:( Oddball out here, I am going to miss Airtran

[H.E. Pennypacker]

For those of you "hoping this merger doesn't go through", remember two things:

• This was mutually agreed-upon by both CEOs of SWA and AT (if AT was really making a ton of money, why in the world would they sell-out?)
  
• The only hurdles remaining are those with the Federal Government -- and given how the Northwest/Delta and United/Continental mergers breexed-through, we can expect much of the same for this pair of airlines.

Yep. And because none of the airlines are really making a ton of money, more and more will continue to merge, and eventually we'll end up with only 2 or 3 US-based airlines. And they'll still continue to perform poorly. But then they'll be "too big to fail" so the government will swoop in and buy them up. And then we'll all be screwed. First there was Obama Care. Wait for Obama Air.

 

[ChloroFiend]

Count me in as another DFW traveler disappointed by the merger...in the short term, at least.

Dallas is really pretty screwed by this one. We'll be losing all the DFW flights of AirTran, while Love Field has the artificial caps imposed by the Wright Amendment (and the repeal agreement) so it really can't add any additional flights. I won't even touch how we can't fly direct out of there anyways.

Truthfully, it won't be until 2014 and the about-freaking-time revocation of the Wright Amendment until we'll actually see decent prices on airfare return to the Metroplex, as a result of SWA being able to operate more gates and flights out of DAL, fly interstate directly, etc.

 

[LIFERBABE]

Actually, you CAN beat bags flying free. With cheaper airfares that MORE than make up for paying for bags on Airtran.

Exactly!

I dont fly SWA, because they are too expensive even with Bags fly free. I am smack in the middle of the DFW Metroplex and DFW and DAL are within 30 minutes of my home. I've always had access to SWA, but they dont even come close in pricing, not to mention the guaranteed stop every flight out of DAL has to make.

As an Elite, my bags were free, as was my seat selection. Without Elite status, I purchased $69-$89 nonstops, paid the $6 seat fee, and $20 checked bag (which I dont need with ownerslocker) and I was max $120 each way. Throw on a coupon (which were plentiful) and SWA could not touch it!

Look at their prices, there is nothing free about it. It's sad that we DFW flyers are caught between greed (AA) and arrogance(SW) when it comes to flying.