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If this program was like Southwest Airlines, we would not play you stories in any special order. Whatever was ready first, we'd just play it. That's the way you board on Southwest. Whoever is first gets on first, which a fellow passenger once described to me as flying the bus. This week, the carrier plans to announce a change to assigned seats. NPR's Joel Rose reports it's part of a broader shift across the industry to maximize profit.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: If you've ever waited in line to board a plane and wondered if there is a better way, you are not alone. Southwest Airlines has been looking at this since at least 2006.
DOUG LAWSON: It was a secret project. We had to use code words when we talked about it.
ROSE: This is Doug Lawson. He worked for Southwest for more than 20 years, mostly in operations. The airline is well known for turning its planes around faster than its competitors in part by letting passengers pick any open seat during boarding. But Southwest leaders wanted to know if there was an even faster way - boarding the plane from the outside in - window seats, followed by middle seats, followed by aisle seats, sometimes known by the acronym WILMA. And it was so controversial, Doug Lawson says it had to be kept secret even inside Southwest.
LAWSON: The code name was D-WILMA.
ROSE: What did the D stand for?
LAWSON: It stands for Doug.
(LAUGHTER)
LAWSON: My boss couldn't think of anything more original.
ROSE: Eventually, Southwest lifted the veil of secrecy with a real-world experiment at San Diego International Airport in 2006.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: We are conducting a test on this flight. If you are not holding a boarding test...
ROSE: Part of the time, the passengers boarded the regular Southwest way with open seating. And part of the time, they had assigned seats, according to the WILMA plan. In the end, Lawson recalls there was a clear winner - WILMA.
LAWSON: Well, it was like a 20% difference. You know, that's huge. It's a very significant operational improvement.
ROSE: Still, Southwest decided to stick with open seating. Lawson says company leaders at the time were worried about the damage the switch might do to the brand. Back then, Southwest was focused on keeping its planes in the air because they don't make money sitting on the ground. But a lot has changed in the airline industry. Now the economics are more complicated. Here's Southwest CEO Bob Jordan speaking to CNBC in July.
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BOB JORDAN: This is what our customers want. Eighty percent of customers that fly Southwest today want an assigned seat. And when a customer defects from Southwest to another competitor, it's the No. 1 reason.
ROSE: It's not just that customers like picking their seats. Airlines have discovered they can make money by selling them at a premium. They're also putting more emphasis on loyalty programs that reward their best customers with perks like early boarding. Ahmed Abdelghany is a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University who used to work in operations at United Airlines.
AHMED ABDELGHANY: There is a sweet spot for the airlines they are looking for here. I want to make money. At the same time, I want it to be efficient. And at the same time, I want to please my customers.
ROSE: Some airlines have adopted the WILMA approach, at least in part, including United, although flyers with more status still get to board first. That means more passengers have to get out of the way to let others reach their seats, which slows everything down. Other airlines have decided it's not worth the trouble.
GREG FORBES: I think the biggest obstacle is just the unpredictability of human behavior.
ROSE: Greg Forbes is with Delta Air Lines. In theory, Forbes says Delta probably could save a few more minutes boarding its planes. But he says these intricate plans don't always work in the real world because passengers show up late with lots of carry-on bags, and sometimes they board in the wrong order.
FORBES: For Delta, the priority is on comfort. So making the boarding process user-friendly is more important, higher priority than absolutely eking the last minute out of the boarding process.
ROSE: It's not clear how Southwest will approach assigned seating. The airline says it will announce more details at an investor event on Thursday. Some longtime Southwest customers complain that other passengers have been gaming the open seating system by boarding early and saving seats. Still, the former Southwest operations guy, Doug Lawson, says the end of open seating took him by surprise. Lawson says it's still faster than many boarding strategies because it tries to embrace human behavior instead of fighting against it.
LAWSON: When you think about it, that's why open seating is fast. People don't want to sit in the middle seat, so there's almost never a case of two people getting up to let somebody sit down. So you take advantage of the behavior of people, right?
ROSE: Lawson understands that things have changed across the industry, though he does not sound very happy about it.
LAWSON: Well, the airlines, really they're trying to sell the seat to try to get as much for each seat as possible.
ROSE: But ultimately, like, they're choosing revenue over speed, right?
LAWSON: Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, there's no doubt about it.
ROSE: That may sound like progress if you're running an airline but not if you're waiting to board a plane.
Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington.
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