitude is some of the examples given in this thread where a passenger throws their stuff on multiple seats (often premium seats) and then thinks they have a right to those extra seats because they "called them".

The former is acknowledging the other passenger has a right to that unoccupied seat and you are asking them to extend you a favor by letting you save them for someone else, the latter is a completely different story where you are "telling them" they are your seats even though they aren't. To me that sounds like an entitlement attitude.

smmrfld

And in your only other post on this site, you claim that Delta offers the worst service in the industry. Perhaps commercial airlines aren't able to satisfy your lofty standards? Maybe try chartering your own plane. Or if your circumstances don't permit such spending, Greyhound may be an option.