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Southwest: Paper, not plastic
By JEAN HELLER, Times Staff Writer TAMPA -- Edward Sullivan arrived at Tampa International Airport on Wednesday morning expecting to avoid at least one long check-in line for his flight to Columbus, Ohio. He had heard that Southwest Airlines was ending its old boarding system, which required passengers to line up at the gate for numbered plastic cards that determined who got to board first and pick the best seats. He was right about the boarding change, but wrong about the day. "I wait in one line to give them my bags, and then I have to wait in line at the gate for the boarding pass," said Sullivan, a sales representative from Lakeland. "I thought today would be different. But it won't be different until tomorrow. I'm disappointed." Sullivan was one of thousands of Southwest customers eagerly anticipating the switch. No one at the airport Wednesday complained that they would miss the plastic card system. The passes, which date back 31 years to Southwest's early days as an intra-Texas commuter carrier for businessmen, are being phased out gradually across the country. Today is TIA's turn to lose them. The goal is to reduce the number of lines and waiting times for passengers who have seen the check-in process grow longer and more tedious in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Southwest fliers still won't have reserved seating, but they will have the option of collecting paper boarding passes at terminal baggage check-in or curbside check-in points. Passengers with no luggage to check can pick up paper passes at the gate -- in a much shorter line, if the plan works. Only those passengers arriving within 20 minutes of flight time will be required to get their passes at the gate. "I couldn't be happier," said Kerry Willigan of Providence, R.I., a frequent passenger on Southwest. "I was in one line or another all the time, checking bags, going through security, getting a boarding pass and getting on the plane. If this new system gets rid of one line, I'm all for it. I only put up with the old system because the fares were substantially less." The new system does not address passengers' other frequent criticism of Southwest's boarding procedures: the lack of reserved seating. So there is still a premium on getting a boarding pass early if you want the best choice of seats. Each pass will be imprinted with an "A," a "B" or a "C." Early arrivals will get A passes, late arrivals C passes. The boarding process will be called by the letters. "There will be three boarding segments instead of four, but that's the only difference," said Christine Turneabe-Connelly, spokeswoman for Southwest. "We don't offer reserved seating because it's critical to our operations to get the planes on the ground, turned around and out again quickly. Having reserved seating would delay departures." Other low-fare carriers that rely on fast turnarounds, such as JetBlue Airways, have reserved seating, which doesn't sway Southwest. "It's not our corporate culture," Turneabe-Connelly said. Still, passengers will take what they can get. "Normally, I check my luggage because I don't like carrying bags very much," said Tammy Atmore of St. Petersburg. "I'm really looking forward to the new system. Anything they can do to make the process easier is a good thing."
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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