On Southwest Airlines new family boarding policy

[ChipWrecked]

Some may know that Southwest Airlines recently changed its boarding policy to disallow families with small children from preboarding. These families, if they don't have an 'A' pass, now board after the 'A' group. If all members have 'A' boarding passes, they board right in the crunch with the business flyers and non-breeders.

My family recently completed a four-leg trip on Southwest. My vent on their blog regarding the change follows:

I posted earlier that I would withhold judgment on this program until we finished our trip (wife, 4 year-old, lap baby, and myself). The trip is over, and I do not like this program. It seems clear to me this policy is a way to segregate families to the back of the plane. When we preboarded in the past, we sat up front by the bulkhead. This prevented another passenger’s seat from being kicked or otherwise disturbed by the preschooler. Try as we might, we cannot always prevent this from happening over five hours of flight time, so on this trip SWA had multiple unhappy passengers: Us, and those who had to sit in front of our 4 year-old.Good luck with your family-segregation-ghetto policy, Southwest. We will not fly this airline again.


Have any other posters with young'uns flown Southwest since this new policy was implemented? What did you think?

[mondo]

For the other side of the coin, it has always annoyed me when I get to the airport 2 hours early w/ my "A" voucher, sit patiently (generally uncomfortably) @ the front of the "A" line for 2 hours, only to watch half the plane "pre-board" (oxymoron, no ?) w/ various conditions, situations and maladies, both real and imagined......

Not looking to start a flame war..... I just don't think that having children is the "golden ticket" to better seating..... The policy is essentially a first-come, first serve policy. If you want to board in advance, get to the airport early. (I realize you have vowed not to take SWA again.... more just a general statement for those who will)

IMO, if you live near a JetBlue destination, they are the best no frills airline, w/ nice leather seats, your own seatback TV, affordable fares, and assigned seating.... give 'em a try !!!

peace, mondo

[4_2_it]

The policy is 1st come, 1st served and was changed based on feedback. I never liked seeing families seated at the front because they usually take longer to disembark, which drives me nuts when I just want to grab my carry-on and get out of dodge. Sorry to disagree with you here bro.

Note: I have been flying Southwest with my kids since they were 2 and 6 years of age and we never pre-boarded.

[Dominic]

I just want my airline personnel to wear long pants and not crack jokes when they're telling me about the emergency exits. That's why Southwest concerns me. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[MrWookie]

I don't mind the joke cracking as long as the person cracking jokes is actually funny. I've only heard one emergency spiel joke-teller who was actually funny.

[odellthurman]

[ QUOTE ]
We will not fly this airline again.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you aren't going to fly Southwest again, why do you care?

[SoloAJ]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
We will not fly this airline again.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you aren't going to fly Southwest again, why do you care?

[/ QUOTE ]

OT, this is a bit silly. I think he has every right to care, especially if he is posting in The Lounge and trying to elicit some discussion.

This doesn't really affect me at all because I'm 22 with no kids. I see Chip and mondo's sides pretty well. I think that I lean toward mondo's feeling, mostly because of the people who *use* a kid as an excuse to board the plane first and sit in front. I just assume that, in general, they aren't doing that out of the kindness of their heart, like Chip indicated as his reason (I believe you, obv).

I have only flown a few times, but I can safely say that I would get annoyed by a kid kicking my seat. I'm a pretty patient and tolerant person, but flights are boring enough without some kid kicking my seat.

Or, for that matter, some idiotic girl doing something idiotic. That was my personal bad experience. Stupid 25 year old obnoxious boozehound.

[ChipWrecked]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
We will not fly this airline again.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you aren't going to fly Southwest again, why do you care?

[/ QUOTE ]

That was a quote from my comment on their blog post. Just giving the airline some feedback on their policy.

[Duke]

I have a better solution.

Let families pre-board. If a kid screams, cries, or kicks a seat, they are barred from flying for the rest of their lives.

[ChipWrecked]

Looking over the comments on SWA's blog, the average per post is about a dozen. Comments on the post regarding this policy change is currently 430. Obviously this is a hot-button issue for them.