Southwest airlines

[wendyww]

Can anyone tell me what southwest airlines are like? Thanks!:D

[Pluto4President]

I love southwest. The fly all 737's. The only real difference is no assigned seats. Hasn't been a problem for us, they give you a number upon check-in and you are allowed to board in groups. 1-30, 30-60, etc.... If you have children under 4 or 5 (depends on terminal), you can preboard.

[harleymickey]

We like Southwest also. They seem to be on-time majority of the time over the other airlines. Their crew seems more friendly and so far its been great.

[eeyore0062]

We have had absolutely no problems at all with Southwest. They are usually on time, and sometimes, even early. There are no assigned seats, so it behooves you to be there early to get your pick of seats. There is not much leg room, so I would suggest stashing your carryons in the rack above. The attendents are very friendly, and many have a great sense of humor. The captain keeps you aware of everything that is going on, like turbulance, the temp in the city in which you are landing, etc. We found their nonstop service to Orlando to be wonderful, and will not conceive of any other way to get there now!

[denisenh]

(I HOPE) My clip art says it all! Lets see...

[lawgs]

we just got back from los angeles using southwest out of buffalo....

we had no delays and were even ahead of time going out and coming back even though there was a delay posted in phoenix where we had to change planes...

i think the plane we were on last night was one of the new ones......very fresh looking and leather seats.....

good service and relaxing...

we will fly south west again...

once you get used to their way of doing "boarding" it is not too bad

[Pluto4President]

hey lawgs - leather seats, must have been new. haven't heard of any out of ISP yet, maybe tomorrow I'll get a new one.:)

[TerriBelle]

We have had great trips with Southwest. The no assigned seats has worked very well for us because we have 3 kids so there is an extra seat (3 in a row). With the no assigned seats we can pre-board with the kids and grab two rows together. Then when the rest of the passengers get on, they know when they pick the seat near us that we have 3 KIDS! We traveled on another airline when our boys were 2 and it was awful because the people in front of us complained about having to sit near kids. Imagine kids on a flight from Orlando! I felt awful and could not wait to get off that plane.

[denisenh]

Terribelle..what are you thinking, bringing children to Orlando! For shame. ;) :p
Just a comment about kids and seating....OK, a complaint. We do use SWA and travel fairly often to Florida as of late.
Can you believe this? On our last flight which was obviously FULL (the line was a mile long for boarding passes) a women pre boarded with 2 small children. One was 4 years old and one was a bit younger and in a car seat.
That is fine of course, but when we boarded, with passes numbered in the high 90's ( I was talking to a very interesting person and didn't realize that the line formed), with our 2 girls (5 & 9), we found that she hadn't sat both her children with her (3 seats in a row) She sat the younger one with her and the other in the row behind her! I am sure the 4 year old probably wanted to sit by the window and the dear mom didn't want to displease the fruit of her womb, but for petes sake!
So of course the four of us had to split up, which is OK, because we always do, but I ended up sitting with her 4 year old and felt like a babysitter for him AND he had to make 2 trips to the bathroom from his window seat . Of course the aisle seat next her remained empty. :rolleyes:
I was nice about it but what nerve.

[Beanie]

We love SWA and always try to use them! We have two children (4 and 2), so it works out great with us since we get to preboard! I really have no complaints at all about them!! :)

[GAIL HAYDEN]

I am sure the 4 year old probably wanted to sit by the window and the dear mom didn't want to displease the fruit of her womb, but for petes sake!


Oh that is TOO FUNNY!!!!!! Thanks for the chuckle. :) I would not have been pleased and probably would have said something to the flight attendant.

[denisenh]

And THANK YOU Gail for understanding. After I posted I thought "oh boy, here we go. People are gonna think I am a big meany. :D I'm really not. :)

[poohraedopey]

I cant believe someone would put a 4 yr old on a plane and NOT sit with them intentionally! YIKES! ESPECIALLY since she was travelling alone with two! Can a carseat NOT fit in anything but a window seat?

[Ted and Holly]

What gets me is that the aisle seat next to the woman and the baby was empty????!!!! How annoying.

As for SWA, we flew them for the first time in November at my grandfather's recommendation. We flew Thanksgiving week, the busiest travel days of the year, and had no trouble! The flights landed early both coming and going.

I didn't have any trouble with the leg room. We were used to flying Pan Am where the leg room is (supposed to be) fantastic. I didn't notice a drastic difference between the two airlines. We're not small people by anymeans, and we were quite comfortable on SWA.

Holly

[Raysplus1]

We have flown the last 3 times with Southwest and we can not complain at all. Of course the 1st time we were bumped and recieved $1300 in travel vouchers for the 3 of us. The next 2 times we flew using vouchers and we still have $100 left. This makes travelling much nicer. Everytime we have flown the flight attendants have been very nice, no delays, and the pre-boarding for children has worked out great. If I had 1 complaint is they don't fly out of DSM so we have to drive to MCI or OMA.

