Southwest Not As Bad As I Thought

[inkkognito]

It's probably because we were on a very early Monday morning flight, but my first Southwest experience was not as bad as I thought. We were heading from MCO to MDW, and my husband got us A passes online shortly after midnight. We got to the airport about 90 minutes before the scheduled departure, and there were two parties ahead of us in the A line. We joined the line and waited; when the gate agent came, I asked how full the plane was (if it was empty, we would take window and aisle...otherwise, middle and window). Only 10 seats left, so we knew to sit next to each other to leave room for others. The kid population was sparse; there were a few families with little ones in strollers who pre-boarded, but not like the stampede I had feared. A grey-haired lady and younger woman tried to pre-board and were stopped. They argued a bit, but were sent back to their lettered "corral." I hope MCO is as good with enforcement when people try to bring their "4 year olds" who have reached puberty! When we boarded, we could have had a bulkhead, but my husband wanted to be able to stow his bag in front of him, so we took row 2. The seat pitch was relatively comfortable, and the legroom wasn't as bad as ATA's 737s. We were served vanilla wafers and a choice of orange juice or coffee for "breakfast." The food service started pretty promptly. I slept for most of the flight after eating. The only thing that was missing was the joking around...no jokes at all from the flight attendants or anyone else, except the one who whispered into the microphone, "We're heeeeeere!" as we touched down at Midway. I know our next flight is going to be worse because it is a Friday evening and the pre-board abusers will likely be out in droves. But this flight really wasn't bad; I prefer assigned seating, but if things don't get much worse than this, I'll be able to deal with Southwest. We actually paid a couple bucks more than Ted to fly them because the assigned seats weren't worth the hassle of dealing with O'Hare.
Barb

 

[DisOrBust]

Glad to hear iit! We may be taking them this summer and my girls are scared to death after watching Airplane. Not a good move on my part. I took Ted this January out of Ohare also for the first time and the hassle of Ohare really wasn't bad however, we weren't flying during peak times.

 

[inkkognito]

Don't let Airline scare you...we have seen them filming at Midway many times, and they "embellish" the situations. Looks like you're in WI, so O'Hare is probably a convenient option for you. We are South Siders, so Midway is a straight shot down Cicero Avenue for us. We don't mind O'Hare itself, but we prefer the drive to Midway.
Barb

 

[simzac]

Maybe I misread your post. You said you had A boarding passes, and when you got on the plane, there were only 10 seats left. How is this possible?
Where did all the people with B & C passes sit?

 

[CarolA]

I think she means that when everyone gets on there would only be 10 seats left.

 

[inkkognito]

Carol is correct. Before boarding started, I asked the gate agent how full the flight was going to be, and she said that there would be ten seats left when everyone got on. If she had said it would be half empty, the two of us would have taken window and aisle seats. But knowing that almost every seat would be needed, we left the aisle seat open rather than expecting some poor soul to sit between us.
Barb

 

[bjakmom]

Glad to hear you had a good SW flight into Midway - we have to fly to chicago at the end of June and SW just lowered their fares today to MDW. We have always flown from Philly to O'Hare and DH isn't thrilled about flying into MDW, but for us flying SW has more advantages, like not loosing your $$ if someone in the group has to cancel and getting credits that anyone can use if prices drop any further. We're heading out to Sycamore, so I think MDW is a little further drive - at least I'm glad to hear you have no major complaints about the airport or SW service.
(PS: have you rented a car at MDW? We have a car rented with Nat'l - any advise?)

 

[Kath820]

We are also flying Southwest on April 7th to Disney...
Do you suggest we get the boarding passes the night before?
I hate not having a seat assignment!!!
Thanks..

 

[inkkognito]

Car rental at Midway is pretty painless; the desks are down on the baggage claim level, and you go up one floor to pick up your car on the second level in the parking garage. I know Alamo/National has a desk there, so hopefully their cars are on-site (I know that Avis, Hertz, Budget, and Dollar have their cars right there). But in my one experience, they (Budget) were even higher pressure for the insurance and other "extras" than Orlando, so beware! National may not be as bad.
If you don't qualify for pre-board, DEFINITELY print your boarding passes in advance. I wouldn't do it any other way! We were #3 and #4 to print ours for that flight, which we did shortly after midnight (it shows the number on your pass).
Barb

 

[bjakmom]

Thanks for the info, Barb - I'll check and see if Nat'l is on-site - if not I'll check out Hertz as DH always uses them for travel - I just find that they are usually more $$ than Nat'l, but would be worth it to skip shuttling to the rental center - that's what makes MCO sooo easy - IMHO !

