Southwest’s New Boarding System Debuted — It Didn’t Go Well

A decades-long experiment with open seating officially ends—and passengers are already calling for a do-over.

by SharonKurheg

After months of announcements followed by weeks of reminders, Southwest Airlines’ new seating program finally went into effect yesterday.

The airline had utilized a “quirky but effective” system of open seating for decades. People either loved it or hated it, so it wasn’t surprising that, upon hearing of the new system, passengers appeared to be in one of two camps – either this was going to be a wonderful change, or it was going to totally suck.

The new system

The new system has been explained ad nauseam. So, briefly – instead of lining up and being able to choose your seat, Southwest is now going for the system that everyone else has – either pay to choose your seat, pay more for a “good” seat, or be assigned a seat – most likely a middle seat in the back.

a screenshot of a computer

And WHEN you boarded depended on what group you’re in (which, of course, is based on seat type, fare type, or tier status. Read: the more money you give the airline, the earlier you get to board).

a screenshot of a blue and white board

Southwest tried to hype up the new system on their social media. Here’s one from Facebook:

a collage of people in an airplane

Yeah, the overwhelming response to that was “Congrats! Now you’re just like everyone else.” And not in a good way.

I hope someone reading these comments has the power to recognize SWA flushed the very thing that made them special in an industry of sameness and frustration. — S. Pierce

How’s it going?

Not surprisingly, how it’s going depends on the passenger in question. We used a very unscientific system of sweeping various message boards to see what people said, and anecdotally, significantly more people were “not impressed” than impressed.

a woman wearing a silver medal

What people have said

“Boarded in the new system – sucks.”

A Reddit user who goes by the handle Healthy-Ad2400 said they had a flight from PHX to BOS on Tuesday morning. They’re A-List and chose 10C when seat selection opened 48 hours prior to the flight.

Between preboarders and people from Groups 1 through 4, they estimate that about 80 to 90 people got onto the plane before them. This meant there was no overhead space anywhere near them and they had to do the ol’ “put your stuff in the overhead BEHIND you, so you have to deal with that mess when you land.”
Health-ad2400 had a connection and, still Group 5, had the same problem when loading for their second leg – except this time the only overhead space was in the very back of the plane. They were given the option to check their overhead bag; they took that option.
Healthy-ad2400 also mentioned, in a different thread, that if you were in an emergency exit row, you were stopped at the gate (boarding pass wouldn’t clear) unless you had already visited customer service – they (customer service) were ensuring that exit row PAX were able and willing to perform exit row duties, and once you said yes, they’d flag your boarding pass accordingly. (this may or may not be a bug that will eventually be fixed)

“Southwest reassigned seats with no warning”

Another Reddit user, cmmdr312, said they and their wife bought a “Choice” fare that allows you to select your seat at booking. They both selected aisle seats and received a confirmation email confirming as much.

“Less than 48 hours before, the first leg flight is filling up, and I double-checked the app. Southwest randomly decided that my wife should sit in a middle seat and reassigned her. No explanation, no email, nothing. I scrambled to reassign her to the last aisle seat available in the app,” cmmdr312 said.

So much for paying to choose your seat, huh?

“Day One new Seating Experience”

Redditor Laruex3 echoed Healthy-Ad2400’s experience. No status, has a priority credit card, A-list status and bought a Choice preferred ticket. Of this they said: “I didn’t expect to board at the front of the line, but I didn’t anticipate boarding at the equivalent of the second half of the former C group, either.”
They also said that the lineup was a huge rush, with everyone wanting to be first when their zone was called (yep, gate lice has reached Southwest).
“There were two boarding lanes alternating back and forth kind of like the old system, but by zones. 1,3,5,7 on the left and 2,4,6,8 on the right. The lanes at GCM were against a wall, so you had people from different groups intermingled and in one another’s way. For example, Group 4 crowded up in front of Groups 2 and 3, blocking their paths to board. As a fellow passenger said, ‘This is a cluster.’”

“Carry on issues”

From beansblog23:
The biggest issue I’ve been hearing seems to be jerks who put their luggage in the overhead in the front when they’re sitting in the back. Why aren’t the flight attendant stopping that? They should be telling them you have to put your carry-on in the overhead above your seat.
(Several people mentioned this. If you’re in Group 5(ish), forget about having overhead space, I guess. People are jerks.)

“Sh*tshow does not begin to explain…”

This was discovered on Facebook:

I just boarded. Sh*tshow does not begin to explain this. It is not about resistance to change. ALP + CP and in group 2? I have always been A16 or close to it. Now I am the 60th person to get on the plane.

Then the flight attendants are promoting the “brand new aircraft.” What? Same tan and blue seats from the oldest in your fleet just moved for more legroom. Stains on the carpet. No device holder.

The chaos it taking twice as long to board. Sitting in the fourth row and overheads were already full up front with being in group two. The employees must not have been trained because it is clear that they are winging it.

This will be the beginning of the end for Southwest. They are trying to be like everyone else, but have no clue how it really works. I don’t think that there is a person on this flight not complaining about this disaster.

“I mean, it’s good and it’s bad”

From someone who says they used to be a WN ramper:

if you’re going to charge for bags might as well charge for carry-ons as well close to the same price as checked. Unpopular opinion I know but every single flight I’ve been on in the last few months they’ve had to gate check a ton of bags anyway, taking up a ton of time.

Even more delay when people have to go up and down the aisles just to find bin space now because nobody wants to pay to check a bag.

As a former WN ramper I’m somewhat jealous of the guys now, probably have not even half the bags to load- still good bit of cargo which makes more money than people though.

“Boarding took so long”

Flew today, on the first day of the new assigned seats and boarding groups. Boarding took so long. Really need to board from the back to the front of the plane.

“It is confusing as a cardholder. Picked seats 48 hours before but then had to check in 24 hours prior. That’s silly.”

“Still love SW, just need to work the bugs out.”

“Sucks”

“There are 56 people on this flight and the attendant is insisting that we sit in our assigned seats. I paid to upgrade too. SW will not be my first choice anymore.”

“Under the seat space is smaller”

“Was very sad to see how much the space was reduced for folks with aisle seats to put things under the seat. Too much room was taken away as compared to before. Now my bag that used to easily fit under the seat doesn’t anymore.”

The positives

Swimming around the “this sucks” posts were the comments that say they like the new system. Most of those, amusingly, weren’t people who actually FLEW yesterday – they just like the fact that there won’t be any more “Jetway Jesus” people.

“Some of us are thrilled with the ability to reserve a front cabin seat and not have to worry about the pre-boarding abusers eating up the front of the plane.”

“The elimination of the pre-boarding abuse alone is worth the price of admission. I’m all for this.”

This one is not in good taste if you’re religious. Sorry not sorry. “Jetway Jesus was Crucified before the 1st assigned seat flight this morning. In 3 days he will rise to claim the overhead bin space ”

The overall feeling

Overall, people are nooooooot happy. They don’t like paying more for their flights. They don’t like the small amount of room for their personal bag. They REALLY don’t like people being A-holes and storing their stuff in the overheads rows and rows ahead of their own seats.

And some people were just happy that the “Jetway Jesus” issue is no longer an issue. Because I guess their happiness is only based on their being ahead of others.

Lots of folks were saying they’re “done” with Southwest. Time will tell if passengers adapt, revolt, or quietly defect to Delta while muttering about overhead bins and underseat space. But one thing’s clear: change is hard, especially at Gate B12.

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