Southwest Airlines Boarding Process

1. Describe the change in Southwest Airlines boarding process Southwest Airline takes a distinctive approach in its boarding process. Essentially, instead of giving out allotted seats akin to other airlines, Southwest carries out a policy of open seating. The inference of this is that in the course of the boarding process, the travelers have the freedom to take a seat in any of the available ones. However, in recent times, there have been changes to this open-seating policy.

Preceding the 2007 financial year, the travelers in general boarded the planes on a first-come, first-serve basis. However, in 2007, the airline brought this process to its culmination. The new boarding process assigned every traveler a boarding group A, B, or C together with a boarding and the travelers boarded the plane on a sequential basis from A to B and thereafter to C. 2.

What was Southwest’s main goal introducing the early-bird check-in? The main objective of Southwest Airline’s introduction of the early bird check-in was to increase customer service and increased revenue at the same time. The early bird boarding position provides consumers with the chance for better selection of seating in the plane and also earlier access to overhead bin space, providing consumers with the option of augmenting their travel experience while generating increased revenue prospects for Southwest Airlines.

It is imperative to note that Southwest Airlines did not have any seating policy but did this on a first come first served basis. This resulted in online companies having businesses of offering early check-in for clients on a charge of $1. When the company came to this realization, this prompted an opportunity for Southwest Airlines to capitalize on these revenues thereby introducing the early bird check-in option (Southwest Airlines, 2009). 3. Explain how Southwest Airlines used the game theory approach to increase its profits.

The Airlines employed the game theory approach to increase the profits generated owing to the $10 paid by the travelers as extra fees. It is imperative to note that a huge percentage of consumers are inclined to pay for the privilege of getting automatically placed in the seating. Notably, Southwest Airlines has generated significant profits. For instance, in the 2010 financial year, the financial reports of the company generated an additional $98 million in sales from Early-Bird Check-In, surpassing expectations.

In the following financial year, the company’s revenue increased by 44 percent with sales revenues of $142 million (Talwalkar, 2013). 4. What is the outcome of the game involving early-bird check-in? There are three outcomes involved in this early bird check-in process. Take an example of two passengers being in competition for the best seat on the plane. One of the outcomes is that neither of these two passengers pays for the early bird check-in option offered.

This implies that both of the passengers can expect to get okay seats in the seating lottery undertaken by Southwest Airlines. The second outcome is the decision to pay for the early bird check-in provision by the airline for $10. In this case, it implies that the passenger paying for this offer will get a good seat. There is also the third option where both of the competing passengers actually pay for the early bird check-in option given by the airline.

In this particular case, both of the passengers end up being positioned in the lottery for priority seats. In essence, the inference of this is that both of the passengers will be in competition within a seating lottery, but the downside to this is that both of the passengers have to pay $10 in order to do this (Talwalkar, 2013). 5. Identify what is the passengers’ dominant strategy.

In delineation, the dominants strategy is one in which yields the best payoff for a player irrespective of the strategies that the other players choose. In the case for Southwest’s early bird check-in process, the dominant strategy for the passengers is paying the $10 for the early bird seats. This is because if the passenger fails to do so, then he or she will be positioned in obtaining okay seats within the seating lottery.

In contrast, if he or she actually makes the payment, then the passenger has the likelihood of obtaining a good seat (Talwalkar, 2013). 6. Determine why travelers face the Prisoner’s Dilemma with the early-bird check-in process. The travelers face the Prisoner’s Dilemma with the early-bird check-in process owing to the predicament they are presently experiencing. Specifically, the consumers have to consider two options.

On the one hand, they either have to pay $10 for better seating in the plane while on the other hand, they have the option of not paying anything for the general lottery placement. The inference of this is that if Consumer 1 pays $10 and Consumer 2 does not, this increases the likelihood of Consumer 2 obtaining the better seats on the plane and vice versa. In contrast, if both of the consumers opt not to pay $10, they obtain average seats within the plan and also attain cost savings.

The dilemma, however, is that not paying the $10 places the consumer in a significantly worse position compared to others. Primarily, a small number of individuals paid for the early bird check-in and the inference of this is was the assurance of a good seat. In the contemporary, a great number of passengers do in actual fact pay regardless of the fact that the airline points out that this may not guarantee boarding for the passenger within the first sixty positions.

The exceptional part for Southwest Airlines is that travellers are fundamentally stuck in this game. Imperatively, individual travelers are incapable of ceasing to play this game for the reason that it will give rise to poor seating within the plane. What is more, as a greater number of individuals pay for priority boarding, it shifts the other passengers that have not paid into even worse positions for boarding. As a result, in essence, the game appeals to increased individuals to opt for and choose early bird check-in (Talwalkar, 2013). 7.

Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the early-bird check-in process for Southwest Airlines. The early-bird check-in process has significant advantages and disadvantages for Southwest Airlines. Advantages One of the key advantages of the early-bird check-in process is that it is a low-cost option offer granted to the consumers that hands them the expediency of automatic check-on prior to the conventional 24-hour check-in. Secondly, not only does Southwest airlines generate increased revenues from the $10 charges, this provision is a competitive advantage for the company.

In addition, Southwest Airlines does not place a restriction to the number of passengers that can buy early-bird check-in. What is more, the early bird check-in is refundable. Therefore, this increases the likelihood of the Airlines in generating increased revenues (Miller, 2018). Disadvantages Regardless of the aforementioned benefits, this particular approach does in fact have its downsides. One of the key downsides to this particular model is that passengers are not guaranteed the best seating.

It can be noted that Southwest Airlines does not inform the consumers the check-in position prior to their individual purchase. The downside to this is that it can have the perspective of paying for a product and lacking the value of it. This implies that the greater number of individuals opting for the early bird check-in, the smaller the chances of obtaining the best seats. Another key disadvantage of this provision is that it mirrors a negative perspective from the consumers.

This is for the reason that fundamentally the company guaranteed that they would not add any hidden fees and this particular provision has a detrimental impact as the consumers deem this to be a form of hidden fees. There is also the shortcoming that even when the passengers are not satisfied, they are incapable of obtaining a refund from the company. 8. Suggest ways in which other companies, or the company.