These privileges pushed the airline to reconsider when its longstanding ‘first-come, first-served’ approach failed on Southwest Hawaii flights among others. With mounting pressure from passengers and investors, it will pivot to try better serving Hawaii and beyond.
Anyone claiming a disability should have medical verification from a physician.
It just never made sense to board wheelchair dependants first they take longer and suffice it to say should be boarded last. They(wheelchaired) piggybacked off the families with children first tradition.
As a person with disabilities, I travel in a wheelchair, my own. About half of the flights I use are Southwest. I have never in my travels seen a fellow passenger with disabilities that I suspected was faking it.
What I have seen is contempt for disabled passengers, possibly prompted by the frequency of travel writers highlighting this scam. I have had obscenities yelled at me, fellow disabled passengers, and airline flight crew about being (add in the vulgarity) fakers.
I have had threats of physical violence, of being thrown out of my wheelchair off of the jetway.
I have had American airlines forget to board me, forget the aisle cart, and delay the flight. Also American airlines changed gates at the last second before boarding and left my 99 year old mother at the old gate where she missed her flight.
People with disabilities have enough problems living, let alone traveling without travel writers focusing hatred on them. Try living every day and doing everything in a chair.
thank you for telling us how it really is. I have several disabled people in my family but none have traveled Southwest in years because of the disrespect shown to the disabled.
Now, we are even starting to see this attitude with other airlines, mostly because every wheel chair user who is at all ambulatory has been branded a fake.
My brother (an amputee) walks fine on his prosthetic. but for safety reasons, he gets wheeled on, as he has been pushed to the ground and trampled in the rush to board. when he gets up to use the restroom onboard, people have no shame in calling him out as a faker and a fraud, because he can walk. He often has to roll up his pants and show them to prosthetic leg to shut them up.
we have a society of horrible people now. and I think the internet has played a big part in it.
What’s all the fuss? We all get there at the same time!
I Luv Southwest don’t change a thing.
Remember the saying.”Be careful what you wish for.”
For one, all the times I’ve flown Southwest, I never ran into anyone doing this – wheelchairs or any type of abuse of the preseating policy. And two, who cares about the Hawaii route? You’re going to change a policy most people flew the airline for because of one route? I’m sorry it didn’t work for you.
Interesting, because I’ve seen it many times as well. Also when I’m able to board other passengers have backpacks, clothes etc in seats to save them. I for one am glad SW is changing this policy. After all, paying $25 to “upgrade” to boarding A group still doesn’t guarantee you a decent seat nor does it always mean you will be in the A group. It makes more sense to just be able to pick the one you want, your paying anyway.
True SW patrons follow the rules.
Unfortunate that a few disrespectful customers have enough say so that rules have to be changed to accommodate their unwillingness to comply with rules.
Caught in a lie throw them off.
Wheelchair users should be the last to board and off. If first on they should be sent to the back seats. all seats should be designated not a free for all. People who pay for privileges should always be first or give them their money back.
To target wheelchair users in this way would be discrimination and probably illegal. As a wheelchair user for the last 13 years, I haven’t seen abuse of the airline policy.
While I board first, I’m the last to get off the plane. I’m fine with that. I just hope my personal wheelchair actually got stowed in cargo on my plane, wasn’t damaged, and is available for my use at the other end.
Please be kind.
One way I see that Southwest could modify its boarding procedures with assigned seating but still keep the open seating policy is to limit the number of miles that open seating is used on flights. For longer flights, say 2.5 hours or 700 miles, for instance, they could convert the flight to assigned seating from open seating.
Hawaiian did this in the 80s when they opened for interisland and were assigned for transpacific flights. So the model is there if Southwest wants to hybrid their boarding processes. Of course, it would increase costs somewhere. But since the airline chose, several years ago, to move from short point-to-point flights to long-distance domestic and international flights, procedures should probably change too.
cheaters gotta ruin it for everone
This is an interesting subject and it hits very close to home with me. As a devoted American Airlines customer, I recently had a trip where American wasn’t going to work so I booked on Southwest. I was blown away by how many so-called ‘handicapped’ customers boarded before me. WTH??? I had never seen such a thing. It seemed like 1/3 of the plane was quote ‘handicapped’. I made a vow to myself to never fly this airline again because I’m not going to play this game. I just want to sit in the seat that I’ve purchased. Perhaps I’ll give Southwest another try someday now that this is changing, but I definitely wasn’t in the mood to repeat that performance. I believe Southwest runs a fine company but that was completely ridiculous.
