expert7700

That's the BIGGEST problem. FA's don't confront passengers who hold seats nor can they be covering everything at once. They don't even make an announcement that seats cannot be saved. I have been had a mid-A boarding pass numerous times yet I couldn't get 2-3 seats together in the front third of the plane because of people holding seats. The only way to get my seat is if I'm willing to cause a scene, page an FA. The FA will agrees with me but about 15 passengers I've delayed in boarding don't see what the big deal is and talk about what a jerk I am for the rest of the flight.

I'm convinced this is already happening to some extent: one person upgrades to business select the rest of the extended family and friends get seats held for them. Now Southwest will make LESS ancillary revenue in this case because the people doing that are paying more than $10 each way to upgrade one passenger to Business Select.

nsx

I see nothing wrong with buying two EBCI's and saving the middle seat, since nobody will want it anyhow unless the two of you are beautiful ladies.

Buying one EBCI and saving the middle might be a problem until a party of one sits in the other end seat. The easy solution is to buy the EBCI and choose a row that already has one person in it. Problem solved.

nsx

No. You have a right to choose a different airline if you don't like the way they run things.

nsx

Fascinating insight. I presume you fly out of MCO?

EB will definitely cut into BS sales, both from seat savers and others (such as non-drinkers). Southwest must have run some numbers on this before making the move.

mritty

I agree that it's a fee, but it's not the same as the "other" airlines' fees. They started charging for services/products that already existed and were free (checked baggage, meals, aisle/window seats, water, etc). Southwest is introducing fees for brand new services, things that never existed before (WiFi, pet cargo, EBCI).

I just paid the $10 for my ALB->PIT trip on 9/11. We'll see if it works or not. With SWA's refusal to tell us the algorithm that goes into the A-list boarding priority, I have rather serious concerns about this one.

Appletom

No, I'm purchasing an optional service. At some point (BP A16) the optional service is very worth the $10.00. At some other point (BP C17) it is not worth the $10.00.

Somewhere in between those two points is where I would make my yes/no decision. But I have no way of knowing where I'm going to drop on the chart.

I'm being asked to commit money for a "better" seat, but the definition of better varies, yet the amount of money committed remains the same.

Again, if (and this is FT, where hypothetical situations abound) you paid an extra $10 and received a C boarding pass, would you not feel ripped off?

nsx

Sure. I'd request a refund from Customer Service. But I wouldn't be entitled to a refund; that would be at the company's discretion. Perhaps I'm drawing an unnecessary distinction, though.

Appletom

Fair enough nsx. If I pay the $10 and end up in a middle seat, I think that would be worth requesting a refund.

I just hate not having enough data to make an informed decision.

If there are only going to be 30 people on my flight, there's no way I would pay the money. If there are 137 on board and I'll be nowhere near a computer at 24 hours in advance, then I would absolutely pay the money.

I'm also hoping that SWA will have some kind of algorithm in place so that EBCI isn't available after a certain number have been sold. That would make this a moot point and proactively avoid Customers feeling like they were ripped off.

Capt. V

What about CP? I tried an experiment with a CP EB checkin and got a consistent error message????

FWAAA

WN has 137 spots to sell; I'd pay a lot more for boarding position #1 or #10 than #120 or #137. Perhaps at some point WN will master price discrimination for the boarding pass sales.

expert7700

I tried with a CP (>T-25hrs) and it worked, $10

MCO and the 66 other SW cities.

So now the distribution order is BS, A-list, Connecting Pax, Earlybird, and then T-24 general checkins. Fewer and fewer mere mortals will receive an A. Watch for even more of the threads asking "why did I checkin at T24 and get A59-B14"

Southwest (instead of the auto checkin websites that they sued) gets the $$ from early boarding... Plus they gave themselves an hour headstart.

