SWA to offer new preboarding option

[jimntx]

I'm verklempt, so just click on the link and read.
https://crankyflier.com/2020/04/01/...revent-covid-19-with-new-shootnboard-program/

I can't decide what I think about this new option to get your favorite seat.

P.S. thread title should have said "new option" not "new options." There's just 1.

 

[JREwing]

It wasn't till the end of the article that I read the most important point. At best they're are only 30 folks on a plane that holds 175, so unless you're obsessed with an exit row or bulkhead seat there's no reason to board early. But leave it to WN to come up with a novel idea, and I think it's great from a marketing perspective.

 

[jimntx]

It wasn't till the end of the article that I read the most important point. At best they're are only 30 folks on a plane that holds 175, so unless you're obsessed with an exit row or bulkhead seat there's no reason to board early. But leave it to WN to come up with a novel idea, and I think it's great from a marketing perspective.

You obviously have never had to work onboard with the passengers. That exit/ or bulkhead seat are every reason in the world to board early to those people who until now had only the option to pay an extra $25 on SWA (used to be $25. May be more now. I don't know.) And pay they did. At STL one day I saw 2 men in suits and briefcases running down the concourse to get ahead of others in the $25 line. The only thing better than being in that line is to be the #1 passenger in that line. (I was commuting to Dallas on the same flight and got to witness the entire contest.)

I flew for AA for 15 years. Many times I witnessed spoiled, rotten passengers throwing immature fits at the counter and on the plane because they did not get their upgrade to First Class on a flight from Austin to DFW (flight duration 35 minutes). I was standing with a pilot one day waiting to board the plane. He and I were entertained by one of those passengers throwing a fit over his seat location.. When said passenger boarded he was still ranting (not that anyone was paying one grain of attention to him.) The Captain turned to me and said "How do you do that job? How do you control the desire to slap the crap out of passengers like that. If he doesn't shut up in the next 5 minutes let me know. I'll have him removed from the flight."

I told the Captain it gives me the opportunity to go back and quietly say to the passenger, "The Captain thinks that this seat is totally unsuitable for you. Perhaps you would like to wait and see if any of the later flights have proper seats available. The passenger took the hint and shut up. LOL