Southwest? Never again!

[CAP Aircrew]

I have never flown Southwest so I can't comment on their service or the overall "Southwest Experience". I do travel a fair amount and have always checked Southwest's fares against those of American, Delta and United. Many times, I've found Southwest's fares to be higher and only on some occasions have I found it to be lower. When it has been lower, it has never been that far off to make me switch to Southwest. It's the "cattle call" stories that really turn me off from flying Southwest and it always seems that Southwest's check-in lines are much longer than others. Their "infomercial" on A&E is enough to keep me away however they must be doing something right because they certainly have a large following. Either that or they have been duping the travelling public for a very long time!

 

[donmil723]

Of course, I'm from central Missouri but the only 2 airlines that we have with non-stop flights to Orlando is SWA from either Kansas City or St. Louis or AA from St. Louis. SWA fares are always cheaper than AA!

What I like best about SWA though is that I can rebook my flights if I need to change dates or times without penalty or, if the fare goes down, they will give me credit for a future flight or a refund.

Unfortunately, without much competition, the non-stop flights are usually higher. I just bought RT from Kansas City to MCO for $201 per person for December. I envy all those people getting RT from the East at $115 each.

Besides that, I have found that SWA flight attendents are some of the friendliest and their flights are very seldom late. I don't mind how they board--in fact, I kinda like being able to choose my seat on the plane.

Donna

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

I love Southwest. I've always been a brand-loyal person... provide a great product, with great service, at a good value, and I'll stay loyal, so long as those three things stay intact. Sure, every once in awhile there will be a glitch, but that's to be expected with anything in life. But so far, Southwest has always been great for me. Flight attendants have always been funny, nice, and always check up to see how I'm doing. $49 each way for a non-stop flight from MCO to MHT. My flight costs less than parking for a week. Flights have always been ontime, if not early. In fact, one flight arrived so early, my family wasn't even at the airport yet to pick me up! LOL

 

[Esmerelda]

Sorry but I have to chuckle...I have seen more time wasted by folks on planes trying to get to their "assigned" seat when finally the attendant just says pick whatever is empty! With SW there is never any time wasted...whatever you plop your derriere down in...that's your seat for the ride! The time wasted when planes have to be rebooked...or they get delayed and you end up on a different plane...the seat assignment is the most time consuming! Think about it folks...it just saves a tremendous amount of time. I will also add that in all my SW flights over the years...I have never seen any family get upset because they weren't sitting together...or at least across the aisle...most folks are very accomodating in that respect. I have always been able to sit w/near my boys on the planes with no problems. I have also never been on a 'dirty' SW plane...they are always picked up as best as possible (I don't expect to do the white glove test).

I am also in the east coast area and the cheapest I could find next to SW was Delta and Airtran for $169 RT (of course, I would rather cut off my R arm than fly with Delta ever again)...we managed to get SW for $118 RT costing us just at $548 with taxes and all. WHAT a deal that is these days....

no more assigned seats for this ole broad,
Esmerelda

 

[CarolA]

Southwest is not always the lowest price airfare.

However, if SW comes to your town chances are the prices on the routes they fly dropped on ALL the airlines. So if Delta was charing $400 for flights to Orlando before SW they might only be charging $200 now to keep the business away from SW.

NWA is famous for this and has been sued for predatory pricing by some discount airline over this. (I don't recall what happened!)

 

[LisaZoe]

You're right, CarolA. I noticed that the RT fares from Portland OR to MCO were about $100 - $150 less on most airlines after SWA lowered their fares in early July. This means my DD and I are flying United for $456 (including tax and fees) when I was previously seeing fares around $350. SWA is offering one-way for $99. With fees and taxes it's $466 total so I'm actually saving $10 flying United.

BTW - I doubt I'll fly SWA since I'm "pooh-sized" and don't want to pay double for my seat or worry about some "skinny" SWA gate personnel making an assesment of my ability to fit in their seats. I do appreciate, though, how they've helped lower airfares in general. Now I just wish we could get direct flights

 

[cboudre1]

We fly Southwest because they are the only direct flight to MCO. I also found that I did not always get seats together when we flew US Air. We have always had seats together on SW because we arrive early.

 

[Mouseteacher]

We have used SWA on our last 2 trips to MCO from MHT. I was able to get their spring sale of $49 each way for our July trip. $345 including taxes and fees for 3 of us was a wonderful fare! Jetblue out of Logan - their fares didn't go down until much later in the spring.

We printed our BP online and received As...thanks to GailHayden and her SWA knowledge and the DIS --- I wasn't paying attention to the SW website so probably would have missed that you can now do this. Sorry about Gail's banning --- didn't know that it happened.

