Petrino1 said:
Do customers really enjoy the cattle call boarding system of SWA? I purposely avoid SWA because of that. Its not like SWA is any cheaper than the major airlines either, I cant recall many times in the past 10 years where SWA was cheaper than United or AA flying out of Houston. Even their mileage redemption options arent that cheap compared to the other major airlines. I also prefer flying out of IAH vs Hobby because of the IAH lounges and food options.
Not sure what competitive advantage SWA has these days that would cause someone to choose them over another airline with similar or cheaper prices. Sure, I would choose them if they were significantly cheaper than the competition, but they typically aren't cheaper at all.
Yeah, it's not cattle call boarding. You board with your group, which is usually about 30 other people. You line up orderly, and the line usually forms parallel along the windows facing the tarmac, so the line doesn't end up snaking out into in the main aisle/walkway for all airport traffic.
I've maybe seen someone "skip" the line twice in 20 years of flying SW. Usually when passengers line up, they ask the people around them "what number" they are to make sure they aren't jumping ahead. SW also doesn't call for the next boarding group until everyone in line for the previous boarding group is checked in and in the jetway. It's an extremely orderly process.
SW got the shaft at IAH and was assigned a very small boarding area, but even that was a better situation than some other experiences I've had.
I fly American and United, and have had much more chaotic boarding experiences with both. American is the worse of the two. The last time I flew American, the majority of the plane was in groups 7+. They also called for "groups 7 and above" before everyone from the groups 1-6 had boarded. So it was total chaos, with people pushing ahead of each other, with no one really knowing what group anyone was in and people yelling that others cut in line.
The boarding line also ran perpendicular to the podium where agents were scanning boarding passes, which meant it also ran past the customer service desk (and out into the main path of traffic for the terminal). Our plane was delayed by 6 hours so a lot of passengers were being called up to the desk for seat assignments. The boarding line impeded access to and the lines for the desk, and when people finished at the desk, they just jumped in line, ahead of everyone else who was waiting. Boarding was a total mess.