Fergie's Tech Blog

Southwest Sues Web Site Aiding Boarders

Meredith Cohn writes in The Baltimore Sun:

With more and more Web sites offering to help passengers buck Southwest Airlines' first-come, first-serve boarding process to lock in a coveted window or aisle seat for a fee, the discount carrier has turned to the courts to protect its one-of-a-kind system.

The carrier has written to about a dozen sites asking them to shut down, and last month sued one that refused to close, BoardFirst.com, in federal District Court in Dallas.

The online sites charge passengers about $5 to check in 24 hours before a flight, when the airline first permits it. The first 45 passengers in line -- a third of a plane's load -- get an "A" pass that gets them to the front of the line to board. Passengers can check in themselves online, but the sites effectively do it for them.

The lawsuit caught the founder of BoardFirst off guard.

posted by Fergie @ 6/08/2006 06:58:00 AM