I got started with SW when I started flying to Denver for ski trips. Direct from my home airport and free bags. They have direct flights for most of my travels. My wife flies with me for free on a Companion Pass. We rack up hundreds of thousands of points on our credit card. It is simple. Many reward programs feel like it's calculus to take advantage of the full benefits. At this point I just want simplicity
I do find the many of the SW passengers to be a bit peculiar. Especially when I compare it to my experiences on more top tier carriers. SW can feel like traveling on Greyhound
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.
What are these new things to help with peanut allergies? I am curious as it would be nice to know how not to die because fatty needs his snacks.
I think Southwest is ok. The one thing I do not like is the lack of assigned seating. It requires people to be at the gate early when I could be doing something else (like drinking). At times it is the cheapest option but not like it once was.
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 dunno ... I'm no fan of Southwest but I just booked a RT for my wife and I from San Jose to Phoenix, non stop, midweek Jan, for $105 each. That's a win. Can't wait to do some running and hiking in the sun.
OP goes home devastated. Never came back to defend his position. But he still wins because the thread is still going.
What defense do you want? Southwest is more expensive than the other airlines to anywhere I could go from Boston. It was more expensive when I lived in California too.
Seems like people like the customer service and points. That's great. I always get lousy service with American and Delta. Alaska and Jet Blue have been pretty good. I haven't flown spirit but I've heard they have crazy numbers of cancellations.
OP goes home devastated. Never came back to defend his position. But he still wins because the thread is still going.
the other costs associated with travel like hotels are expensive enough as is. I'm not going to spend the extra $50-100 to fly southwest even if their customer service is pretty good. No one has convinced me its worth it.
OP goes home devastated. Never came back to defend his position. But he still wins because the thread is still going.
What defense do you want? Southwest is more expensive than the other airlines to anywhere I could go from Boston. It was more expensive when I lived in California too.
Seems like people like the customer service and points. That's great. I always get lousy service with American and Delta. Alaska and Jet Blue have been pretty good. I haven't flown spirit but I've heard they have crazy numbers of cancellations.
I'm not sure if you're doing the proper evaluation of costs here. I just did a comparison between SWA and other airlines for a nonstop 12/26-28 round trip between Logan and Chicago Midway/Ohare - the SWA fare was $316.80 (which includes two free bags). The cheapest fare otherwise is a United flight for $386, which doesn't include free bags unless you sign up for a credit card (coincidentally, I have one of these since I fly United internationally a lot).
If you're in a market that SWA has good flights in/out of (sadly, not Portland), you will almost always do best using them vs other airlines besides the garbage low-cost carriers like Spirit (who screw you so badly with fees that you end up paying close to the same for a horrendous experience). Is it luxury? No, but neither is United or any other major carrier's Economy class. Plus, you always end up on a 737 vs possibly getting stuck on a CRJ or Embraer on other airlines.
OP goes home devastated. Never came back to defend his position. But he still wins because the thread is still going.
the other costs associated with travel like hotels are expensive enough as is. I'm not going to spend the extra $50-100 to fly southwest even if their customer service is pretty good. No one has convinced me its worth it.
If you save the extra $70+ that I just showed you on a BOS-CHI RT by using SWA, you can upgrade to a nicer hotel room or eat an extra appetizer at Alinea (j/k that place is prix fixe only).
OP goes home devastated. Never came back to defend his position. But he still wins because the thread is still going.
What defense do you want? Southwest is more expensive than the other airlines to anywhere I could go from Boston. It was more expensive when I lived in California too.
Seems like people like the customer service and points. That's great. I always get lousy service with American and Delta. Alaska and Jet Blue have been pretty good. I haven't flown spirit but I've heard they have crazy numbers of cancellations.
The cost of a ticket involves several factors including how many airlines serve a city. The more airlines that serve a city, the more competitive the fares.
I fly out of Colorado Springs or Denver a good bit. Southwest is rarely the most expensive, but often not that much cheaper when I look. I see cheap fares from time to time on it and have gotten some really good deals like San Diego in October for about $99 each way.
As I noted I prefer having an assigned seat to allow for a little more flexibility in boarding times. It can be inconvenient to have to check in 24 hours ahead to make sure I get a low enough boarding spot (and I am too cheap to pay the extra to get it).
A couple of friends have flown Spirit. Not sure a ticket would be cheap enough to go through some of the hassles they experienced not to mention the additional costs for every little thing.
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.
What are these new things to help with peanut allergies? I am curious as it would be nice to know how not to die because fatty needs his snacks.
Check it out at UCLA and Dr. Nel and his research . Oh , I am so fat , not. When looking for a snack I think you will find peanuts very nutritional compared to the crap you're stuffing yourself with and eating.
When I lived in California, I used to use Southwest a lot, and often it was the cheapest choice. They did a good job of appealing to the riff raff (I was riff raff then) by just letting people sit where they wanted to, and they also did a smart thing by only having one type of plane that they flew (Boeing 737) and still only fly. For a while, I guess they had a few 727s, but it's really only been the 737s. It's not the same airline that it was.