In response to comments in our November announcement posts about our new boarding process, I asked that you be patient and allow our Frontline Employees to get used to working the new procedures. It's now been two months and two Holidays since we started the new boarding process. Thank you for giving us time to adapt. Here's what I heard and saw in Nashville during Christmas.
I actually left my comfort zone (aka Baggage Service) in the month of December and spent some time working at the gates to see how things are going. What I saw was a lot of Customers who have adapted to the new boarding process. I also saw a few that didn't know we made some changes because they only fly once a year. But, they adapted quickly. And best of all, I saw lots of people sitting around not worrying about their place in line (standing in line was the biggest complaint about our old boarding system).
I heard our Operations and Customer Service Agents doing a great job with the new announcements. They are flowing much better now and many Agents have added their own personality. Additionally, Operations Agents did a better job keeping order when Customers tried to board out of turn. Maintaining boarding order was something that had been requested by our Customers.
I actively sought comments from Customers and Coworkers. The comments I heard were mostly favorable. Everyone liked not having to stake out a place in line. And to my suprise (and it would be to the surprise of a lot of the negative blog comments we received), quite a few Customers paid to upgrade to Business Select after receiving a C boarding pass.
We did receive some negative comments at the airport and some people were caught off guard by the changes. But despite some of the initial concerns, the new procedures are definitly offering a more comforable, and stress-free gate and boarding experience for our Customers.
I'd like to hear from both Customers and Coworkers about your current (real-life) experiences (as opposed to perceptions) with the new boarding process. How's it going now?
Comments
I live in Alaska so don't have a chance to fly Southwest often. I flew this morning though from Phoenix to Orange County, CA and have this to offer:
I bought the Business Select and was disappointed that there wasn't an express bag drop and an express security line for the Business Select customers...that would be a lot more important to a business traveler than a free drink coupon. Especially at 7:15AM
The boarding process went very smoothly and I thought it was great!
The Southwest boarding process is horrible. I will NEVER fly southwest again. My story begins on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 when flying from Orlando to BWI. I was with my two children and my niece. We checked in at the ticket counter and received our boarding passes. To my surprise my 8 year old son got A35, I had B42, my 12 year old son had C22 and my niece had B43. I brought this to the attention of the ticket counter agent who told me that it was not a problem and that I could board with my son in the A group. I though that this was great. To my dismay I get to the gate and was rudely told by the gate agent that I was misinformed and my son could board by himself or he would have to wait for me when B40-45 was boarding. He then proceeded to tell me more that my 12 year old would have to board with C, but he could over look that and have him board with me. CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS!!! I was appauled. I was even more embarrassed when I told him that I asked the ticket agent about this and she told me that I could board with him. He asked me who it was, which of course I didn't take her name, but that she did not know the policy and that was incorrect. He proceeded to rudely tell me to that I was boarding with B and to go back there. I have never been more embarrased in my life. I feel that I was treated less than human. I am also African American and I am also feeling that there may have been some discrimination, but I would hate to read that much into it in the year 2008. SOUTHWEST needs to figure out who is a child and who is not and give them the same boarding group. I boarded with B on my flight to Orlando and we all boarded together because we all had B, so I am not upset about boarding with B, I am upset about the fact the I was told misinformation and then embarassed by a rude gate agent. How dare him tell me that my 8 year old could board by himself. If he had boarded by himself which I would never had allowed and then was molested, how would Southwest have felt about that. Parents this is wrong.
New boarding technology: Southwest Airlines
An Imperfect Answer
A recently had the opportunity to use Southwest AirlinesÃ
My wife and I really like the new boarding method. I especially like not having to deal with the mass of people that always formed beneath the A, B, C, signs at the gates. We usually fly BUR--LAS and have not experienced any problems at either airport. The most difficult experience at Las Vegas is getting through security ( way too much civil service attitude) and the best part of flying out of Burbank is being able to board from the front and rear of the aircraft.
I agree with Tim, Kyle O & others above. I love the new system if the gate attendants enforce the boarding procedures. Please keep the new system. It's great to be able to have time for food, bathroom, work, relaxing, etc. Saying "A1-30 can now board" confuses the passengers & encourages line jumpers. I fly SWA roundtrip every week on business. yes i get the A16 boarding pass. PBI has been pretty good about explaining the system. BWI has been erratic at best. The Gate Attendants need to announce how boarding process works every time. i'm afraid they are going to have to keep announcing the process every time for a long time as many SWA passengers fly one or 2 times a year or less. As stated before, it is disheartening to your 50 plus round-trip per year SWA flyers to be holding A16 and watch several line jumpers cut in front of us (with A30 to 50's) and the Attendant does/says nothing. I also agree that it is frustrating to board when the Attendant says NOTHING about the new boarding procedure. i unfortunately have heard "OK A group can now board". what a disaster that is. Saying A1 thru 15 can now board works. Then say A16 thru 20. etc. People then start to understand the process. Thank you SWA for making difficult changes that were necessary. Please educate the Gate Attendants and keep explaining the process every time!!!.
