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I used to give preference to Southwest for cross-country (US) flights, partly because of availability on particular routes, but over other direct flights becaus

I used to give preference to Southwest for cross-country (US) flights, partly because of availability on particular routes, but over other direct flights because of the boarding experience. For $15-20 (not sure what it is now) I could pay for the automated check-in and be near-guaranteed a seat in the A group that was better, for cheaper, than trying to get an equivalent seat at an airline where they were picked ahead of time.

adam_arthur 2y ago
That makes sense if you prefer to be close to the front/exit for quick deplaning. I tend to just relax during both boarding/de-boarding since it's only a few minutes difference anyway and the effort/stress of trying to move quickly outweighs the few minutes savings. If the seat is pre-selected, I can simply wait for the line to go away and board last without standing for 10m. It seems to me that most people rush to board first even with pre-selected seating (perhaps optimizing for space in the overhead bins) If you have a connecting flight with a short layover, is the exception where I want to be right near the exit. So I guess it's more of a preference thing