Why does southwest airlines exist?

At least in my market, they have reduced the number of direct flights and the prices aren't lower than anything else. Also, I pretty much only use a carry-on, so I don't care about free checked bags. I'm basically having to take a long layover or fly at a terrible time with Southwest unless I'm going direct to one of their bigger hubs or Florida. I'm not expecting a direct flight to mid-sized cities but often times they barely have tolerable options compared to the Big 3. And forget the East Coast airports with Southwest aside from BWI. I think it has to do a lot with flying those 737s and trying to fill them to capacity while the Big 3 have code shares or whatever with smaller regional airlines that allows them to use smaller airplanes for more direct flights. Additionally, Southwest is facing more competition from discount airlines with the likes of Spirit and Allegiant that people take simply because they are cheaper. I actually think only times I have used Southwest recently is to fly into BWI using Southwest points. For my other destinations, other airlines have worked better.

I’m outta Denver and am a fan. I’m a dad of 5, for us we want as few $ to get from a-b with no extra stuffs. Most of our travel costs are covered thanks to my business travel. For me they are consistently ok and that’s all I need. If it’s a vacation with just the wife I’m flying Delta first class, but that’s a couple times per year treat, not normal life. SWA is the Kirkland of flight experience - not ever going to knock socks off, but it’s been 15 years and I’ve not had one bad experience that was preventable (bad weather, airport backups impact most airlines equally).

Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana were the only direct flights for SWA from Dallas for along time because of the Wright Amendment. Glad that is over.

Could they please bring back peanuts 🥜

Not a fan of the little Melba toasts?

Not a fan of the little Melba toasts?

Fly United, where you pay $17 for water like that whatever network iPhone commercial illustrates.

They were always better for business flights because it was easy to jump on another flight if you missed your flight. You also get to fly on 737s and never get stuck on a tiny Embraer piloted by a 21 year old. And they used to have cool fare specials.

I gave up on Southwest after flying to New Orleans. The pilot landed the plane as a thunderstorm was passing by. We came around the thunderhead as we were descending and the plane dropped a good 500+ feet in a down draft, causing everything to go flying with people screaming. I relayed the story to a United pilot who is a client of my firm. He said that was a very dangerous move to descend so close to a thunderstorm and should have been easily avoided by just holding while the storm passed over the airport.

Did you see the SWA passenger in New Orleans yesterday? He cray cray

I’m deathly allergic. Thanks for caring about other people. 😘

More people die from assault rifles then peanut allergies. Seems like nothing will ever get done about assault rifles but there are new things to help you with your peanut allergy problem. Sorry but Georgia has an economy to take care of.

If you fly out of Dallas, you get to fly out of Love Field....way smaller airport than DFW International. And open seating!

Worked there for over 5 years quit during the pandemic. Echo what one poster said about company changing post Herbs passing. Working there was great and then almost immediately after a lot of the benefits (weekly parties with free food and alcohol changed to 2 times a month) and other such benefits went away. The pay was less than you could get else were and so once the silicone valley style benefits went away the culture changed.. also with his death ment there was no longer a bridge between upper management and the unions (especially the flight attendants union) than tension built to be far worse than ever before. Then covid came and they payed people to quit to make payroll but that ment they lost all their older unions workers but didn't increase pay when things opened back up meaning they hired a bunch alof people willing to be a FA for ~22k/year because those that were older and left during covid would have had to start at that 22k instead of 70+k they made pre COVID.

Their point to point network means they have massive advantages over all the other airlines when the weather isn't bad. But throw one thunderstorm or worse in the mix and they are screwed.. the only saving grace and the thing that still separates them from ever other airline is no change fees no matter which ticket you buy. This is a huge advantage and is a massive reason why I prefer them as a customer.. sure I may have to change flights but doing so costs me nothing and I don't have to wait last min hoping the airline will allow me to do that without a massive change fee.

Delta is by far the best airline in the US if money is no object and you love flying through atl (which is generally a terrible experience) but compared to international carriers the rest of the US airlines are terrible either in their small networks (Alaska) or customer service and fees (everyone else)

Imma start a Southeast airline with strippers

I remember many years ago watching the SW ticket counter and departure tracker at Oakland Airport.

People flying to Southern California were literally walking up to the counter without a ticket and boarding a plane within 30 minutes. It was kind of like a bus station with flights taking off every 20 to 35 minutes during the peak time. Those were the good old days.

They did? I don't remember that. I hated flying during Covid. It seemed like the crew's primary function was the mask police and food and drink was reduce below the already baseline minimal levels.

I think things have gotten a bit better in the last year. I fly mainly Alaska Air and Delta. I did have a terrible experience flying Aer Lingus recently, but that's not exactly mainstream.

Don't know about today but in the late 1990s Southwest was by far the best airline.

I had just started working in SLC after growing up in Seattle. Their tickets were dirt cheap and you got your boarding number first come first served. I took a lot of trips between SLC and Seattle, also visit my friends in LA and at Stanford.

If you wanted to ensure that you had a window or aisle seat, you just had to be in the first 60. I quickly learned that if you showed up 2 hours early you'd be in the top 5. There was no TSA back then and you'd be through security in 5 minutes. So, walk in, check your bag (fast back then), walk through security, get your number, have a cheeseburger, get on the plane.

I think they also had a deal where for every 8 flights you got a free flight.

The other thing I liked was they didn't have onboard meals which are always awful, but they would give you a package of Grandma's cookies instead of the garbage pretzels.

One of the worst flying experiences I've ever had was on SWA (and I've had a few terrible experiences.) I was supposed to have one connection on my trip. They had some kind of delay, so I ended up with a two connection flight without a plane change. NBD. Anyway, they were having some kind of pressurization problems and I had absolutely excruciating ear pain. Unforgettable. Second worst pain I've had in my life after natural labor.

Kind of random I know, but I've never flown SWA since.

I think everyone that I know (myself included) with small children likes Southwest. You can check bags for free (nice when you have a ton of kid stuff and need to carry babies/toddlers and don't want to deal with bags through the full airport experience) and you can usually get seats together without paying an extra expense. The markets are a bit more limited but if you are based out a midsized city it's a nice option.

Came here to basically say this. I've never been more loyal to an airline than I am to Southwest now that I have small kids.

At some previous jobs, I had top-tier status with legacy carriers (all the majors at various points), and I would still jump ship to one of their competitors for a better price when I wasn't flying on company dime.

Now with kids, I hardly give other carriers a glance unless Southwest doesn't fly where we're going. It's the free bags, sitting together for free, and the 16% discount when you use their Costco gift cards ($500 credit for $450 all the time, and $430 a couple times a year + 2% Costco kickback) comes in handy now that I have to buy tickets for all these freaking children.