Dear fellow Southwest family members.
I do not usually submit letters like this but I do this in the hopes that this reaches the few travelers that have not yet figured out what being in "Southwest Country" means to the rest of us.
My Story begins like any other day traveling with Southwest, knowing my place in line was already set by using southwest.mobile.com. It is great to be able to check in no matter where I am or what I am doing. I arrived at my gate in St. Louis pretty relaxed and eager to return home after a long week on the road.
When I approached the gate area I overheard a loud traveler at the gate service desk. Evidently he did not like what he was being told and I could tell by his body language he was not someone who was comfortable traveling.
I sat down in the gate area and put on my headphones to listen to some music that I am way too old to be enjoying. I look up and notice this same man standing in the new line area in the space between eleven and fifteen on the posts. It kind of made me laugh because the flight was not due in for 40 minutes. I thought perhaps this guy was longing for the old days of standing in line.
As I sat there and observed him I noticed a few things right away. He had two suitcase and a laptop roller bag. I hope it's not a full flight. i hate it when people abuse the carry-on limitations. Not a big deal in my opinion, i always travel with one bag and check my luggage.
To cut to the chase, he tried to get on the flight first with number 29, and I appreciated the gate agent because he asked the man to step out of line and board at the end of the first group called.
When the man boarded the flight, I watched him load his 3 bags into the first space available, (taking up one and a half bins) then walking back to the back of the cabin, not leaving any room for passengers under those bins to place luggage, slowing the whole loading and unloading process.
This guy did three other things during the flight that embarrassed me to be a road warrior, but in the interest of space I wonÃ
I'm a frequent SWA flyer. I have a 3,000-mile commute, so I see Burbank, Las Vegas, Phoenix, BWI, Raleigh, and Manchester operations up close pretty frequently.
I'll second comments from Jo-Ann, Mike and others: The new process works much better if the gate agents enforce the sequential numbering. When they do not, or when they do cattle call - "All As 1 through 60!" - the process falters. The same people who cheated on the old system do the same with the new system. It's annoying to see some guy with A 50 waved onto the plane first when I have A17.
One of the reasons people complained so much about the old system was that it was left to the passengers to police themselves. Some guy who casually drifted toward the front of the A line five minutes before boarding? He got away with it if the other passengers didn't want to have a confrontation.
Same with the new system. The guy with A50 standing in the A5-10 position needs to get bounced by the gate agent when he tries to board, not waved on with a wink. SWA needs to monitor and enforce its own system. (I'm talking about major line jumps, not turning back A19 if A18 hasn't boarded yet...)
Thanks for the opportunity to provide feedback.
P.S. I've received eight separate e-mails in two days about SWA's schedule opening up through August. Not sure if your servers are stuttering or someone's just over-eager with the "send" button, but eight e-mails is a little much.
My best answer for Brigitte in Ontario, is to make a note of when you Detroit plane is scheduled to leave. Example, Let's say you are scheduled to fly on April 17th and you selected Flight 195 and leaves Detroit at 8:30 AM Detroit time for Chicago-Midway and Flight 498 which leaves Chicago-Midway at 9:25 AM Chicago time for Las Vegas. At 8:30 AM Detroit time on April 16th (the day before your flight), the on-line check-in process begins for flight. Since the above example involves two flights, you will be logging in for two boarding passes. One for Flight 195 and the second for Flight 498, each flight will have two different boarding numbers. On boarding pass might say A43 and the other A28 for example. Boarding passes numbers A01 through
A16 have been set aside for Business Select customers. If 7 people bought Business Select customer then A1-A07 will belong to them and A08 through A15 will be vacant. Check out this link for what will happen at the gates on the
day you fly.
http://www.southwest.com/help/boardingschool
When you click on the black notebook it will go through the steps. Have a great trip to Las Vegas.
Flew over the holidays. Love the new boarding process! If you notice, all the comments used to be how bad the boarding process was. Now it's just a few! Don't worry about the negative comments. You can't please everyone. And they'll continue to "put up with it" as long as the price is right!
Congrats again!
I am surprised that SWA chose to insult the normal Rapid Awards ticket holder by forcing us into the "back of the bus" loading procedure. First you limit the seats available with RR tickets and now we have to watch as all your favored business customers load first. We have little chance of getting in the A zone regardless of when we download a boarding pass. Not much more you can do to insult us further. Its hardly worth the effort of acquiring RR credits anymore since you think so little of your non-business customers. Shame on you SWA I have loved you for so long.