Southwest to Customers: OPEN SEATING HERE TO STAY!

[Alex T]

You Spoke and We Listened - Southwest Airlines Says Open Seating is Here to Stay!

Southwest Streamlines Its Boarding Without Assigning Seats

DALLAS, Sept. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Our Customers have spoken! Southwest Airlines embraces and celebrates its unique open seating heritage, announcing today that Customers will continue to choose their favorite seat while onboard the aircraft. The airline does plan to make changes to its boarding; however, saying goodbye to the perceived "cattle call" and eliminating the need for Customers to "camp-out" in their boarding line at the gate. The boarding transformation will enhance Customers' Southwest experience, while maintaining the carrier's core values and Maverick character.

"Our open seating has served us exceptionally well throughout our 36-year history, and, after much research, deliberation, careful evaluation, and significant feedback from our Employees and Customers, we've decided that it is here to stay," said Gary Kelly, Southwest Airlines' Chief Executive Officer. "When we began our extensive exploration into the way our Customers board the aircraft, we set out to accomplish two things: improve the Customer Experience and increase Customer productivity. The new boarding delivers on both accounts and complements our legendary open seating."


http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070919/law078.html?.v=101

Coming from the inside which is not in the news..

Internally I have heard many, many passengers have spoken they do NOT want Assigned Seating, but rather they do not want to have to stand in line. Close to nearly all of our passengers in SAT and SAN who were surveyed absolutly LUV'd the Idea and were in full support of the new arrangements.

Any questions, please ask I will be happy to explain them.

Southwest Airlines even has a mini online school thing about the new boarding procedures.

http://www.southwest.com/help/boardingschool/

Alex

[mirrodie]

Moooo MOOOOOOO!!!!!!


Oh, I meant Yay, Yay!!! :mrgreen:

[LGA777]

Seems like a positive idea, as long as the gate agents board in a way that the customer does not seem compelled to stand in line anyway. At a 137 seats divided by 3 maybe maybe 46 in groups A $ B and 45 in C. If they board say 15-20 or less at a time fine but if they board group A say 1-35 or 1-40 I would probably still stand in line.

From what I understand a computer software issue prevents this but what would really enhance the WN airport experience for me would be the automation of the standby list so you could be placed on it at the ticket counter instead of only at the specific departure gate. At most airlines the list is automated but at WN it is manual.

Regards

LGA777

[Alex T]

From what I understand a computer software issue prevents this but what would really enhance the WN airport experience for me would be the automation of the standby list so you could be placed on it at the ticket counter instead of only at the specific departure gate. Most airlines the list is automated but at WN it is manual.

Regards

LGA777

This will be changing very soon, we will be going to automatic stand by very soon :twisted:

Expect a lot of changes to happen by the end of 2007 and most of 2008, will be an exciting time for us!

Alex

[LGA777]

Great news Alex, thanks !

LGA777

[Alex T]

There seems to be confusion on other aviation websites how this is going to work.

I want to explain it step by step to be sure people understand it.

--Check in at 24hrs before departure. You will get A, B, or C. You will also be given a number beside that Letter, in this case A-15. Ok, this means you were the 15th person to check In.

--Go to the airport, check your bags if you must, oy go through security.

--You do NOT need to check in at the gate, you do not need to stand in line or do anything. This gives you the freedom to now sit around at the gate or do other things you need to do.

-- There will be ONE LINE POST, 5 sub groups 1-5/6-10, 11-15/16-20 and so forth.

--A, B or C cannot line up because it is already reserved. When it is time to start boarding, they will announce A group to start Boarding. You look at your number if your in the A group, ok your number 15, walk to the 11-15/16-20 post line and just stand there, they do NOT have to actually be lined up 11,12,13 etc etc. Just anywhere in that sub group.

--Immediatly they start the boarding, and everyone in the A group goes on board, recall Families will NOT have pre-boarded, and exit row will be open to those in A, as pre boarders are not allowed to sit in the exit row. People in B and C still do not have to line up they remain seated or whatever they wish to do.

--Once A has finished boarding, they will announce Families to board.

--B follows after and does the same thing as A, and then after B, C boards and so forth.

Thats how the boarding procedure works.

Alex

[T-Bird76]

I don't like it one bit.....If I choose to get on line first but was the 30th person to check in that's my choice and now I get ****ed...WN did a **** job testing this out. They tested this in Texas...the market opinion in Texas is going to be 180 degrees different then the market likes and dislikes here in the Northeast. A, B, and C was very simple and WN is needlessly complicated the process of getting on a plane. WN will hear from me!

[Alex T]

I don't like it one bit.....If I choose to get on line first but was the 30th person to check in that's my choice and now I get ****ed...WN did a **** job testing this out. They tested this in Texas...the market opinion in Texas is going to be 180 degrees different then the market likes and dislikes here in the Northeast. A, B, and C was very simple and WN is needlessly complicated the process of getting on a plane. WN will hear from me!

Tested in SAN as well, which is California.

Alex

[T-Bird76]

[quote="T-Bird76":6d8f3]I don't like it one bit.....If I choose to get on line first but was the 30th person to check in that's my choice and now I get ****ed...WN did a **** job testing this out. They tested this in Texas...the market opinion in Texas is going to be 180 degrees different then the market likes and dislikes here in the Northeast. A, B, and C was very simple and WN is needlessly complicated the process of getting on a plane. WN will hear from me!

Tested in SAN as well, which is California.

