Southwest Airlines experiments with, 'family sections' - HURRAY!!!!

http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/articles/9105876.html

By The Associated Press

Can airlines do a better job of accommodating families? That's the question Southwest Airlines is asking by experimenting with various ways to board and seat traveling families.

One option being considered is "having designated rows for family seating," spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said. Experiments are being conducted on flights out of San Antonio, Texas.


Southwest has an open-seating policy in which passengers are not assigned seats in advance, so the family boarding experiments are designed to "help us ensure families may be seated together," Rutherford said. She said the approach is not intended to segregate families from business travelers.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Alison Duquette said an airline that wanted to seat families in a separate area would not need FAA approval. "It is not a safety issue so the FAA would have nothing to do with it," she said.

A recent online Maritz survey found 73 percent of respondents said they would like to see family sections on airplanes.

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This is my comment to the article, but somehow I doubt it will be published, and if it does, I expect flaming:

It's about time!

If only the screaming, seat-kicking kids and their "parents" were secluded in a soundproof section, away from other passengers, travelling would be a breeze! I'd be willing to pay more, lots more, on my travels if airlines would put kids away... say in the luggage compartment?

HA! I LOVE your response!!!!!

This is all well and good, but we all know what happens when special arrangements like this start happening. The breeders will start feeling even MORE entitled than they already do (is that possible?).

First off, everyone is a family. SO and I are a family. The brother/sister pair is a family. The gay couple is a family. The heterosexuals with a brood of 5 brats is a famblee.

Does this mean that SO and I have to split up and sit in the last 2 seats totally separate from ech other just because the row which we were occupying has 5 seats and the Breedersons need it for them and their 3 brats? UH, I DON'T THINK SO.

Does it mean that large, non-family groups or couples have to sit apart because the FAMBLEES get to board first and take up all of the consecutive seats?

Furthermore, the FAMBLEE section will give the Breedersons the cart blanche go-ahead to make as much noise and be as much as a disruption as possible just because they are in the FAMBLEE section.

I'm not so sure I see this as a good thing.

Hey! My comment was published! Go ahead! Make your comments too!

I agree with KFLL, Mrs. Ogre. I love your response but the flaming will start by breeders. That happened on a McCalls site where KFLL politely posted re: how divorced mothers often use the kids against the father and the child support NOT going for the children's needs but for new clothes for mom. The bitter moos came out in droves and attacked anyone even though most childfree people who posted were more than polite. Get your asbestos suit ready for the flames...

i think they should have special planes for the breeders, give them that sense of entitlement (as we sit there in the peace and quiet..)

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Aerosolized opiates on all planes.

did you know thats why they have oxygen fall from the ceiling its pure oxygen, and it gives u a rush... just before your plane crashes.. (and yes i am flying on october 17th) alledgedly anyway.

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

I’m with KFLL. I HATE the term ‘families’ society uses to describe sprogs and their handlers. It’s “people with children.” I guess those with the kyds think it “segregates” them from the rest of those who chose freedom, and they hate that.
The article also had to point out that the pahrunts don’t want to be “segregated” from the business travelers. Wouldn’t this stuff do exactly that? And WTF’s wrong with that? For the reason I just mentioned.

While "family seating" sounds okay, in reality it means that famblies with brats will be allowed to board first and hog the overhead bins with their kindershit. Granted I do not fly Southwest but maybe twice a year (at most), but the last few times I flew on that airline there were hoards of brats and breeders that pre-boarded and hogged up every inch of overhead space to the point where the flight attendants forced some of them to gate-check their larger bags.

Along with the cattle call boarding mentality, I avoid Southwest for that breedercentrism.

Mrs. Ogre, I posted onto the site, and so far, the breeders have yet to be heard from (huzzah).

Hopefully SW will take note.

Yes, I just read your reply. If only airlines would listen more to us, we have plenty of ideas.

Spoke too soon. Check out one of the posts on that article from "Proud Daddy."

Bleah.

The rest were all on a pro childfree vein.

I posted a reply to Proud Daddy, and I tried not to make it a personal attack, but I don't appreciate people who equate childfree with "sterile and bitter."

That yahoo was obviously a philosophy major. NOT.

Here's my reply, in case it's not published:
"Wow, you sterile, unloved people sure are bitter!!!"

Bingo! Assuming we're sterile because we don't want kids is ridiculous. We're smart enough to use birth control and don't define ourselves by our reproductive organs. Unloved? So my special other and my friends must be good faking comedians, because I don't know what love is unless I popped one out, right? Bitter? Nah! Just fed up with poorly behaved kids and their clueless parents. We understand kids cry and fuss. Believe it or not, many of us don't hate kids in general, it's the parents who don't plan accordingly and don't do anything to control and calm their kids that we can't stand, thus transfering our hatred on the source of noise and disturbance: your kid(s).

Can't wait to read your reply!

Great reply to Proud Daddy, Mrs. Ogre!

I resent the bizarre leap of illogic that the breeders try to throw on us. Using their type of reasoning, I could go with:

Breeder - too stupid to use birth control
Breeder - deaf, because can't hear brats who've been crying for HOURS
Breeder - brain malfunction, can't figure out how to remove brats from public areas
Breeder - physical/mental disability - can move or figure out how to pick up brats, feed them, care for them, etc. etc. etc.

Bite me, breeders. And hey, when you get a chance, take a few classes, somewhere, anywhere that will teach you how to THINK. (I know you'll never consider parenting classes, that's a lost cause....)

hey to me thats a compliment, or a goal, to be sterile.. if he said that to me i would have said thank you very much, i try to be and i wish too be.

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

If I'm sterile it's YOUR fault, breeder. Your unattended, poorly mannered, loud, stinky, kicking child caused my ovaries to climb right out my body and render me sterile.

Thank you, thank you very much.

Feh Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If I'm sterile it's YOUR fault, breeder. Your
> unattended, poorly mannered, loud, stinky, kicking
> child caused my ovaries to climb right out my body
> and render me sterile.
>
> Thank you, thank you very much.


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good one!!

Annie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I posted a reply to Proud Daddy, and I tried not
> to make it a personal attack, but I don't
> appreciate people who equate childfree with
> "sterile and bitter."
>
> That yahoo was obviously a philosophy major. NOT.


I am purposely sterile and very not bitter due to having my own life sans children. I will go post that as well on the Southwest site to Proud Daddio...

Good answer to the article, amethusos*!

Mrs. Ogre Wrote:
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> Good answer to the article, amethusos*!

You're welcome, Mrs. Ogre! :sw

now if only southwest would become pro size. but i heard a lot of anti fat stuff happens on those flights

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Why can't Continental try this. I fly several times a year with them...Southwest sucks ASS. Crap service, stupid snacks (unlike Continental which gives real FOOD on my 4 hour flights back home), losing luggage...hell they don't even assign seats, it's a goddamn free for all.

Good luck on this being successful, Southwest is a friggin joke.

Southwest is like riding a bus with the super small seats and low-rent passengers. The planes are filthy. I've only flown that airline once and would never do it again unless forced by circumstance for whatever reason. I learned on the return flight to bring my own food.