COMMONC3NTS

I already hate having no assigned seats on Southwest, it is very unprofessional an unorganized. I was in a situation where I had to use southwest I have a group of 2.
I checked in exactly at 24hrs and it gave me B49 and B50 with no chance of being seated next to each other.
Is Southwest doing this on purpose? I cant believe that everyone is paying $20 extra per person per flight for the early bird.
The funny part is when I checked in, it gave me the option to upgrade to the A 1 to 15 for $109 per person. They are insane.
I cant understand why they dont have assigned seating. You load the plane faster with assigned seats and then you dont have people stuck in seats they dont want. Their customer satisfaction has to be very low.

Yellowjj

Just because you don't like something, doesn't make it unprofessional or unorganized. You knew before you purchased the tickets what WN policies are; they didn't force you to fly with them.

It sounds like you were on a flight that had a lot of continuing passengers (people who stay on the plane). In which case you would be behind all of them, plus early bird and elites. B49/50 sounds about right in that scenario on popular routes and doesn't preclude you from finding seats together albeit it might be at the very back. Early Bird remains popular for a lot of people who fly WN.


They gave you options to secure a better boarding spot and you chose not to partake; $109 suggests the flight was very full. WN actually has the fastest boarding process and least amount of gate crowding among the major US carriers. I don't think their customer satisfaction scores are hurting from their seating policy, judging by the years of constant profitability and passenger numbers. The reality is you went in knowing WN was not your cup of tea; so perhaps it would have been better to choose another US carrier for travel. Make sure you don't select basic economy on any of the rest either, as you don't get seat choices on those fares.

zachary

This has happened to me as well. It's the exception, not the rule, but it does happen on flights with some combination of lots of through passengers, lots of elites, and lots of people who paid for early bird. I am quite surprised how many people think EBCI is worth the money, but it definitely sells well.

And as noted, it's not true that B49 and B50 have "no chance" to sit together. On an 800 or a MAX, it's extremely likely that you'll get to sit together. On a 700, I still bet it's higher than 50-50.

NoStressHere

Sorry you do not like it.

We fly SWA 95% of the time. We are just fine with their boarding process.

Your chance of sitting together is low, but not impossible.

If you do not like SWA, then do not fly them. They are the #1 domestic carrier in terms of flights. It works. Well.

djp98374

actually you don�t load pax faster with assigned seating. Data doesn�t support it.

djp98374

contuing pax don�t change planes
connecting do change planes

if you start from a hub airport like bwi, bna, den, mdw, Etc you likely will get a seat belowB40 because all connecting pax get in ahead based on their start time.

some route do have heavy thrus like a route such as California- west texas airport- dallas or airport-secondary airport stop- LAS/MCO/ hub

nsx

If it's an 800 or MAX8 those numbers will get you one window or one aisle plus a middle in the back half of the plane. Report your results here tomorrow. I would give you at least 4 to 1 odds of success.

AsiaTraveler

People get stuck in seats they don't want all the time on other airlines, because planes fill up or you have to pay $$ for "premium" seats (which sometimes seems like it applies to every aisle and window in the plane). Flying as a family is way less stressful on Southwest than it was on Delta or American because I have a better shot of being seated together on Southwest.

KeithRedford

If you're on a -800 or MAX8, you might still get some decent seat choices with those boarding numbers.

If you're on a -700, good luck, in more ways than one.

Cledaybuck

I think there better odds that he gets two seats together than he comes back here to report.

nineworldseries

False equivalency (very common in arguments defending WN). On other airlines, if there are no available seats you want, you know that before you buy the ticket. If there's not seats you like, buy a different flight or fly a different airline. WN is completely opaque (in a few different ways), so you don't know whether or not you have the seat you want until you've spent money and are already on the plane.

nineworldseries

it's only less stressful because you don't seem to want to pay anything to guarantee that your family sits together. On AA or DL for example, you can pay extra and guarantee that you all sit together. That's not less stressful that just hoping at the airport and on the plane that you'll all get seats together?

sdfcardinals

Paying extra to ensure that family members sit together certainly isn't "guaranteed" on AA or DL. Aircraft swaps or schedule changes leading up to departure will almost certainly result in seating assignments being scrambled, resulting in families having to hawk their reservations all the way up until boarding.

NoStressHere

Slamming what works at the largest domestic airline is a bit unprofessional, yes?

And, since they are still the largest domestic carrier, maybe customer satisfaction is just fine, thank you.

VRFast

This is one of the reasons I stopped flying Southwest, no “guaranteed” seats, plus they rarely fly nonstop to the places I want to go to, and if they do it’s at a premium. Dealing with the “milk route” system they have, no thank you, although a lot of people like flying with them, so I guess that says something.
When I did fly with them I always paid for early bird which got me in the late As (lucky) or early Bs, flying out of HOU.