The "New" Southwest Airlines Sucks

My family and I took a trip on Southwest Airlines last weekend, and from the perspective of a parent traveling with small children, it was a big let-down. Gone are the egalitarian days  when the first person who showed up got to board the airplane first and a family got to pre-board. Actually, gone is any concern for a family traveling at all.

At first there was just online check-in, so the people who thought to check in on the internet got on the plane first. But I guess they figured they needed to cater to business travelers more, because now there's special pre-boarding group (that you have to pay for I think). And the new rule is families get to board after the first sixty people board the plane (provided the family isn't lucky enough to have group "A" boarding passes). I guess the point was to keep families from taking the seats up front before the people who waited in line for boarding group "A" get a chance. But the point of family boarding is to give the families some more time to get settled. Southwest would rather have the families fight past everyone jockeying for overhead bin space.

And about the changing tables? On one of our flights there was no changing table at all, and on the other the only changing table was in the lavatory at the front of the plane. The problem is you can't wait at the front of the plane anymore (new FCC regulations). So you have to wait until the occupied light goes out, then race down the aisle of the plane, baby in hand, to get to the lavatory before someone who is sitting in one of the seats in front of you decides to get up to do their business.

Flying with kids is difficult enough. If you've got a choice, I would avoid Southwest.

Comments

[Paula Berg - Southwest Airlines]

Modern Day Dad – I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy your recent trip with us. We have made some changes to our boarding process. As you noted, boarding order is now assigned in the order that people checkin rather than the order that they show up at the gate. The idea behind the change was to give people the freedom to do what they want/need to do before a flight without feeling like they have to camp out in our gate area. While I can assure you that the changes were designed to improve the process, it is clear that you are not pleased – particularly the family boarding process – and your feedback has been shared internally. I know flying with small children can be challenging, and if we have the chance to serve you and your family again, I hope we can provide you with a better experience.

Paula Berg
Southwest Airlines

[Shaun Dakin]

I agree. Last October I set up the website:

http://www.StopSouthwestPreboard.com

Join us!

Shaun Dakin

[Shaun Dakin]

And, by the way, Paula and the team were going to share my feedback as well with the management team.

No real response from the management team in 6 months.

As a result, this MEM day we are flying with another carrier.

Bye bye SW.

[moderndaydad]

Paula, I understand not wanting people to "camp out" at the gate, but that has nothing to do with keeping families from pre-boarding. Obviously you could still give out numbers and let families pre-board.

I hope you share my concerns over the changing tables as well. Thanks for your comment.

[Paula Berg - Southwest Airlines]

Modern Day Dad – I apologize for being so brief in my initial comment. You are correct that we could continue to issue boarding numbers and still allow families to pre-board. But, the truth is, the new family boarding process has both enhanced our operational efficiency and improved our overall Customer satisfaction.

Families continue to board early on Southwest Airlines; the change is how early. Certainly, we understand the need for our families to sit together. As these new procedures become more familiar to our Customers, we may see more families checking in online so they can receive an "A" boarding pass. Until then, our Flight Attendants will assist families (just as they always have) to make sure their seating needs are met.

We realize that we won’t be able to please everyone with the new process - Mr. Dakin is an example - but based on the feedback we have received from comment cards, most of our traveling families, though anxious at the onset, have found that, once onboard, they are able to secure seats that meet their needs, although usually a little further back in the aircraft. As such, families aren’t feeling rushed to get settled as a group of Customers behind them impatiently waits to board. And, likewise, upon arrival, by not being at the very front of the aircraft, our families with small children have a little extra time to gather everything, and our Customers who have much less to juggle are able to exit the aircraft quickly.

While we have no plans to change the family boarding process at this time, I did want to let you know that we are planning to retrofit our fleet to include changing tables, and have already installed tables in the forward lavatories on some of our aircraft. Because we have several different lavatory designs, our Maintenance Department is working on a slight re-design to accommodate the rest of the fleet. I understand that the inability to wait at the front lavatory causes additional hassle, however, it would be difficult to install the changing tables in the rear lavatory, mainly because the limited wall space.

Again, I understand that traveling with children brings unique challenges, and I hope that we have the opportunity to better serve you and yours in the future.

[Paula Berg - Southwest Airlines]

And, Mr. Dakin – As you know, I am aware of your ongoing dissatisfaction with our new boarding process, but I was not aware that you were expecting a response from Southwest Management. If you have written a letter to our Customer Relations Department or to one of our Leaders, please let me know or send me your case number so that I can follow up.

[Lauren]

I agree with you! We LUV Southwest but the new family pre-board policy is a huge issue for parents of small kids. I unintentionally clocked several passengers on the head trying to tote the carseat down the aisle on our last flight. Juggling a baby and carseat is no easy task.

Southwest - bring back the family pre-board!

[Scott]

Paula...question...I always get an A boarding pass since I check in online early. BUT...we travel with a lap child and that child must get a form to fly the day you fly. Not only that, why can't we link our boarding passes (I used RR reward tix and some paid tix) so I can check us all in at the same time?

