Originally Posted by
hoover
while the paperwork is insane that's not what's slowing everything down. It's the waiting till exactly 30 prior to then walk down and see if FAs are ready then walking up, making 5 min of announcements that everyone has already heard 10 times and will another 37 once onboard. Not to mention the 12 wheelchairs, one aisle chair, 3 dogs, 2 POS and an old lady. Then with 10 min left till push they board the rest of the pax and berate them to find a seat. Then they have 7 bags to check because ops agent let people down with 5 bags each.
then they forget the wx packet. Go back up to get it and tell 3 pax and one JS who are standing there flight is closed. Shuts the door and hides out for 15 min for ramp to get bags under the jet. Hopefully, the pax and JS has given up. Go back and send numbers.
also I've seen once on a delay because of whatever the computer will calculate a new boarding time based off of new proposed departure and the ops will wait till that new 30 prior to start boarding even though we've been ready for 20 min because they dont want to get in trouble for boarding early a flight that's already 3 hrs late
When I was a business traveler and flew a couple times per week for my engineering job, this is what I would never fly Southwest. Even with priority and a good boarding group, there would inevitably be a dozen wheelchairs and pre boards that would all get on before me and take the good seats at the front so I could get off of the airplane quickly. Then, when we landed, those same pre boards would clog up the aisle and take forever to get off as well.
Even if it was more inconvenient, I would much rather fly on Delta or AA and take my first class seat.
As a routine passenger, Southwest is awful. As someone who flys once a year to see a man in a mouse costume with my screaming kids, I would consider it. But not every week.
Don't get me wrong...the crew's are awesome. Some of the best pilots and FAs in the business. But the whole "system" is terrible as a passenger.