My Secrets to Getting the Best Seats on Southwest

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Southwest Airlines is loved or hated. Few choose the middle ground, and no one wants that seat! Listen to how to choose a Southwest Airlines seat.

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Some won't fly Southwest owing to their odd open-seat boarding process. It can be difficult and requires a lot of work to acquire a nice Southwest seat.

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Southwest allows open seating. Instead of seats, customers are assigned a boarding group, A, B, or C, and a boarding position, 1-60.

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Your boarding group and location decide when you board the plane and how many seats you can choose from.

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It was once completely free. Airlines distributed placards with one of the three letters. People camped out under a letter hours before a flight to improve

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In the mid-2000s, Southwest expanded boarding positions because this looked bad. Now that the lines have numbers, everyone must sort themselves by line position.

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Unless you wish to sit near the bulkhead or an exit row aisle or window, you should board in the first half of a full flight to obtain a good seat.

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Personal needs determine Southwest's best seat. Connecting flight passengers may want to sit in the front to exit quickly, but others may head straight for the back

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Before sitting down, I prefer to know how full my flight is. Southwest gate agents sometimes make up flight filling announcements to push people on the plane faster.

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Choosing front-center seats on packed flights boosts your chances of finding a vacant middle seat between you and a neighbor.

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