Texsox Posted May 17, 2006 Share Posted May 17, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthSideSox72 Posted May 17, 2006 Share Posted May 17, 2006 QUOTE(Texsox @ May 17, 2006 -> 08:15 AM) 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YASNY Posted May 17, 2006 Share Posted May 17, 2006 The times I've flown Southwest I've always had an assigned seat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockRaines Posted May 17, 2006 Share Posted May 17, 2006 QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ May 17, 2006 -> 08:35 AM) 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthSideSox72 Posted May 17, 2006 Share Posted May 17, 2006 (edited) QUOTE(RockRaines @ May 17, 2006 -> 10:12 AM) 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. QUOTE(YASNY @ May 17, 2006 -> 08:48 AM) 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, 2006 by NorthSideSox72 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted May 17, 2006 Author Share Posted May 17, 2006 QUOTE(YASNY @ May 17, 2006 -> 08:48 AM) 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YASNY Posted May 17, 2006 Share Posted May 17, 2006 After thinking about this, I was mistaken. Please disregard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted May 17, 2006 Author Share Posted May 17, 2006 QUOTE(YASNY @ May 17, 2006 -> 10:45 AM) After thinking about this, I was mistaken. Please disregard. you probably were thinking "a" seat, not "the" seat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Kickass Posted May 17, 2006 Share Posted May 17, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthSideSox72 Posted May 17, 2006 Share Posted May 17, 2006 QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ May 17, 2006 -> 12:38 PM) 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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