As a Yorkshire person myself I am familiar with the concept of wanting to get owt for nowt. As somebody who flies every week with SW I am also a student of the boarding numbers and get somewhat disgruntled if I don't get my usual (back row) seat when returning to Burbank where we get off at the back.
Going back to the get first to the airport first in line days I am not ashamed to say I used my elbows to good effect on the jetway on many occasions but it wasn't really very dignified.
The A/B/C online switch with a free for all on booking I had off to a tee but still the pain of lining up for a good position. With the advent of the poles / numerical sequence it was a little more civilised. OF course since then they have refined that model. So you are looking at 1)Business Select (Full fare+) 2) $10 extras 3) A+/A list (50 / 25 flights a year) who will all be in front of you no matter when you login. However Families with kids will not be in from of you they come after A unless one of them has an A.
My guess was that within A list numbers were given by flying frequency so I had a good number always. About the time they changed the frequent flyer to basically go by how much money you spent rather than how many flights you took I suffered a significant degredation in my average number and my guess is they are now giving those numbers also by how much you paid rather than how much you fly. For which you can hardly blame them Even on A List I have had numbers in the high 40s at busy times so I imagine getting an A as an irregular traveler could be a challenge.