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Southwest is going to try assigned seating

gmarine

gmarine

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Beginning July 10 and running for several weeks SW is going to assign seats on around 200 departures from San Diego. If SW adopts the change, which airline industry analysts feel they will, the change wont take place until 2008 due to the time it is going to take to change their entire computer system.

SW is running the test and considering the change because of the complaints that the airline receives from flyers, the vast majority are complaints about the open seating.

It will be a welcome change to the chaos of open seating when a flight is full.
 
Just fyi...and I posted this comment almost a year ago when I let everybody know that NW would start charging for certain preferred seats.

Southwest is doing this, so they can also start charging for certain preferred seats on their aircraft. It's all a part of the way in which airlines plan on creating new revenue streams. Southwest is no different.
 
Great news!! Hope the test goes well and SW adapts assigned seating companywide ASAP. That would get me using them again.
 
DougH said:
Southwest is doing this, so they can also start charging for certain preferred seats on their aircraft. It's all a part of the way in which airlines plan on creating new revenue streams. Southwest is no different.
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Do you know this or is it just your assumption. My guess is that one of the reasons for the proposed change is that the current system is being abused by 3rd party providers charging $5 to obtain "A" Boarding passes for reservation holders in a manner similar to snipe bids on Ebay.

GEORGE
 
I would like to see Southwest have assigned seating.

I know I didn't bother to check their price for a trip involving the kids and the grandparents. Too much uncertainty. Flew Delta instead.
 
I must be one of the only people around who doesn't mind the open seating. I would rather see Southwest keep their prices down.
 
Luanne said:
I must be one of the only people around who doesn't mind the open seating. I would rather see Southwest keep their prices down.
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How does, "cattle call," keep prices down??? Fuel costs, wages, staffing levels, etc have nothing to do with open seating.
 
Jim C said:
How does, "cattle call," keep prices down??? Fuel costs, wages, staffing levels, etc have nothing to do with open seating.
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Well someone mentioned earlier that Southwest was going to assigned seating so they could start charging for preferred seats. I probably didn't phrase what I meant well, lol. We just got back from a short vacation and my mind is still fuzzy. :ignore:

I don't mind the open seating at Southwest. Maybe I'm just used to it, or have learned how to work with the system. I sometimes have more problems with getting decent seating with the seats that are assigned ahead. All I meant was, if assigned seating is in any way going to cause a rise in the prices, I'm NOT for it.
 
To be honest, I don't find SW's prices any cheaper than any other airline. On every trip, I check all sources. Sometimes they are lowest, sometimes they aren't. I've used just about every airline out there over the years.
 
Fares wont' go up. But, if you want to get 'preferred' seats on the particular aircraft, you will have to pay an extra fee for it. If it's like NW, it will be $15 per seat per flight. (Not $15 per trip)
 
The test has nothing to do with any plans to charge for certain seats. That is pure speculation, nothing more.

SW gets a large amount of complaints about the open seating, especially from groups of 4 or more people who are not able to sit together. As the airline has grown and added longer routes, the complaints have risen as well.

With a short flight it may not be so bad not sitting with your party. A 5 hour flight changes that thinking and SW has seen a large increase in complaints as they have added longer routes.
 
gmarine said:
The test has nothing to do with any plans to charge for certain seats. That is pure speculation, nothing more.
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It's not "pure speculation"...I'm in the industry...I know what the airlines are doing and in the process of planning. Last spring/summer when I said on this board that NW was going to start charging for seats, a lot of people told me I was nuts and it would never happen, and if it did happen it would never last.

It did happen, it is lasting, and it is expanding, and has been very very successful for NW. Other airlines have been watching to see what would happen, while preparing their own fee seat policies. It's a practice that will continue to expand, as the revenue streams it produces incur almost no added overheard costs.
 
Unless you have specific knowledge of SW doing this, its just speculation.
 
gmarine said:
Unless you have specific knowledge of SW doing this, its just speculation.
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:) Let's just say...I'm in the industry. If you want to say that's speculation...whatever makes you happy.
 
Well, thats a no to having specific knowledge of the intention of SW.
 
gmarine said:
Well, thats a no to having specific knowledge of the intention of SW.
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I didn't say I didn't have specific knowledge...did I ? You are assuming that.

As I said earlier...it's not speculation. Whether they actually implement the fee seat policy or not is not for sure yet...but they are considering it.
 
DougH said:
I didn't say I didn't have specific knowledge...did I ? You are assuming that.

As I said earlier...it's not speculation. Whether they actually implement the fee seat policy or not is not for sure yet...but they are considering it.
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The information I have is that this is not in consideration. It is purely for the reasons I have mentioned.
 
gmarine said:
The information I have is that this is not in consideration. It is purely for the reasons I have mentioned.
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Are you in the airline industry ? Are you part of the airline groups that discuss these type of issues ? Do you participate in planning and implementation of these types of projects ?

If not...your information is "purely speculation".

Remember, when NW implemented this, they denied any plans for charging fees for preferred seats until about 3 weeks before it was activated.
 
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