southwest airlines

[The.Epcot.Man]

We wanted to fly southwest again this year because the baggage fees are getting way out of hand on other airlines, but all of southwests flights are now 1 or 2 stops instead of direct flights! Why are they doing this? It makes it harder for families with young children. Are there any other airlines out there that don't charge for baggage?

I was just about to post this as well.....changing planes is not something I want to do with children. not to mention the probability of lost luggage!

you still have to check in online 24 hours in advance though, correct?

 

[nolanboys]

We live near Chicago, but fly out of Milwaukee because the fares are so much cheaper. We were excited that Southwest started to fly out of there because of the free baggage. We found though, that their ticket prices were much higher than Airtran and Frontier/Midwest. We have to pay for luggage, but it still works out cheaper. We try to just have one bigger suitcase and then bring on a couple of carry-ons. Maybe Southwest will run some better deals soon, as we want to fly to Disney in October.

 

[dzd]

We wanted to fly southwest again this year because the baggage fees are getting way out of hand on other airlines, but all of southwests flights are now 1 or 2 stops instead of direct flights! Why are they doing this? It makes it harder for families with young children. Are there any other airlines out there that don't charge for baggage?

Southwest does not do many direct flights because they have a network of hubs that allows them to make many flights between city pairs. It increases the number of flights per day to any given city pair and allows them to more fully use their resources. This system is the reason they are so much cheaper than the legacy cariers. That And they hedge fuel costs. There is no doubt that SWA is different than what the established aircariers have conditioned us too but theyactually MAKE money and are cheaper than the otherguys. Not to mention I have had few problems flying on SWA compaired to the others. And when there was a problem the solution was always fair and quick.

 

[Bev J]

We love SW! No baggage fees is a big plus and another big plus is flying with some of the most friendly crew around!
We booked our October trip on March 23 the day it became available and got some great rates, the prices have since gone up quite a bit, still cheaper than other airlines plus paying baggage fees. We were able to get a direct flight to Orlando and a stop only flight on the way back- looking forward to flying SW again.

Bev

 

[lllGurulll]

Boy, after hearing a couple people post about SWA telling people to buy one EB pass and save seats for the rest, I am slightly upset. I at least purchased EB passes for all three of us but being the only person over 8yo on my group I don't have the luxury of only purchasing one EB pass like they said. It really ticks me off they allow the seat saving at all. Basically, a family of 5 can spend $20 to my $60 now. That is crap!!!

I would like to know how SWA handles it when a paying customer sits down in another persons saved seat during preboarding when I payed more for the opportunity than they did? I'll be darned if I get in there with my two children and anyone trys to pull the seat saving bull!!!! I paid, I'll sit where I choose if nobody is in that seat.

 

[DebbieB]

We wanted to fly southwest again this year because the baggage fees are getting way out of hand on other airlines, but all of southwests flights are now 1 or 2 stops instead of direct flights! Why are they doing this? It makes it harder for families with young children. Are there any other airlines out there that don't charge for baggage?

There have been alot of comments lately about SW's prices being higher. They are definitely higher PIT-MCO. They don't charge for baggage but they have to make up the difference somewhere. You need to take the fees into consideration when comparing with the other airlines and see what the difference really is.

Why don't they fly more non-stops to Orlando? Orlando is a tough market for any airline. Business travelers really support an airline's profitability. They frequently travel last minute and are willing to pay higher fares for it. Orlando on the other hand is alot of leisure travel where people shop for the lowest price. Hard for an airline to make a profit. So they would rather use their planes elsewhere.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I was totally planning to fly Soutwest for our June trip, but their times were very restricting on flights out of Orlando back to Louisville and they were only a few dollars cheapter than what I ended up getting United for on Cheaptickets. Of course, we will have to pay for our checked bag, but we are planning on just checking 1 large suitcase.

 

[lllGurulll]

I am really surprised at how many are saying SWA prices are higher than other airlines. How far out are you booking? I got dirt cheap rates and non stop service KC to Orlando for just over $500 round trip for three of us and that includes EB boarding passes for all three of us both ways. I booked for a May flight back in November.

That was easily the cheapest flight out there for me and was very much a deal.

 

[Jestocost]

I was just about to post this as well.....changing planes is not something I want to do with children. not to mention the probability of lost luggage!

you still have to check in online 24 hours in advance though, correct?

When flying SWA using connecting flights, you will be checked in for all legs of your travel when you check in for your first flight and do not have to check in separately for later flights. This does give you a head start on boarding numbers vs. the people who are starting their travel on your second flight.

 

[maryv43]

We LOVE SW, and are flying them again in 13 days from Seattle to Orlando. You can pay an extra 10 to get advance check-in. There are 5 flying in my family, the SW agent told me to pay the extra 10 for one person in the family- they can board first, get our seats and the rest of us will board in the order our passes say. We really didn't have any problems with SW in the past and will continue to fly with them in the future! Good luck!

