Southwest Airlines and Assigned Seating: A Slippery Runway

Last week, low-cost maverick Southwest Airlines began a pilot program of assigning seats to passengers on select flights. Deviating from their long-standing tradition of open seating, in which passengers queued up to board on a first-come, first-seated basis, Southwest is now fiddling with boarding procedures to determine if assigned seating, in addition to increasing customer satisfaction, results in faster boarding times.

Always sensitive to market forces, the consistently profitable and shrewd Southwest Airlines knows that the flying public tends to have strong opinions them: people either laud or loathe the open seating, the crew’s attempts at humor, the minimal-frills service, and the other hallmarks of the cost-cutting, quirky Southwest way. But despite their ability to post soaring profit year after year while their competitors file for bankruptcy, Southwest Airlines may be at the beginning of a slippery runway if it does away with open seating.

While it won’t officially happen until at least 2008 (if at all), the advent of assigned seats on all Southwest Airlines flights would strike me as a sad sign that the company can no longer balance principles with profits the way it has for over 30 years. They’re worried that, as they start to move beyond their typical second-string airport market and into new locations, passengers unaccustomed to the unusual practices of the airline may be turned off unless assigned seats are offered. They’re worried that an increasingly cantankerous American public will become whinier, taking longer to board under the old open seating policy and thus contributing to delays. And of course, even loyal Southwest-loving customers may latch onto the assigned seating and start demanding other unnecessary services that will cause Southwest Airlines to lose its budget feel and its easy, fun, unpretentious edge: they’ll want first-class seating options, special business traveler lounges, more sophisticated frequent flyer programs, in-flight movies, full dinners, etc.