|
|
Post by tomandrobin on Jul 26, 2024 13:59:26 GMT -5
Hmm. The main reason I keep my SWA Visa is for the three free A1-15 upgrades. This covers the annual fee. The new system makes me wonder how the credit card benefits are going to be impacted. We have been pondering the impact to A-List status and other perks. |
|
|
|
Post by simbasmom on Jul 26, 2024 16:58:51 GMT -5
Funny thing. Delta MSP>MCO doesn't do family boarding (they do for other cities). Last MCO trip we took, the gate agent said, "that's almost ALL of you!" LOL SWA allows pre-board for people with disabilities. Over the years, that those in the pre-board line has grown and grown, similar to the Disney and the DAS. Am I judging, yes.....but I am also basing this on my many years experience of flying and watching trends. Why pay for an upgrade, when you can fake an injury and be among the first to board. On some flights this past year, I have seen upwards of 20-30 pre-boarding our flight. Yup, I think that's exactly the main reason. On a recent trip, I saw an example of this, and my husband was so mad! There was a long line of wheelchair pre boarders, but a shortage of "pushers" for the jetway. That meant that the gate agent made an announcement that "If anyone in a wheelchair can walk down the jetway, please do so now." At least 3/4ths of the people waiting in wheelchairs jumped up and hustled as fast as they could go. I'm not talking about someone taking their cane and walking slowly, I'm talking about miraculous recoveries! Then a problem was left for myself and the few others who needed to pre board in wheelchairs. Those miraculous recoverers were so anxious to go that they left their wheelchairs where they were, leaving the few of us to try to navigate through, pushing wheelchairs aside. The other problem I've heard from Southwest flight attendants is that 1 person pays for Early Bird Check In, then saves seats for the rest of their family. It's something the flight attendants are reluctant to get involved in mostly because they get such verbal abuse if they say anything (like dare to tell the customer "No"). |
|
|
|
Post by disneyspaz on Jul 27, 2024 10:11:20 GMT -5
I am excited about this change. We have been SWA fans for years but over the past several trips we were starting to reconsider. My DH is a preboarder due to medical issues, he is without a wheelchair and our pattern has been for DH and DD to preboard, I upgrade to Boarding Pass A1-15 and our DS who is older would take whatever he could get closest to us when his boarding pass was called, we never held a seat for him or even thought about trying but usually there is a middle seat within a few rows of us each time. We had noticed over the past couple of trips that we were getting more and more grief from the ticket agent. We offered a letter from the doctor and they refused saying he just needed to answer questions but they still gave significant attitude. As a result we had started looking at other airlines where we can pick his seat in advance so this is really good news for us.
As for abuse of this system it really is like the DAS. Our last flight in June out of MCO there was a party of 20 with 8 in SWA wheelchairs each with one member riding with them. After the 16 preboarders, one adult was left with the 3 youngest children to board during family boarding. The kids had fussed and begged the gate agent to let them go on with "grandma" or "auntie" along with the one extra passenger already designated but she politely declined. She also made the announcement about wheelchairs that can walk and all but 1 member of the party quickly stood and went down the jetway, also all leaving their wheelchairs in front of the other wheelchair preboarders which I thought was rude. Several of us moved as many of the chairs as we could to help those who could not get up and walk. After watching that I realized how bad the abuse had gotten.
|
|
|
|
Post by johnb on Jul 27, 2024 14:56:40 GMT -5
When it comes to SWA, their pre-board policy and whether or not some might take advantage of it, though not a religious person, I do remember part of the serenity prayer.
"Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change."
