Quote:
Originally Posted by
richright 
I partially disagree Sarah but I understand the problem and have a better proposed solution that would make both of us happy.
Years ago I complained like the dickens over the excess amount of preboards as not only you and your kids would pre-board but also husbands that would sometimes steal my emergency exit row seat. After a lot of complaints they amended their policy that says preboards can't sit in the exit row seat. I believe this policy is somewhat unofficial however as their carriage of terms states specaial needs persons CAN be excluded from the exit row but nothing states this is absolute.
Actually, FAA regs DO state that if you are traveling with young children, even if separated you cannot sit in an exit row. The reason being that in an emergency a parent is more likely to see the safety of his/her family than assist with the opening of the exit and evacuation which is expected of those occupying exit row seats.
If you read my statement correctly you would understand the wife is sitting with the kids and the husband is sitting in my emergency exit row seat.
Quote:
Anyway they eventually cut out a lot of the preboarding. However what they did do was essentially replace much of the former preboarding with business select and frequent fliers by automatically giving these customers the first slots in the A-line. These people don't have to check in early just pay about twice as much as most or fly a lot on Southwest. That excludes me and you and most other people.
Pay twice as much? How do you arrive at this? For example, the "anytime" fare frpm Phoenix to Philadelphia is $382. The Business Select is $407. By your math it should be $784.
If we use your math as any loyal Southwest employee is trained to state, you would only use the "Anytime" full fares and then say Business Select is only a "few dollars" more. If you are an objective engineer as I am one would use the average "Wanna Get Away Fare" which is what most people actually pay. In fact in some cases if you used the lowest rock bottom fare offered, Business Select would in many cases be nearly THREE times as much. Apparently many other passengers agree with me that the perks offered by Business Select is not quite worth twice as much as there was only 1 person boarding under this fare structure in the two flight segments I recently took.
Quote:
What they should do is calculate the number of special needs persons in advance and reserve seats for them in the front.
How on earth do you expect them to do this?
Quite easily. It would be the same as any other airline such as Spirit or Jet Blue. Special needs could be indicated during the reservation process or upon check-in. This is not rocket science as you imply.
Quote:
For people like me that have a 39" inseam and NEED the emergency exit row seat I get one of those pre-assigned to me also.
You have already stated you are an infrequent SWA flier. Why would you expect exit row seating just because you are tall?
Because I don't fit in a normal seat. People who are short receive no benefit to extra legroom if their legs can't even touch the seat in front of them. Competitors offer people like me the opportunity to sit in the exit row seat so I will go with them from now on. Should Southwest change their policy I will reconsider. I have not stated I am an infrequent flyer. When I am away on contract assignments I fly about 2 round trips per month. Much less than some to be sure, but more than others.
Quote:
What we have now is an elitist system. First come first served unless you pay a lot more or fly on a frequent basis. Then you get special treatment. That doesn't seem fair to me because it is not based on need but rather greed on Southwests part.
Greed? You are calling rewarding loyalty or paying a premium fare greed? Yes, it IS elitist. It's called taking care of your best customers. Loyal customers should be rewarded with priority seating.
Yes, they should be rewarded with priority seating but NOT my exit row seat. Apparently you are a short arrogant person that works for Southwest? The type of employee without empathy for others that they could probably do without.