I used to fly Southwest as my primary carrier. Due to a change in travel patterns, and just wanting a more "premium" experience, I've started to fly other airlines more lately. I have the SW CC still since even though I don't fly WN a lot anymore, it basically costs me nothing as I get the $75 flight credit and 7500 points, and I fly them at least 2 or 3 times a year (due to preferable routing/times).
I recently took a trip that required a few segments and opted for WN due to the point-to-point model and not having to connect through a hub every few days. Perhaps I'm just remembering how things used to be incorrectly, or maybe the experience has been degraded? I found that even checking in at T-24 hours, I was left in the mid to high B's. Previously, this was almost sure to get me a mid to high A spot if not a low B spot at worst. A couple of the segments, I tried to upgrade boarding with my CC benefit, and it was not available for purchase (guessing sold out either as business select or someone who had sniped it a few seconds before I checked in).
On one of the segments that I did purchase the upgraded boarding for a trip before, I found ourselves still pretty far back into the aircraft even with an A1-15 spot (I don't recall our exact position). This time, when I arrived to the gate, I was surprised to find that there was no where for me to stand in line when it was time to line up due to the sheer number of pre-boarders occupying the area near the gate. Given the last experience and just out of curiosity, I decided to count how many preboarders there were and there were 32 (counted by "ding"'s as the GA boarded everyone prior to calling A1-15). Once onboard, the first 2 seats we could find together were in row 9. We also looked at row 12 (exit row in the 737-700), but the A1-9's had already gotten to them (we were A10/11). Over the years, I know the number of preboarders has grown, but assuming it was a full flight (it was not) 22% of people preboarded! Since it wasn't a full flight, I'd guess 25-50% got better seat selection than even A1. Granted the $170-ish I paid would be fully reimbursed by Chase, but if I had spent money for a BS seat or actually paid for the upgraded boarding seat, I can't imagine it would be worth it!
Has anyone else experienced this issue where either Upgraded Boarding is not available or when it is, it's not really useful anymore? I've flown a total of probably 6-8 segments this year, and only used the benefit once for myself, and once for myself and travel partner, so despite having 4 free upgrades to use, won't get to use them all before the end of the year. This is the first year in 5 years of being a CC holder that I've not used up all of the upgraded boardings (though admittedly this year I've flown a lot less on WN)
As a complete aside, what causes WN to have such a high percentage of preboarders? The only thing I can think of, other than not caring about being in an exit row and wanting to get on board early (my understand is it costs nothing and anyone can request it) is that some people get "stuck" with it? I know a few years back, when I had a tight connection due to a mechanical delay and asked the gate agent to see if she could assign me a higher boarding position, she said none were available and instead assigned me a preboard position. I made my tight connection, but then got stuck with the preboard designation every subsequent flight for 3 months or so (which meant I couldn't take my favorite exit row seat even when I was in the low A's) until such time that I had some extra time to kill one day and a check-in agent removed it for me after talking to her about it. I think other airlines make you request it each time whereas, at least a few years back, mine got "stuck" with me.
I recently took a trip that required a few segments and opted for WN due to the point-to-point model and not having to connect through a hub every few days. Perhaps I'm just remembering how things used to be incorrectly, or maybe the experience has been degraded? I found that even checking in at T-24 hours, I was left in the mid to high B's. Previously, this was almost sure to get me a mid to high A spot if not a low B spot at worst. A couple of the segments, I tried to upgrade boarding with my CC benefit, and it was not available for purchase (guessing sold out either as business select or someone who had sniped it a few seconds before I checked in).
On one of the segments that I did purchase the upgraded boarding for a trip before, I found ourselves still pretty far back into the aircraft even with an A1-15 spot (I don't recall our exact position). This time, when I arrived to the gate, I was surprised to find that there was no where for me to stand in line when it was time to line up due to the sheer number of pre-boarders occupying the area near the gate. Given the last experience and just out of curiosity, I decided to count how many preboarders there were and there were 32 (counted by "ding"'s as the GA boarded everyone prior to calling A1-15). Once onboard, the first 2 seats we could find together were in row 9. We also looked at row 12 (exit row in the 737-700), but the A1-9's had already gotten to them (we were A10/11). Over the years, I know the number of preboarders has grown, but assuming it was a full flight (it was not) 22% of people preboarded! Since it wasn't a full flight, I'd guess 25-50% got better seat selection than even A1. Granted the $170-ish I paid would be fully reimbursed by Chase, but if I had spent money for a BS seat or actually paid for the upgraded boarding seat, I can't imagine it would be worth it!
Has anyone else experienced this issue where either Upgraded Boarding is not available or when it is, it's not really useful anymore? I've flown a total of probably 6-8 segments this year, and only used the benefit once for myself, and once for myself and travel partner, so despite having 4 free upgrades to use, won't get to use them all before the end of the year. This is the first year in 5 years of being a CC holder that I've not used up all of the upgraded boardings (though admittedly this year I've flown a lot less on WN)
As a complete aside, what causes WN to have such a high percentage of preboarders? The only thing I can think of, other than not caring about being in an exit row and wanting to get on board early (my understand is it costs nothing and anyone can request it) is that some people get "stuck" with it? I know a few years back, when I had a tight connection due to a mechanical delay and asked the gate agent to see if she could assign me a higher boarding position, she said none were available and instead assigned me a preboard position. I made my tight connection, but then got stuck with the preboard designation every subsequent flight for 3 months or so (which meant I couldn't take my favorite exit row seat even when I was in the low A's) until such time that I had some extra time to kill one day and a check-in agent removed it for me after talking to her about it. I think other airlines make you request it each time whereas, at least a few years back, mine got "stuck" with me.