Great Far on Southwest Airlines DING

jkm8113 · Post by **jkm8113** » May Sat 07, 2005 7:59 am

lovesdisney44 wrote:
jkm8113 wrote:Southwest Ding got me a one-way for $39.00 on May 18 (driving down, only need to come home) and then less than $100.00 for round-trip less than a couple of weeks later.

Love Southwest, just wish they had assigned seats.
you can go on their website and get your seats assigned on the day of your departure . . . don't know if you were aware or not.

When did Southwest start assigning seats. They are are the one airlines that has never done that. You have to get your boarding pass that has an A, B, or C on it and they you board by group and take the seat you want. Unless it has changed in the last month or so, that's the way Southwest does it.

G2-4T · Post by **G2-4T** » May Sat 07, 2005 11:29 am

Club33Hopeful wrote:G2-4T is right. They board by groups, and you take whatever seat you like. There are no assigned seats, just like a city bus.

Except there is no SRO like the buses or trains... Which could make things mighty interesting at take off or on that long red eye flight

jkm8113 · Post by **jkm8113** » May Sat 07, 2005 11:46 am

I have heard Southwest's boarding policy referred to as "a cattle call". I think it is the only negative thing going for Southwest.

Anyone ever watch their show, Airline on A&E. Pretty interesting to see how stupid some people act sometimes.

Club33Hopeful · Post by **Club33Hopeful** » May Sat 07, 2005 1:09 pm

G2-4T wrote:Except there is no SRO like the buses or trains...

SRO?

G2-4T · Post by **G2-4T** » May Sat 07, 2005 2:48 pm

Club33Hopeful wrote: SRO?

Standing Room Only

Club33Hopeful · Post by **Club33Hopeful** » May Sat 07, 2005 3:46 pm

D'uh! Oh yeah. That would make takeoffs and landings fun.

disneydreamer58 · Post by **disneydreamer58** » May Sat 07, 2005 7:40 pm

jkm8113 wrote:I have heard Southwest's boarding policy referred to as "a cattle call". I think it is the only negative thing going for Southwest.

Anyone ever watch their show, Airline on A&E. Pretty interesting to see how stupid some people act sometimes.

I lived it first hand, I love that show. I say to my co-workers all the time "see what I had to put up with as a gate and ticket counter agent!!"

Club33Hopeful · Post by **Club33Hopeful** » May Sat 07, 2005 7:45 pm

bostoncg wrote:"see what I had to put up with as a gate and ticket counter agent!!"

As a former ticket counter agent, when I ask for a seat assingment and the agent types for what seems to be an eternity, what are they really typing? I mean, does it usually take 3000 key clicks to assign a seat? Always have been curious about that. Never said a word to an agent though. As a frequent traveler, I have seen how they are treated by many. I always wondered if they were playing text based video games or something.

disneydreamer58 · Post by **disneydreamer58** » May Sat 07, 2005 8:02 pm

LOL, now don't get me wrong you can get an ass**** of an agent as well (I have worked with a few myself!). If the agent is looking at the seat map and the assignments, yes you can do a lot of typing. I used to look for families that wanted to sit together so you have to search to see if there may be someone sitting alone and you have to go into their PNR (Passenger Name Record. ie: reservation) to see and then tab back over into the seat map and sometimes I would call that passsenger up by name and ask them if I could swap their seat to accomidate Smith family party of 4. So if its a deligent agent, yes there is more typing than you would think. Cause its all codes not words for example to see a fare structure from Boston to Orlando on one airlines system you would type WSBOSMCONLX , thats the short version too

but you will have some agents that HATE doing seat changes. In a poll it was asked as a gate or ticket counter agent what is one of the things you hate being asked the most..... #1 answer "can you change my seat"

cause it does take some work on the agents part, and if its an over sold or fully booked flight its down right impossible and the passenger doesn't always understand "I have nothing to switch you to". Seats unsold will open up 15 min's prior to departure and its hard to do seat swaps and get an aircraft out on time. One thing I would highly recommend to everyone, is ALWAYS ask for a seat assignment whenever you make a reservation, or if you book it yourself ALWAYS assign yourself a seat, even if its a middle seat, cause if it comes down to an oversold flight YOU have an actual SEAT # and those that do not go on an confirmed stand by list. I worked operations & gates, on full flights we would pull the flight manifest the night before and start assigning seats for people with reservations of 2 or more, so that we could do our best to seat them together. Otherwise one may be in row 7 an the other in 27.
Off my soap box

