For those who’ve ever flown with Southwest, you realize they do issues a little otherwise. As an alternative of assigning seats beforehand like different airways, vacationers are given boarding positions to find out after they can get on the airplane and decide their very own seats. For some, this flexibility is kind of the promoting level. However that is provided that it really works out of their favor, which one passenger is now claiming to be an unlikely situation as he says Southwest’s Early Examine-In choice is definitely a “rip-off.”
RELATED: Vacationers Are Boycotting Southwest Over New Boarding Change.
TikToker Massive Joe shared his current expertise touring Southwest along with his household in an April 6 video posted to his @jojoofficialtt account. In his TikTok, Joe shares that he was touring to Orlando along with his household of six, which incorporates a number of younger children.
“You understand with Southwest, they do not have assigned seats… [But] you’ve the choice to pay for Early Examine-In,” he says. “So for $300, I used to be in a position to pay for Early Examine-In hopefully to get into the A row in order that my household and buddy who we took alongside may sit collectively.”
As Southwest explains on its web site, passengers might be assigned one in every of three boarding teams: A, B, or C. For every letter, passengers are additionally assigned a quantity from 1 to round 60 to find out precisely after they can board based mostly on their boarding group. The earliest place to board is A1.
Joe’s boarding place? “Like B7,” he says.
However it’s not solely that Joe needed to anticipate all these within the A boarding group to go first. Southwest additionally provides Household Boarding, which permits as much as two adults touring with any youngster six years or youthful to board after the A gaggle has boarded and earlier than the B group begins boarding.
“Meaning there have been 60 individuals forward of me that one way or the other obtained to examine in earlier. And since we’ll Orlando, the place Disney World is, after all there’s gonna be a bunch of households,” Joe explains.
RELATED: Southwest Rolling Out Controversial New Seats: “Is There an Choice to Stand?”
So regardless of paying $300 for Early Examine-In, Joe says when he lastly obtained to board, there have been no two seats nonetheless left collectively—which he explains is an issue as a result of his youngest youngster is 8 years previous and would not fall below the Household Boarding standards however continues to be “terrified” to sit down alone.
“So we needed to attempt to simply discover our approach through which was an terrible expertise,” he says. “My children had been terrified. Worst expertise ever. Do not fly Southwest, such a rip-off.”
Within the remark part of Joe’s TikTok—which has already garnered over 63,000 views—different vacationers shared that they’ve had comparable experiences with Southwest.
“This occurred to me getting back from Florida to Nashville,” one particular person replied. “Our tickets ended up being $2,000 for 2 individuals. We obtained B31-32, AND FORTY. YES FORTY FAMILIES BORDED BEFORE US! I needed to sit subsequent to a child.”
That is additionally not the primary time Southwest has confronted backlash over this service. Whereas Southwest Airways provides EarlyBird Examine-In beginning at $15 one-way per passenger, the provider warns that paying for the service “would not assure an A boarding place.” Nonetheless, it’s meant to enhance “your seat choice choices that will help you get your favourite seat.”
However vacationers have mentioned prior to now that this isn’t all the time the case—particularly when Southwest permits sure passengers (like wheelchair customers or households with kids below 6 in Joe’s case) to board earlier than those that have paid the additional payment for EarlyBird Examine-In.
“Yeah I will not do EarlyBird Examine-In,” one other traveler commented on Joe’s TikTok. “I’ve paid for it and obtained B37 or one thing—loopy late boarding.”
Greatest Life reached out to Southwest over these complaints, and we’ll replace this story with their response.
