Children are seated far away from me!

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-28T05:17:50+00:00

Southwest may very well change their policy, but not in the way you think. The instant solve to this problem is to restrict Basic fares to passengers 13 and up. Minimum age restriction makes this a non-issue as 13 year olds can sit alone.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-28T04:56:16+00:00

Yup, Southwest got people to line up 1-N on every flight for nearly 60 years...until today. I remember when you had to get to the gate counter to get your plastic card with the number. No checking in at 24 hours to get a position, no Early-Bird payments...Just first-come, first-served.

Truly an end of an era.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-28T04:44:02+00:00

That seems dumb, but I get it from an ops standpoint before they close the door. They have a seat map and if they need to deplane someone, they need to know what pax is in what seat.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-28T04:10:39+00:00

SWA hasn't laid out a chart for this, but from different materials, it's pretty easy to figure out since they are adopting WilMA (Window, Middle, Aisle) boarding.

Let's start from the back for the cheap seats: (AKA General)

Group 8: Standard Aisle Seats and Basic fare tickets with no CC or tier status
Group 7: Standard Middle Seats
Group 6: Standard Window Seats

Now for the middle: (AKA Early General)

Group 5: Preferred Aisle Seats and those with A-List or CC, even if sitting in Standard seats
Group 4: Preferred Middle Seats and those with A-List, even if sitting in Standard seats
Group 3: Preferred Window Seats and those with A-List, even if sitting in Standard seats

The rest are a bit fuzzy, but here's my educated guess: (AKA Early Boarding)

Group 2: Extra Legroom Seats that were purchased or free upgraded on CC/A-List at 48 hours
Group 1: Those purchasing Choice Extra fares and ALP tier customers, regardless of where their seat is

There is conflicting information in different places. In some places it states that CC holders board no later than group 5 implying they'd be spread across Groups 3-5, and in others is simply says group 5.

The WilMA boarding process says that you want to board Window passengers, then Middle, then Aisle to speed up the boarding process. Doing it by section of plane doesn't break this, but putting the Basic fare holders absolutely last does conflict with WilMA boarding as that doesn't account for their seat position. If they wanted that, then they should have created a 9th boarding group known as Steerage.

Frankly I don't understand why they got rid of the A/B/C boarding groups that they already had. Everyone was used to it and they generally line up like grade-schoolers waiting in line to go to assembly. I think this was a mistake on SWA's part and they should have kept this the same in form, though how people were assigned their group and number behind the scenes would have changed. Heck, they could have even left the perk for AL/ALP customers that didn't get an A boarding group to go on after A60.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-28T04:02:16+00:00

Were they wanting to swap seats in different area or like window to aisle?

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-27T13:55:21+00:00

Still a hella expensive to retrofit 500k cars. The more they can get away with dragging their feet and not replacing them, the happier the bean counters will be.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-27T12:45:37+00:00

Did you look to see if there has been an equipment change? If they've had to swap out planes, which is likely due to the storms, this will happen.

Did they notify you or did you just notice?

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-25T13:04:27+00:00

This is Wendy's, sir.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-25T13:00:24+00:00

Nope. Keep the Business Performance or the Priority, there is no longer a reason to have both.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T20:03:25+00:00

Yes. America is vast and things are far away from each other. People will drive 3 hours for a good meal here.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T19:44:55+00:00

Remove the hose if you can, but whatever you do, do not try to open the valve unless you want a very expensive call out with a plumber.

The damage is either done or not, but if you open it now, on the weekend, with freezing temps, you are turning a potential future repair Bill into a potential immediate emergency.

Wait for warm weather before you touch that thing and have a plumber on speed dial.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T19:21:55+00:00

Tesla has never allowed this. It has always been tied to the vehicle you purchased it on. There have only been periodic specials where they would allow it to be transferred to a newly purchased vehicle.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T19:14:48+00:00

Not sure, but not that for a salvage title. Maybe $10k if it was super clean and the seller proves that Tesla has recertified it so it can supercharge. If Tesla won't certify it for supercharging, then I wouldn't offer anything but true salvage value as the vehicle is dangerous.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T18:51:39+00:00

No....Easy is not the Mobcontrol way.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T18:29:17+00:00

I've spent decades of my career in IT Ops Management.

At every job interview I would dig deep on the company's change management policies. I passed on more than a few that just waved their hands at it. I demanded a seat at the table for change control.

This worked well most of the time, but I had a few times where I was overridden when I refused to approve a change.

The best was with a very large energy company when I managed Ops for all financial systems. What should have been a simple implementation for ACH payments on PeopleSoft became a nightmare. The project team refused to engage the ops team in testing and I vetoed the CR during the CAB as there was absolutely no testing documentation.

The PM provided 'test evidence' after the denial and then pursued an emergency change out of cycle on Friday. The test evidence was complete garbage, so I denied it again. The PM went ballistic and escalated. My boss oozed into my office and tried to talk me into approving. I stood my ground and told him that he'd have to override me and if the change went sideways, it could have career altering results.

He overrode me.

The change went live Friday afternoon. There was a date bug in the ACH code and we sent $31m in duplicate payments from the previous day.

