Here’s an underrated problem that will be solved once Southwest Airlines finally moves to assigned seating next year. We already know that it will end seat savers and wheelchair cheaters. But that’s not the only effect.
@SouthwestAir 15+ preboards. These all walked on. Fix this please. TPA 9/17 1650 hours. Check the video. Abuse of privilege. pic.twitter.com/2hkni1Z5T8
— Fred Vollinger (@fred_vollinger) September 17, 2024
Without assigned seating, Southwest passengers want to be on first so they fake the need for a wheelchair – keeping those who actually need one waiting for the service. And they one member of a party boarding earlier than the rest will guard seats, place things on them, and do their best to save them for others boarding later (or put crumpled tissues on the seat next to them hoping it stays free).
But an underrated problem is not always knowing who is on the plane, or who is in which seat. Assigned seating is going to help the airline – and law enforcement – know who is where. I didn’t think of this as a problem until an FBI agent pointed it out to me earlier this year.
Here’s one example,
Flying from Chicago to Bozeman and we had a full flight which ended up being 1 person to full. Turns out someone got on the wrong flight that was going to Vegas through Bozeman instead of the direct flight to Vegas. The flight attendants knew there was 1 too many but had no idea who it was. At first they made several announcements for everyone to check their tickets to make sure they were on the right flight No one fessed up and then they made every single passenger show their boarding pass and ID until they found the person and kicked them off.
When a passenger causes problems and the airline gets law enforcement involved, they don’t initially know who the passenger is based on where they were seated.
When too many people board a Southwest flight, the airline doesn’t know who the extra one is – without checking passenger-by-passenger (or offloading the whole aircraft and re-boarding).
Both of those things will change when Southwest moves to assigned seating.
So now we know the real reason for going to assigned seats: to help out the police state.
I think it’s a great thing. I’ve seen the pictures of the crowd of people with wheelchairs so they can get on first. I can just imagine how people who HAVE to use one for every day living feel about that… And over 30 people lined up for preboarding who really should not be preboarding. That happened on almost every flight I was on. That’s why I stopped flying Southwest. What’s the point in calling in 24 hours in advance just to be near the middle of the plane because of the excessive preboarders?
The wheelchair fakers will still be around as they still get to preboard. The difference now is that they won’t get seats in the front, without paying, and “save” seats for the rest of their lowlife clan.
The real reason is to root out those who committed fraud by claiming to be disabled and are not. Just compare how they boarded before the change over and after the change over (with all airlines) – report to authorities.
Two stories:
* We were on a flight from DAL to BUR and continuing to SFO. During the stop at BUR, there were two more people who remained on the plane than expected. FA made multiple announcements and no one fessed up. They then had to send a gate agent to check everyone’s name until the two people were identified.
* A friend was fling WN and a man next to him was watching homosexual porn! He filed a complaint later but the reply was “well since we don’t assign seats, we don’t know who it is. Here’s an extra $50 LOVE coupon.”
I’m so happy for the upcoming change; as an A-Lister, I’m very tired of watching all the pre-boards who don’t belong in that line getting on first, much less in the front seats I prefer…….
Why wouldn’t a scanner as you are about to board catch the passenger who is boarding the wrong flight ?!
I am 6’4”, 300 lbs, a former athlete with two knee replacements and one hip replacement. I also have Myasthenia Gravis which makes it very difficult to walk.
I use a wheelchair to get to the boarding gate. Once there, I get out of the wheelchair and walk on to the plane and get seated asap. When we land, I walk off the plane usually hauling myself up the segmented jetway by the railings and then almost fall into a hopefully waiting wheelchair. I do this to not hold up other passengers boarding and boarding. I could easily insist on being wheeled right down to the doorway of the plane.and doing the same thing when getting off the plane. At age 78, this would be much easier for me.but I do not do it. So all of you keep in mind many, if not most, wheel chair users are not faking it.
@jns. What a dumb thing to say!! I bet you believe in fairies and Jewish space lasers too..,
As somebody who flies Southwest multiple times a month It will be interesting to see how the wheelchair crowd deals with this, but as someone who buys the extra seat every time I hope that in trying to curb that that I’m not swept into the nonsense of changing the seating policy.
I buy the extra seat and often pre-board though I never take the first few rows of seats, I hope sincerely that my ability to fly comfortably for my livelihood isn’t taken away because some hedge fund jag off wants to make a few extra sheckels for his third house or because for some reason the FBI needs to know who’s sitting in what seat.
@Terry as Chrissy Tiegen infamously said when her flight to Japan had to return to the US due to a stowaway, “the boarding pass scanner is just a beedoop machine that makes beedoop noises that register to nowhere”
It is ALWAYS a small minority of abusers that screw up a working system that has been in place and working for decades.