I have encountered a few times when I want to sit in a row of empty seats, the FA told me that they are saving it for a family with small children that just boarded(WAY past the family boarding group)almost til the end of boarding.

Me being an adult, said "no prob" and go find me another seat. :)

If it's a parent flying with 2 kids young enough to be considered UM and they are on a late connection that is understanble.

In this case, seeing the daughter was onboard and it was past family boarding this obviously wasn't the case:) I'm sure the parents would have had a fit if the daughter was flying alone and they tried to charge a UM fee.

Would the people supporting the girl in this case feel the same way if it was a business man saving the entire row for two colleagues?

I did chose to fly Delta instead of WN. For my flight this weekend I have already received the upgrade emails for both ways and am seat 2b going out and seat 3a coming back. Won't have a seat mate on the return flight Sunday since it's 1-2 seating and going Friday night I have an aisle and there are no middle seats on any legacy carrier flights in row 2:)

I know a lot of people on this forum love WN's open seating but I have to say I don't miss it at all. Well worth waiting a few minutes on the bridge for my bag from an RJ on my return flight (mainline service going) with free drinks and an assigned seat than flying a regular jet on Southwest and deailng with the seating (I would be spending more time on the plane from boarding early to find a decent seat than I am waiting on my bag on the jetbridge).

Good for you. Gotta love being elite on a "regular airline" :D

But you don't know that the parents was already on board. Someone else pointed out that what IF the parents were already on board but went to the bathroom or they ran off to get some food in between their flights. And I wasn't on the flight so I don't know either.

But I can say that if I CHOSE to fly WN and knowing it's a no assigned seating airline, chances are that I won't getting the seat I want.

Still boggles my mind that after all these years with no assigned seating on WN, people are still making a big stink out of it. DON'T FLY SOUTHWEST if you want a particular seat on a plane.

Meaning the EBCI fee? That's a useful data point; I've understood that their argument would be that the EBCI on a connecting itinerary gives you two flights for the price of one, and even if the second flight is the longer one where you're more interested in early boarding, you got the service on the first flight and aren't entitled to a refund for the bonus flight.

I can only think of a couple times when I was allowed to get off the plane on a through flight to get food and that was when we had a real early landing, and those times we were told to be back to the gate before boarding began and we were allowed to preboard before blue sleeves. If it was the case of using the restroom, it would make sense for one parent to go to the restroom and take the aisle and then when the other parent returns to take the aisle. If they were throughs they would have more than enough time to use the lav before C started to board.

And I agree with your last paragraph, if people want a certain seat, fly a legacy. The legacies all hold back premium seats for their loyal flyers and I can't remember the last time I didn't get an aisle seat on Delta unless it was a gate upgrade and only windows were available (and I'm sure noone would trade a window in first for an aisle in economy). Sounds like in this case the OP and the family both wanted a certain seat. Southwest needs to have a written policy on this so the FA can use that as a reference and not be accussed of playing good cop/bad cop.

I have seen quite a few times people decided to get up and wanting to go to the bathroom while there maybe 1 person still up. Really? They had all this time to go and then decided to go last minute.

Probably no wiser advice given in this entire forum (and certainly none in the 80+ postings in this thread).

Life is full of choices---

1) Fly Southwest, get on, find an empty seat, get out of the aisle and sit down. Your spouse, spouse-to-be, offspring, eldercare accompaniments and other assorted hangers-on need to do the same. Whether age 8 or 98, not a single one of them are any more special than the other 121/136/142 SOB. Well, other than INK'S Companion, who most certainly has more manners than any of the rest of us. If some/all of that doesn't suit, see:

2) Fly Another Airline.

Simple.

The end.

I think this was my point. The words "Another seat saving hassle and that is why I hate flying WN" should never go together. If someone hates flying WN so much and the seat saving hassle, then why the H*LL do they keep coming back and flying on them. :confused:

+1. If you can hit a higher-tier elite status with a legacy, and you enjoy the F upgrades and all, then by all means that's the route to go.

If you can't reach any elite status at all, then Southwest is almost certainly the route to go - even if you occasionally run into a seating hassle.

If you're in the low-tier realm...AA Gold, Star Silver, etc...then it's a tougher call. Probably comes down to fares, routes, times, etc. Low elite on AA, DL, or UA isn't going to generate many F upgrades.

True...*but*...I still think it's fair game to ask Southwest for a decent policy here. I take any "I'll never fly X airline again" thread with a grain of salt, but I can completely understand why people vent on this topic. Southwest could, at a minimum, post something to their blog or other social media outlets and also give their FA's some clear direction.

I have the same problem at the movie theaters I go to also.

Shall I ask the movie theater company for a clear policy about their unassigned seat as well?

It's been a few years since I've flown WN and had that situation, but I was able to get it refunded. The one time it happened was the PHX to LAS or LAX portion and I didn't bother complaining since it was the DTW/PHX portion I wanted it for. Two of the times they were flights to MDW to LAX or LAS, but it was due to Southwest being late, so not sure if that had anything to do with it or not. The other time my flight had a MX and we left detroit after 11 pm and I was rebooked on another flight the next morning from PHX/LAX and given a C boarding pass, that time I was more iritated over how WN handled the irops situation than anything else and was given a $100 voucher in addition to getitng the refund of the EBCI.

I think it's a good PR move for them to refund it regardless. They aren't out anything be refunding it and it's not like I received much of a benefit from it on a 45 minute flight.

Than maybe perhaps you should go to a theater that offers reserved seating :D

Movie theater 'seat savers' piss me off! I don't care if someone is saving a seat for their loved-one getting something at the concession stand. If there is an empty aisle seat, I'm taking it! If the seat saver doesn't like it...too bad. After all, movie theaters are 'open seating' and I know my 'rights'!