I keep running into this problem as many people have reported. On a recent flight Sacramento to Seattle, two different seats I wanted to sit in were "saved", so I just stopped asking and I went to the back in frustration where there were open rows and no one obviously saving seats. After the flight, I discussed the non policy in detail with a Southwest staff member. Here is what I found out. In normal circumstances, while the flight attendants will not stop people from trying to save seats, they will also not make you move if you sit in a seat someone has "saved". So here is what you can do: Ignore the person trying to save the seat, and just sit in the seat. If something is on the seat, just pick it up and sit in the seat. Then give the item that was on the seat to the person who is trying to save the seat. If the person saving the seat objects, simply tell them Southwest has an open seating policy during boarding, first come first serve. If the person saving the seat calls over a flight attendant, don’t worry about it. Under normal circumstance, the flight attendant is not going to ask you to move, because they are not supposed to be taking a position on the saving of seats. Video record the situation if you can. Clearly, open seating during boarding means any seat not actually being occupied is available to be sit in. Clearly, the people in line first get the choice of available seats before those in line behind them. By having an open seating policy but not taking a position on saving seats, Southwest has setup a situation where passengers must confront fellow passengers to get the seat they deserve for the position in line they paid for, increasing the likelihood of problems in the cabin, and giving all involved a negative feeling about the experience of flying on Southwest. I will be trying this next time I run into the issue and I'll let you know what happens.
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