Jaunted

Is Southwest's New Boarding Policy Bogus?

5/12/2008 at 2:30 PM
Tags: Southwest Airlines, Airlines (all tags)

Let us present you with Exhibit A, Figure 1: This is a snapshot of boarding passes that we printed out yesterday for our Southwest flight from Oakland to Los Angeles.

Our travel partner, Michael Z, was able to check us in at the same time, since we purchased the tickets together. However, Michael was given the seating group A 57 while we were given B 26. What the heck?

We know that the first 10 rows or so are reserved for Southwest's Business Select passengers who pony up around $15 extra to get in the A group. But those people aside, we always thought your seating group was based on the time that you checked in. (As in, a passenger checking in seven hours before a flight would have a better boarding assignment than a passenger checking in at the airport.)

Here's something that may secretly be in play: We fly way more than Michael Z, especially on Southwest. But he's been a member of Rapid Rewards longer than we have. So is boarding group based on frequent flier status? And is the new boarding process less democratic than we previously thought?

Related Stories:
· Southwest Announces "Business Select" Fares, Priority Boarding [Jaunted]
· First-Person Flight Reviews: Southwest Airlines' New Boarding Policy [Jaunted]