Alright. Let’s open this can of worms again. When the holidays were upon us, USA Today decided to highlight one of the most polarizing travel questions: the Southwest seat-saving policy. Er…non-policy.
There are two strong sides to the Southwest seat-saving issue. Some people think Southwest seat-savers are entitled jerks. Others think that people who worry about others saving seats are petty and that they should just move on to a new seat. A better answer lies in the murky area between those two opinions. Somewhere.
[SEE: Can you save seats with Southwest Airlines seating?]
Part of me wishes Southwest would make an official policy on seat-saving. Honestly, the hands-off “policy” *is* a de facto policy that seat-saving is okay. Any real policy Southwest enacted would have to result in seat-saving being forbidden. If that happened, how would travel change on Southwest?
Pros: make it clear who is in the right, give some passengers better seat options
There would be some pros to a policy. If I wanted a window seat in a row near the front where someone happened to be saving it, I would feel better equipped to step in and take it. There would be a policy to back me up. Given that the front rows fill up fast, you sometimes have to walk nearly to the back of the plane to find two seats together. Or you’re left with only choosing middles. Finding two seats together when you are solidly in the B group can be hard. A couple times my wife and I have had to walk by perfectly acceptable pairs of seats with purses and backpacks sitting in them, saving them for other passengers.
With a policy to back me up, I would be much more inclined to try and sit in the first empty seat(s) available. Under the current non-policy, I haven’t ever asked someone to move their stuff so we could sit down. As frustrating as it is to walk 10+ rows further back, potentially getting into an argument isn’t really worth it to me.
Sure, there will still be the occasional person that tries to save a seat or two (or five). But I would imagine with a policy in place, this would be less frequent.
Cons: potential for passenger arguments, flight attendants have to referee
These are the major arguments against enacting a seat saving policy. Currently, there are verbal battles from time to time between people who want to sit in “saved” seats. But with a policy, there could actually be the potential for more arguments.This may seem backwards, but there would undoubtedly be people who would not abide by the policy and others who would insist the policy be followed.
Flight attendants would also have a new responsibility: enforcing the policy. Southwest’s official non-policy basically allows flight attendants to stand aloof from the whole issue. It lets them worry about more important things. Like making sure everyone is on the aircraft. And making sure your seatbelt is fastened. And preparing for entertaining safety demonstrations. If there was an official policy, flight attendants could easily be called in to intervene in many more situations.
Should Southwest assign boarding positions like all other airlines?
This is a firm “no” in my opinion. Southwest is unique among airlines in more than a few ways. Having a unique boarding process is just fine by me. With two free checked bags and some of the best customer service in the sky, I never shy away from flying them (SEE: The Southwest employee who saved Thanksgiving).
If Southwest assigned seats, it would bring them one step closer to the other domestic airlines. Which is only a change for the worse. Sure, there are some moments I wish Southwest would enact a firm no-seat-saving policy. But overall, I think it would do more harm than good.
Let’s just be reasonable
As someone who is generally irritated by Southwest seat hogs savers, here are my general guidelines for saving seats on Southwest:
- If you must (really, must you?) save a seat, head to the back of the bus. Don’t be a jerk and try to save a seat in the first row.
- If you’re saving only one, save a middle. These are less desirable anyway.
- Don’t save the exit row. Plenty of other people pay for early bird with the intention of vying for these coveted seats.
- If you are one of those cheapskates that only tries to pay for one early bird check-in, put your adult pants on and at least be reasonable. Buy a few people early bird if you need a couple rows. Don’t send one person on to try and save 5 other seats.
- If someone sits in your “saved” seat, treat them courteously. Per Southwest’s hands-off policy, they have exactly as much of a right to it as you do.
- If this issue bugs you that much, fly another airline.
Conclusion
I hope this is a reasonable approach to Southwest seat-saving. I’m more of a rule-follower than a rule-breaker, so if Southwest did enact a policy, I would strictly adhere to it. But since the airline leaves passengers to fend for themselves (which isn’t necessarily a bad decision), trying to adhere to some reasonable guidelines seems like a good compromise.
What do you think of the Southwest seat saving issue? Should Southwest formalize a policy? Or should they keep things the way they are?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Seat saving should only be allowed in the back of the plane. They are essentially thieves stealing a seat from others who paid for EBCI and destroying the integrity of that paid benefit.
SOUTHWEST if you’re reading the refusal to end seat saving is one reason why I refuse to travel your airline when on business trips.
I completely agree. This is one reason I won’t pay for Early Bird anymore. We’ve had good enough luck without it (only one flight where my wife and I couldn’t sit together), albeit we were usually in the back of the bus.
Totally agree. See also Southwest Early Bird check in – is it worth it?
I am a solo traveler who often flies Southwest, and yes I pay extra for early Bird which has always gotten me in the A group and most often I score an exit row. I haven’t noticed seat saving be much of an issue yet but already have decided that if someone is saving an exit row seat, I would politely inform them that the policy is “any available seat” and an seat without a butt in it is available. You board, pick a seat, and done.