Club33Hopeful · Post by **Club33Hopeful** » May Sat 07, 2005 8:36 pm

Wow! I always grab a seat when I can, but sometimes the system won't let you when you book. I know what you mean about people being a pain. My point has always been, if you want something a certain way, plan ahead. Like what you were saying with getting the seats assigned early. An interesting thing with SWA, that ends up being a nightmare for agents is summer flights out of burbank. Forget the fact that SWA already overbooks flights counting on some cancellations/no shows (that is the main reason they don't assign seats... can't overbook as easy when you assign seats). Burbank has a short runway, and the flights usually take off heading right for some hills. When the weather conditions are right in the summer, which is usually quite often, they cannot leave Burbank with a full load of passengers. Normally around 100 of the 138 seats or so. So, many many times I have seen an already overbooked flight, in a very crowded and hot airport, where they are telling some 50 people they cannot fly. That would not be fun.

disneydreamer58 · Post by **disneydreamer58** » May Sat 07, 2005 9:18 pm

No those days are not fun. At Palm Springs where I worked, its a small airport not many carriers to chose from if we had a canceled flight, so more often than not we had to hire buses to bus people to Ontario or LAX to catch flights. I was always the agent who got to be in charge of getting people on the bus and I always had even the most irate passenger calmed down with my entertainment spiels & compassion. I always put myself in their position and totally treated them with understanding, cause it sucks when flights cancel. If flights were delayed and I was working the gates often I would get the microphone and sing (totally off key) a little ditty or do trivial pursuit questions. You would be amazed how much people respond to you. We have even gone as far as ordering pizza to the gate and getting non alcoholic drinks off the aircraft when its on a long maintenance delay.... hard to do now days though, cause of all the "legal" reifications. If you ask the maintenance crew for up dates and pass them along to waiting passengers they are more at ease, instead of hearing "I have no idea"! I loved my job. It did have its moments like any job does, and there are some people that no matter how hard you try you just can't please, so you move on and please those you can! From my long posts I guess you can tell I am just as passionate about working for the airlines as I am about Disney

I am no saint though, cause even at my best my buttons could be pushed to the limits too

I need spell checker on here

G2-4T · Post by **G2-4T** » May Sat 07, 2005 10:34 pm

Yeah - the gate folks that have a good attitude and a fast sense of humor make a huge difference. Was flying out of MSP here last month and one whipped out a basket of those small candy bars by the door and went into a rather humerous spiel as she got the people on their way. Needless to say it was good for some grins from the rest of us whose flight was leaving right after and had yet to even come close to boarding [we took off an hour late and still arrived early - anyone still have doubts about padded scheds?]. I know most all of us traveling appreciate you! It really is amazing what a friendly face can do - and I've had to be that face when doing field engineering... You show up on someone's street with a city truck and start doing prelim survey work [or spraying out the work on the pavement, even better] and it is amazing how the folks come out of the woodwork, even at the crack of dawn. You can't fight 'em so you give them the old smile-and-tell-them-it-will-be-ok routine and usually it works [and for that person that I said the work wasn't starting for a couple weeks - I really didn't know the backhoes were coming the next day, honest!]. All of us working there have plenty of crazy stories...

QuickGold · Post by **QuickGold** » May Mon 09, 2005 9:25 am

I don't mind the free-for-all seating as much as I wish they'd do what Song & JetBlue have of inseat TV. What a difference if you can watch TV on your flight.

lovesdisney44 · Post by **lovesdisney44** » May Mon 09, 2005 11:54 am

[quote="QuickGold"]I don't mind the free-for-all seating as much as I wish they'd do what Song & JetBlue have of inseat TV. What a difference if you can watch TV on your flight.[/quote]

That would be cool. We don't have JetBlue here, and ATA stopped flying to Florida, so - right now anyway - our best choice is Southwest. An inseat tv would make the flight so much quieter too I bet!

Club33Hopeful · Post by **Club33Hopeful** » May Mon 09, 2005 12:16 pm

I would forgo the in-seat tv for an ethernet port or onboard wi-fi!