Southwest - tell me all about it!

[WIDisneyFan]

We live in the Milwaukee area and are Southwests newest city with service starting in November. I have only flown southwest once (and that was nearly 15 years ago) so I don't know much about them. I will add I am a very frequent flyer, primarily with United but am very curious to know more about Southwest

 

[Jestocost]

Southwest is one of the most financially stable of the airlines and has many positive things going for it. One of the good things about SWA is that they don't change flight schedules once they open for booking. That's one benefit of not opening up for booking until closer to the actual travel dates. Another good thing is that they currently allow two checked bags per ticketed passenger at no additional charge.

The big thing that differentiates SWA from most other airlines as far as the traveling experience goes is that they do not assign seats. Once you board the plane, you can select whatever seat you want. Boarding order is assigned in three letter groups--A, B and C--and number 1-60 within each group. They board starting with A1, then go A2, A3, etc. Families with children under four can board between the A and B groups if they have a B or C boarding card.

Except for A1-A15, which are allotted to Business Select passengers who pay a higher fare, the numbers are given out in the order you check in. You can check in online starting 24 hours in advance of your scheduled flight time, which usually gets you an A boarding pass. In general, you won't have any difficulty finding any number of seats together if you have an A or B pass. Things get down to pairs and single seats the later you get in the process, however. People either love this system or hate it. I've always had good luck with it.

One other difference with SWA, which only applies on your way home, is that SWA does not participate in the Resort Airline Check-in service (except for a trial at POP). That means that, unless you are staying at POP or the trial is expanded before your trip, you can't check your bags at your resort. As of today, SWA passengers (except for those at POP) must take their bags with them and check them at the airport.

 

[kevgraub]

We live in the Milwaukee area and are Southwests newest city with service starting in November. I have only flown southwest once (and that was nearly 15 years ago) so I don't know much about them. I will add I am a very frequent flyer, primarily with United but am very curious to know more about Southwest

Southwest is a very good airline, with some big positives and a couple of negatives.

The main positive I see with them are (1) if the fare goes down after you book, you can get a credit for the difference without paying a change fee (2) they are known to publish a schedule and stick to it, little or no situations where a flight is changed or cancelled ahead of time (3) they do not charge luggage fees, which is not a huge deal but something to keep in mind when comparing rates with other airlines.

The main negatives I see with them are (1) they do not release their schedule very far ahead of time so it is tough to plan too far ahead of time and (2) there are no assigned seats, meaning you either have to be on your computer exactly 24 hours ahead of time to get an early boarding pass, or risk not being able to sit with your group and sitting in the back of the plane.

 

[phisigprincess]

I prefer SW over any other airline. The prices are very competative, and I love that there are no bag fees. I've always had pleasant experiences with the staff both in the air and on the ground.

 

[WIDisneyFan]

Thank you all for the info! And quick information at that - part of what has me most interested is one of the 6 cities that has direct service out of milwaukee is Orlando so odds are good we will be on a few times in the years to come.

 

[mdurette]

We are devoted SW flyers.

Why do I love them......
1. I have NEVER had them change a flight on me. (Have taken over 12 in the last year alone).
2. No baggage fees - allowed one carry on and two checked.
3. If you find they are offering a cheaper flight - no problem - just grab it and they will give you a credit for the difference to use within a year. Again - no fee for this.
4. Their rapid rewards system - add this with their Visa card and we end up getting about 3-4 free roundtrips per year!

 

[hrslvr142]

Count me as a loyal SW flier. I love the flexibility of changing flights if needed at even the last minute with no cost other then if the flight has gone up. We are a military family which means sometimes we must be open to a quick change. I find their customer service agents to be very helpful, their flights on time, and the costs of their flights (especially with no baggage charge for the first 2 bags) to be extremely competitive. Now if you like to be "buffed and puffed" in first class this is probably not the airline for you. Also if you "must" have a guaranteed seat, you probably want a different airline.

 

[tlev]

Southwest does change flights. They just changed the time of my flight from Albany, NY from 7:15am to 9:00 am, not a big deal but a change nonetheless. The thing I HATE about Southwest flights is their "No Assigned Seats" system, and not so much for the system, but for the way people use it. I fly Southwest often and I always checkin exactly 24 hours to get a good line number. Once on the plane my wife and I take two seats next to each other in the first available row. We are THE ONLY ONES WHO DO THIS! Nearly every other couple will take either the window and aisle seat of a three seat row, or the aisle and middle seat. They do this until the plane stops boarding, (assuming it is not full), in the hopes that no one will sit in the third seat. This is VERY RUDE and makes single passengers uncomfortable about taking the available seat. If the plane is close to, or entirely, full, and somebody has to use every seat, the couple will then slide over to the window and middle seat. Sometimes I feel like just sitting between the two people in the middle seat, and then when they say "oh, we'll move over", just saying, "no thanks, I like the middle seat" and plopping down.

