A Change at Southwest????

[Just thinking]

"SWA travelers use the 24 hour check in to get your assigned number early"........

And hope and pray that your flight is not delayed the least bit.... dragging your family through the concourse with the hopes that they have not started the boarding process. Get there 20 minutes prior to departure and you are at the mercy of other travelers to have your family together.

Best darn buggy whip makers around.... unfortunately not many horse and buggies on the street.... time to evolve.

 

[737tanker]

It still sucks that I can't get an assigned seat, or even an assurance that
I can sit next to my family or traveling companions!

Even with assigned seats if you book after most of the seats are sold, or if there is a change in equipment, there is no assurance that you can sit next to your family or traveling companion.

 

[Capn Butthead]

Wait until we start Puerto Rico and the DR with open seating...to quote Terrell Owens...grab some popcorn and watch the show! I bet within the first month we will have a fight on board (I've flown there a lot). Also delta and American have quicker turn times on their md80s with assigned seating. I believe deltas turn time is 40 minutes at out stations and they hold 160 people. We should go to assigned seating and hire more customer service and just maybe we will be on time once.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I love SWA as much as the next guy. But I swear I watched a fist fight between two PAX on my last flight w u. It was good though. Kind of like a hockey game.

 

[Full of LUV]

It still sucks that I can't get an assigned seat, or even an assurance that
I can sit next to my family or traveling companions!

if you are on the ball like many SWA travelers use the 24 hour check in to get your assigned number early and then you should get to sit all together, if you wait until you're at the airport then it is a crap shoot.

This is actually the brilliance in it.... if Dublinflyer doesn't get the seat he wants on Delta, it's Delta's fault.... if he doesn't on SWA, he assigns the blame to himself for not checking in 24 hours ahead or getting to the airport 4 hours before takeoff.

SWA sets the expectation low, so they can exceed them, who can complain about food on the SWA flights? Crappy entertainment choices on a cross country SWA flight, you should have brought your own movies.

 

[SKC]

...to quote Terrell Owens...grab some popcorn and watch the show!

Evidently SWA must still be a cheaper option as Terrell was on my DAL-ABQ flight last Thurs. He continued at least to OAK so not sure if he was commuting to a job at Weinerschnitzel or not.

 

[redflyer65]

I love SWA as much as the next guy. But I swear I watched a fist fight between two PAX on my last flight w u. It was good though. Kind of like a hockey game.

That's called 'IFE'.

 

[DUBLINFLYER]

I never fly Delta if I can avoid it, I am committed to SWA and love it (A member and always get "A16" unless I pay for business select)

 

[dicko]

Wait until we start Puerto Rico and the DR with open seating. We should go to assigned seating and hire more customer service and just maybe we will be on time once.

Why would you need to hire more customer service people for assigned seating on Southwest ? You already have more customer service at the gate than an equivalent AirTran flight with assigned seating.

The D.R. is an international flight (believe it or not). You need assigned seating to do it. SJU is only considered international in the G.O. in Dallas.

 

[Capn Butthead]

We need more ramp people because the G.O still refuses to think we are hub and spoke...oh I'm sorry we are ICO...you fly through Denver or Bwi???? Waiting 20 minutes for 1 bag? I worked the ramp before and we couldn't do connections on time to save our lives...

As for "assigned seating" on international...you are mostly correct. You have to have positive boarding pass numbers with a passenger on the manifest. We (from what I've seen so far) will do that by having the pax listed with their appropriate boarding group and number...ie John Doe A27 will be on the manifest.

 

[dicko]

We need more ramp people because the G.O still refuses to think we are hub and spoke...oh I'm sorry we are ICO...you fly through Denver or Bwi???? Waiting 20 minutes for 1 bag? I worked the ramp before and we couldn't do connections on time to save our lives...

As for "assigned seating" on international...you are mostly correct. You have to have positive boarding pass numbers with a passenger on the manifest. We (from what I've seen so far) will do that by having the pax listed with their appropriate boarding group and number...ie John Doe A27 will be on the manifest.

That's interesting. I guess because SWA is the only non assigned seating airline that has proposed international service, the minimum requirement has never really been tested for seating. Makes sense; as long as you have their name the seats not really relevant.

 

[SKC]

Yeah, I've yet to see it printed anywhere that seat assignments are required on intl flights. Seems to just be from "they".

 

[Capn Butthead]

Personally I hope it works obviously. I think we need to get our act together though. We aren't going into virgin territory...JetBlue and the others have a great product that we are competing against. Gary has to realize we better be on time and offer a great product...the open seating thing may or may not work...but we are dealing with family, leisure travelers, and international people who have no idea how we work...I think it's going to be tough to be honest. That's why it's very important to be ontime and give great service which has been lacking the past few years.

I do one of the first flights through SJU so I guess I'll see quickly! Hopefully I can get a good coffee and some great chicken and rice at the airport

 

[vixin]

I love SWA as much as the next guy. But I swear I watched a fist fight between two PAX on my last flight w u. It was good though. Kind of like a hockey game.

I saw two ladies in first class on AA go at it. They were sitting behind me. One didnt like that she reclined her seat and it was on. Hair pulling, swearing like sailors cat slaps and all. Whats your point? Happens on every airline.

 

[Dan Roman]

I saw two ladies in first class on AA go at it. They were sitting behind me. One didnt like that she reclined her seat and it was on. Hair pulling, swearing like sailors cat slaps and all. Whats your point? Happens on every airline.

Were they hot?

 

[scoreboardII]

What where they wearing, pictures please.

 

[Dan Roman]

What where they wearing, pictures please.

Wait a second, let's let him answer my question first. It's crucial to your request!

 

[RLAblows]

It will be interesting how you can work these groups, i.e A1-A31 etc . in places like CUN or PUJ where you aren't assigned a gate until you get there. Nobody leases or owns the gates. You won't be able to put up the A1-A31 posts anywhere in the terminal. 50% of the time we are assigned a "hard stand," so how are you going to organize the groups on the buses that take pax out to the planes? I think it could be chaos.

 

[dicko]

It will be interesting how you can work these groups, i.e A1-A31 etc . in places like CUN or PUJ where you aren't assigned a gate until you get there. Nobody leases or owns the gates. You won't be able to put up the A1-A31 posts anywhere in the terminal. 50% of the time we are assigned a "hard stand," so how are you going to organize the groups on the buses that take pax out to the planes? I think it could be chaos.

Simple - use a sharpie to write the appropriate boarding group number on the passengers foreheads. Add their blood group in case a fight breaks out.

 

[scoreboardII]

Dog tags, sell dog tags in line.