Southwest Lovers..I am starting to HATE Southwest

[kaytieeldr]

So considering you never had that option, no need to chime in. I mean really, what is the point?

Things change? Sometimes you have to adapt? Stating one's own experience on a public forum? I'm about the need to criticize someone whose experience is different from one's own?

 

[Tink415]

We're just back from April spring break vacation. In March I booked flights thru Airtran. BDL to BWI was Southwest and BWI to MCO was Airtran. I paid $10 per person to choose seat assignments for the AirTran flights. Could not purchase Southwest EB. There was no charge for bags. I checked in 24 hours on the dot for the flights to Orlando, got Southwest A60, B1, B2. Checked in 23.5 hours before the flight back to Hartford and got B22 B23 B25. We got the 2nd to last row with 3 seats available. We couldn't check luggage and get boarding passes at the resort, their system couldn't handle it. That was a little aggravating as the line line took a long time and then trying to check us in took a long time. But, booking thru Airtran saved us about $700!! over booking with Southwest, so it was well worth the savings even with some confusion, connecting flights and 4 1/2 hours to Orlando vs 3 hours.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

Hmm...seems like people in the midwest have very limited choices as opposed to those traveling from northeast to southeast. If you live in an AREA that ALWAYS had to settle for whatever is available and YOU are OK with that, then good for you. But for those of us who live in more highly populated areas, we ALWAYS had NONSTOP flights available to us with Southwest and with desireable flight times. So considering you never had that option, no need to chime in. I mean really, what is the point?

In the end, I think we know how to put our BIG UNDIES on and deal with it. We just use another carrier. At least we have options. Unfortunately for you....well.....i digress.

There are places in the Midwest with very good service to Orlando and there are places in the Northeast with very bad service to Orlando. It has nothing to do with the region of the country. It has simply to do with the importance of the nearest airport. I live in Chicago. We have excellent options. Someone living in the NYC (my hometown) suburbs in Suffolk County on Long Island and flying out of Islip might not be able to say the same thing.

 

[msjprincess]

There are places in the Midwest with very good service to Orlando and there are places in the Northeast with very bad service to Orlando. It has nothing to do with the region of the country. It has simply to do with the importance of the nearest airport. I live in Chicago. We have excellent options. Someone living in the NYC suburbs in Suffolk County on Long Island and flying out of Islip might not be able to say the same thing.

Yes, as someone who usually flies out of ISP we don't have many options. But I still prefer SWA and their new crappy schedules over driving in to JFK or LGA.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

Yes, as someone who usually flies out of ISP we don't have many options. But I still prefer SWA and their new crappy schedules over driving in to JFK or LGA.

I hear that!

 

[LBIJim]

In my email I told them I was not happy with them and they are forcing me to go back to USAIR. We use to fly them until SWA came along. Maybe if everyone emails them our disappointment they will reconsider and bring back SWA the way we remember and like them for.

As far as traveling with Airtran, I haven't wanted to give them the chance because, my sister flew with them a few times and hated every flight and she says the planes are smaller.

We are flying home on a Sunday and was hoping for a 7 pm flight. We like to take advantage of all the time we can. Maybe I should go back to USAir. I remember getting 9pm flight off of them. I wonder if they still have them.

Also my main concern is my sons peanut and tree nut allergy. SWA have been GREAT for that, never an issue and going to someone new with him is scary.

USAirways has a flight about 745pm-ish from MCO to PHL. It's often a larger plane too, a 767.

Jim

 

[TamaraQT]

USAirways has a flight about 745pm-ish from MCO to PHL. It's often a larger plane too, a 767.

Jim

Today I also looked at US AIR. I could get one way tickets from PHL to MCO for $114 !!! I paid $99 on southwest. I realize US AIR has a $25 baggage fee so it would be $139. I have always preferred SW over other airlines. Their prices were always competitive and they provided very good service. But, I think the SW flights from PHL to MCO are starting to lose their "appeal" to me and many others. I think other airlines are going to pick up more customers flying from PHL to MCO who are also starting to dislike SW. My flights were $99 but to make an attempt at a decent seat, I will pay the $12.50 EBCI. According to some others here on the board, EBCI is starting to go into the middle to late B boarding positions. So now even EBCI is no longer appealing. But we all knew that if everyone purchased EBCI it would eventually lose its purpose and just become another fee. Next year, I won't be so ANXIOUS to use SW and/or AirTran. I think paying the baggage fee on other airlines may be worth it. Less stress at airport and boarding the plane. Especially for those of us with small kids. This way we are basically guaranteed a seat together and that makes a big difference to some of us even if we have to pay a fee for it.