Alex[/quote:6d8f3]

ITS NOT THE EAST ALEX! WN forgot the EAST! New Yorkers are not the same as people as California and Texas..either are the folks up in New England. WN should have tested this out in the East as well to get a broad sampling of what their customers want. We just went from three boarding groups to 18 TOTAL boarding groups! AA, DAL, UAL, US, or NWA aren't that complicated! Holy hell why is getting on a god dam plane being made into a ****ing exercise! I've always said I love WN because its simple, efficient, and I know what to expect..now I have to get in a subgroup...give me a break, just give me A B or C and let me get on plane...

[nwafan20]

I also dislike it...

Out to NYC on my first trip on WN, I checked in RIGHT when I could, I still got boarding card 14.... Therefore I would be a few subgroups behind and have NO chance at getting an exit row.

I didn't mind "Camping out" I just sat down in the row with my laptop and edited some photos, and once I got on the plane I was able to get exit row.... Why do they have to complicate things???

[Iberia A340-600]

ITS NOT THE EAST ALEX! WN forgot the EAST! New Yorkers are not the same as people as California and Texas..either are the folks up in New England. WN should have tested this out in the East as well to get a broad sampling of what their customers want. We just went from three boarding groups to 18 TOTAL boarding groups! AA, DAL, UAL, US, or NWA aren't that complicated! Holy hell why is getting on a god dam plane being made into a ****ing exercise! I've always said I love WN because its simple, efficient, and I know what to expect..now I have to get in a subgroup...give me a break, just give me A B or C and let me get on plane...

Time to change the license plate, Tommy? ;)

[hiss srq]

This is why I much rather have assinged seating. You get it or you do not. None of this battle for the exit ****.

[RDU-JFK]

While the idea works in principle and would eliminate the need to get on line early I have no con fidence that people are smart enough to follow these directions. Seems a bit too complex for the average passenger to comprehend. No disrespect to WN passengers here. You think people follow DL and US' boarding practices? No. I had to read through Alex T's post above about the boarding procedure twice. The typical flier won't get it. And I agree with Tommy in that San Diego is not the Northeast when it comes to these situations.

[Alex T]

Well I will admit, most of you guys are in the minority, most of you guys don't mind standing and waiting.

The Majority of them don't, and wanted a solution where they did not have to stand in line, most of them prefered no standing in line over assigned seating.

This was tested for a year and a half in SAN, and SAT (lets not go into the east part), both these stations are very large operations for SWA. As for the East Comment did it not occur to you people from the east DO fly to SAN and SAT, and would have just as been involved in this process, as well as people from the southeast and midwest?

Finally, SAT is already doing this now. I haven't heard people complain from those who already tried it on airliners.net, and you know how absolute picky the WN Airlines.net bunch are.

We went through the same complex change when we changed it from Plastic Cards to the A, B, and C groups, people who follow WN will understand and have patience to follow through, with exception to Tom and Matt so it seems.

It is going to be a cluster mess for the first month once this enrolls no denying, but with every new changes it takes patience of the passengers, which not a lot have these days.

I am not here to support the new procedure or defend it. I am simply explaining the facts, and most people, again exception to you two, once they watched the demonstration and had it explained to me liked the new idea and were in support it, but they probably also didn't care about the exit row either.

I won't pass judgement until I have seen it and done it myself.

The biggest two complaints before this was Waiting in Line and loosing their spot for late connections, the plus is, say Matt was A-14, if his connection on WN was running late, when he arrived he does not have to go to the back of the A line, he simply walks straight to the A14 Subgroup and get in line. So we fullfilled two complaints, waiting in line and loosing your spot due to late connections.

However, we are not going to please everyone, but we seemed to have pleased the majority because the PASSENGERS of SWA voted this, not SWA. SWA asked their customers what they wanted, they chosed.

Alex

[T-Bird76]

I have spoken to Colleen Barrett today (President of WN) and voiced my concerns on this new boarding process. She did admit WN did not and I'll say it again DID NOT conduct any survey's in the North East! I told her that gives me the impression WN doesn't care enough to listen to the Northeast! I guess my dollar is somehow less valued then the U.S Dollar in Texas.

The conversation was very cordial and professional and she did apologize for giving us here in the North East the impression WN does not value our opinion but did ask to give it a try and to call her again with my impressions on the new boarding process which for those of you who know me real well...you know I will call her back.

[mirrodie]

The president of WN is a woman???? Now there's your problem.


In all seriousness, Tom, I hate to say it, but all the US airlines are starting to blend into one.
AA has become more like an LCC and WN is now adopting the strategies of the lecagies.




At the end of the day, none of the CEO's really care what you get when you are hurtling about in one of their steel tubes. The bottom line is the stockholder, second tier are the elites.

And with WN, there are no elites. All the same brand of cattle. Whereas at AA, they split up the cattle. Basically you just get nicer accomodations before you enter the slaughterhouse ;)

[hiss srq]

moooooooooooooooooooo!

[T-Bird76]

wasn't all that impressed with the new system. While it did allow passengers to stay seated for a longer time, the inevitable rugby scrum that is the WN boarding process was not rectified, only delayed (and redirected) as passengers danced around one another and carry-on bags to find their places in the sub-divided queue. So in the end, it really comes down to this: do you prefer your relative chaos early or late in the game? For me, it's six of one and half a dozen of the other as I was always comfortable in joining my fellow A-holding passengers at the tail end of the A boarding group under the previous formula.

From a very informed and well travelled source!