Open Seating Questions

[Justme]

I've never given much thought to the open seating strategy, other than to assume that it does speed up the boarding process. I've only flown SWA twice and both times were ZED fares so my boarding code was C 50. And so I've never experienced boarding in the B or lower C range. But I ticketed my 9th grade son from MCO-DEN this week so that he could meet his older brother and me for skiing while keeping his school absence down to a minimum.

He boarded B 15 and B 25 on his two flights, and had some interesting seat selection experiences. On the first flight, he took a window. Soon after sitting down, a woman put her two children in the seats next to him. My son estimated that they were 3 and 5 years old. I don't have the details on what she did next, but in a few minutes she asked my son if he would give her the seat he was in so she could be with her children. He didn't really want to give up that seat, but he did so. The lady was thankful, but that didn't help make the 4 hour flight between two burly guys who both felt it appropriate to take whatever portion of his middle seat they wanted.

On the flight back to MCO, he had a couple of issues. When he got on, the first 3 rows were open except for one college aged female. When he went to sit down in one of them the woman told him that she was saving those seats for her volleyball team. Apparently the team paid for one priority boarding deal with the idea that this one person would save the seats for the team. It worked!

There were still some aisle and windows available so he got up and went down the aisle. He got to an open window seat and asked the man on the aisle if he could stand up and let him take the window seat. The man said that he was saving the seats for his wife and daughter. So my son then found a window seat a few rows back and all was good. (interesting that when boarding was complete there was this man and his wife - no daughter, only an empty middle seat)

My questions...

What is a 14 year old supposed to do in the situation with the woman and her two children? Press the FA call button? Do parents of toddlers routinely fly SWA and not pay for better boarding only to inconvenience other people and exercise a form of imminent domain so that they can sit with their children?

Do FAs routinely have to advise passengers that there is no seat saving? The boarding announcement guy even said that if you're travelling with someone you still have to use your boarding code, B is B and C is C.

And what is the deal with seat saving? Let's say that I'm boarding and there is one aisle seat available. The two people in the other seats are saving it, tell me to go find another seat. Ummm, if I call a FA and they tell these two people that I'm getting the aisle seat.. And let's say it's a 4 hour flight. Honestly, I don't want to put myself in that position

Lastly, is this something that happened 30 years ago? 20? 10? What is the role of the FA?

I'm sorry, but I've flown only with an assigned seat since my first flight on TWA from SDF-STL when I joined the Army in 76. On both my ZED fares I felt somewhat awkward asking someone if I could sit down in the middle seat. I guess if someone flies SWA all the time it is second nature.

I'm really curious about these things and all answers will be appreciated.

I should say that I was ZED faring on the flight back to MCO and was treated like royalty by every Southwest employee that I interacted with. Thank you for treating me way better than I deserve!

thanks,
Larry

 

[jimntx]

When I was based in St. Louis (but living in Dallas), I commuted on WN a lot. Love Field is about 15 miles closer to my home than DFW. I never once saw the "seat saver" phenomenon you describe. I could understand saving one seat for your travel companion who has gone to the lav, but 3 rows for a volleyball team??? I would have gone to the nearest flight attendant and registered a complaint. I don't think WN allows such foolishness. That being said, your child would end up in a difficult situation if he had complained. Come on Southwesters, tell us that saving blocks of seats (3 rows???) is not allowed.

It's one of the things I like about the unaccompanied minor program at AA. If UM is seated at the window (or the aisle) and another passenger tries to get them to swap, they can just say it's not allowed. They have to sit in their assigned seat; so, we'll know where they are. You would be surprised at how often adult middle seaters try to get a UM to give up their window or aisle seat like the woman with the 2 kids did to OP"s son.

 

[eolesen]

Tough call. Our kids get taught early on that as a ZED or nonrev, you're not a real passenger. So they'd probably give in to a request from someone else.

Next time, you might want to consider paying the extra $12.50 for your son to early board. It's worth it.

 

[Justme]

Eolesen, just to clarify, my son was ticketed and boarded with the Bs on both flights. I was the ZED fare on the return to MCO. It's rare that any of us are real passengers, but he definitely was on this trip. I didn't observe any of this but am presenting what he told me happened.