I, too, have never had a dirty plane. We had B Boarding Passes coming home and had no problem sitting together (although I must admit DH, DS and me sat on the floor of the B line to wait for boarding). Coming home, the pre-boarding was quite large. A family with extended family in tow pre-boarded b/c one of their party was in a wheel chair. There were 4 adults, 4 kids and, probably the grandmother, in the wheelchair. They all preboarded.

We took off on time and landed on time on all our trips. You can't beat their pricing. However, if jetblue had a sale at the same time/close in $ as SWA, I would give them a try.

 

[d4est]

Totally OT, but gail was banned??? From here?? What??

 

[Mouseteacher]

Originally posted by d4est
Totally OT, but gail was banned??? From here?? What??

I read that on the "resorts print boarding pass" thread this morning. I don't know why, it doesn't say.

 

[aprilgail2]

I won't fly SW due to the lack of assigned seating and for the same price or a few dollars more I can fly jet blue with big leather seats and tvs for each seat, sure makes the time go by!! They fly directly to MCO and also to Tampa direct.

 

[bexareaglecheryl]

When going to MCO from San Antonio we have flown Continental because of the competitive fares. Right now the fare on SWA to MCO for our Nov. trip is a whopping $480 per person. A couple of weeks ago when the Nov. and Dec. dates were released I thought there would be some options, but the $480 is the only one available. SWA just don't seem to be as price competitive out of some cities as others. When I read about folks getting $59 round trip to MCO I am so jealous. SWA would never offer that in San ANtonio, maybe from SAT to Houston or Dallas. For some reason we just don't get good fares, the major carriers seem to be more competitive in this market. Even when we flew to California to go to Disneyland for a quick Feb. trip, SWA couldn't come close to Continental's reasonable fares. I think they've been in our market for so long that it's the first choice for many people and they simply go to SWA first because of it's high presence.

 

[simzac]

Originally posted by nuthut
In the hundreds of trips taken in the air, I have never found any southwest ticket to be cheaper than the others. What's the big deal on Sourthwest? Delta, Continental and Northwest are always less. Is this true just for Michigan? [/QUOTE

I must disagree with this statement. We fly out of Indianapolis and Southwest prices are always as good or much better than any of our other options. Below I show how I arrived at Southwest for the best choice for our upcoming Jan 1-5 trip.
Southwest $546.80 nonstop flight leaves Indy at 8:50am
Northwest 546.80 nonstop flight leaves Indy at 3:40pm(costs us 7 hours on our arrival day)
ATA 806.00 nonstop 686.00 1 stop going down
American 751.60 with 1 stop each way
US Air 901.60 with 1 stop each way
Delta 1044.00 with 1 stop each way
United 1163.60 with 1 stop each way
Continental 1239.60 with 1 stop each way
America West No flights for these days
These prices are for 4 people.
So as you can see, the only considerable option was Northwest, but losing 7 hours on the day we arrived made the choice easy.
Now I don't know how far in advance you can book your trips, or on which days of the week you travel, but Southwest is the cheapest fares I have found for travel to WDW. We have used them twice in the past year, no problems at all, we are earlybirds at everything we do, so getting to the airport early to get in the A line is no problem for us. Good luck on your future trips.

 

[simzac]

Originally posted by bexareaglecheryl
When going to MCO from San Antonio we have flown Continental because of the competitive fares. Right now the fare on SWA to MCO for our Nov. trip is a whopping $480 per person. A couple of weeks ago when the Nov. and Dec. dates were released I thought there would be some options, but the $480 is the only one available. SWA just don't seem to be as price competitive out of some cities as others. When I read about folks getting $59 round trip to MCO I am so jealous. SWA would never offer that in San ANtonio, maybe from SAT to Houston or Dallas. For some reason we just don't get good fares, the major carriers seem to be more competitive in this market. Even when we flew to California to go to Disneyland for a quick Feb. trip, SWA couldn't come close to Continental's reasonable fares. I think they've been in our market for so long that it's the first choice for many people and they simply go to SWA first because of it's high presence.

Not sure when you're going on your trip, but I just looked at Southwest for November and found fares for $287.20 per person(all taxes and fees included) with nonstop flights in both directions. This price was available for at least a third of the month. Only 2 days showed the price you quoted, which of course was the peak travel time. If that is the only time you can travel, then I feel your anguish. Good luck in the future.

 

[bray]

I am flying out of Houston and cannot find SW flights to be all that competitive. Since I am only about 20 minutes from the Intercontinental airport (IAH), it is my preference but SW has very limited flights out of IAH. The other option is to drive almost one hour across the city to Hobby Airport. When I looked at fares for Dec. 18-22, Continental out of IAH was the same price or even a bit cheaper than SW. I can't find out how people are getting these great $99 or lower one way fares on SW.

If anyone can help, please let me in on the secret. Since all of our family live at least 1000 miles away (in opposite directions), we need to save all we can on airfare for a family of 3.