After weeks of passenger complaints, Southwest says it’s adjusting its new boarding and seating process to reduce confusion and delays, confirming to CBS News that early fixes are already being planned based on real-world passenger behavior.
Southwest Airlines has had a moment — probably several of them — since making the last of its changes to the airline, and most of them were not good ones.
Where the new system is breaking down
Its new boarding system, with assigned seating, debuted in late January. And despite attempts at cheerfulness, the response from passengers overall was not good. A week later, there were still passenger complaints — particularly from A-List Preferred members, who didn’t feel like they were being treated as the higher-end passengers Southwest said it wanted to keep.
Over two weeks into the new system, the airline now admits the rollout has had a bumpy start. But they say fixes are coming.
Overhead bins have become a bottleneck
The airline told CBS News that overhead storage has been a major problem since assigned seating began. Those who have early boarding have taken to placing their carry-on bags in the overhead up front. That leaves those who have paid extra for their extra legroom seats with no space for their bags. This means they have to walk back several rows to find open overhead space, then get back to their seats up front – and then do the whole process again to retrieve their bags before exiting the plane.
This winds up slowing down both the boarding and deplaning process, and Southwest knows it.
Assigned seats create new family seating problems
With all passengers now having assigned seats, travelers can pay to choose their seat assignment. But if you choose not to pay and receive an automatic assignment, you run the risk of being separated from your travel companions.
That might not matter much for adults traveling together. But when a parent is separated from a young child or toddler, it becomes a much bigger issue.
Other airlines have faced this challenge for years, with mixed results. For Southwest, however, this is a new problem — because under the old open-seating model, families with young children boarded between Groups A and B to help ensure they sat together.
“My wife and two kids (5 and 2) are flying @SouthwestAir today,” one person wrote on X earlier this week. “And because I refuse to pay for seats, their seats were auto-assigned. My 2-year-old is in his own row without his mom or sister.”
What Southwest says it plans to change
After weeks of passenger complaints, Southwest says it’s adjusting its new boarding and seating process, confirming to CBS News that early fixes are already underway based on real-world passenger behavior. From CBS:
The changes are expected to be rolled out in the near future and will likely involve having premium and elite flyers board earlier.
Southwest spokesperson Chris Perry also acknowledged the airline is aware of the issues and working on solutions. As he told The Dallas Morning News:
Since launch, we’ve been closely monitoring input and real-world behaviors to validate our assumptions and identify where we can refine the experience. Those insights are now informing a series of early adjustments designed to smooth operations and reduce friction as Customers adapt to the new boarding and seating process.
Our take on the rollout
It’s good that Southwest appears to be aware of the problems of its new seating system, and is willing to be proactive to fix them.
That being said, the airline is well aware of, for example, the issue with children and parents/guardians being split up if they don’t buy a ticket. Other airlines have systems in place to avoid this happening; it’s surprising and a little disappointing that Southwest, who used to have a protocol to help ensure families sat together, didn’t look into that before assigned seating began?
I guess we’ll see what happens next.
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