[OverDad]

I haven't flown SW since the changes but I think it would be an issue for me too - it's too difficult to get kids, car seats and bags past other passengers without annoying or hitting someone. We don't need additional stress when flying with kids.

[Katie]

I was recently on a very full SW flight to Las Vegas. There was a mom with her 6 or 7 year old daughter. By the time they boarded the flight there were no two seats together. The only thing that was left were middle seats. The mom was very distressed and no one was moving for her. I would have moved myself but I was in the middle seat so me moving would not have helped her. No flight attendant came to her aid and she just stood there trying to get the courage to ask someone to move. She started to give up and was motioning for her daughter to sit between two men. The open seats were almost all between two men. I couldn't believe it! No one even made a gesture to move and no FA had come to her aid. I could not just sit there and not help so I got up and very directly and firmly asked a man to move to one of the middle seats so the woman and her daughter could sit togther. I made it clear that it was not right that no one would move for them and that a 6 year old girl should not have to be seperated from her mother. The man did move, no doubt shamed into it and I'm sure hating me. If that is what it took then I was willing to do it.

This could have all been avoided if SWA allowed parents to preboard!! It would have at least help if a FA had stepped in and asked passengers to move instead of another passenger needing to step in. All in all I was dissapointed with SW and will not be flying with my 2 year old. He would NOT be happy sitting by himself.

[Audrey]

You people are all a bunch of whiners. You CHOSE to have children. Do you really think it's FAIR for you to just waltz on board first in front of a bunch of other people who were at the gate early and on-time?

This is, as Southwest has said, a simple issue of fairness to other travelers. I've been lined up early only to see a stampede of 50 people pre-board leaving those of us not traveling with children completely screwed when it came to our choice of seats.

You had kids. DEAL WITH IT.

[Jessica]

I probably will choose not to use SW airlines if I travel with my son mainly because of the hassles in which I have read today. I would not appreciate the hassle of having my children sitting between strangers on a flight. If I was traveling with a young child who could not be lap child would you make him sit far away from me? I think not.

And Audrey. Deal with it?? I'm not going to deal with it. I have a child and I should be allowed the same respect that business travelers get. I don't see that in any of the above statements. I know that travel is becoming more business oriented. I work in the hotel business and we try to accommodate both the traveler on business and the traveler coming on family vacation making memories. And the memories people will be having of SW will be of the hassles and of people like you Audrey. Would you like to be treated unfairly? Before you speak I would please feel the other side of the coin dear.

This just shows that people don't have common courtesy to move for a woman with children. And yes I know that this is not controlled by SW. However, by taking certain precautions this could be avoided and thats great CUSTOMER SERVICE!

[Audrey]

Jessica, you're living in a dream world.
And you're a hypocrite.
You write "Would you like to be treated unfairly?"

No I wouldn't and your insistence on preferential treatment by pre-boarding is unfair to everyone else.

Your hypocrisy is hilarious and pathetic. You have a child--it was your CHOICE TO HAVE CHILDREN and I'm not about to be stuck in a middle seat because of your CHOICE.

[John Rhodes]

This is silly.

[Jessica]

Audrey I don't live in a dream world. I'm living in a world faced with more and more obstacles as a parent. I can't expect to sit next to my children on a flight. Among other things that this is not a forum for. I chose to be a mother, like my mother and my mother before her. Like your mother did. You have no compassion. I'm not asking for preferential treatment I'm asking for a bit of empathy and to understand that people do fly with children much to the chagrin on miserable people like you. I'm not being a hypocrite. And if I am its cause you are not being empathetic.

What about if I were flying with a mentally or medically challenged adult would you have gotten up and moved if that were the case? And how would you have felt Audrey to have been 7 years old and to have been on a flight between two men you never met because someone didnt move.

[Karen]

I am traveling to Disney on the 14th with my husband, my 9year old daughter and 11 year old son who had insulin dependant diabetes. I didn't know about their boarding until after the flight was booked. I tried to call because i don't want my son sitting by himself and they couldn't help me. I asked about boarding early and they said they don't do that. I am really stressing out about this and beginning to regret going to Disnay.

[heather]

I traveled on Southwest this past weekend and was very disappointed in the service. For one they didn't allow preboarding for family with a small child. Which I got over that really quickly. Our daughter is nearly 2 and I didn't think we really needed that convenience when there are many other parents who have newborns and such.
2nd, On the flight home there was a mother flying alone with newborn 8 week old twins and all the gear she needed to do so including a double stroller, two car seats, diaper bag etc etc. They would not even let her preboard. I was appalled! I thought Southwest airlines as a company is rude and disrespectful. When a gate attendant sees an obvious need to make someones travel experience convenient and smooth as possible they should have the authority to accommodate such a need. This was a prime example and they did not even care. I am quite sure they lost some customers after tonights flight just on the observation of this particular situation.

