July 31, 2024, 12:21 AM ·
Do you ever fly Southwest to on your theme park trips?
If you’re a frequent Southwest flyer, you probably have heard the news that the airline will be doing away with its long-time open seating policy. In its press release, Southwest did not provide a timeline for the switch to assigned seating, but did say that it plans to start offering premium-priced, extended legroom seating options as part of the switch.”Moving to assigned seating and offering premium legroom options will be a transformational change that cuts across almost all aspects of the Company,” Bob Jordan, President, CEO, & Vice Chairman of the Board, said. “Although our unique open seating model has been a part of Southwest Airlines since our inception, our thoughtful and extensive research makes it clear this is the right choice— at the right time—for our Customers, our People, and our Shareholders.”Southwest said that its research showed that “80% of Southwest Customers, and 86% of potential Customers, prefer an assigned seat.” While I hold no doubt that Southwest conducted extensive research in advance of this decision, I also believe that another factor cannot be overlooked.Wheelchairs.And this is where I loop Disney – and other theme parks – into this story. If you have flown Southwest recently, you might also have seen the long queue of wheelchairs at the gate, waiting to pre-board the plane – far more than you typically see on other airlines. All airlines allow passengers in wheelchairs to board early, so that they have the time they need to navigate the often-narrow confines of the cabin before it crowds with other passengers.
But on Southwest, where there is no assigned seating, those wheelchair users get first dibs on where to sit. I suspect that no one would begrudge anyone that advantage… except for the fact that many of those Southwest passengers who use wheelchairs while boarding somehow do not seem to need a wheelchair when deplaning.The running joke is that Southwest has healed more people than Jesus. But in reality what is happening is the same thing that has plagued Disney’s attempt to accommodate people with disabilities. Any accommodation system that provides an advantage over the non-disabled will be abused by the non-disabled to obtain that advantage. And that, in turn, will create a detriment for non-disabled customers who do not abuse the system.Moving to assigned seating eliminates the advantage that wheelchair users have had when flying Southwest. It puts the airline in the same position as other carriers – yes, you get on first, but you get the seat you were assigned in advance. Yes, there might be an advantage in getting access to empty overhead bins, but so long as Southwest continues to allow free checked bags, that won’t be any significant advantage over other passengers, since overhead bins rarely fill on Southwest.Disney got in trouble with its old Disability Access Service [DAS] because – in an attempt to encourage people to register for it in advance – the company granted recipients two advance reservations. The original idea behind DAS would be that it provided no time advantage over waiting in an attraction’s stand-by queue. But those two free advance reservations created a huge advantage – the functional equivalent of two free Lightning Lane trips.Disney’s new access system seeks to restrict the DAS pass to a limited number of guests with cognitive disabilities, sending others to use accessible standby queues or other accommodations. Like with every other access system Disney has implemented over the years, this one will change as Disney responds to criticism from all affected, including people stuck in long Lightning Lanes behind others snickering about how they beat the system. Again, any system that provides an advantage over the non-disabled will be abused by the non-disabled to obtain that advantage. The solution for Disney will be to find its equivalent of what Southwest chose – a new way of doing business (in Disney’s case, attraction queueing) that allows it to provide the accommodation that some customers need without providing a way for others to abuse the system.* * *
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