 

[Luckymommyx2]

Welcome back Barb! I'm glad SWA worked out for you and you weren't disappointed.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

We always fly SWA. I really like their flexibility if sale fare prices drop or if you have to change your flight. Right before Hurricane Frances I called them from my stateroom on the Wonder at PC to see if we could catch a late flight out and they made the change without a problem or a charge. I appreciated that very much; I know things must have been crazy.

I just put our photo album together from that trip and the first pictures were of my DD and our flight attendant -Jackie - who was a real hoot. She chose my DD to help pass out the snacks, then gave her a SWA postcard thanking her for doing so and nicely signed. She also did the "safety talk" at the beginning in a very amusing manner (the whole plane was laughing) and sang a song over the PA when we landed. That was our best flight ever!

 

[treehugger]

Hey Barb, welcome to the dark side! Southwest has great customer focus, ontime flights, great fares and wonderful employees! We SWA!

 

[inkkognito]

Quick question for the SW gurus...do they always do the joking around, or does it depend on the FAs? There was no joking on our flight, but it was an early morning flight, and I think most people (myself included) were sleeping. Just wondering if they adjust it to the time of day or if we just had "shy" FAs. I love the jokes; every now and then we would get a pretty wild ATA crew that would have everyone in stitches (one guy impersonated several celebrity singers over the PA), and I'm looking forward to that on SW.
Barb

 

[debster812]

Quick question for the SW gurus...do they always do the joking around, or does it depend on the FAs? There was no joking on our flight, but it was an early morning flight, and I think most people (myself included) were sleeping. Just wondering if they adjust it to the time of day or if we just had "shy" FAs. I love the jokes; every now and then we would get a pretty wild ATA crew that would have everyone in stitches (one guy impersonated several celebrity singers over the PA), and I'm looking forward to that on SW.
Barb

I think it is very dependent on flight crew and time of day.

I have had flight crews that kept us in stiches, flight crews that comandeered my 6YO DS and colored with him (there were a total of 18 pax on the flight) and I have had flight crews that were all business.

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

We fly Southwest frequently. Be prepared for the million and one preboarders on flights to Orlando. Sometimes the attendants are good about making sure only people who should preboard do, but others will let the party of 12 traveling with one 4 year old preboard. It isn't fair to the people without little kids who plan ahead. I was so happy during our last trip when the attendants took a few large parties out of the preboard line.

This doesn't seem to be as much a problem to other destinations as it is to MCO.

 

[treehugger]

Quick question for the SW gurus...do they always do the joking around, or does it depend on the FAs? There was no joking on our flight, but it was an early morning flight, and I think most people (myself included) were sleeping. Just wondering if they adjust it to the time of day or if we just had "shy" FAs. I love the jokes; every now and then we would get a pretty wild ATA crew that would have everyone in stitches (one guy impersonated several celebrity singers over the PA), and I'm looking forward to that on SW.
Barb

I think alot of it depends on the time of day. Most of my early AM flights are subdued, but the later afternoon ones are alot of fun!

 

[denisenh]

Just back from MCO and our first Delta flight ever and first non Southwest flight in a LONG time. Our Delta experience was more like the Airline show than any of our Southwest flights.
SWA is a fine airline, depending on what you like I guess. I like it.

 

[inkkognito]

Even if there were a hundred pre-boarders and I had to sit on the wing, I would fly Southwest before Delta. You are so right on about that fact that it's like "Airline." They screwed up our seat assignments the one and only time I flew them. They fixed 'em on the going-out part of the trip and said I should talk to customer service in Orlando to fix the return segment. The agent was a Middle Eastern man. I don't mean to stereotype (and this was long before 9/11), but he had a real problem with me because I was handling the situation while my husband just stood there. He literally called me a liar when I explained what had happened and said he refused to speak to me! I started writing down his name, planning to seek a supervisor. He asked what I was doing; when I explained, he said, "I never said I wouldn't talk to you." My husband pointed out that he HAD said that. I said, "Well, will you talk to me now?" He said, "No, and that's not my name on my tag either." I got a supervisor and got things straightened out, but being called a liar and being treated like dirt because I am a woman did not give me high regard for Delta. With the way they hosed our seats that time, having non-assigned seats on Southwest is no worse.
Barb

 

[DMRick]

A grey-haired lady and younger woman tried to pre-board and were stopped.
************
I'm surprised they argued with them. They are not supposed to be able to question why anyone has to preboard, beyond, "do you feel you need to preboard?". If the person says yes, they they are supposed to be allowed, with one other person, no oher questions asked.