 

[DebbieB]

One thing to consider - USAirways increased their change fee last week from $150 to $200.

I read SW is considering to start charging for bags.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/26/southwests-profits-dive-could-checked-baggage-fees-be-coming/

 

[TamaraQT]

One thing to consider - USAirways increased their change fee last week from $150 to $200.

I read SW is considering to start charging for bags.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/26/southwests-profits-dive-could-checked-baggage-fees-be-coming/

Good Point about the change fees. I did have to change my plans once and with Southwest it was VERY convienient. So when I factor that in, the savings using SW has more consumer benefits.

 

[MaleficentRN]

Link to story in yesterday's paper:

Southwest has gone from a peak of 71 daily nonstops to 20 cities from Philadelphia to 20 weekday departures to nine nonstop destinations now.

 

[Echo queen]

SW may charge for bags shat the front door.

 

[brettb]

<snip>

I read SW is considering to start charging for bags.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/26/southwests-profits-dive-could-checked-baggage-fees-be-coming/

There's nothing in this article that confirms that Southwest is "considering" charging for bags. Maybe they are, maybe they are not considering it, but this particular article is all opinion and speculation on the part of the author and industry analysts.

I'm not going to worry about that - I'm more concerned about Southwest's retreat from PHL. It will be interesting to see how things shake out once the merger with AirTran is complete.

 

[robinb]

SW may charge for bags shat the front door.

Why would you poop on the front door?!? Are you a mailman?

 

[antree]

First I have to say, I haven't been on a SW flight that wasn't full. The last time our flight wasn't full was 6 yrs ago. Since then all seats have been filled when we were on them. So how can SW say the demand isn't there from Philly

With the way SW seems to be going, this is why I just told my DH we might get back in to driving.
Our flight isn't out yet for our return. I told him if I am not happy with SW by mid June - early July, then we are driving.
Driving is never my first choice, but it seems to be by only choice coming. I will not pay for bags, I will not pay 300.00 or more per person round trip x 4, No way.
We rather have a better choice of flight times too.

I hope SWA realizes that we want them, but if not driving is the way we will go.

 

[LSchrow]

We can still get early non-stop flights from Islip but I have noticed less offerings replaced with more stop/change over flights. Coming home, we always booked a late non-stop flight. This year we are stuck with a 4:45 out of Orlando which means being ready for ME by 1:30. So not happy but I think right now we only have SWA at Isp.

Same here. We used to get a 7pm or 8pm flight home. The latest non-stop coming home for this trip was at 1pm and it was over $200. there are only two non-stops to ISP that day. So we ended adding a day to the end of our trip and we're flying home the next morning.

we changed dates for both our may and oct trips. our may saturday return flight left around 4pm, and cost almost $300. we wound up adding another day at the beginning of our vacation to at least get 10 days in, and changed to the friday night, for about half the price.
for oct, we are trying to add a night as the monday night departure is again very early and expensive.
it appears that we are going to have to book vacations based on what days SWA might have early outgoing, and late returning NS flights - hard to do with DVC 11 months in advance

a big "problem" is that we love, love ISP. the airport itself is so clean, people are friendly, atmosphere (not security) is relaxed, parking or drop-off is easy. if another airline started direct flights to MCO, we would switch from SWA without a moment's hesitation.

 

[lylone]

As far as traveling with Airtran, I haven't wanted to give them the chance because, my sister flew with them a few times and hated every flight and she says the planes are smaller.

The planes are smaller? Didn't know that 737s are smaller than 737s and a 717 may be smaller, but according to seatguru and my hiney, the seats are smaller and closer together on SW.

Don't care about the size of the plane, just care about how small and close together the seats are.

If SW gets rid of AirTran's Business class and assigned seats then we will be search for a new airline!

