Southwest says 80% of its customers didn't like the unassigned-seating policy. But I will miss it.

• Southwest Airlines is ending its unique open-seating policy after more than 50 years.
• The airline said its research found 80% of customers preferred assigned seating.
• But I'll miss the simplicity and calmness of the open-seating model.

When Southwest Airlines announced Thursday it was dropping its unique plane-seating system, I was among the (apparently small) group of people who reacted with disappointment.

For more than 50 years, Southwest hasn't given seat assignments to its passengers — unlike virtually every other major airline. Instead, passengers are assigned a boarding-order number, and once they're on the plane, they can simply sit wherever they'd like.

"Southwest definitely has a lot of very passionate fans," Sean Cudahy, an aviation reporter at The Points Guy, told Business Insider, adding that with the unassigned-seating method, "you get a mixed bag of people that love the policy and people that hate it."

Southwest said in an announcement that research found 80% of existing customers and 86% of prospective customers preferred an assigned-seating system . The open-seating model was cited as the No. 1 reason passengers opted to fly other airlines.

I, for one, loved it, as I was reminded the night before Southwest made its announcement when I flew with the airline from Burbank, California, to Denver and found the boarding and seating process easy, straightforward, and pleasant, as I always have.

Avoiding the dreaded 'gate lice'

My favorite thing about flying Southwest is lining up to board. Because of the assigned boarding number, I know in advance when I'm going to get on the plane.

I almost always fly with just a carry-on — in part because I'm worried about my bag getting lost if I check it. When I fly on other airlines, I have to worry about trying to get on the plane as quickly as possible so they don't run out of overhead space and force me to gate-check my bag. I also just like to ensure that I can store my bag above where I'm sitting and not in whatever overhead space happens to be left by the time I board.

That typically means rushing to the gate to try to stake out a good spot so I can board as early as possible in my designated group.

It also means navigating the chaos that can be found at essentially every other airline's gate.

Other airlines technically have boarding groups that are intended to create order. But inevitably, people in groups four and five stand around and clog up the area as groups one and two are boarding — forcing you to awkwardly scoot through the crowd, asking people what boarding group they're in just to make sure you get with your designated group and aren't left in the dust.

They don't call them " gate lice " for nothing.

With many airlines, I could simply pay for an early boarding position (often in addition to paying for the seat assignment itself), but with Southwest, all I have to do is make sure I pull out my phone and check in 24 hours before my flight to get a decent boarding position. I've never felt like I had to plan ahead to get a good seat on a Southwest flight — I just had to check in on time.

With Southwest, I can also pay in advance for EarlyBird Check-In , which costs between $15 to $100. And if, for some reason, I'm late to check-in and get a late boarding number, I can still pay for an earlier boarding position after the fact — something that costs anywhere from $30 to $150.

Cudahy said Southwest cited positive feedback from customers on how calm and orderly its boarding process is, adding that the airline's leaders "want to try and keep the general spirit of that as they adapt it to fit the assigned seating model."

It's unclear at this point what that would look like with seat assignments.

Fast and easy boarding process

Calmness wasn't the only thing Southwest's strategy had going for it.

"They were the fastest in the industry forever in terms of the boarding process that they used," said Jason Steffen, an astrophysicist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who came up with a plane-boarding method that he says is faster than any used by the airlines.

Steffen's boarding process was even tested over a decade ago against Southwest's on an episode of PBS's "Nova" titled "Making Stuff Faster." (Spoiler alert: Steffen's process won, but the Southwest representative on the show said he did not think it was practical enough in real-world situations.)

But as my own Southwest flight Wednesday night reminded me, the open-boarding method is fast — in part because people naturally spread out as they try to pick window and aisle seats up and down the plane before filling in the middle.

I happened to get lucky on my flight. My partner and I boarded at the end of group A and grabbed an aisle and window seat in an empty row, of course with the hope that no one would sit in the middle. The plane wasn't full, and we ended up having the row to ourselves.

But even on full flights, as long as we check in as soon as possible, we almost always sit together.

Some families also love Southwest's open-seating policy for this reason. Similar to other airlines, Southwest lets families with children under 7 board early between the A and B groups, allowing them to generally find seats together. Some people find it easier than picking seats for everyone in advance.

Part of the Southwest brand

Though many customers may ultimately welcome the change, the open seating has been an integral part of the Southwest brand for over half a century, like its two free checked bags (which the airline says aren't going away) and low-cost fare options.

"You can't mistake a Southwest gate when you walk up to it," Cudahy said of the airline's pillars that mark the boarding numbers for passengers to line up next to.

Southwest could find a way to maintain a boarding system that still uses those pillars to keep the calmness at its gates that always greets me like a warm hug in an otherwise chaotic airport.

But without the open seating, the airline is losing part of what sets it apart — even if that means gaining new customers.

"It really kind of comes down to, is their cult following getting in the way of a broader appeal?" Steffen said.