Numbers Get Their Due in New Southwest Boarding System: Other Changes Include Redesigned Waiting Area

By Donna Hogan, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Nov. 7–Southwest Airlines passengers checking in today for Thursday’s flights will notice something new on their boarding passes.

Numbers.

The long-awaited fix that will eliminate the lettered cattle pens and long waits in them is effective on all the lowcost carrier’s flights beginning Thursday.

For more than three decades, Southwest, the secondlargest airline at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, has used first-come-firstserved open seating.

For the last decade, the carrier assigned “A,”"B” or “C” boarding passes at check in, which can be done online 24 hours before a flight. The “A” boarding-pass holders could almost always find coveted aisle seats or adjacent seats for people traveling together. But people angling for a specific spot in the plane often lined up in the designated pens for as long as 90 minutes, especially those in the dreaded “B” or “C” boarding groups.

Starting with Thursday’s flights, Southwest passengers will get a letter and a number at check in, for example, A25. The airline will board by letter, as before, but in groups of five by number within the letter, for example, A1 to A5, followed by A6 to A10.

The boarding process is just as fast as the old system, but a boon for passengers who don’t have to camp out in a queue, Southwest spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said when the new method was announced.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has already been suited up for the new boarding procedures. The pens have been replaced by stylistic poles numbered in groups of five, so passengers can cluster at the appropriate poles when their boarding group is announced.

The airline also changed pre-boarding procedures, boarding families with small children who have “B” or “C” passes after the “As” are on board. That pleases the “A” types who don’t like to see the kids snag the best seats but still gets the families on board in sufficient time to find seats together, said Whitney Eichinger, Southwest spokeswoman.

“We want to make sure we are taking care of everyone involved,” Eichinger said. “And most families are getting ‘A’ boarding passes anyway.”

To soothe frazzled families who will have to corral the kids through the plane along with the rest of the boarding passengers, the airline has rearranged the gate waiting areas to include low tables and chairs for children, community seating replacing the long rows, and flat-screen TVs, Eichinger said. New, more comfortable seats are on order but not yet installed at all the gates, she said.

While all the Southwest flights switch to the new boarding procedure Thursday, the company won’t complete the national gate area redo until first quarter, Eichinger said.

Southwest is expected to announce more details about the makeovers today.

CONTACT WRITER:

(480) 970-2338

or dhogan@evtrib.com

—–

To see more of The Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.eastvalleytribune.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:LUV,