 

[Brocktoon]

This is probably just all rumor ... but working for a mega-corp, I have some co-workers who do a ton of business flying out of Philly. What they're hearing is that the flight situations out of Philly will see a big change heading into 2014 and beyond. With the SW/AirTran merger, SW is cutting back flights big time, and will eventually have a much smaller schedule of flights divided between legacy SW and the merged Airtran routes. SW is looking to move a lot of it's Philly capacity to Baltimore where it's a hub already for SW and Airtran. Don't know how that works exactly

For US Airways, they may be cutting back a lot in Philly towards the end of the year and into 2014 as AA takes over. A strong possiblity that AA would like to move some US Air capacity to JFK (NYC) where AA has a hub.

Again I'm hearing all this 2nd hand from other frequent business travellers, but it sounds like PHL may be taking a decent hit over the next year, with folks in Baltimore and NYC getting a boost.

 

[msjprincess]

we changed dates for both our may and oct trips. our may saturday return flight left around 4pm, and cost almost $300. we wound up adding another day at the beginning of our vacation to at least get 10 days in, and changed to the friday night, for about half the price.
for oct, we are trying to add a night as the monday night departure is again very early and expensive.
it appears that we are going to have to book vacations based on what days SWA might have early outgoing, and late returning NS flights - hard to do with DVC 11 months in advance

a big "problem" is that we love, love ISP. the airport itself is so clean, people are friendly, atmosphere (not security) is relaxed, parking or drop-off is easy. if another airline started direct flights to MCO, we would switch from SWA without a moment's hesitation.

That used to be pretty easy to do. We never had trouble getting a late nonstop home. Usually around 730pm. This trip though it's all over the map, one day the latest nonstop is 115pm. We ended up adding 2 days to our trip to make the flights work.

We also love ISP, it's small and close to home. We live in the town of Islip so we can get a parking pass and park for free in the town lot. I wish there was more competition. I would love for Jetblue to start flying out of ISP.



Eta
Oh geez. I didn't even notice that you quoted me already. Now I just repeated myself. I'm getting old. LOL.

 

[brettb]

The planes are smaller? Didn't know that 737s are smaller than 737s and a 717 may be smaller, but according to seatguru and my hiney, the seats are smaller and closer together on SW.

Don't care about the size of the plane, just care about how small and close together the seats are.<snip>!

You can click on the flight numbers to see the aircraft and number of seats. I can't speak to seat pitch or width, but 717s are 2 + 3 while 737s are 3 + 3.

SWA:
737-300: 137 seats
737-700: 143 seats (previously 137)
737-800: 175 seats.

AirTran:
717-200: 117 (Retiring beginning August 2013)
737-700: 137 (Converting to SWA fleet)

So 717s are "skinnier" than 737s. But with only 5 seats across, it's possible the seats are wider than they are on the 6-across on the 737.

And 737s come in different lengths. So yes, a 737 can be smaller than a 737!

 

[DebbieB]

This is probably just all rumor ... but working for a mega-corp, I have some co-workers who do a ton of business flying out of Philly. What they're hearing is that the flight situations out of Philly will see a big change heading into 2014 and beyond. With the SW/AirTran merger, SW is cutting back flights big time, and will eventually have a much smaller schedule of flights divided between legacy SW and the merged Airtran routes. SW is looking to move a lot of it's Philly capacity to Baltimore where it's a hub already for SW and Airtran. Don't know how that works exactly

For US Airways, they may be cutting back a lot in Philly towards the end of the year and into 2014 as AA takes over. A strong possiblity that AA would like to move some US Air capacity to JFK (NYC) where AA has a hub.

Again I'm hearing all this 2nd hand from other frequent business travellers, but it sounds like PHL may be taking a decent hit over the next year, with folks in Baltimore and NYC getting a boost.

We saw it here in Pittsburgh. Before 9/11, it was the main USAirways hub, around 500 flights a day, they had over 50 gates, airport was always busy. After 9/11 and their bankruptcys, the decision was made that we were no longer a hub. Went down to around 40 flights a day and maybe 10 gates. The local passenger count has gone up slightly but there's little to no connecting passengers. Many gates sit empty. Other airlines have come in, like Southwest, others have increased flights like Delta. The biggest issue for locals is there are few places to get to non-stop. Used to be you could get a non-stop almost anywhere. Now it's connections. For Orlando, there's still SW and AirTran, I think Delta has a Saturday filght. But smaller cities, forget it, you are connecting. When I was traveling alot on business, I spent more time in the Charlotte, Atlanta and Phoenix airports. So for those complaining about the non-stop time choices, it could be worse.