Southwest Airlines is facing a barrage of complaints from disgruntled passengers who have earned the right sit up front. But even though they are amongst the first to board, they are discovering there’s already no room left in the overhead bins above their seats… or, for that matter, even remotely close to their seats.
Instead, passengers who have booked to sit in the first few rows at the front of the plane are having to trudge much further down the aisle to store their bags in the overhead lockers. In some cases, all the way to row 12, and a locked ‘crew only’ overhead bin could be to blame.
This not only delays the whole boarding process because they then have to walk back agains the incoming tide of passengers to get back to their assigned seats, but is delaying every deplaning as they fight to get back to overhead bins where their bags have been stored.
To say that once loyal Southwest flyers are furious over the issue would be a massive understatement.
And to make matters worse, it’s now dawning on passengers that there is a full-sized overhead bin above rows 2 and 3 that isn’t usable because it’s for flight attendant use only – it even comes with a lock and key to make sure passengers can’t gain access.
These ‘crew only’ overhead bins are not new. In fact, they’ve been present on Southwest’s 737-800s and 737-MAX jets for some time, but they are only now being noticed by passengers.
The reason is being put down to two major changes recently introduced by Southwest:
- The first was Southwest ending its ‘two bags fly free’ policy for checked luggage, meaning that more passengers than ever are trying to bring cabin baggage on board.
- This has then been compounded by Southwest implementing assigned seating for the first time in its more than five-decade existence.
Now that passengers can’t pick any open seat, they are discovering that the overhead lockers are filling up quickly in the most sought-after seats… which just so happens to be in the same area that the locked ‘crew only’ overhead bin is.
“This new boarding policy is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen,” wrote Alek on X. “I’m sitting in 3B, boarding group 2. But when I boarded, the first 5 rows of overhead bins were already full….explain that to me like I’m a child. It makes absolutely no sense. Fix this.”
And Brett Kurland added: “Very disappointed in Southwest’s new reserved seating rollout. Boarded w/group 2, seat – row 4, but overhead bins nearby were already full; bag ended up in row 11. Problem cascaded as passengers had to keep going past their seats to stow bags, then go upstream to get back.”
While another angry flyer chimed in: “Your new assigned seating and boarding style now means all the overhead space is taken in the front. I was in row 2 boarding group 2 and no overhead bin space until row 5. Might as well fly some one else you have nothing left that makes you distinct.”
Southwest is now gently trying to prod flight attendants to make the ‘crew only’ overhead bin available to passengers, suggesting that crew members at the front of the plane put their bags in a compartment reserved for wheelchairs whenever available.
This idea is, however, just a suggestion. Under FAA rules, airlines must make space available for flight attendants to stow their bags somewhere secure, and that’s exactly what the ‘crew only’ overhead bin does.
Some flyers have suggested that flight attendants have their baggage checked into the hold to free up space on board for passenger luggage, but that suggestion ignores the dynamics of how airlines work.
Airlines want flight attendants to be able to move from one airplane to the next in as little time as possible. They don’t want to spend any extra money on developing processes to quickly return checked luggage to crew members, even though this is technically possible.
In other words, crew luggage is staying on board, and they need somewhere secure to stow it.
If reports of boarding times being significantly impacted by this issue are true, Southwest will undoubtedly be looking at how it can resolve the problem. For now, though, it’s a case of watch this space.
