Friday, October 3, 2008

Immediate Seating

I'll bet there's someone out there who can explain this to me.

I'm here in Columbus, Ohio for this weekend's Mid-Ohio Con, one of the better gatherings of its kind even if they do fly in guests like Len Wein and me. This morn, Len and I flew in on Southwest Airlines, which ain't a bad carrier except when you're flying to and from Las Vegas and on either flight or both, it seems to be required that they lose your luggage. But they were fine (though crowded) two weeks ago when the staff of Groo went to Kansas City and they were fine (though crowded) on the two flights that Len and I took this A.M. to get to where we are now. Here comes the "however"...

However, they have this policy of Open Seating. There are no assigned seats on Southwest Airlines. When you check in for your flight, you get a number on your Boarding Pass and you board in that order and pick where you want to sit. This sounds very small-D democratic, and I guess it is...but if a bunch of people are flying together, it makes it very difficult to sit together if you aren't in the first boarding group.

Single travellers start grabbing aisle and window seats. Couples travelling together take up two out of the three seats in a row. Even if you're near the start of the second boarding group — there are three total — by the time you get on the plane, it seems like nothing's open but middle seats. If you're flying with someone, you have to split up and go wedge in between strangers.

So the answer would seem to be to check in early and get a low number Boarding Pass, right? Once upon a time, when you made it to the take-off gate, a smiling Southwest employee would hand you a plastic number in sequence, and they'd collect them at the door as you boarded the plane. Nowadays, it's all computerized and you get your Boarding Pass from any number of sources, including but not limited to a Skycap or a ticket window attendant who print it out for you once you arrive at the airport. If you're travelling sans Samsonite, you can check in at a little kiosk and it will print out your Boarding Pass, in theory assigning you the lowest number that is not yet already assigned.

Better still, Southwest allows you to check in online 24 hours before your flight is scheduled to depart, and to print out your Boarding Pass at home. The first of our two flights (we had to change planes) was leaving this morning at 11:20 AM. So yesterday at 11:20 AM, I logged into the Southwest website, checked in for the two of us at the first possible opportunity...

...and got Boarding Pass #A35 on our first flight and #A40 on our second. (Len was, of course, #A36 and #A41.) Numerically, these were okay — Len and I got to sit together — but I was puzzled why we didn't get #A1 and #A2. Was this like sniping a bid at the last second on eBay? Had 34-39 people logged in a second before me once the clock hit 11:20?

I phoned Southwest and asked a nice lady who assured me it was all first-come, first-served. She said that on some flights, they hold back the first ten Boarding Passes for folks flying on special fares...but after that, it's in order of check-in. I found it hard to believe that 24 people had checked in in the eight seconds before I did. At LAX this morning, I asked the lady who had Boarding Pass #A34 how she'd gotten it and she said, "Oh, we just booked online a few days ago and when we checked in here at the airport, this is what they handed us." Either she somehow checked in more than 24 hours before the flight when they ordered their tickets or she checked in after me but got a lower number.

I'm not irate about this or complaining. I'm just curious. Is there some Southwest Airlines employee out there who can explain whatever it is I'm missing here? I will protect your identity if you'll come forward and lemme know. Or maybe some Southwest traveller knows the secret of the elusive Low Number Boarding Pass and will share it with us. Come on, people. Give.

• Posted at 10:39 PM · LINK

Friday Morning

Fred Kaplan itemizes how Sarah Palin doesn't know what she's talking about in the arena of foreign affairs.

And just as with the first debate, I thought the combatants were fairly even at the end and the polls are saying the Democrat walked away with it. There's something here I guess I don't understand and it may be as simple as this: Her sales pitches are worn out and not working. We've all heard seven thousand times that McCain is a "maverick." Saying it eight more times won't cause anyone to go, "Really? He's a maverick? Well then, I'd better vote for him." Insisting McCain knows how to "win wars" won't help, either. Even leaving aside the question of which wars he's won, that misses the point of Iraq. It's that a majority of Americans feel that the war has been too costly, both in terms of human lives and cash, and that what we might still achieve there just ain't worth it. The swingable votes out there just aren't buying the endless insistence that Obama will raise everyone's taxes and on other key issues, they've heard these arguments before and already rejected them.

For what it's worth, I watched a few video excerpts on the 'net later on...and Palin seemed less coherent in them than she did when I saw her unedited. So maybe she has a point about "the filter" — although the solution to that is just for her to go on a lot of live shows and do interviews. Which she won't do. It'll be safer to stick with the assertion that if and when she comes off like a boob, it's because that mean ol' biased media has sabotaged her with "gotcha" questions like "What should we do in Pakistan?"

I'm guessing we didn't have any of those overt "deer in the headlights" moments last night because she was well prepped not so much about facts but on Official McCain Talking Points. Watching the more embarrassing clips of her earlier interviews, I'm inclined to give her the benefit of every doubt. Maybe it's not that she didn't know the names of any Supreme Court decisions or newspapers she reads. Maybe it's more like she's been ordered to stay "on message" and never to utter anything that doesn't fit the McCain master plan...and she didn't know precisely what the campaign wanted her to say about those topics. In the debate, with the possible exception of the answer on civil unions, she at least knew McCain's position (and therefore, hers now) on all the predictable subjects that came up.

Anyway, give Governor Palin some credit for firing up her base and making them happy. And she may have achieved an important goal. She may not be the opening sketch on tomorrow evening's Saturday Night Live.

• Posted at 8:36 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Are you a fan of Flanders and Swann? Well, if you aren't, you're about to become one. Michael Flanders and Donald Swann were an English duo who wrote and sometimes performed very silly songs between around 1943 and 1967. Their performing was in a couple of revues with names like At the Drop of a Hat and At the Drop of Another Hat, and these appeared on Broadway here as well as in England. They also released some very successful (and still in print) records, most of which were produced by George Martin. Mr. Martin turned a nice profit with Flanders and Swann but probably did a wee bit better with those four Beatles guys.

Often, others sang and recorded Flanders and Swann ditties...but I like their tunes best when Swann is at the piano and Flanders in his wheelchair (he had polio) and is vocalizing. Sometimes, they vocalized together, as well. Here they are with a number that was part of a taped-for-TV version of their last show on Broadway...

• Posted at 12:05 AM · LINK