[johnnyapol]

The biggest reason I flew Southwest was just because with the $20-$25 for early bird check-in each way, I could pretty much guarantee I wouldn't be stuck with a middle seat and would be likely to have control of where on the plane I was (e.g. if I had a tight connection, could be closer to the front).

If being able to pick an acceptable seat ends up costing more than this, I'll be firmly in the territory of just price shopping between the other US airlines and picking whoever has the best price for the route. Admittedly, as someone who flies alone the vast majority of the time, this system worked well for me without much overhead. I can understand how families might be relieved at being able to reserve seats all next to each other as the cost of early bird for say 4 people would really add up. I guess I'll just be enjoying my current setup while I can and then move forward without any sort of loyalty.

[itsdrewmiller]

You can pay extra to reserve specific seats on basically every airline - it might cost a little more overall but it seems like that you're already just comparison shopping with heuristics.