Thanks for an interesting article. Your reasonable guidelines are indeed reasonable and anyone who is not an entitled jerk intuitively knows this anyway. But how to bring the entitled jerks into the fold? #inaperfectworld
or the better solution is simply fly an airline that has actual seat assignments (which is like every other airline under the sun) with none of this seat grabbing and saving stampede BS on every flight.
2 free checked bags isn’t useful for me cuz I hardly check any bags domestically/regionally even though my status gives me either 2 or 3 checked bags at my preferred carrier (forgot exactly which number but that’s mostly moot cuz my usual checked bag count is 0)
So everyone has an opinion and I’ll toss mine in from my experiences.
What I see as the big issue is that two passengers travel together where one boards in the A group and they are too cheap to pony up so the second person is like C59. For some odd reason in my experiences with this it’s always some older couple (I don’t know why, just luck of the draw and I say this as a 50 year old). I don’t know if they do this because the first person is A-list (which doesn’t seem to be the case based on conversations with these folks) and the other one isn’t. I have seen FA’s tell people they can’t save seats. I’ve also seen FA’s warn pre-boarders that they don’t qualify to sit in Exit rows, which makes sense. If we move this argument to other places like say a rock concert with festival seating or a long ticket line, say Disney or something. Does that change the situation?
Dan, is any city a “captive” SWA hub? when i am flying w/ my entire family, we avoid Southwest to avoid the seating issue. but when alone, SWA is my preferred airline….but if I couldn’t use AA/UA as backups, i could see how it would be a problem on family trips.
Flying SW for first time in a few months (family of 5 with 2 kids). Was thinking of having two of us get the advance boarding to get the five seats but had always intended to head towards the back half of the plane not in an exit row. From people’s experience – would we expect to hit much trouble from people. I definitely understand it for exit rows and front of the plane but hoping most people don’t care as much when you’re in the back half non-exit rows.
Based on this crowd yes… However in my experience you’re probably safe with three…two can grab a window and aisle in one row and the other can grab the aisle….thus protecting two middle seats.
I wouldn’t even bother as long as you have at least one kid 6 or younger. Family boarding (Between the A and B) is early enough that you’ll have no trouble finding 5 seats together towards the back of the plane
Honestly, if you have a problem with someone saving a middle seat after the first couple of rows you need to take a vacation. I’m A-list Preferred…my wife, even with EBCI, is never close to me…always A55 or something. I’m gonna save a middle seat for her and according to SW they are just fine with that. I agree exit rows and middle/window seats is a but much but there really isn’t much of a difference between 9b and 22b… if you’re in the middle…you’re in the middle.
Perhaps the rule should be no saving more than ONE seat. On my last flight, someone saved FOUR rows all near the front. That’s excessive.
There is already no seat saving as far as I’m concerned. Someone can try to physically remove me from their “saved” seat if they want to give it a try.
Ever actually sat in a seat that’s had people’s stuff on it? I’d love to hear how it went
My sentiments exactly. Usually, and I do this often, the sear saver gets up and moves to try to hoard it somewhere else. As Dirty Harry used to say, “go agead, punk, make my day”. I’m big enough and experienced enough to be able to handle most offenders. By the 2ay, I’ve never been physically removed from the saved seat. I’ve paid EB and I’m going to get it.
I flew Southwest and experienced a new one. I chose an aisle seat on an open row. A family sat down in the row behind me and then put their belongings in the 2 seats next to me in my row to save them for the rest of their family. They didn’t ask me or anything. Was not happy. I would approve of a “no seat saving” policy.
“No seat saving” policy is a great idea long overdue.
I just got into it yesterday with a guy in an aisle seat who was saving the window and middle seat in 10th(ish) row. The flight was delayed and my connection was tight. I was with my 14 year old daughter. The only other seats together were in the way back. I purchased EB for both of us and still got B19/20. I told him that he can’t save seats on Southwest. He told me the people he was waiting for were right behind me. I turned around and no one acknowledged being with him. So I told him again that he can’t save seats and asked him to let us in. He did and started bitching right away that he had a tight connection, too. The people who were supposedly right behind me, boarded about 5 minutes later. They were 2 adults and seemed to be other parents from the same volleyball club that he was with. He said that he tried to save the seats and they laughed and didn’t seem to care. At the end of the flight, he wasn’t going to let me out. He said, “Do you want to wait for my 16 year old daughter who had to sit in the back?” She boarded before me and was sitting with her teammates. He went on and on. I was going to climb over him if he didn’t move, but he finally did. Southwest definitely needs to have a clear policy on this and it should be announced during the boarding process. On a different flight a few years ago, the flight attendant made it clear that there was no saving seats except for in the back of the plane.
That sounds awful. It’s so hard that Southwest has a non-policy. I’m surprised a FA even said only seat saving in the back!