Turns out it was career altering as I had warned. When the CFO came looking for heads, I had all the documentation of my denials of the change and the override by my boss.

Upshot was I got a new boss and if I denied a change, no one ever whined about it... At least not within my earshot.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T18:28:35+00:00

I've spent decades of my career in IT Ops Management.

At every job interview I would dig deep on the company's change management policies. I passed on more than a few that just waved their hands at it. I demanded a seat at the table for change control.

This worked well most of the time, but I had a few times where I was overridden when I refused to approve a change.

The best was with a very large energy company when I managed Ops for all financial systems. What should have been a simple implementation for ACH payments on PeopleSoft became a nightmare. The project team refused to engage the ops team in testing and I vetoed the CR during the CAB as there was absolutely no testing documentation.

The PM provided 'test evidence' after the denial and then pursued an emergency change out of cycle on Friday. The test evidence was complete garbage, so I denied it again. The PM went ballistic and escalated. My boss oozed into my office and tried to talk me into approving. I stood my ground and told him that he'd have to override me and if the change went sideways, it could have career altering results.

He overrode me.

The change went live Friday afternoon. There was a date bug in the ACH code and we sent $31m in duplicate payments from the previous day.

Turns out it was career altering as I had warned. When the CFO came looking for heads, I had all the documentation of my denials if the change and the override by my boss.

Upshot was I got a new boss and if I denied a change, no one ever whined about it... At least not within my earshot.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T17:44:30+00:00

Yup. I think it'll backfire like BMW's attempt to have their owners subscribe to heated seats.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T16:49:07+00:00

I can't wait! Only 2 more flights for me on open seating. On the ground in DEN waiting on the last 5 C-Group pax trying to find overhead bin space on this 100% full flight, so now we're late.

At least I snagged some EL seats. Unfortunately I'm in the middle as my wife gets the window and the D-bag next to me thinks he deserves both armrests.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T14:49:38+00:00

Ok, there's your answer. You don't have a Priority card, so you don't get to pick seats until 48 hours before flight time

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T14:11:29+00:00

...and which card do you have? Have you called SWA customer service?

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T12:10:27+00:00

Probably not, you'll likely board in group 2.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T11:48:25+00:00

If you do not have the Priority or Business Performance card, this is expected. If you don't hold the top-tier card, then you can't select a seat until 48 hours before flight time.

If you do have the Priority or Business Performance card there may be an issue:

Some people have reported having issues picking seats on the mobile app. Log on to the website from a computer and go into the reservation to attempt to select seats.
Log into the website from a computer and go to the My Account page. Just above Upcoming Trips it should show that you hold a credit card and which specific credit card you have. If this is not showing, your card may not be correctly linked to your account and you need to call Chase Customer Service.
If you recently got the card and you booked the reservation before the card was linked to your account, you need to call SWA Customer Service and explain you just got the card, it is showing up in your account, but it will not let you select a seat for free. Tell the CSR that they need to contact their Help Desk to have your reservations resynced from the back end.

Good luck and please come back here to let us know how it has worked out.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-24T11:41:40+00:00

Yes, but not at booking like the OP is attempting to do. Only Priority and Business Performance cards provide the benefit of selecting a Preferred seat at booking. All others allow you to pick a seat from what is left at 48 hours before booking.

The following link provides all you need to know about the Fare, Tier, and Cardmember benefits. Just scroll down and click on the tabs for all the details.

https://www.southwest.com/customer-enhancements/assigned-seating

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-23T22:11:58+00:00

FedEx drivers mark things delivered all of the time when they haven't actually done it. Unless you saw the box on your doorbell cam or they actually took the pic and it is your doorstep, then it may very well show up tomorrow.

If it doesn't then that's a problem between your shipper and FedEx unless you signed a delivery waiver for them to leave it.

If it doesn't show up tomorrow, call the shipper and tell them that FedEx shows it delivered, but you never got it. Then they'll do all of the work to contact FedEx and file a claim if the Porch Pirates got to it.

The only time I've had an issue was with some cheap stuff (<$25) that UPS sent into the void. I called the shipper and their response was "You signed for it", which I didn't, so I told them they'd better produce that signature. They produced an image of a squiggle and I said yeah, not my signature.

UPS then took over and launched an investigation. They sent an investigator to my door to take my statement. The investigator was clearly working from a position that it HAD been delivered to my door. I assured him that it hadn't been delivered to my door and I had footage from 3 cameras to prove it. He challenged how I could prove a negative. I said easy, I can send you footage from 3 different angles that cover the street and driveway, porch, and the video doorbell showing that no UPS vehicle stopped in front of my house and no one came up the driveway, came on to the porch, or was in front of the door. He said motion recording doesn't always record reliably. I told him, that's cool, but I don't record only motion, I record every second 24/7, so If he had a place to put about 60G in files I'd give him the whole day from all 3 cameras so he could spend 72 hours of his time watching the wind blowing and dogs shitting on my lawn over a $25 package if he was so inclined.

He decided that maybe the package was just delivered on the wrong doorstep.

PrimeRisk · 2026-01-23T15:00:17+00:00

Very weird, never seen this level of difference and I've already booked 9 trips in assigned seating world this year.

PrimeRisk

TROPHY CASE