It's been many years since I've flown Southwest Airlines. So long, in fact, that I remember my roundtrip flight from Detroit to Chicago but I don't remember why I was on it. Anyway, someone suggested recently that I could get a good price on a ticket to Norfolk out of Baltimore so on Wednesday I became, once again, a Southwest customer ($98 one way; not bad).
I had forgotten that the airline is unique in having an operating procedure that doesn't call for assigned seating. Your boarding pass simply designates a particular section on the plane to occupy. No big thing, although I usually prefer a window seat and work to secure one in advance.
Anyway, what's fascinating about this is the way it plays out. Because there isn't an assigned seat for the passengers, people start lining up at the gate early, presumably to get the best seat in the house, whatever that is. Think of it as festival seating at a concert (without the deaths).
This flight lasted approximately 50 minutes. To get a "good seat," some passengers waited in line for an hour and a half.
Now, I may be missing something here, but unless there are dancing girls and free champagne (I waited with eager anticipation; it wasn't offered in the section in which I sat), there's not a seat on a plane worth standing in line 90 minutes for.
But to each his own.
The plane went up. It came down. I live to tell the tale. No complaints from me.
