End Of An Era: Southwest Is Ending Their Open Seating, Can No Longer Weed Out The Idiots Who Don't Understand The Boarding Process

What the hell man? This was a tradition in the airline industry. I used to have to fly Southwest a decent amount when I lived by Baltimore and there was nothing like figuring out who the morons in the airport were. You know exactly who I'm talking about here. The people who didn't understand what B32 meant. They thought that was their seat number or they'd just randomly get up when the A's were boarding. They couldn't grasp the simple process of open seating, lining up in order and then sitting your ass in a crammed seat. It happened basically every flight. 

Not to mention you can't weed out the idiots. If I saw someone who clearly didn't know the boarding process, I avoided sitting next to them. Good chance they were a clapper when the plane landed or tried to run up the aisle before you even got to the gate. You know the people I'm talking about. The people who think the plane is made just for them. We're all cattle crammed into the tube in the sky. It's not fun for anyone, you just sit there and follow the rules. That's it. Get from point A to point B as easy as possible. 

I refuse to believe that 80% of customers want to switch to assigned seating. Want an assigned seat fly one of the other airlines. Southwest is where you could play roulette and have no idea if you were landing on an aisle, front of the plane, middle seat, it was all up for grabs. It was beautiful chaos for those who knew how to fly on Southwest. 

This report says they are going to offer premium seating. That's great, but are they updating every plane to do so? It never mattered where you sat on Southwest, it was the same seat. If you're offering premium seating they better go in and make that first class/business class/whatever they call it better. Can't be charging me more just to sit in the front of the plane without a seat upgrade. 

I gotta say in the grand scheme of things, I hate this. I like tradition and tradition in the airport was the battle for your spot. Making sure B50 wasn't cheating up the line or anything like that. Playing the game of trying to find the best seat to sit in and maybe getting lucky. Nothing like a little rush getting on the plane not knowing where to go.