Well I have travelled twice since my first post, once on SWA and the other was on another airline and I continue to appreciate "unassigned seating". On brand "X" as usual I was in the "back of the bus" in a middle seat because of my booking date. I paid particular attention to boarding times. No one boards as fast as SWA, if the intent is to streamline boarding, then enforce the carryon bag rules for size and number. The most time consuming part of the boarding process is while someone is try to cram an "oversized" bag in the overhead or walking up and down the aisle looking for a space to cram it.
On the airline with assigned seating, of course they board from the back , so folks will throw their bag in the first available overhead, then the folks in the front, who get to board last have to go down the aisle way past their seat to find a place for their bag. Then when exiting they need to go against the stream to retreive their bag, slowing down the exit process.
So enforcing your existing policy of number and size of bag could help streamline boarding. And I'm really annoyed by the announcement of "place your small bags under your feet to leave room for larger bags in the overheads. I check my bags so that I don't have something under my feet and feel that I am entitled to a small bit of room in the overhead for the one briefcase I do carry on.
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I am a business traveler and donÃ
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