IIRC, WN has been experimenting to see what happens, and allocated seating does take longer.
It is bound to IMVHO. People haven't got as much incentive to hurry to the gate and out to the aircraft.
Also, one's bum on a seat secures it for oneself, so one doesn't tend to meander around slowly looking for somewhere to sit if there are no seats allocated. I have flown Ryanair once and easyjet once and I was amazed by how quickly everyone gets in and sits down, compared to other flights with allocated seating.
To get back to the original subject matter, I have promised myself never to fly on this sort of flight again as I hate the menacing atmosphere in the queues at the gate and the undignified race for the aircraft and the elbowing out of the way which goes on inside. As has already been said, it is not always cheaper anyway ... but I would gladly pay more to avoid unallocated seating.
