Sharon

SW is my first choice in airline carriers not because the company is a "no frills" airliner, but because, I feel, they are the safest, most reputable company to fly with. Their corporate culture is refelected in each of their employees in every airport across the nation. And I don't think you can really compare flying SW to shopping at Kmart or staying at a Motel 6. They do their job, and they do it well without any seat assignments necessary. They get you where you need to go, on time, and in a friendly manner. Prior to flying SW, no other airline had ever accomplished either of these feats simultaneously. The lack of seat assignments is working just fine. And I personally will continue to fly SW on my way to a Best Western with my Prada bag flung over my shoulder, thank you very much.

UC

Some of you people act like Southwest NEEDS to change. They don't!!! They make money when no one else does. Can't you see that? There's not ONE REASON for them to change. Just making it convenient for you (people who don't fly them anyway!) doesn't cut it in the real world. Money talks and I own stock in SW. No assigned seats and profits forever! And yes, I always CHOOSE Southwest when I have options of other carriers.

Yolanda

No one has mentioned that Southwest allows you to keep 100% of your money if you cancel an advance-booking reservation. You simply have to use it within a year on another SW flight. The other carriers charge you $100 or more because of the paperwork expense. (Oh yeah, these carriers are also the ones that assign seats so maybe you DO pay for that privilege in way one or another!)

David

I agree that it would seem to make more sense if Southwest had assigned seats and distributed boarding passess at the ticket counter. If you have to check luggage in at the ticket counter, you have to stand in a second line at the gate in order to get a boarding pass. That makes no sense. The few times that I do fly Southwest is in the winter from San Jose to Reno, because American is focusing on longer haul routes out of San Jose and therefore, does not go to Reno. I am concerned with the rapid turnover of their planes that they might be cutting corners in the area of maintenance and safety. I do feel safer flying with American.

Sherry

I've flown SW once from LAX to Las Vegas. Yes, it was wierd not having an assigned seat and realizing how early people arrived to get an early number...strange, yes but I could live with that. What really made me angry was that our return flight was for Sunday afternoon. After receiving a call from my parents that our baby was sick, we decided to get home early Sunday morning. We went out to catch the 8:30am flight and it was virtually empty BUT THEY WOULD NOT ALLOW US TO FLY STAND BY ON THIS FLIGHT...Now what is this about??? I've never known any airline that won't allow you to fly stand by on the day of your scheduled flight. That is really chicken sh*t in my opinion.

alex

Sherry,

Maybe it was the agent you got or something because my mom has done that several times and they always allow her to go on the earlier flight. Was the flight stopping anywhere - if so, it's possible that the flight was sold out for a later leg. I guess you can always have a bad experience. JetBlue doesn't fly to Chicago so I have never tried them. Midwest Express is great but usually a bit more expensive and a little farther away for us.

Susan

Sherry, your story surprises me too. Often we have flown SWA from San Jose to Los Angeles. I have called the day before our return flight to see if there was room on a different flight home and when there was room they have allowed me to change our flight at no cost, and without the need to fly standby. One advantage of SWA is that you can change a flight at the last minute with usually no additional cost. Another, you can buy tickets at the last minute and not pay the astronomical cost of a "less than 7 day in advance" ticket on other airlines.

Iwanna Seat

I vote for no more unconfirmed seats. I hate that cattle call. I got stuck in the first row seats with our backs to the front of the plane, facing strangers. It was a weird sensation to be sitting "backwards" when the plane took off.

I will never fly without a confirmed seat again.

metoo

Me Too. I got stuck flying backwards facing all these total strangers... men. They were huge guys and I could hardly put my feet on the floor. What a terrible experience! Thank God it was only an hour flight!

traveler

I really wish Southwest would assign seats also. Once I was on a Southwest flight and I guess this lady got there late and she and her very young daughter could not find a seat to sit next to each other. If I was with my husband we would have surely broken up to accomadate them. I was alone so giving up my seat wouldn't have helped. Nobody would give up their seat for this mother and child! The flight attendants became so annoyed~yelling "come-on people, show some compassion, we have a mother with a young child here-who is going to give up their seat" Some people finally split up but after quite a bit of work on the attendants side. I always say I'll never fly them again but I'm leaving out of FLL to MSY on the 9th of May with them. They had the friends fly free and we return to PBI for a total of 193.00. Every other airline I use did not have a good flight to MSY. Like Continental went to Houston first and then on to New Orleans. So for that convenience~we use them, but I'd rather not. Why? Because they don't offer seat assignment! I find the attendants extremely pleasant in every way though.

kal

It is finally time for SoWest to fly to HAWAII!!!!
You'd see the other airlines lowering the prices to HON quicker than me grabbing another piece of Brick Oven Pizza!
Kal

Susan

Amen to that, brah.

Why Not Minot

Kal:
I don't think any airline will ever feel compelled to drop prices to HON.
HON, you see, is HURON, SOUTH DAKOTA.
Honolulu is HNL.

funnyguy

ha,ha,ha

x

If you people don't like SW's cattle call and cheap prices, take your business elsewhere. No one is forcing you to fly SW. If you want to save money either put up with it or fly someone more expensive and shut the hell up!!!

Ralph

So, "x", what you're suggesting is that any time people don't like something in the business/enterprise world they should just keep their mouths shut and move on?
So if my favorite restaurant changes the menu drastically and I don't like going there any more, I should refrain from telling them about it?
My dry cleaner raises prices dramatically I should just stop going there and never say anything?

That wouldn't help to change things for the better. Businesses WANT to know what makes customers happy and not. Allows them to provide better, more competitive service.

Maybe people who want change (of whatever type) are in the minority, or what they want isn't feasible. But failing to say anything about it is not the answer.

geno

Just heard an inside rummor that they might change and soon!

x

geno hahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa. You heard an inside rumor?

FrugalFred

"Ralph Nadar" (why the false impersonation) writes:
"Businesses WANT to know what makes customers happy and not. Allows them to provide better, more competitive service."

If the day comes (fat chance) that Southwest is flying half full then maybe they will assign seating. The full planes they fly right now says that customers want cheap fares and ontime schedules, not nursemaids to dote over their every desire. That *IS* how they've kept up with customer demands, how they've been competetive. We "bus riders" WANT cheap - you go ahead and ride the limo if you want, but don't come on our bus and bitch - patronize the competition. I sat in one of those backwards seats and enjoyed it - nice socialble group we had and I got off the plane as one of the first 1/2 dozen.

Anna

Assigned seats are the CIVILIZED way for any airline to go. The trick of not assigning seats worked for SW when they were new, but the mad rush to board by boarding pass groups only brings out the beast in everyone waiting to get on the plane. For those of us with jobs that depend on interaction with others, we can't always get to the airport two hours early to get in the first boarding groups. For those times when I get there later and have a third or fourth boarding group, I have learned a trick to get on in the first or second group, however, life would be much easier with the seat assignments. In the event, however, the SW decides not to do seat assignments, I think they should take the stupid boarding number passes one step further and MAKE EVERYONE STAND IN LINE AND BOARD ACCORDING TO THEIR BOARDING NUMBER. That way, #59 doesn't get on board before #32, after all, #32 was in line way before #59. Furthermore, this would help the people that can't firgure out how the boarding group thing works. SW should get with the program and do the boarding shuffle all the way, or change to seat assignments.