Southwest Airlines Faces Backlash Over Allowing ‘Devious’ Passengers to Manipulate Boarding Process

Are greedy passengers exploiting Southwest Airlines’ preboarding system?

The large volume of passengers who board before everyone else is spurring concerns of abuse, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Some believe their fellow Southwest customers are falsely claiming disabilities in order to preboard.

“Frequent fliers see it as a devious way to game the open-seating system for good seats and the pick of overhead bins without paying extra,” the Journal said.

Steve Maziarka, a Southwest frequent flier, said he identified no fewer than 30 preboarding passengers on a Thanksgiving weekend flight and almost as many on a February trip.

“People are taking advantage of the system,” he said. “It’s just gotten out of control.”

In accordance with Department of Transportation regulations, Southwest offers preboarding to anyone who “self-identifies” with a disability, in addition to families with small children.

Unlike its major competitors, Southwest does not assign seats — enabling preboarders to take their choice of window seats and premium locations.

These passengers also have their pickings of overhead storage bins, negating concerns that they’ll have to pay for checked bags that won’t fit into cabin storage.

The airline’s official X account has pushed back on suggestions that it start scrutinizing the disabled status of passengers signed up to preboard.

“Since many disabilities aren’t visible, we’re unable to question the validity of preboarding requests,” it said in an October post.

Since many disabilities aren’t visible, we’re unable to question the validity of preboarding requests. We’re sorry for any frustration caused today. (2/2) -Anthony

— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) October 15, 2023

A possible solution to the preboarding abuse might be right around the corner.

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan indicated that the company was considering changing policy to give customers assigned seats, USA Today reported last month.

Coming up on @KTLA: Is money-losing Southwest Airlines doing away with open seating so it can charge fees for assigned seats? Maybe, says the carrier’s CEO

— David Lazarus (@Davidlaz) April 25, 2024

Jordan disclosed the potential change in a CNBC interview in light of some of the airline’s revenue struggles.

“We’re looking into new initiatives, things like the way we seat and board our aircraft,” he said.

Southwest’s system might not be the first case of customers with questionable disabilities getting to the front of the line.

Disney has threatened lifetime bans of guests who exploit its disability system to skip to the front of the line at its theme parks, according to Business Insider.