And Jim, thanks for making the request to the SWers. Maybe there is a corporate policy prohibiting the public, online discussion of this issue???

Anyway, no big deal. No one in my family is going to sit next to someone that they've pi**ed off by reporting seat holding to a FA. If ticketed we'll just take what is available even if it means passing on an open window/aisle to take a middle somewhere else. Either that or, like Eolesen says, $12.50 isn't really that much in the big scheme of things.

 

[swamt]

When I was based in St. Louis (but living in Dallas), I commuted on WN a lot. Love Field is about 15 miles closer to my home than DFW. I never once saw the "seat saver" phenomenon you describe. I could understand saving one seat for your travel companion who has gone to the lav, but 3 rows for a volleyball team??? I would have gone to the nearest flight attendant and registered a complaint. I don't think WN allows such foolishness. That being said, your child would end up in a difficult situation if he had complained. Come on Southwesters, tell us that saving blocks of seats (3 rows???) is not allowed.

It's one of the things I like about the unaccompanied minor program at AA. If UM is seated at the window (or the aisle) and another passenger tries to get them to swap, they can just say it's not allowed. They have to sit in their assigned seat; so, we'll know where they are. You would be surprised at how often adult middle seaters try to get a UM to give up their window or aisle seat like the woman with the 2 kids did to OP"s son.

I tend to stay out of customers looking for advise and such. But yes you are correct. You are not allowed to save a seat for anyone period. I have heard some stories from our F/A's that the general public never hears. After one customer refused to comply with an F/A on saving a seat as a half dozen people were told that that seat was already taken, until the spouse showed from boarding late and he allowed here to sit in his saved seat. The F/A (a differentF/A) then notified both of them that the Pilot wanted to speak to them in the jet way. So they got up and went out to greet the Pilot which actually was at the Exit doors of the jet way. As the other passengers loaded the plane they greeted the Pilot at the exit and asked him, "you wanted to see us Captain?" and the Captain said no, and that you two might wanna start boarding as the last passengers were just entering the jet way. As they were now the last 2 on board a fully loaded flight for the next couple hours. When they boarded and approached their seats they were in, as well as being greeted by the original F/A that told him 3 times not to save a seat, they asked the F/A, "hey, these were our seats" The F/A then replied, No sir, there is no seat saving allowed on Southwest, please take your nearest open seats as we are starting to close the doors. The last 2 seats were, of coarse, 2 open middle seats several rows apart from each-other. The F/A quietly approached the wife, told her that she was sorry that she was punished along with her husband, and told her the entire story. The wife then said well he will hear it from me when we land. She then walked back to the far back and informed the gentleman, "see what happens when you do not comply with the Flight Crew and let me remind you for the 4th time sir, there is no seat saving on Southwest, it's all open seating. People still try to this day, but if you get caught it may not be pretty when all said and done.

 

[Justme]

Thanks swamt, that pretty much answers my question. I would extrapolate from that one situation that the FAs do try and maintain control over these seat saving scofflaws. The crew in that case obviously took it very seriously and, in my opinion, the offending pax received their due reward. Going forward, I'm going to assume that this whole issue is just not that common. Thanks again for sharing.

 

[eolesen]

Eolesen, just to clarify, my son was ticketed and boarded with the Bs on both flights. I was the ZED fare on the return to MCO. It's rare that any of us are real passengers, but he definitely was on this trip. I didn't observe any of this but am presenting what he told me happened.

No, I got that. My point was that we and our families as nonrevs are probably the least likely to make a scene onboard, even as paying passengers.

That's not to say that I follow that advice on the ground. As a paying passenger when I've observed passengers getting in an agent's face, I don't hesitate to call them out for being an asshat. If nothing else, it helps draws their anger away from the agents so they can do their job... Onboard, I'd never think of doing that.

 

[Justme]

No, I got that. My point was that we and our families as nonrevs are probably the least likely to make a scene onboard, even as paying passengers.

That's not to say that I follow that advice on the ground. As a paying passenger when I've observed passengers getting in an agent's face, I don't hesitate to call them out for being an asshat. If nothing else, it helps draws their anger away from the agents so they can do their job... Onboard, I'd never think of doing that.

I got you, +1.