linked

 

Southwest May Adopt Assigned Seats on Flights

By Keith L. AlexanderWashington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, May 17, 2006; Page D01

 

Southwest Airlines acknowledged yesterday that it was considering abandoning its free-for-all boarding process and implementing assigned seating.

 

The nation's largest low-cost carrier said it spent $5 million to enhance its reservation system as part of an internal test to see if it could easily implement assigned seating. The company also is examining how assigned seating would affect its operations.

linked

Excellent. I love everything about Southwest, except the cattle corral entry and musical seats on the plane. If they actually assign seats at check in, I will be a Southwest fan for life.

The times I've flown Southwest I've always had an assigned seat.

Excellent. I love everything about Southwest, except the cattle corral entry and musical seats on the plane. If they actually assign seats at check in, I will be a Southwest fan for life.

The cattle corrals etc is why they are the only profitable airline. They fill up their flights, and they have low costs.

The cattle corrals etc is why they are the only profitable airline. They fill up their flights, and they have low costs.

Meh, the ssigned seats doesn't add much cost. When you check in, instead of getting a card that says "A", you get a seat number. The only significant cost is implementing seat-assigning software for the check in terminal stations. That's a pretty small cost for a big marketing benefit.

 

They have lower costs because of excellent management, liberal use of non-monetary benefits, smart fuel hedging, simplified hardware (737 only), and no frills product.

 

The times I've flown Southwest I've always had an assigned seat.

News to me. I've never heard of anyone getting an assigned seat on southwest. But I haven't flown them in a year or two either, so maybe they were piloting this new program.

Edited May 17, 200619 yr by NorthSideSox72

The times I've flown Southwest I've always had an assigned seat.

 

they are talking about specific seats like row 12 seat A. Something they have never done.

After thinking about this, I was mistaken. Please disregard.

After thinking about this, I was mistaken. Please disregard.

 

you probably were thinking "a" seat, not "the" seat.

They are heading for a world of hurt. Their fuel hedges are expiring, their fleet is rapidly aging and I guess they're due for a round of labor negotiations.

They are heading for a world of hurt. Their fuel hedges are expiring, their fleet is rapidly aging and I guess they're due for a round of labor negotiations.

And I read the other day that their cost structure on many routes is no longer the lowest. Frontier, SW's rival in the Denver market, has lower costs on most routes.

 

I think saying they are headed for a world of hurt may be an exaggeration, though. They are still very smart and very agile as a company, and they could increase their fares a bit and not lose much business. I think this assigned seats things is an attempt to broaden their market share in a customer-centric fashion, instead of city/market-centric, due in part to exactly what you are talking about. They'll still come out OK.