Southwest was giving away for free what other airlines were charging for (checked bags.) They will no longer be doing this for free.
Yeah. Southwest ain't what it once was and hasn't been for a long time. Just another airline, only with a lot fewer convenient route options because they don't use a hub and spoke system like other airlines and a jacked up seat assignment and boarding process (that they're finally eliminating).
Boarding is an unnecessary pain in the *** because of too many people trying to carry on bags. I can believe checked bags should cost more than a carry on because there is an extra cost to handling, and some risk of liability, but how much time is lost because of gate checking bags and it taking forever to get loaded because there are too many people trying to cram carryons into too little space. There should be a cost to carry on also to balance out. I would think a ten to twenty dollar difference is more than sufficient to cover the cost and liability of checked bags and not so big as to get everybody trying to take as big of a carry on as possible.
People taking an inordinate amount of time to stow / get carry on bags is only slight less aggravating than people who hold up a convenience store line buying ******* lottery tickets.
I never found it chaotic. People are just too dumb to know how to read and count, I guess.
It slows everything down bc people wander around looking for the best seat. Then they get to the back and realize everything is a middle and have to come back up. Cant wait to see it go.
They should be checking bags for free and charging people to carry on. And yeah, boarding is ridiculous. I just wait till almost everyone else has boarded and walk on the plane.
It's worth the $25 to me to get a window seat. I pay that to upgrade to A every time on SWA.
I think most of the people I see in airports should be banished to riding buses.
I don't care what priority class I'm in, I'm boarding last. Screw sitting on a crowded airplane for 1/2 hour longer than I have to.
Yep, unless I’m in FC and that ain’t very often - hard to get upgraded these days, and I’m sure not paying up front for FC or Comfort seating, I’m waiting until the last minute to board.
I’d pay to carry on the bag. Not having to go to baggage claim and run the risk of losing my luggage. I have never understood why the more convenient option is the free one. I don’t care how long a trip I’m going on, I’m somehow fitting my stuff in a carry on.
I actively despise having to carry around my luggage, plus baggage claim is usually convenient to whatever ground transport your headed towards. I've also been lucky and never had any kind of problem with checked bags; that would very likely skew my perception.
Same here. I see people struggling with their luggage in airports all the time (well, what little I fly). I feel sorry for those people. It looks awful. Worth every penny to check the bag.
I don't like sitting that long either, especially when it's hot (which is most of the time on the plane with little to no air)... but it's a trade off for me not to be in the claustrophobic middle seat. I like to lean on the window and sleep, and you have nowhere to go in the middle. Then you have someone on both sides of you fighting for the armrest... no thank you.
Yeah, very rare, but it's awesome when that middle seat stays empty. My best empty middle seat story. Was flying from Raleigh to Atlanta on my way home. Boarded late and middle seat was empty. Last empty seat on the plane. Right before they closed the door, I see a fairly big guy come in and walk down the isle. Sure enough it's his seat. Turns out he was the sports reporter that got fired from the Columbus paper for making negative comments about Lafayette LA when we were in the regional there. We had a really good conversation about State athletics, and shared a big laugh over the "We don't talk about injuries" press conference with Mullen. Turns out he was really hoping when Dan walked out he was finished, and then he walked back in and talked about injuries.
Early boarding has definitely gotten much more overcrowded than it used to be. I won't do Southwest any longer because of no assigned seats, but would consider them again, once they start assignment.
The perfect Southwest loading place is late B. You can then not only have a seat choice that you like, but you can sit next to someone that you choose, not the other way around. A and you get to pick any seat, but you are subjected to whoever decides to sit next you and I attract the wrong people for some reason. C and you have very few choices left, so you may be fighting with someone who is spilling over into your seat with you...
I loved flying southwest in the 90s. I had a road warrior career, out of town every week. At the end of the week, come straight from the plant in my nomex in boarding A, would just walk right up to the gate and sit on the floor. The groans were audible and the cattle call would start more than an hour before the flight. I sat on the front row to get the hell off the plane and get home. I hated being stuck behind what would be the slowest 17er in the world who would also put their overhead bag 8 rows behind them for no apparent reason.
Just remove the overhead bins and make people put it under the seat in front of them.
