United804Heavy

Long time lurker here, first time poster (in this forum)!

I've had about 10 flights on WN this summer (primarily a UA loyalist, sorry ), and on almost all of them, I've noticed there is more of a free-for-all at each of the gates when boarding than I recall in my past WN flights. I know different airports have different gate configurations and constraints that impact the boarding pillar placement/lines, but I've noticed people jumping the queue and boarding with the group of 5 pax more than 20 numbers higher than their actual boarding group that aren't preboarders/military/whatever extra group WN has before the B group. For example, in FLL the other day, I was position B9 and I noticed multiple groups of people in the B20-30 range board with my B6-B10 group (I saw at least 3 of their BPs out of the corner of my eye and they were not in the B6-B10 group, nor traveling with anyone in the B6-B10 group). The gate agent obviously can see the BP and on their computer that people aren't boarding in the correct group, but allow them to board anyway. This hasn't been a one-off instance but has happened on almost all my WN flights to some degree this summer.

I completely understand the stress put on GAs to send flights out on time (not sure if WN focuses on D:00 like some of our friendly US3) and I know that boarding group enforcement probably isn't on the top of their priorities list and this is a small frustration on my part. That said, when I hover over my computer to check in exactly 24 hours before departure to get a decent shot at a window/aisle and people keep boarding in front of me with higher boarding numbers than I have, it kind of makes me wonder how the system works at all.

Has anyone else noticed this on their WN flights as of lately, or are my experiences pretty isolated?

djp98374

You are talking of the unwritten posse boarding of extended frirnd and family boarding thst rarely get enforced.

thrn you are regularly getting miracle flights ehere folks needing wherlchair assistance or a cane suddenly can walk.

nsx

If a group of people traveling together board together they presumably will sit together. That makes it a non-issue to me.

dmbolp

Happens.Every.Flight

LegalTender

Biometric boarding is the answer. Agents flag incoded mug shots of chronic abusers.

A frictionless customer experience.

plancast

Very typical along with the masses that all have some pre-boarding excuse.

SacTownGuy

I love SWA but it's getting ridiculous with all the wheelchairs and other pre-boarders.

kennycrudup

I'll bet I know where on the flight there's still some of these ....

Boraxo

Never seen this happen in any of my 100s of WN flights. Though sometimes the order within the G5 (e.g. 26-30) is intermixed.

I would not begrudge 1-2pp who move up to join family, particularly kids. But most of the time the families w small kids are boarding after group A.

I would be incensed if I saw a half dozen jump the queue.

dmbolp

As I'm standing in A16-20 I frequently hear "they're just boarding A now, you're in B/C" and then they move out of line. When I approach A16-20 I mention my A16ish number and sometimes the person(s) in that slot show me something higher than 20; I stand in front of them. Two flights ago there were no A1-15 pax as boarding was about to start. Two girls walked up and stood at the A10 Pillar...they certainly didn't have A10 as there were no other A1-10 pax. You've never seen anyone out of position in 100 flights?

NoStressHere

Gate Agent on flight yesterday made an announcement.

If you show up out of order, you will have to step aside and board later. No idea what really happened.

United804Heavy

I have no issue with families and people traveling together sitting together at all; if anything, I'd prefer they board together and will likely fill an entire row (middles included), freeing up some window/aisle seats for those behind them. I don't even have an issue with intermingling in the B6-B10 group, for example (we're all getting there at the same time). My issue as I laid it out above is people traveling by themselves or an adult couple that boards well outside of their group and takes the last window seat, even though they're in the late B or even early C group, and line up with the wrong group but board anyway!!

United804Heavy

I've only seen this happen once in HOU this summer; would love to know what WN's official policy on this enforcement is, if any.

Like I mentioned earlier, I don't have an issue with families/people with small children or special assistance pax boarding together (though WN does seem to have way more preboard pax than my mainstay UA... that's a whole separate thread), or even people in the same B6-B10 boarding out of order. Rather, people jump the queue well ahead of their boarding number, and sometimes in the entirely wrong group entirely (like C group pax boarding with my B9 group for example).

I also understand these are entirely first-world problems and it's really not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, it's more just a general frustration for those who try to check in as close to T-24 as possible and don't pay for add-ons like EB.

Boraxo

C should never board with B, and B should never board with A. Anybody who tries this should be slapped down and publicly shamed. Even my dog could figure out the grouping. I suspect there are many who pretend "they don't understand". That should not be tolerated.

Addendum: no lack of boarding order enforcement on todays flight, but ridiculous number of “families” including parents with zero small children. I guess this is WNs way of ensuring they don’t get DOT co
plaints about separating parents and kids.

Kevin AA

This nonsense is precisely why I chose to buy a ticket on Frontier for my next trip to LAS. I'll pay for a seat assignment.

Maybe Southwest should go back to the old way of boarding.... line up when you arrive at the gate and board in that order. Very simple!