Southwest Airlines Launches Enhancements to Transform Customer Experience

As a 6'4"+ gentleman who often flies Southwest, I honestly welcome the ability to know whether I'm going to fit into a seat in advance rather than experience the anxiety of spending hours at the airport waiting to get on the plane without any idea how uncomfortable the flight is going to be, then urgently scoping out the bulkhead and exit rows for an opening as soon as I step out of the jetway. (Yes, I pay for Early Bird. No, I don't pay for A1-15.)

I have no idea why non-tall people would care where they sit, but man, for tall people, it's nice knowing how things are going to be.

Southwest is adopting assigned seating (was first come first serve?)

> The research is clear and indicates that 80% of Southwest Customers, and 86% of potential Customers, prefer an assigned seat. When a Customer elects to stop flying with Southwest and chooses a competitor, open seating is cited as the number one reason for the change. By moving to an assigned seating model, Southwest expects to broaden its appeal and attract more flying from its current and future Customers.

Your assigned seat won’t be worth squat when a parent with two screaming, seat kicking, kids sit behind you. The flexibility of Southwest’s seating model allowed the 20% of us who favor it to “game” the system on their perpetually 100% loaded flights (don’t sit by kids, select two open seats with slender person in third seat, etc.). I’ve been dreading this. To me, they just gave up their competitive advantage.

Discussions

(21 points, 6 hours ago, 11 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41067431

(10 points, 2 hours ago, 13 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41069908