I wish I thought of that I paid the extra 10 for all three of us

17 days till our trip

 

[SweetMommy]

Are you saying that Southwest is no longer flying out of Boston??? They just started this past August. Where did you get this information?

Southwest doesn't fly direct out of Boston last I checked a couple of weeks...........but I live in between Boston and Providence so we are just using SWA out of there.

 

[patink]

I am really surprised at how many are saying SWA prices are higher than other airlines. How far out are you booking? I got dirt cheap rates and non stop service KC to Orlando for just over $500 round trip for three of us and that includes EB boarding passes for all three of us both ways. I booked for a May flight back in November.

That was easily the cheapest flight out there for me and was very much a deal.

I agree! We fly from KC as well and SWA is always cheapest and there are a couple of Nonstops both ways every day. One AM, one early afternoon and one evening. I love, love, love SW!
Hopefully this will not change.

 

[lllGurulll]

I wish I thought of that I paid the extra 10 for all three of us

17 days till our trip

Well, I certainly respect you for paying the price for each of you. That is the way it should be. SWA needs to stop allowing the practice the poster above stated.

I am willing to bet that it is NOT standard procedure but just an employee allowing people to buck the system.

I have just sent an email to SWA asking about this "policy" and am looking forward to the response.

 

[MHSweb79]

We fly SWA pretty much exclusively from Providence to Orlando and also to West Palm. We just did a round trip a few weeks ago.
Most of our flights were full, and the attendants were telling people they were NOT allowed to save seats. They were pretty firm on this one.
As for Magical Express, we've always just put the yellow tags on for the flight down and our luggage would meet up with us later in the day, just like any other airline. On the way back, we'd take our luggage on the bus and check it in at the curb at the airport. No big deal at all.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

Southwest doesn't fly direct out of Boston last I checked a couple of weeks...........but I live in between Boston and Providence so we are just using SWA out of there.

They also fly direct out of Manchester NH.

 

[jak07]

We LOVE SW, and are flying them again in 13 days from Seattle to Orlando. You can pay an extra 10 to get advance check-in. There are 5 flying in my family,

the SW agent told me to pay the extra 10 for one person in the family- they can board first, get our seats and the rest of us will board in the order our passes say.

We really didn't have any problems with SW in the past and will continue to fly with them in the future! Good luck!

am really sorry to hear a SW agent told you to do this. Last trip I paid for DH and I to both have priority boarding, then had to walk past rows of "saved" seats.


Sorry, that is not right! I don't care how many people are in your party, pay for them if you want to board first. How is that fair to the people who ACTUALLY pay for the service? I can guarantee you that if I board and see "saved" seats, I will sit my butt in them. I paid for it, the rest of your party didn't. Entitled much???? Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!

Off, to write a letter to SWA.

 

[Mom2PrincessK]

am really sorry to hear a SW agent told you to do this. Last trip I paid for DH and I to both have priority boarding, then had to walk past rows of "saved" seats.


Sorry, that is not right! I don't care how many people are in your party, pay for them if you want to board first. How is that fair to the people who ACTUALLY pay for the service? I can guarantee you that if I board and see "saved" seats, I will sit my butt in them. I paid for it, the rest of your party didn't. Entitled much???? Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!

Off, to write a letter to SWA.

I agree. I hope no one tries to save seats that I want to sit in. It specifically says "first come first serve" and is the entire point of paying the $10. If your family's bottom isn't in a seat and I am on board and want to sit there, I'll be sitting there when your family finally boards. If you don't want to sit by me, you are welcome to move on to the back with the rest of your party. It amazes me what people try to get by with - even if a SW agent told someone they could do this, it's a shame people can't identify improper behavior on their own. So aggravating!! Okay...stepping down...

 

[lllGurulll]

I agree. I hope no one tries to save seats that I want to sit in. It specifically says "first come first serve" and is the entire point of paying the $10. If your family's bottom isn't in a seat and I am on board and want to sit there, I'll be sitting there when your family finally boards. If you don't want to sit by me, you are welcome to move on to the back with the rest of your party. It amazes me what people try to get by with - even if a SW agent told someone they could do this, it's a shame people can't identify improper behavior on their own. So aggravating!! Okay...stepping down off....

I am very curious to see how the airline attendants deal with this. I would certainly hope they would be on the side of the PAYING customers.

 

[Tara]

I am very curious to see how the airline attendants deal with this. I would certainly hope they would be on the side of the PAYING customers.

I think you'll find that they're on the side of not getting involved in arguments. The official position is that there is no policy against (or for) saving seats and they will not referee.

 

[DisneyBelle27]

In response to the question about whether other airlines have no luggage fees I do know that JetBlue does not charge each person for their first bag.