It is never the cheapest option. Even when picking flights during day time hours, southwest is usually only the fourth or fifth cheapest - even when comparing other airlines daylight flights vs southwests's redeyes.
It looks like they have a points system - is all their business frequent flyers who only fly southwest?
It is never the cheapest option. Even when picking flights during day time hours, southwest is usually only the fourth or fifth cheapest - even when comparing other airlines daylight flights vs southwests's redeyes.
It looks like they have a points system - is all their business frequent flyers who only fly southwest?
I don't fly them much anymore, now that I'm in PDX (Alaska is my airline mistress, now). But having been a longtime veteran of the SWA experience, it was always my go-to until Herb Kelleher died. They did the ingenious thing of keeping it simple - no real class distinctions other than Business Select aka Priority Boarding; a simple boarding process only marred by dumb people who don't know what 1-30/31-60 mean; no upcharges for bags; no change fees; a crew that almost always gave a crap and seemed to enjoy the gig; and one of the best on-time records in the biz. They also had great routes into secondary airports in major cities that were better choices to fly into - Burbank/Chicago Midway/Love Field, etc.
Their biggest mistake was over-extending their routes into markets with no central hubs - it really killed their ability to book their teams and deal with crew shortages. They've also relied on some older planes in markets, since they pretty much fly 737s exclusively. Crews aren't quite as fun as they used to be, but after recently flying Lufthansa and United, it's not like they've got a big edge on them either (Alaska's crews are generally the best I deal with in the US).
I think the last few years have erased a lot of their advantages over other airlines, but in general, if you live in a market that is one of their primary locales, they are still usually the best way to go when you factor in the savings on bags, etc. Their on-time experience is pretty sucky now though - bring some reading material in case they have issues with lining up flight crews! ;)
It is never the cheapest option. Even when picking flights during day time hours, southwest is usually only the fourth or fifth cheapest - even when comparing other airlines daylight flights vs southwests's redeyes.
It looks like they have a points system - is all their business frequent flyers who only fly southwest?
I mostly fly Southwest. I like the free bags and the priority boarding option. Also, I found it easy to accumulate points — I currently have > 200,000 points (good for 7-10 round trip domestic flights) and I don’t fly very often. It can be very pricey with $ or points if you can’t be flexible with dates and times.
It is never the cheapest option. Even when picking flights during day time hours, southwest is usually only the fourth or fifth cheapest - even when comparing other airlines daylight flights vs southwests's redeyes.
It looks like they have a points system - is all their business frequent flyers who only fly southwest?
I don't fly them much anymore, now that I'm in PDX (Alaska is my airline mistress, now). But having been a longtime veteran of the SWA experience, it was always my go-to until Herb Kelleher died. They did the ingenious thing of keeping it simple - no real class distinctions other than Business Select aka Priority Boarding; a simple boarding process only marred by dumb people who don't know what 1-30/31-60 mean; no upcharges for bags; no change fees; a crew that almost always gave a crap and seemed to enjoy the gig; and one of the best on-time records in the biz. They also had great routes into secondary airports in major cities that were better choices to fly into - Burbank/Chicago Midway/Love Field, etc.
Their biggest mistake was over-extending their routes into markets with no central hubs - it really killed their ability to book their teams and deal with crew shortages. They've also relied on some older planes in markets, since they pretty much fly 737s exclusively. Crews aren't quite as fun as they used to be, but after recently flying Lufthansa and United, it's not like they've got a big edge on them either (Alaska's crews are generally the best I deal with in the US).
I think the last few years have erased a lot of their advantages over other airlines, but in general, if you live in a market that is one of their primary locales, they are still usually the best way to go when you factor in the savings on bags, etc. Their on-time experience is pretty sucky now though - bring some reading material in case they have issues with lining up flight crews! ;)
This. This. This. SW used to be MUCH better. Unfortunately, living in NM it has the most options. Agree with your sentiments regarding Alaska. Most consistently the best airline experiences I've had domestically in the past 5-10 years.
After a recent nightmare experience with AA, I walked away thinking to myself, “remember when airlines had to pretend to be nice to you during Covid? I sure miss that.”
As someone who grew up in Oklahoma, Southwest always had more flights out of OKC to other places in the US.
Others in the thread also appropriately highlight that Southwest has a great rewards program that keeps people hooked.
My overall take now that I live in a bigger city (and fly with other airlines more) is that they provide good value for what the cost is, especially if you are a rewards member and especially if you are in a midsized city.
It is never the cheapest option. Even when picking flights during day time hours, southwest is usually only the fourth or fifth cheapest - even when comparing other airlines daylight flights vs southwests's redeyes.
It looks like they have a points system - is all their business frequent flyers who only fly southwest?
You might have a record for writing wrong statements in a post. Even worse than covid trolls or boston bombing.
I like how you blamed your lack of ability to do a web search on southwest.
For people who needed SWA's network and access to secondary markets: they were (maybe still are) a better option compared to the other carriers. But for those of us who don't live near a SWA airport, they're an afterthought. Sure the day-to-day customer service with United might be worse, but I'd rather deal with a professional, straight-forward and more reliable outfit than the cattle-call, junk show of Rapid Rewards-devotee hoi polloi cramming the cattle call lineup to fly SWA.
I'm buying tickets regularly and I can say I've probably checked SWA prices twice in the last 5 years, and I fly from CO to LAX and SEA often. They've never been enough cheaper than United to deal with. My local airport is predominantly operated by United with decent connections to DEN, ORD and DFW. I'd prefer to fly Alaska, but that's also not very viable.
Personally, I think they’re still one of the better “low cost carriers” out there, especially if you have their credit card, flexibility and know how to utilize their points system. My gripe with them recently has been they significantly cutdown their direct flights. They alway want to connect you through the crappiest airports possible like Midway and St. Louis where you’re almost guaranteed to get screwed by weather or diversions. Now, Frontier may be the cheapest but you’ll pay dearly in your soul and dignity.
I know nothing about the airline, but the southwest region is definitely the strongest and should always get all the at large bids to xc nationals. If the selection process was fair, I could have flown southwest to Oregon instead of sitting at home in Provo watching some stupid New York team fall all over themselves at Glendomere.
I like southwest and fly them as much as possible because I like knowing what you are paying for immediately. I hate the economy, econmy plus, premium economy bs where each level comes with different fees. If you refuse to pay to book a seat in advanced on other airlines means sitting in the middle seat in front of the bathroom for 5 hours.
I haven't flown them in years. I seem to get hooked into an airline (first United, now American) that meets my needs and after enough travel, I end up with free bags, priority checkin, free first class upgrades, etc. It gets hard to walk away from those benefits, and certainly not worth saving $50 or something to take a chance on Southwest.
Consumers have signaled they care far more about price than loyalty or amenities on flights. So every other airline has worked extremely hard to offer lowest-possible fares (e.g. via unbundling of services like overhead space). SWA isn’t the only player in the space anymore.
Cattle call? SWA boarding system is the simplest, and allows more customers and families to sit together than any other system. And the United, American Etc ALL Customers still stand right in front of the door even though they are in boarding group 7. It is maddening. But so far this year, Southwest is the second most reliable airline in schedule completion with well over 99 percent of flight completion factor. And being the largest domestic carrier, they have more options to get you from point A to B if something DOES go sideways (or a major hub is closed). It isn't for everyone, but they dominate in a lot of markets because it is simple, and arguably has the best rules for change, standby, and for getting free flights.
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