Southwest has had a big problem with boarding and deplaning since moving to assigned seats two weeks ago. Flight attendants have had reserved overhead bin space at the front of the cabin, so passengers in extra legroom seats haven’t had bin space above their seats.
That pushes those passengers to move their bags to other bins, and there’s a knock on effect as other passengers don’t have bins available near their own seats. Passengers are moving up and down the aisle of the cabin stowing their bags and returning to seats at the start of the flight, and retrieving their backs on arrival.
So the airline has decided to move dedicated overhead bin space for flight attendants to the back of the cabin. And their union does not like it.
Flight attendants get off the plane last, so it seems to make sense to have their bags at the back. They are also free to move about the cabin much more easily than passengers, so can access bags as-needed.
Some don’t like it because on certain aircraft the forward bins lock, and the rest don’t. There’s an urban legend about passengers taking flight attendant bags. The real issue of course is not enough bin space for bags so there are tradeoffs in Southwest’s move to extract more revenue, and those have brand and flight turn efficiency downsides.
Dedicated overhead bins for flight attendants above rows 2 and 3 aren’t new. It became more of an issue with charging for checked bags, because passengers bring as much into the cabin as possible. And with assigned seats passengers are immediately boarding – with those paying the most for their seats boarding first and finding no bin space above those seats – causing a problem of finding bin space at the very beginning of the boarding process.
Southwest: If there are any more ways to take a once cherished airline and screw it up beyond recognition, rest assured, we’ll find them!!!
Aww crap, they figured us pax out:
“The final three bins on each side of the plane are designated as ‘free for the taking;’ so if you like the bag, pilfer it.”
They should be more furious that their feckless leadership got them into this mess with rudderless direction followed by kowtowing to an activist investor group.
My preference would be to have FA bags gate checked and loaded below. Keep a valuables bag, but the roller goes as cargo.
Baring that, last row or an aft cabin closet for their bags. Just not in he pax space.
Put their bags in the hold. That is where they force us to put our bags when they ‘think’ the bins will fill up. They shouldn’t need their bags during the flight and at least they will be out there when they get off last.
Every day I get new reasons to never fly SW again.
I would think that having the bags be further away from the only exit door used in 99.9% of airplane departures would make the theft far less likely.
Many of them stay in the rear galley anyways for the entire flight, so there will always be eyes on it.
Agree with you. Back of the cabin makes sense. If the concern is really theft, then adding locks to the rear bins should be a relatively cheap solution. But I’ll bet once that’s offered, the FA union will come up with some other objection.
BTW, its not that “with assigned seats passengers are immediately boarding”. If anything, having a seat reserved should mean you can board later. If folks are immediately boarding, it’s strictly because of the bag issue. Assigned seats made it worse only because before, you’d still board as soon as you could, but you’d walk past open good seats with full bins, until you got to a bin with space.
Oh my word! First these prima dana’s complained about not being first in line way back in the day before ABC. Along came Gary Kelly who thought they were better than the average Customer and he instituted A-List and A-List Preferred along with ABC. He strived to destroy the house that Herb and Colleen built in favor of placating cry babies. Then the cry babies found something else to complain about in the form of people in wheelchairs who pre-boarded ahead of them and they started saying those people should sit at the back of the plane so that they could have the front seats for themselves. I guess if you are in a wheelchair you have no life worthwhile and certainly do not need to make a connection.
Now, today, they have gotten their wish and forced via the Predator to have assigned seats. Did that make them happy? No, of course not. Now they have demanded that the Flight Attendant take their bags to the back of the plane. I guess because the riff-raff is seated in the back and they do not expect or deserve any consideration of any kind.
I guess some people never outgrow their cry baby years and just continue on thinking of new things to stomp their little feet and whine about. I can hardly stand the wait to see what is next in their whiny little world.
I do hope Bob Jordan comes to his senses on this one.
No, I am not nor have I ever been a Flight Attendant. I just have common sense and consider selfishness a vice, and not a desirable trait.
Particularly considering that many SW planes have puny bins that in some cases only fit full size carryons on one side of the plane and/or require bags to lay flat vs on their side, the least they can do is not fill bin space in their “premium seats” with FA bags. If need be, add locks to the aft bins.
The FA’s need to get over themselves on this one.
The FAs don’t have the work load they once had. It’s really depressing what has happened to Herb’s airline ending up as a pawn for some sleazy investment group. We had the best!
Cue the world’s smallest violin
Have a couple of bins at the back that are reserved for crew and can be locked. Problem solved.