[Lendal]

They don't charge extra for assigned seats. Instead, you pick your seat by sitting in it. Which means you need to board earlier. Boarding order is assigned by the order in which you check in. To do that, you get the Southwest app and check in the moment the notification pops up on your phone. If you do that, you board ahead of everyone else. Free of charge.

If you believe paying paying extra fees for every little thing constitutes order over chaos, well then maybe you should fly another airline and pay their fees. Personally I prefer Southwest's up-front pricing model. I just tap the check-in button when it pops up on my phone and board ahead of everyone else, thus avoiding the so-called zoo of people at the back who haven't figured it out yet.

The first time I flew Southwest I immediately saw that boarding first gets you a better seat. So I asked them, how do you board first? And they told me. I boarded first from then on.

[AlotOfReading]

You're already behind if you're hitting the check-in button because of how connecting flights work. Passengers can check in 24h ahead of the earliest flight on their ticket, which is >24h ahead of the flight you're on. It's usually not a problem being A20 vs A15, but it can be much worse if you're joining the last leg of a popular connection.

[ryandrake]

How do they enforce that people who checked in earlier get to board earlier? Almost every other airline has "groups" where in theory, Group 1 boards while everyone else waits, then Group 1&2 are invited, and so on. But in reality, everyone just dogpiles the gate when Group 1 starts, regardless of their group, and nobody actually checks the group number or enforces anything.

[secabeen]

They create a single-file queue, with what is supposed to be a strict linear sorting. Instead of a group, you get a boarding number from A1 through C60. There's some flexibility in this, generally most people don't mind #44 going before #40, but you won't be able to line up or board after person #11 if your boarding card says #56. The gate agent will make you go to your correct place in line. Since it's a single-aisle plane, they run everyone through a single ticket reader, and thus have a point of enforcement.

[Lendal]

Yes, and they also have these pylons next to the gate, with numbers on them that are for forming the line. During boarding, everyone stands next to the pylon with their number on it and thus the line is formed. Southwest gates are unusual in this way. No other airline has these pylons at their gates.

I remember one gate agent who was unusually vocal about everyone obeying the rules. It was pretty funny actually.

[zarzavat]

How does that work for people traveling in groups such as couples or families? The reason that airlines have assigned seating is that people want to know before they get on the plane that they’ll be seated together.

Especially for families you don’t want your kid sitting next to some random person because you missed a notification on an app and ended up boarding last when only middle seats are left

[svachalek]

For younger children (5 and under I think?) you can listen for "family boarding" between the A and B passes.

[alexsereno]

Pay a bit extra to board earlier.

[lxgr]

Ah yes, fighting for seats by paying extra and having to board early, i.e. spending more time than strictly required in an airplane seat.

As somebody preferring to make use of that extra time in the airport, that sounds horrible.