This is indeed an abusive situation, and it is one that has been deteriorating for years. Today was, however, the cherry on the Sunday. After purchasing a business select ticket, I was position A-5. When I boarded the plane there were already 42 passengers ahead of me, including a substantial line of healthy appearing young people who had pre-boarding. It goes without saying that the extra price of the business select ticket bought absolutely nothing other than the typically kind and sympathetic staff on board. While I have really enjoyed the service orientation and tremendous convenience of SW for many years, I will only tolerate this for short hops going forward and will spend the $$ on a reserved seat on another carrier for longer flights. Given the structure of the federal regulation and the willingness of so many people to shamelessly abuse the system, I don’t believe that SW can solve this problem without abandoning open seating.
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