Southwest Airlines announced the revolutionary move of…what every other airline offers. Assigned seating. It’s been ten years since Ultra Low Cost Carrier Ryanair gave up on open seating, twelve years since Easyjet gave up on it.
So, why did it take half a century and why now? Southwest has always liked being different. But as time has passed, Southwest is less the innovator and more institutional than it used to be. We suppose that happens when you get older.
Back in the day, before online check-in, you’d show up at the airport, and get a plastic card indicating your boarding order, then assemble in line. If that wasn’t a way to get people to show up early for a flight, not sure what was. Then online check-in arrived, and you had to wait at your computer, later your smartphone, at the moment the flight opened in order to get a good boarding order. Then they added a letter. You were in Group A, B, or C. Then they started selling those early boarding groups so you could jump the line.
Technology marched on. Do you remember when they adopted the boarding poles? With its state of the art pole technology, Mythbusters proved they had possibly the fastest boarding method around.
But now, it is all over. Coming next year…Southwest claims it is responding to the majority of customers prefer assigned seats. Not just assigned seats, they’ll be adding extra legroom premium seating. At the same time, they are adding redeye flights for the first time.
The days of Herb Kelleher are over. After a disastrous meltdown last winter where scheduling software caused thousands of flight cancellations, and under pressure from activist shareholder Elliott Investment Management, the airline is moving towards being like every other airline. Not fast enough for Elliott, who, in a press release following Southwest’s announcement, said it was too little, too late and called for a change in leadership. What happened to the LUV airline? It’s time to break out your box set of the A&E series Airline and remember the good old days.