I'm surprised they didn't just start T-24 checkin at B1--with the A's all held for BS, A lister, or Purchased upgrades. With 120 B/C slots, they only would 'need' 17 A BPs per sold out flight. . I for one won't buy this because "I THINK" I can do better T-23:59:59. If I checkin a little later than planned and find out that I didn't do better, the value of the A pass went up. Maybe when people OLCI and get a B or C they should have upgrade to A or business select buttons.

The implied bullet point they "forgot" to list for MCO passengers is "board before the kids in family boarding". (I've been known to fly to TPA and drive to MCO to avoid the 40 screaming/fighting/poorly supervised children.)

I agree A list value just went up considerably. Though it adds to the seat saving problem, my wishful thinking is perhaps boarding orders will be slightly better policed now that more passengers will have PAID for their early A and aren't receiving it 'for free' by being quick on the refresh button at T-24.

JerryFF

Maybe I am not frugal enough, but for $10 I'll pay it and not worry about it. I always try to do T-24 OLCI and the worst number I have ever gotten was B11. So all this talk about getting C's with EBCI seems to be a lot of unwarranted speculation.

On the other hand, the issue of saving seats is a big issue, IMO. In fact, I know GAs actually encourage it. One time on a flight from PHX to SJC, I had A60 and my wife had B1. There were quite a few families boarding between A and B, so I asked if she could board with me. The GA said "No, just get on and save her a seat."

N702ML

Expert,

As a Southwest flight attendant, I can understand your frustration at the cabin crew not confronting Customers who are saving seats.

However, after a lot of searching, I have managed to find a copy of our official Inflight Services monthly publication dated March 2009.

This ISSUE is addressed:

"Myth: Customers are NOT allowed to save seats for their traveling companions.

Busted: We currently have NO policy preventing Customers from saving seats, and as a flight attendant, you are not expected to monitor Customers who are attempting to save seats for their traveling companions."

The article goes on to explain that in a situation where two people are on a PNR and one Customer is A-List and the other person is not, our Ground Operations personnel are to suggest that they save a seat for their traveling companion since they will not be able to board together.

The article also states: "Customers are also to be told that if they are going to be attempting to save seats in a 'prime real estate area,' they can expect to be challenged by their fellow Customers."

expert7700

I've heard this many times too. When the gate agents DO turn away an out of place boarder, they just tell the person "board with your proper B/C group but don't worry your spouse here will be saving you a seat"

N702-thanks for the info. Appears the common FT thinking may now be out the window.
Here's what I found on the website http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/checkin.html
Because Southwest Airlines maintains an open-seating policy, general-boarding Customers may sit in any open or unclaimed seat.

Maybe a topic for another forum, but when the issue was pressed the flight attendants have always backed me and made the other passenger give up one of their 'saved' seats citing the any available/open seating policy.

Maybe it's the customers like me who need retrained :-> I may have to jump on the bandwagon of paying $10 to upgrade the entire extended family/friends, and placing 9 hats on three rows of seats around me.

medic-again

Personally, I don't think you're going to get enough people paying $10 to board earlier that it will push anyone that far down the list (the A17 to C17 scenario). More likely A17 to A30 at most. For a few positions in line, it really doesn't matter to me as I'll generally board at the end of my group of 30 anyway. - I see no point in standing in a cramped line for a few rows of difference. I know others here see this differently though.

I think the main issue will be for connections. Even at T-36 auto checkin, if traveling cross country I may arrive in a situation where the system checks me in for my connection later than people departing from that location. For example, PHX-LGA will connect in BWI, but the BWI folks will be able to checkin before the PHX-LGA folks lending to a lower BP number for even EarlyCheckin. I'm not sure how this works for A list or BS flyers, but it seems problematic unless the WN systems have fatored for that and autocheckin every route at T-36 from that flight's departure time.

In any case, I don't see myself buying this upgdare at any point in the near future. I usually get an A BP for the family, but even with kids, we board between A&B so still a pretty good chance we can get seats near each other.