Amicus

I was A -1 on a flight yesterday LAS-MCI, so I was able to hear/observe the interaction between the OPS agent and pax.

There were five wheelchair pax on my flight and the agent took each person down the jetway one at a time. Then, he asked if there were any other pre-boards in the gate area for this flight.

Here started the parade. TWELVE people came forward, and it resembled something like the scrum boarding easyjet or Rynair flights. Out of these twelve pax, just one couple had the blue sleeve.

I listened to the agent ask the first two people at the front of the scrum if they had blue sleeves, to which they replied no. He stopped asking. They all boarded.

There were sixteen through pax on the flight, and coupled with the seventeen preboards, well, at least I got an aisle seat, though not my preferred exit row or bulkhead row.

So, are the blue sleeves obsolete?

steved5480

It looked like Scrum because that's what they are.

As several others have observed & I see consistently, the agents at LAS are often sloppy in their labors with a give-a-care attitude. Given that LAS is Southwest's second largest station, they can do better.

Kinda like compelling folks to show up for work at MDW in the winter. But I digress.

I've managed to spot the LAS station manager out wondering about in "C" several times in recent months and make a point of 'splaining what you just reported to him every time I see him. The replies have been "yes, I know, we get a lot of complaints".

Time to call Dallas.

Amicus

Ha! Was that a typo or did you intentionally intend to say the station manager was "wondering" about in C?

How do you recognize the station manager? I am at LAS every month, and it is only that airport where I consistently have boarding issues. Please, do tell, how do we find this manager!

steved5480

1): Yes and Yes

2): I happened to have my glasses on (usually in my backpack except when reading or at concerts) and always look a their badges. His looked a bit different than most of the minions, so I maneuvered for a closer read and it said "Station Manager" below his name. And now I can't remember the name. Like almost all SWA Employees, he was quite pleasant and personable. Also had that deer-in-the-headlights stare.

They hit +96 yesterday out there yesterday, so Spring has officially sprung. As the locals of fond of saying, "100 days of 100 degrees" can't be far.

DebitNM

Am I incorrect in believing that Preboarding/blue sleeves (and of course, wheelchairs) cannot sit in Exit Row seats? My guess is the exit row seats went to through passengers, not the early boarders.

steved5480

No, you are definitely NOT incorrect. You pre-board, you can't sit in the emergency exit row(s)...them's the rules.

This is the reason the first NON pre-boarder (be that A1 or something lower) has their boarding pass scanned & immediately handed-back by the agent with the request to "please give this to the flight attendant". The F/A will do a quickie 2-word PA of "General Boarding". This lets the "C" F/A (mid-cabin) know that you are the demarc between pre-boards/accompanying scrum & the rest of the pax.

Amicus

Yes, the thru pax filled the exit rows.

The pre boarders clustered in the first six rows.

Amicus

I will pay more attention to employee badges, as I haven't noticed this.

Yeah, it was HOT when I departed LAS on Saturday, and it was also windy all week. I don't think the new Linq high roller observation wheel operated during the windy periods.

antinseattle

1138 miles LAS to MCI.......I personally would have had a conversation with the FA. Called her/him/they out on the thrus in the exit row stuff, but that's just me. Then I'd type a letter to WN. I'm tired of all this. It sucks that there's no conformity with FAs on WN

Had a lonnnnnnnnnng talk on flight with WN FA. We talked a ton about threads on FT. . She said, she would "never" let thrus move to exit rise, and the policy was to not allow

Next time I'm A1. I'm testing this "thru" theory. Kinda know how this will go, " I was in this seat on previous flight...."

antinseattle

Just asking. How do you know the thrus weren't in exit row on previous flight?

antinseattle

Strange. I disagree on LAS gate agents. I fly LAS 30+ times a year. I've seen gate agents, many times, ask passengers to move aside and they are not yet to board. Shenanigans, I see often, B10, trying to board A10. I always do the same thing when I see a Gate Agent do the right thing, and "care". I stop. Take 8 seconds "Us A List, business select and EB paying passengers appreciate your time in following the boarding rules. Thank you Very much". I also will stop and call a GA out if I see non sense. Guess I've been lucky in the past 50+ flights. Haven't seen anything with blue sleeves, trying to board with incorrect letter etc. Correction. I've seen it. No ones gotten away with it. I know my personal sample is small, but WN GAs have done a GREAT job on my flights

And OP? What's up with the thread title? You clearly know Blue Sleeves haven't gone away or not needed........

ursine1

Ummm… there is absolutely nothing wrong or prohibited about thru passengers moving into exit row seats. What in the world are you talking about?

Doc Savage

This is nonsense, of course the thrus move to edit rows.

What could possibly make you think they don't or that this is not allowed?

Your "source" was just trying to make you feel good.

tusphotog

I've never heard this. I just heard the announcement this afternoon. It goes something along the lines of "XYZ will come from the back and count thrus. Please don't move seats until we have the count. Once we make an announcement, you're free to change your seat...."

toomanybooks

When did it become policy not to allow throughs to move to exit row?

We've had had multiple threads on this.