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Southwest to get rid of open seating, offer extra legroom in biggest shift in its history

  • Southwest plans to offer pricier seats with extra legroom and end open seating on its planes.
  • The shifts are the most major in the airline’s more than five decades of flying.
  • Southwest expects to start selling seats with the new cabin option next year.
TropicalDingdong ,

So what now? I don’t get to moo in line any more?

invertedspear ,

Southwest has been shown to have the shortest turnaround time of all the airlines due to open seating. IIRC when other airlines were failing and merging, Southwest stayed independent and even profitable. This is just another example of short term gain being prioritized over long term strategy.

extremeboredom ,

Anything to make the line go up. Nothing else matters. This applies across all industries in the US.

Nougat ,

“Although our unique open seating model has been a part of Southwest Airlines since our inception, our thoughtful and extensive research makes it clear this is the right choice — at the right time — for our Customers, our People, and our Shareholders,” CEO Bob Jordan said in a news release Thursday.

FTFY

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Cool. Still never flying again unless it’s absolutely necessary. It’s still loud, It’s still expensive, I still have to sit in an uncomfortable airplane seat and I doubt the “extra legroom” is worth the price.

One of the few draws of Southwest was that it was one price for everybody. I guess that’s not true anymore.

SendMePhotos ,

Southwest was, and may still be, my favorite airline. Not that I’ve traveled more than 3 times in my life, but the fact that southwest was always at the top for employee satisfaction. I had always respected that. It’s strange to me that they would eliminate a process that is a prime factor in driving sales… But… Money…

ShepherdPie ,

I’ve flown with them quite a bit and while I initially liked them, they’re absolutely shitty if they ever make changes to a flight. I’ve booked direct 4 hour flights that they then cancel and stick me on a 12 hour flight with 3 layovers instead with no way to change it other than literally sitting on hold for 2 hours. Their website is absolute garbage and does not allow you to update or change anything on your flight even though it’s supposed to (which I just found out from Crowdstrike is likely because their whole system runs on Windows 3.1).

I’ve also had the gate agents get nasty and refuse to allow us to board early when they ask if anyone needs extra time even though we have a child with disabilities because apparently she doesn’t look disabled enough.

We also always check-in the second you’re allowed to 24 hours before the flight but still somehow always manage to get stuck in boarding group C which means we can’t sit with our above mentioned child if the plane is already full and there aren’t at least 2 seats next to each other. You can pay them significantly more to get seated early though. 🙄

Out of all the flights we’ve taken, Alaska has always been the best in terms of service and experience and typically the most reasonable on price.

Southwest is good if you’re traveling alone and don’t mind getting stuck sitting between a drunk couple who are fighting and rapidly approaching getting physical (this has happened to me) and want to save money on your baggage.

Zetta ,

I get very motion sick and absolutely fucking dread flying with every ounce of my soul. Sadly i usually end up flying once or twice a year

TheRealCharlesEames ,

Hey I may consider SW again

CodexArcanum ,

Guess they’re upgrading to Windows 95 and getting some new features in the process!

I hate them removing open seating though, which airline experts have found is basically the fastest, easiest system for boarding planes. Obviously just to allow per-sest pricing, the bane of travellers everywhere.

Rhaedas ,

Open seating must make up time at the end when there's fewer choices, because my experience has been it's just as bad as people trying to find their assigned seat. People come into the plane and either stop to ponder where to pick a seat, or the pick the first seat they can and take their time putting stuff up, blocking the rest. I would think assigned seats and start boarding the rows back to front, or maybe stagger the loading, would be faster.

Transporter_Room_3 ,
@Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website avatar

youtu.be/oAHbLRjF0vo

Watch this

Be forever angry at every airline you ever fly with.

Rhaedas ,

Gold. So the real answer is to get rid of baggage. And people.

LifeInMultipleChoice ,

The ending about deboarding the plane was a great feeling of frustration.

Rhaedas ,

In leaving any type of place with a lot of people, I just sit and wait it out. I'm not fighting the masses who obviously have more important places to be. Sit a few minutes, then get up and leave without having to stand in line. What would be awkward is if everyone took that approach, but I have a feeling it will always be a minority.

ricecake ,

That’s how I try to be as well, but when you get flight delays or a connecting flight that got changed to one with a miniscule layover, you sometimes just can’t afford to be patient.

Which sucks, because you know 95% of the people standing up don’t have a real time limit, and so you stand there staring at the back of the person who just wants to be the first to go wait an hour for their flight while you brace yourself for flat out running across the airport.

macaro ,

I knew this was CGP Grey!

LustyArgonianMana ,
@LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world avatar

Remember, like in 2006, when they’d board the plane in order? Eg the back of the plan boards first, then the middle, then the front. And no one is trying to push past each other, no one is in each other’s way, it’s just efficient and easy.

apfelwoiSchoppen ,
@apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world avatar

Good, the lines and purchase upgrades were out of control.

SoJB ,

Yeah I wonder which sentiment will win out. Personally, I thought SouthWest was on the decline with consumers due to their psychopathic boarding policies.

Even for work travel, I’ve been noticing colleagues shitting on SouthWest and realizing it sucks. Playing this ridiculous game trying to fight for a seat, people AND STAFF ignoring boarding number guidelines with no consequences, it’s fucking ridiculous. Delta offers much better travel contracts.

All that effort just to sit in the middle because you didn’t pay $300 extra for the ultra omega line skip. Might as well fly a normal airline and pick your desired seat or pay a little to sit in “comfort” class behind business.

Every flight I would see people frustrated that they paid $100 extra for whatever new fast pass they rolled out only to find out there are 5 boarding groups ahead of them with even faster passes.

Bad for work travel, bad for personal travel, what else is left lol.

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