|
|
|
|
Post by eandjmom on Jul 27, 2024 15:26:43 GMT -5
I’m with the OP. Open seating is what keeps me away from Southwest. Thanks! We flew SWA once and didn't have any issues. I just decided I didn't want to deal with their open seating. I would be willing to try them again after the dust settles. ALSO, I hear a lot about the two free checked bags. Do people really need TWO checked bags? I am a very efficient packer and can do a city weekend trip in a backpack (hence no need for early boarding and bin space). Please tell me what goes in to two checked bags? I honestly am curious, not trying to be smug.  My teenage daughter needs those 2 free checked bags  We are Southwest enthusiasts, every since the kiddos were little and we utilized family boarding. I will wait to see how this all plays out... |
|
|
|
Post by baymaxfan on Jul 27, 2024 18:15:46 GMT -5
Funny thing. Delta MSP>MCO doesn't do family boarding (they do for other cities). Last MCO trip we took, the gate agent said, "that's almost ALL of you!" LOL SWA allows pre-board for people with disabilities. Over the years, that those in the pre-board line has grown and grown, similar to the Disney and the DAS. Am I judging, yes.....but I am also basing this on my many years experience of flying and watching trends. Why pay for an upgrade, when you can fake an injury and be among the first to board. On some flights this past year, I have seen upwards of 20-30 pre-boarding our flight. This. I don’t fly SWA often because I abhor open seating. The last 2 times I did, there was a suspiciously large number of people who needed wheelchairs. |
|
|
|
Post by nrspepe on Jul 27, 2024 22:17:39 GMT -5
I will greatly miss this! Very used to the “Southwest Way”. Given that most all flights I’ve taken in the past couple of years are full, I’ m not sure why the change. Some Exec’s great new idea, I guess.
We, too, recently tried Breeze…non-stop to JAX. It was pretty good.
|
|
|
|
Post by capeokw56 on Jul 28, 2024 4:54:08 GMT -5
We, too, recently tried Breeze…non-stop to JAX. It was pretty good. Thanks for this. I was wondering if anybody else here had tried Breeze and what they thought about it. |
|
|
|
Post by bakerworld on Jul 28, 2024 9:50:42 GMT -5
YAY! I have never loved SWA because of the open seating. I rarely use bin space, so I prefer to have an assigned seat and leisurely finish my cocktail at a bar near the gate. I board almost last to avoid the chaos. DH would never be able to handle this - LOL - he's 'that guy' who immediately lines up at the poles when the A designation show up on the screens. I’m with the OP. Open seating is what keeps me away from Southwest. I don't see why this is a problem - never did - We have found it to be the easiest way to get two seats together close to the front of the plane. I’m with the OP. Open seating is what keeps me away from Southwest. Thanks! We flew SWA once and didn't have any issues. I just decided I didn't want to deal with their open seating. I would be willing to try them again after the dust settles. ALSO, I hear a lot about the two free checked bags. Do people really need TWO checked bags? I am a very efficient packer and can do a city weekend trip in a backpack (hence no need for early boarding and bin space). Please tell me what goes in to two checked bags? I honestly am curious, not trying to be smug. We usually do carry-on. Our biggest use of the 'free' checked bags was when our eldest moved to Florida. We'd would pack the bags with her stuff, Disney ME would deliver them to our villa and we give them to her when she came up to join us on the weekends. It was like free moving service. Then she'd either keep them for her return trips home or unpack 'em and we'd smash one inside the other to use the 'free' service to get them home. SWA allows pre-board for people with disabilities. Over the years, that those in the pre-board line has grown and grown, similar to the Disney and the DAS. Am I judging, yes.....but I am also basing this on my many years experience of flying and watching trends. Why pay for an upgrade, when you can fake an injury and be among the first to board. On some flights this past year, I have seen upwards of 20-30 pre-boarding our flight. Yup, I think that's exactly the main reason. On a recent trip, I saw an example of this, and my husband was so mad! There was a long line of wheelchair pre boarders, but a shortage of "pushers" for the jetway. That meant that the gate agent made an announcement that "If anyone in a wheelchair can walk down the jetway, please do so now." At least 3/4ths of the people waiting in wheelchairs jumped up and hustled as fast as they could go. I'm not talking about someone taking their cane and walking slowly, I'm talking about miraculous recoveries! Then a problem was left for myself and the few others who needed to pre board in wheelchairs. Those miraculous recoverers were so anxious to go that they left their wheelchairs where they were, leaving the few of us to try to navigate through, pushing wheelchairs aside. The other problem I've heard from Southwest flight attendants is that 1 person pays for Early Bird Check In, then saves seats for the rest of their family. It's something the flight attendants are reluctant to get involved in mostly because they get such verbal abuse if they say anything (like dare to tell the customer "No"). We were constant abusers of the 1 person EBC. Then Mr. Anxiety nixed that and we upgrade together into BC. |
