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January 9, 2008

Southwest Airlines' new boarding procedure (, , )

by fluffy at 9:24 PM
So, in order to be more "fair" and in order to avoid a mad rush to the gate, Southwest Airlines has tried yet another boarding procedure. This one gives everyone a group (A, B or C) and a number (1-60). Each group is then further split from 1-30 and 31-60. Then the first two A groups are lined up in numerical order, then each group is called to board, in order, then after one group finishes boarding the next group starts boarding and the group after that lines up.

It sounds confusing, because it is confusing. Passengers don't know where to go, the lines are always too close to the wall so half of the groups have to trip on everyone else in order to line up, and people have a hard time keeping track of the separate group and number and so when A31-60 is trying to board, invariably a bunch of people from C45 try to as well. Eventually the gatekeeper just starts calling up groups of 5.

Not only is it confusing at the gate, but it's also got another major consequence. Because they reward people who check in as early as possible, and because it's easier to check in early if you're not checking a bag, everyone tries to push the absolute limit with carryon luggage (with a rolling suitcase, and a "personal item" which is too large to fit under the seat in front of them). As a result, the carryon space always runs out very quickly.

Furthermore, a lot of the people who board first tend to take aisle seats, which makes the boarding even more chaotic and difficult than it was before.

I can appreciate Southwest Airlines trying new things in order to make the unassigned-seating boarding process smoother, but maybe they should just reevaluate whether the lack of assigned seating is really such a good idea. Other airlines don't have these problems; they can just line up people roughly from back-to-front and window-to-aisle (e.g. zone 1 will be the window seats in the back half of the plane, zone 2 will be the window seats in the front half of the plane and the center seats in the back half, etc.). Yes, there's still a "mad dash" to the boarding line and yes there will still be people waiting to get into the boarding line well before they're supposed to (making it more difficult for the people who are actually supposed to be boarding), BUT it still runs much more smoothly overall.

They don't even have to assign seating. They could just have people say where they want to sit (window, aisle, or center^Wno preference) and then put them in boarding groups based on that.

Yes the new process is smoother than the previous three-line one (which was difficult and confusing), and that in turn was smoother than the "call a group up at a time" before it, but if you really want it to run smoothly, it has to be easy to explain, and furthermore, most people waiting to board an airplane aren't actually listening to the directions you're giving (either due to ignorance or inability) so it really has to be something that's so simple and self-explanatory that you don't need fancy rotating signs and a long explanation.

Comments

#10339 01/10/2008 05:58 am Easy
I can appreciate Southwest Airlines trying new things in order to make the unassigned-seating boarding process smoother, but maybe they should just reevaluate whether the lack of assigned seating is really such a good idea. Other airlines don't have these problems;


It's simple, airline industry average time for an airplane at the gate is ~45 minutes between flights. Of all the major US carriers excluding SWA, no one turns an airplane around faster than 35 minutes. Most start boarding 20-30 minutes before flight time, with 747s almost an hour and Airbus A380s taking 2 hours to board.

SWA has a consistent 20 minute gate time. They get double usage out of every gate they rent (and gates at large airports run high 6 figures a year - per gate) compared to every other airline.

They've tried a million ways over the past 30 years to make the boarding proccess easier without sacrificing time, but they're always short lived and end up right back where they were. Even 10 minutes of extra turnaround time costs them tens of millions each year.
#10342 01/10/2008 08:13 am
I miss the old style where you got the pass at the gate. I liked it better when you couldn't get a low number from home by logging in.
#10344 01/10/2008 09:09 am
kwsNI: That makes sense. Presumably they'll work on ways of making this process more understandable before they give it up entirely.

ucblockhead: Yeah, and going back to that would also help to get rid of the whole carryon problem since it gives people less of an incentive to do a carryon-only checkin. What the hell is the point to checking in at home? Isn't the point to a checkin to let the airline know you're, you know, at the airport? Plus, being able to print out a boarding pass at home is a HUGE security issue.

Too bad people STILL don't seem to understand the kiosks though. They've been common for at least 5 years now and even then, people keep on waiting for someone to call "Next!" and hold up the entire checkin line while all the kiosks are open. (And the two people are so busy handling 10 kiosks' worth of baggage that they can't take time out to explain it to everyone.)
#10345 01/10/2008 01:49 pm
I thought the new boarding was an improvement over the old one. Before you have A B C lines, but they invariably would wind amongst the seats, where people may or may not have been waiting in line but also sitting in chairs. And sometimes the lines would even split. Furthermore a bunch of people would go and stand in the line ahead of time to get a better seat. If you look at the pillars you can see the numbers telling you where to stand. i.e. if you are paying attention you should not screw it up. Yes, I would be happier if there were assigned seats, but I thought the new system was an improvement over the last one, at least.
-bill
#10346 01/10/2008 02:10 pm
Well, sure, I had no trouble with it. I'd say maybe 90% of the people understood it or were able to figure it out, but that last 10% is where the problems come from.
#10347 01/10/2008 05:49 pm
fluffy:
Well, sure, I had no trouble with it. I'd say maybe 90% of the people understood it or were able to figure it out, but that last 10% is where the problems come from.


Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups - been one of my favorite quotes for a long time.
#10350 01/11/2008 08:46 am
Haven't boarded with the new system, but I know that lots of people on the old system "accidentally" tried to board with an earlier group because they "couldn't figure it out".
#12484 10/12/2009 10:27 am
As a followup, every SWA flight I've been on since then has boarded cleanly and easily. A few people still get confused but the "herd" is intelligent enough that things work out anyway.

Change is good!