Btw, I have always been delighted with my SW seats, and don’t want the change to assigned seats!
My friend is coming tomorrow and she needs a wheelchair both for getting on, and off the plane. Are they going to give her a hard time now?
The customer need a letter from your doctor this would avoided this situation.
No they won’t.
You just ask for extra assistance when ticket is booked or tell them at the check in desk. They are very cordial.
From the comments I would expect Just that
Yes as long as they keep the 2 free checked bags …
A long overdue change! I have witnessed these “miracle flights” where the passenger is able to miraculously walk again at the end of the flight! Because of the flagrant & common abuse of this, assigned seating is the only proper course of action for all flights, irrespective of the flight duration. This day has been long coming as public resentment of what has been allowed to go on without fairness to the rest of the travelers. When I saw it on a half a dozen SWA flights, I stopped flying SWA. When, they change their seating policy, maybe I will try them again.
I know this is going to sound ‘funny’, but I have a disability but have refrained from requesting a wheel chair because people would not understand it. I have spinal stenosis, a non-curable deterioration of the lumbar region. I can stand for only a few minutes, walk only limited distances. I can usually walk off the plane, as at the end of the jetway I can sit and rest a bit. The problem I have is boarding, walking down the jetway and stopping, and waiting in line. More than once my legs were ready to quit working. My friends say use the wheelchair option, but who wants to look like a jerk exiting the aircraft? It’s a ‘no-win’ situation. Damn the people that use the wheelchair to buck the line!
I’m in the same boat…
12 bolts 2 rods and Noone can see our disabilities…
I travel w/a service animal, so I get on the plane first usually, but flying from Detroit to Nashville, there must of been a dozen wheelchairs lined up, me, I walked right around all the fake people!
Self absorbed w/self importance! You know the guy, walk up and uinreeupt your representative bc they are so important…
my disabled veteran brother who is an amputee also prided himself on not using preboarding or wheelchairs, until a few years ago when he was knocked over and trampled in the boarding rush. If a person is medically frail, preboarding is a good thing.
What’s a shame is a few ruin it for the people who needs it. The same problem with the welfare system
If I see a “saved” seat I want and there isn’t an equivalent seat neare by, I’m taking the empty seat.
I recently spoke with a SWA FA regarding this. For one thing she said those who preboard should be last off as this would speed up the deboarding process. Also I have been unable to find anyone else who flies SWA frequently say they were asked their opinion on changing the process and all said don’t change it. The recent changes with same day change/standby will be a mess-I guess you would get stuck with whatever empty seat is available?
I don’t mean to be cynical.. but the move to assigned seating has very little to do with wheelchair cheats. Southwest is getting a lot of pressure by an investment group that has bought up enough shares to start suggesting that the board be replaced and to improve the stagnant stock prize. They are also have extra legroom seats and probably reduce existing legroom so they can make more money.
The free bags will be the next to go as well.
In the meantime if Southwest really cared about fairness they can prohibit reserving of seats by customers who board early.. that’s a simple fix.. and also reduce the number of people that can accompany a wheelchair person onto the plane..
I agree stop the reserve a seat problem. That’s why I fly Delta
Good for Southwest. I have seen this “Jetway Jesus” happen a lot as those who pay for early boarding have to wait for these abusers. I saw a family of no less than 20 board this way. I’ve seen a few board and block seats for others. So unfair. Glad to see that Southwest is addressing this abuse!!!!
The FAs should make an announcement at the time of boarding that ‘saving seats’ is not allowed, and enforce it!
It is allowed to the extent that people can “try” and save them. SWA doesn’t have a policy one way or another.
Again, if it’s empty and you want it, you can take it whether it’s being “saved” or not.
I have never flown Southwest because of the lack of assigned seats. The fact that people are gaming the system is exactly as I suspected it would be.
I never ran into this all the time I’ve flown SW. Very disappointed they changed their policy.
I think SWA should rethink this. There must be a better way to handle these disgusting fakes. It really takes a lot of nerve to cheat the system this way. How about public shamming? Maybe a doctors note or something? Assigned seating will only raise the price. Why would you want to be like the other airlines?
Great. So when assigned seating kicks in, instead of hearing all the “Jetway Jesus” stories, we’ll be inundated with “I paid for my seats, and when I got on the plane, someone was already sitting there and refused to move. Just like every other airline.
Not sure how much you fly, but with assigned seating, it is impossible to not to get the seat you paid for / selected.
Flash your ticket showing the seat assignment, and the interloper will be banished to their correct seat.
True