September 19th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Bloomberg News reports (link dead) that beginning October 2 Southwest Airlines will stop letting people with small children board first, in an effort to shorten the time to load its planes.
The policy looks more like a shifting of time rather than a savings of time:
Southwest now splits passengers into three groups, based on when they check in, and lets them pick their seats once aboard the plane. Families with small children now board before the first, or A, group.Starting Oct. 2, passengers holding A boarding passes will board first, followed by families with children 4 and younger. Then the B and C groups will board. If a family has A-group passes, they can board with the A group, Harbin said. The change already has been implemented in flights from San Antonio.
All this will do is give people more incentive to get an “A” boarding pass. If that was the plan in the first place, fine, but as long as there are small children and their car seats getting on the plane, there isn’t going to be that much time savings.
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September 19th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Maybe people with small children should probably board last. Mostly because it makes the flight easier and shorter for the small children.
September 19th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
That’s a fair point, but a lot of the hassle with small kids lies in installing into those small seats the car seats that 1-4 year olds need. You really need the temporary room that you have when you board first.
September 20th, 2007 at 8:53 am
Correct me if I am wrong, but Southwest does not have seat assignments. Thus if a family with small children boards last isn’t there a chance that there will not be seats together for parents and children? Seating families first always made sense to me!
September 20th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Well, as long as you don’t have more than a third or maybe even half “A” people, you should be able to find some seats together. But I bet people that are already sitting down are going to be annoyed if a car set has to be installed next to them while they’re in their seat.
September 20th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
I actually agree with situating families first. I was just attempting a snide point. It is a pain to situate the little ones when other passengers are already seated. Either way, I can’t see as how it will save on overall board time.