[paulklenk]

In that case, Southwest is just asking for trouble. Assign people a seat, or shut up if they don't sit down.

[Flightdeck]

It's really kind of funny boarding a Southwest plane. People fight to get at the front of the line, and apparently have a huge stake in getting a seat closest to the front. It like riding a school bus when you were little.

[Blue Collar Christian]

It's an air bus. Do we need to assign seats on the transit busses across town? Of couse not. We're all adults here at the airport. When we buy cheap tickets, we compromise comfort and seating preferences. If there were open seats, and appearantly there were, these ladies needed to sit their butts down so the plane could move out.

Odds are, they were trying to find two seats that were close enough together to converse on the flight.