[mrsstats]

They are now the only direct flight to MCO from Long Island. Therefore, they will become my first choice in the future for that reason. However, I prefer to have assigned seating. I don't like the cattle car approach with Southwest. Other than that, I find them the same as Delta. No better, no worse.

[wendyww]

Has anyone flown out of Midway?

[chicagodisneyfan]

I have flown out of Midway a lot. I average 2 trips a month. The whole place is under construction but it is so much nicer than it used to be. Some of the new gates are starting to open. Not a great airport yet, but it is working on it

[aprincessmom]

Can a carseat NOT fit in anything but a window seat?

They probably could but airlines ask you to put the car seat in the window seat so people don't have to crawl over them to get out in an emergency.

[anne60]

denisenh, it could have been worse. we were on a flight where both kids wanted the window , so the mother told the littlest that she could sit for the first half, and then she had to switch. Well, can you guess what happened? Yup, we spent the last hour and a half of the flight listening to a three year old fake cry and yell "I want the window" over and over. If I hadn't been so annoyed, I would have really been impressed with the kid's staying power!

[denisenh]

LOL anne60! An hour and a half of whining is the sign of a persistant personality! :p
That must mean something but I don't know what. :D
Anyway, yes, I will count my blessings, that would have been worse.

[VickiVM]

denisenh, why didn't you put your 5 year old next to that woman??? Just a thought. Seriously, I can't imagine a parent putting such a young child in that row without the parent. What if the person next to that child were a molester?? I know it sounds terrible, but stranger things have happened.

OK, to make this post relevant, I LOVE SW! Cattle call or not, they're one of the most efficient and consistent airlines out there. And not to mention, financially healthy.

[kbeverina]

We were very happy with Southwest in December. They will only pre-board 3 and under at MCO, but the line for pre-boarding was at least 60 long. My youngest is 5, but they allowed us to pre-board under disability--my 8 year old is diabetic so we honestly can't be separated from him. At BWI, there were only about 5 or so in the pre-board line.

I just wish they flew out of National or Dulles because going to Baltimore isn't the greatest, but it's worth the $250 I saved on tickets.

Another thing, even though they say they don't serve snacks, they did serve drinks and packaged snacks, so that was a surprise.

[dtuleya]

Right now we have refundable air from BWI on US Air, but I'm hoping for a better deal from Southwest. A woman I work with says it was horrible to fly from BWI with Southwest last Thanksgiving (same time we are gong this year). We're hoping to get the first flight of the morning. How many hours early do we have to be there???? I saw on a website BWI is telling passengers to get there 2 hours early, but my friend said some people ended up missing their flight due to long lines. I don't know if it's worth a potentially cheaper air fare. Any thoughts/comments/experiences? We're coming home the day after Thanksgiving and are hoping to take the last flight of the day (is it a possibility we will be bumped)?

Thanks all you Southwest experts!

[lookingforward]

I just flew Southwest last weekend. I travelled alone with my three year old daughter and I thought they were very efficient. I did not like having to line up to get a boardng pass but they really do make it go quickly. I got to preboard which was great and they made me strap her carseat into the window seat so I had to sit in the middle seat. (not my favorite seat!) The only complaints I had was that people were kind of pushy as they lined up to get their boarding passes and I was almost knocked over when I tried to get into the preboard line at West Palm Beach. I LOVED the flight attendants though. They were funny, friendly and very good at what they did. OVerall I feel I will use Southwest again, and you can't beat their rates.

[eeyore0062]

Yeah, I loved the little song that our male flight attendent sang as we were arriving from MCO to Norfolk, at about 10:30 at night.

To the toon of that old Barney favorite "I love you, you love me..."

We love you, You love us
We are faster than a bus

If you will marry me
Then you will fly for free.

The whole plane just LOST it!!!

KBeverina--- you could always drive down to Norfolk and fly out of there. It is non stop, and there is an early morning flight, and a late afternoon flight. Just a thought.....

[GAIL HAYDEN]

denisenh,
What it means is that the parent has NO control over his/her child and cares not one whit about anyone else.
I think I would have asked her to muffle the child.

[TerriBelle]

Flying out of NH for business, a male flight attendent was singing to the tune of Row, Row, Row the Boat

Move, Move, down the aisles
Quick as you can go.
Sit your fanny in a sit
Then we all can go!

[Pluto4President]

Just returned today from MCO via SWA. I have no problems flying with them at all!

[DebraK]

Just back today from WDW. We flew SWA out of Louisville to Tampa.
Great flights...on time even early. Got there 2 hrs early to check in(good idea)...no problem
getting boarding passes.We were in the first 30 both flights.Will use SWA
anytime. Great fare and great service!!! Debbie-Indiana