|
|
|
Post by Hi from RI on Jul 28, 2024 17:49:54 GMT -5
We are frequent SWA flyers to MCO—about 95% of the time. Lately, though, it's been an issue. There are much fewer nonstop flights compared to years ago. Sometimes, there are 2 a day, either very early or later in the evening, which both have cons, but we usually pick one. I do like the free bags, but usually, between the 2 of us, we have 1 big suitcase and 1 carry-on (DH will put his CPAP machine in the carry-on, and then we check it). So...if they charge for every bag we will have an issue with that if they continue to have such limited flight choices. It seems like maybe they will go to charge 1 bag? To go from 2 to 0 free and then charge for seats seems like a drastic change and I think they will lose business- like from us! I flew Breeze in June from a conference in NC. SWA delayed my flight 6 hrs and I was like no way. One of the other women I met at the conference on my SWA flight told me she booked Breeze and canceled SWA. I did the same so I was able to try Breeze and now have a SWA credit. Breeze was good...not cheaper than SWA but glad I tried it. We are booked on SWA for Nov. and Jan. so wonder when they will start this- was it Feb.? We check Jetblue too but they are usually always more than SWA so that's why we go with SWA. The open seating is okay but can be annoying and feels very competitive...ugh more change that smells of more $$$.
|
|
|
|
Post by bakerworld on Jul 29, 2024 7:00:45 GMT -5
We resumed booking SW when they brought back the 1 NS per day mid-week. When SW eliminated their NS from PHL to MCO mid-week we got use to AA. I have to say that I miss AA. If flying doesn't become an issue, we'll probably book AA for our December vacation. We have found that AA's 1st Class drops in price. I've booked it as low as $565/pp. While it makes the flight more expensive, the seats are so comfortable plus 1st class is boarded first and I think a checked bag is included, although that doesn't effect us so I'm not completely sure.
|
|
|
|
Post by helenabear on Jul 29, 2024 7:55:12 GMT -5
I'm not going to complain. I actually am rather annoyed that EBC gave us mid B more than once and on tickets where we purchased everything together had different boarding positions by large margins too. On my last flight 2 of the wheelchair users were using it to get further back in the plane. They said as much to me. I haven't seen a lot of users though one lady used her diabetes as a need to board early which I didn't understand.
If we can choose seats I'll be happier. Likely will have my spouse or kid sit behind me since people are rude and don't understand what kicking my seat does to me.
This isn't bad to me. Ever since checking in online gave you your position, this has gone down hill. The buying A1-15 to save makes it even worse.
|
|
|
|
Post by brp on Aug 7, 2024 13:27:47 GMT -5
We fly WN rarely, and only for short non-stops, but this is an absolute positive.
Cheers.
|
|
|
|
Post by jedimom3 on Aug 7, 2024 19:31:33 GMT -5
I hate flying, terrible phobia of mine, and I rarely do it, but when I do, it's almost always SWA. I know it's irrational...and I need to get over it....I don't mind the open seating. When I do fly, I'm almost always solo, and I head straight to the back, for an aisle seat, like 2, maybe 3 rows up from the bathroom. I"m never in a hurry to get off, luggage is rarely even out when I get there. One flight, I did the online checkin, got a boarding group A, and went straight back when we loaded, I was the only one back there for quite a while, am sure the flight attendants back there thought I was crazy. But I can totally see why it might be hard for families to sit together, etc. and it was a pain to remember to check in 24 hours ahead. I do really need an aisle seat for constant getting up and down.
|
|
|
|
Post by reblzmom on Aug 8, 2024 13:39:56 GMT -5
We, too, recently tried Breeze…non-stop to JAX. It was pretty good. Thanks for this. I was wondering if anybody else here had tried Breeze and what they thought about it. My son flew Breeze since they have direct Raleigh to Pittsburgh. Said it was fine. As for the wheelchair lines - we have noticed more lately as well. I hate to criticize since one never knows what the situation might be. But its funny - in January from here to Ft Myers - we call it the Ft Myers miracle: long line of wheelchair boarders here and miraculously they just get up and walk off the plane in Florida |
|
We are Southwest enthusiasts, every since the kiddos were little and we utilized family boarding. I will wait to see how this all plays out...
