Southwest boarding

I was sad to see that BoardFirst.com shut down. For the last few years, whenever I had to fly Southwest, BoardFirst offered a nifty little service, that would login 24 hours before your flight, and check you in, guaranteeing an "A" pass. For those not familiar with Southwest, it got you into the first boarding group, which generally guaranteed good seating, in their open seating plan. If you were in the "B" or "C" group, you'd probably need to line up very early at the gate, to try and avoid the leftover middle seats.
BoardFirst was a great idea; although I can see why Southwest felt they needed to shutdown a service that was profiting from their own strange processes. Southwest generally seems predicated on the "fairness" of the boarding process; although those with computers and automated reminders are going to do far better in terms of boarding assignments than those without. I'll be curious if they eventually implement a premium level of service that would allow people to pay a bit more to guarantee better boarding, or better seating.

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