[eeprof]

You can pay $10 (with as many people who want to) to get checked in in a "preferred" boarding status. This gets you nothing. Being one of the 1st on the flight, I found out Southwest has NO RULE to prevent saving seats. So the only other exit row seat was "being saved" for someone who didn't pay the 10 bucks. The flight attendant told us to "duke it out" where upon I realized if I make a fuss they can throw me off the plane. I complain to SW and they say oh, sorry. Too bad. How about giving me my 10 bucks back?
From now on I'm giving $5 to someone in the front of the line to save me a seat in the exit row. Problem solved.