 

[Debbie-TN]

Gotta love the "Dings". If you don't already know about these, here it is. Go to the SW website and sign up for "Ding". You put as many cities as you want to see when special prices come up for those cities. A little red and blue triangle will be in you task bar. Look for a little envelope on the triangle and that means there's a good deal has come up on the cities you picked. You will only have a few hours to take advantage of the specials and then they're gone. It's fun to keep an eye on them so you can get the best deals.

 

[dbarker]

We just got back yesterday from WDW...flying SW. We love SW.

We stayed at the Poly. We called bell services and had them pick up our luggage and hold it for us until time for our DME departure. We checked in w/ bell services a little before the DME pick up time and they took our luggage to the bus for us. The bus driver put the luggage on the bus. Once we got to MCO, we took our luggage to the SW check in. (There were people w/ carts willing to help us w/ our luggage, but DH didn't want any help. .)

Our flight took off on time and was actually 20 minutes ahead of schedule upon landing. The last couple of times we flew w/ American and there were delays for each leg of the flights. I have never experienced a delay w/ SW.

 

[Stormhawk]

Count me a SW fan. I use it as my first choice for both personnel and business travel, even choosing it over other airlines if the price is within 10%

Others have covered most of the positives and some of the challenges. As has been pointed out one of the SW differences that can have a significant impact on your travel experience is their seating model (much better now than what you experienced 15 years ago w/ the 24H pre-check-in and assigned number). While it really does help to check-in as close as possible to exactly the 24H mark, they do try to make it as easy as possible you can use their website, but they also have a mobile-phone friendly site that can be used from your smartphone (I've made way too many check-ins from lines and even sitting at stoplights )

If you give it a shot I think you'll be happy. They also have a very customer-friendly rewards program

 

[mousemom11]

Our family loves SW! I mean, really, on what other airline can you say, "Gee, sorry kids, but there aren't enough open seats for us to sit together. So you two go back there and annoy, er, sit by, those nice people. Your father and I will be up here enjoying the peace and quiet".

But seriously, we have always had a good experience when we fly SW. If one of us can't be at a computer 24 hours before flight time to check in, we've always been able to find a friend or family member to do it for us. They have never changed a flight time on us, and the flights pretty much always leave on time. Being able to check 2 bags free means that we never pay a bag fee.

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet is their in-flight service. I really like that they don't use those big herking carts to serve drinks and snacks. The FA's take your drink orders and then walk up the aisle with a tray to serve them to you. Another FA will walk down the aisle with a huge box of snacks and you can take your pick between various cookies, crackers, pretzels, and peanuts. They even encourage you to take more than one!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Another SWA fan here!
Their fares are decent, sometimes downright cheap, and love their no fee policies. No one has mentioned there's no change fees at all. If you decide you can leave Fri night instead of Sat, just hop online and change it. Of course, if the fare is higher you pay the difference but if it's lower, you keep the credit.

I love watching for our fares to drop and snagging the credits. It's like the thrill of the hunt or something with me. lol! Our Thanksgiving fares dropped so we had a credit of $300 which we used for a long weekend getaway in Feb and allowed all 4 of us to fly home 'free'.

Our upcoming Aug & Oct flights dropped too giving us a credit of $269. Combine that will my RR award flight and 2 of us will fly free next March. Maybe even 3 of us if I can earn a few more credits in time.

I really don't care where on the plane we sit as long as each one of our kids sits with one of us we're good to go!

 

[AndyMcV]

.... another SW fan here. We're from Canada too.

We flew SW for the first time last June out of Buffalo. To be honest, I was worried a little about a low fare airline when we first booked. Oh... was I terribly uneducated. SW is a great airline that offers super prices.

We were going to fly out of Toronto for our trip but the prices were approximately $2600 for the 4 of us. So I checked SW and we ended up with (taxes in) under $800 for the 4 of us. Now how can you beat that with a really easy airport to navigate and an airline that rivals any other.

 

[Picabo]

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet is their in-flight service. I really like that they don't use those big herking carts to serve drinks and snacks. The FA's take your drink orders and then walk up the aisle with a tray to serve them to you. Another FA will walk down the aisle with a huge box of snacks and you can take your pick between various cookies, crackers, pretzels, and peanuts. They even encourage you to take more than one!

COOL!!!! My girls will LOVE this!