Post all SW questions concerns, etc. here...

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

This makes me really sad. SW was really the only airline that had daily non stop flights to MCO out of STL. Frontier has some, but only on select days, same with Spirit. I just checked Google flights for our next trip and there isn't a single non stop flight. SW hasn't released theirs yet that far out. But Delta, American, United and Alaskan airlines all have at least 1 stop. Making what is normally a 2.5 hour flight anywhere from almost 5 hours to 16 hours. And the cheapest option of those is still $587 on Delta.

Agreed.

If I look at Delta (who is normally the next competitor for KC) their flight options are below

Saturday going to Costa Rica



Saturday on the way back to KC


Sunday going to Costa Rica and a limitation for that would be it's just one flight


Sunday on the way back to KC and you can't argue that SWA has more flight options because all of them for this particular Sunday are the same flight out of Costa Rica and that happens to be the same case with Delta



Now I do think the thing to bring up is that Delta is doing Basic attachments to its fares eventually all the way up to Delta One so they are going to squeeze more money out of people that way but just looking at their schedules they do not have this nutty 3/4ths+ part of a day schedules at least comparing same destination.

I will say specifically MCO SWA still has a good amount of non-stops to/from KC for now (roughly 4 on a Saturday or Sunday for same dates in May as Costa Rica for easy looking) but their schedules aren't nearly as convenient as they used to be. I know some people could look at Costa Rica which I used simply because we are going there as a "well it's just the location" but it's not when you have 1 plane taking everyone from there and the splitting off into crazy talk total trip durations. Who in their right mind is going to choose SWA for an 18hr trip when Delta with roughly the same leaving time from Costa Rica and can do it in 8hrs? And is that really optimizing their resources? The pricing was not really different between the options either.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I have the SW RR Premier card. This morning is 48 hours before our flight on Sunday morning. I checked the seat chart about an hour before my 48 mark and seat upgrades to the preferred seats were still $34. I checked at 48 hours, and the preferred seats were free. The extra legroom seats and the exit row seats were between $53 and $64. But there were only about 7 seats available in the preferred section. I kept the seats I had. The ability to upgrade at 48 hours seems very limited.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

I have the SW RR card. This morning is 48 hours before our flight on Sunday morning. I checked the seat chart about an hour before my 48 mark and seat upgrades to the preferred seats were still $34. I checked at 48 hours, and the preferred seats were free. The extra legroom seats and the exit row seats were between $53 and $64. But there were only about 7 seats available in the preferred section. I kept the seats I had. The ability to upgrade at 48 hours seems very limited.

Might be worth checking periodically today.

The folks with the highest RR cards are able to upgrade from preferred to extra legroom for free, might open up more preferred availability.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Might be worth checking periodically today.

The folks with the highest RR cards are able to upgrade from preferred to extra legroom for free, might open up more preferred availability.

I have row 11 right now. It would be tempting to switch to an extra legroom seat if it became available for free. But I would worry about luggage space in those first rows.

 

[Tink3815]

I flew home last night. There were about 10 empty seats. I purchased a choice fare and selected seat 18 window at time of purchase. I have a premier ( middle level) credit card and do not have a list. I got boarding group 3. At the 48-hour mark the middle seat was empty. At 24 hours, it had been assigned. At the airport I checked the price to upgrade. Row 13 DEF was empty and showed I could upgrade for free. I asked the agent if I could switch to that window seat and she did it for me My boarding group got changed to 4. The rest of the plane was group 5, never called anything higher. I had 2 empty seats next to me. The entire row of emergency seats behind me were empty. The guy across the aisle asked if he could move to an emergency seat. She told him no because people paid for those seats, but he could move to the aisle seat next to me

The gate agent made one announcement that bags needed to be stored in top of your seat. An attendant stopped someone from putting their bag in a bin near the front and said it was for the 2 empty seats under it. They never made any announcements to gate check their bags.

The plane left on time, but it did seem like it took longer to board, I was near the end of group 4. (People were lining up in group 4 before being called) The entire jet bridge was backed up waiting to board.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

She told him no because people paid for those seats, but he could move to the aisle seat next to me

I have heard of this being a big thing. My husband's coworker flew yesterday and the front half of the plane was mostly empty. No moving around. It's a bit hard for the passengers now because for years we've been told to move around there's plenty of space.

A thing they will have to keep in mind is what to do in the event they need to redistribute the weight which will happen at times.

The gate agent made one announcement that bags needed to be stored in top of your seat.

I saw a few random reports yesterday that the FAs in some flights were starting to make that be a thing. I hope that is done more and more. As well as SWA needs to figure out a different way to store all the supplies they have, crew bags is one thing but snacks shouldn't be stored in the overhead bins with assigned seating now.