Never flown Southwest before

[waterbug123]

It is my understanding, though I may be wrong since I do not fly Southwest, that saving seats is against their rules.

If I want a seat that you say you are saving I have every right to sit in it per the rules.

 

I believe that's correct- you are not supposed to save seats. But two things:

1. I've only flown Southwest a few times but from what I hear, the flight attendants do little to discourage the saving of seats. They try not to get involved.

 

2. If you find a row where someone has sat in the aisle seat or window seat, then the one with EB can sit in the other aisle/window (whichever isn't occupied.). Chances are, no one will voluntarily choose a middle seat that already has occupants on either side, so it will likely remain empty until your travel companion gets onboard. Of course, it would be good to check with the person already seated to be sure they're traveling alone, or you might find you're both hoping to keep the middle seat empty for a friend and you can't both have a friend sit there. ;)

[Roscoe13]

I believe that's correct- you are not supposed to save seats. But two things:

1. I've only flown Southwest a few times but from what I hear, the flight attendants do little to discourage the saving of seats. They try not to get involved.

 

2. If you find a row where someone has sat in the aisle seat or window seat, then the one with EB can sit in the other aisle/window (whichever isn't occupied.). Chances are, no one will voluntarily choose a middle seat that already has occupants on either side, so it will likely remain empty until your travel companion gets onboard. Of course, it would be good to check with the person already seated to be sure they're traveling alone, or you might find you're both hoping to keep the middle seat empty for a friend and you can't both have a friend sit there. ;)

 

For the calendar year 2015, I flew SWA over 20 times and thus qualified for A List status. If you don't mind sitting near the back it is extremely easy to "save" seats.

[rosegrower]

We were on a SW flight last year out of Fort Lauderdale and we had PAID FOR Early Bird since we were coming off a cruise and when we got on there were jackets, backpacks etc on several seats. It turns out large family groups had paid for a couple Early Birds and went about saving seats all over. We found seats much farther back than we should have been. Some other passengers became irate and yelling at people wanting to know who belonged to all the seats with just items on them. Some man confronted me wanting to know if I was saving those seats that were across the aisle from me. It was a bad situation and very unfair to the passengers who had paid the early bird fee. We have (Early Bird again) SW flights to Las Vegas in a month and if we run into this situation again will ask attendants to remove items from seats and sit in a seat we paid $15 each to have early access to. Please do not flame me but I feel you should pay the money, do not cheat others that have.

[zdcatc12]

Please do not flame me but I feel you should pay the money, do not cheat others that have.

 

 

I'm not going to flame you for expecting that, I was going to flame you for not taking those seats. You are a lot nicer than I would have been (though if my DW was with me, she probably wouldn't have let me take one). If one of their "saved" seats had been where I wanted to sit, I would have taken it!

[CCRUZER]

We were on a SW flight last year out of Fort Lauderdale and we had PAID FOR Early Bird since we were coming off a cruise and when we got on there were jackets, backpacks etc on several seats. It turns out large family groups had paid for a couple Early Birds and went about saving seats all over. We found seats much farther back than we should have been. Some other passengers became irate and yelling at people wanting to know who belonged to all the seats with just items on them. Some man confronted me wanting to know if I was saving those seats that were across the aisle from me. It was a bad situation and very unfair to the passengers who had paid the early bird fee. We have (Early Bird again) SW flights to Las Vegas in a month and if we run into this situation again will ask attendants to remove items from seats and sit in a seat we paid $15 each to have early access to. Please do not flame me but I feel you should pay the money, do not cheat others that have.

 

 

Those seat savers were probably "chair hogs" who were coming off the same cruise as you!