Getting Front Row Seats On SouthWest Airlines

I was on the plane today flying to Orange County in the West Coast. I flew with SouthWest. It was quite a hassle for me because of two things. Firstly, I had to change flights. The first flight was 1157 from PHL to MWD (Chicago). Then I had to wait for 2 hours for the flight to John Wayne Airport in Orange County. Secondly, my flight was at 7:10am EST and I had to get up early. And it snowed overnight (4 inches where I lived) and so I had to shovel my driveway in double quick time

But this was the first trip that I paid the extra $10 each way for an automatic check in with SouthWest. That meant that I did not have to check in 24 hours early just to get boarding priority. My boarding number was A31 and A34 respectively.

And the funny thing was that I managed to get front row Aisle seats twice even though I was the 31st and 34th person to board. Each time, there was a person sitting in the window seat. And the person in front of me just looked ahead without considering taking the front row seat. Perhaps it’s instinct to look for an empty row. But I gladly took the front seat. In my opinion, it was the best seat because there was lots of leg room. It certainly felt more like sitting in a US Airways first class!

From now onwards, I will gladly pay the extra $10 so I do not have to manually check in online. And I guess I have a much greater shot a front row seats?