[phillippa]

@ Audrey. If only you were 5 again, seated on a flight for a couple hours between two strangers. Perhaps your parents would be seated several rows behind and in front, with no idea what was going on with you.

You sound miserable and bitter. Sorry for your woes.

[DianneS]

Katie,
HAHA. You try waltzing anywhere with a child on your hip or in tow. I'm surprised by the lack of empathy displayed by people who were once children. Simply amazing. Maybe your problem is that no one showed you what empathy looked like when you WERE a child, so you have no idea how to display it.

[PsychMamma]

I recently traveled SW with my 2 y/o by myself. She has special medical needs that require a feeding pump. I was juggling her, a feeding pump, a backpack and a small stroller and was frustrated that there was no family preboarding that would allow me to board early and start getting settled (I needed to stow our gear, get her in a seatbelt and hook her up to her feeding pump all before takeoff). The flight attendants were unsympathetic and somewhat rude and I ended up feeling embarrassed about asking about preboarding. I also worried about not finding 2 seats together.

Meanwhile, there was another family with 3 small children traveling together who were also fretting. They ended up NOT being able to sit together. The mom sat with one, the dad sat with one, and the oldest (maybe 5) had to sit across the aisle and up one row from his mom with 2 strangers.

I was very disappointed with Southwest's service for families and don't plan to travel with them again with my child.

[maureen]

Hi.. we booked our tickets prior to the new policy but by the time our flight took place it had kicked in and applied to us. We were taking our kids on their first flight - they were 2 1/2 (yes, twins). We elected to cart on their carseats (full sized by that age as they no longer are in this nice compact infant seats) and strap those in their seat and the boys in their carseat (safer and better to have them contained), so we had my husband and I, our two boys, the 2 carseats, a backpack for my husband and I with items to entertain (and feed) each boy for the flight. We flew out of Burbank where there are no ramps but rather you walk out to the tarmack (sp?) and walk up the stairs to your plane. So we need to cart all of us and our stuff up the stairs (we definitely needed to hold the boys' hands).

What concerned us wasn't that we wouldn't get to sit together (we were "As") but rather by getting on with everyone else, we were going to hold up the whole aisle (essentially block everyone else from getting past us/boarding the plane) until we installed the carseats (and this was our first time trying to do that on a plane). My husband would have to install both carseats (in 2 separate rows as there were four of us and we aren't allowed to have 2 carseats in one row - at least not if one of us was in between the carseats) while I contained the boys. We felt like a total inconvenience to the rest of the people but the nice thing is we just kept looking at them and saying sorry - "new policy sucks doesn't it?" The exact same thing will happen the next time we fly as there is no getting around it - we are not prepared to forego the carseats at this point - I guess when they get old enough that we don't need them things will get easier (as long as we are As).

Funny thing to me is the whole idea that this is supposed to make the business person happier but not sure how making them wait in the aisle while we install the carseats makes them happier. And for the folks where there is a 4 or 5 year old sitting in the middle seat between 2 business men, not sure how that winds up being their cup of tea either - especially since the kid is not supervised and could become unruly since he/she is on their own.

[Kris]

I will never fly SW that is for sure, after hearing all of these comments about how unfamily friendly both the airline and many passengers are.
I would hate to be put in the situation that my 3 year old (who HATES strangers by the way) is having to sit with strangers... surely a screaming and jumping 3 year old is not more business friendly than just letting me sit with her.

[moderndaydad]

Wow. This might be the most comments ever on MDD. Apparently I've struck a nerve.

Ms. Berg (if you're still reading this), as you can see from some of the comments left here, many people are having problems with the new seating policy. Most distressing of all the comments are those left by people who weren't able to sit with their children. And it seems many of your flight attendants have been less than helpful in many situations, which has occasionally been my experience with Southwest as well.

It's a shame there are no plans to change the policy. It seems there is no lack of people complaining about it.

[share]

Wow, this is really eye-opening!

Before I had a child, I had a bit of that irritable "why do they get to board first? I have an A tickets!" reaction, too. It just seemed like the families took up the whole front of the plane, rendering my A ticket pretty much a ticket to a window or aisle seat in the back, or a middle seat in the front.

As a new mother, though, I can understand now why families need a special solution. It's not so much that we need the good seats. It's more that we need seats together and time to get situated -- really, for the happiness of ALL onboard. Lugging all the gear and trying to keep a baby happy (also for the benefit of other passengers) requires a delicate balancing act and a calm parent.

Thanks for posting this. I haven't flown SW since having my baby, but I was thinking about it for an upcoming trip. Before the kiddo, I flew SW for almost everything. This is definitely making me rethink that decision!

Perhaps it would be possible for them to let all the families with A passes board first, then A passengers, then families with B passes, etc.? Perhaps that would take too long?

[sharon]

another thought...what if SW let families board first, but only if they sit in the very back? then they get all their seats together, AND they could start loading A passengers faster...