Southwest

[Leleluvsdis]

Hey Everyone!

DH and I are looking to fly southwest from Charlotte to Fort Myers the end of January, and was wondering if anyone could give feedback on them. We have never flown southwest, but have flown jet blue if it is any comparison. My biggest concern is the boarding process and getting seats together. Also, our flight going will have 2 stops, but no plane change. Is this annoying at all?

 

[tvguy]

I have flown them many times.

Pluses: Clean well maintained planes, friendly people, usually on time.

Minuses. No assigned seats. You can't assume they are the lowest fare, they USUALLY are, but when they aren't, they can be way more expensive. If you have to change planes, make sure there is plenty of time between flights, their system allows you to book connections much closer together than other airlines. They have no reciprocal agreements with other airlines so if you miss a flight, you have to cash in your ticket and then buy a ticket on an other airline, other airlines won't accept a SW ticket.

I still fly them time to time, despite my concerns because now that my kids are grown, the lack of assigned seats is much less a concern for me. I insist
on an hour between connecting flights, and I never assume they will be the cheapest airline.

 

[wgeo]

Hey Everyone!

DH and I are looking to fly southwest from Charlotte to Fort Myers the end of January, and was wondering if anyone could give feedback on them. We have never flown southwest, but have flown jet blue if it is any comparison. My biggest concern is the boarding process and getting seats together. Also, our flight going will have 2 stops, but no plane change. Is this annoying at all?

I love SW, never had any problems with them and find the employees to generally be very nice. If you are particularly concerned about sitting together go ahead and buy the early bird check-in, it's $12.50 per person but then you know for sure you'll be able to find seats together because you will be early enough in line. Having said that, we almost never buy the early bird and the only time we didn't get to sit together was because I forgot to check us in for our return flight until 12 hours before (instead of 24 hours), we still sat directly in front/back of each other.

Personally I wouldn't do a flight with 2 stops, but it's easy with SW - you don't get off the plane and when everyone gets off you can change to better seats if you want and SW turns their planes around really fast so you won't be on the ground to long.

 

[msmama]

SW is very low fuss. (Although supposedly they now have Wi-fi on most flights). There's no TVs, no movies, etc.

In my experience they tend to pad their flight times quite a bit (for instance, I regularly do a flight that's no more than 45 minutes, but they say it takes an hour - therefore the flight can leave 15 minutes late and still be considered "on time").

I usually fly with just my son and I and as long as I can check in somewhere close to the 24 hour mark, I don't worry about having seats together. If I had a larger family, perhaps I'd be more concerned. If you don't mind a middle seat then I don't think the boarding process is a huge deal.

The SW guideline used to be, if you get a "A" boarding number, you get an Aisle seat, "B" boarding number meant Back of the plane and "C" meant you'd get a Center seat. Not sure that has changed in the days of early bird check in (which means you don't have to check in at 24 hours in advance - I, personally, don't find it worth it unless I can't check in between 24-20 hours in advance).

It's generally the only airline I fly as it's the cheapest one that flies out of my little local airport.

 

[caravarela]

We only fly JB or SW. We prefer JB, but SW hasn't given us any issues. Just be sure you are on their site EXACTLY at 24 hrs before your flight leaves to do online check in, and you should be at the end of A or beginning of B and have no issues.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[swilshire]

We drive 200 miles to fly Southwest. I SO wish they flew out of our local airport. I always enjoy their flights and love their policies when flights go down. We try to earn enough points on our credit card to book our annual flight to Albuquerque. That makes it even simpler when the prices go down.

I fly other airlines for work often and much prefer Southwest. The seating thing is a little crazy, but always seems to work out pretty well for us.

Sheila

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Hey Everyone!

DH and I are looking to fly southwest from Charlotte to Fort Myers the end of January, and was wondering if anyone could give feedback on them. We have never flown southwest, but have flown jet blue if it is any comparison. My biggest concern is the boarding process and getting seats together. Also, our flight going will have 2 stops, but no plane change. Is this annoying at all?

Wow, TWO stops on such a short flight? I would be booking another airline.

 

[Leleluvsdis]

Thanks everyone!! I am thinking we may do JB down and SW back. The flight down would be a little more expensive, but I we really don't want to be on a plan for over 7 hours if we don't have to. The flight goes from Charlotte to Chicago, to Columbus, OH, then to ft Myers, FL. Coming home we would have a 3 hour layover which I am totally fine with, just not sure about the flight down.

 

[SandrA9810]

I always have two stops on my flights, but that's because of BS rules they have to follow flying in and out of Dallas. I love it when I don't have to change planes, but that doesn't happen often.

For two people, it's easy to get a seat together if you have an early boarding number. Generally it fills up with the window seats first, aisle seats, and then the center seats. Usually it takes to the later B numbers or C numbers to get stuck in a middle seat. Most passengers are understanding when you say the seat is taken. Just throw your coat/carry-on in the middle seat and sit in the window seat or aisle seat.
Once the plane lands at each stop, they will do a head count of those staying on board. Then you may get up and change seats before they start boarding again. It's usually only a few minutes. I head to the back of the plane for the beginning flight, and then move to the front for the last leg to get off the plane easier.

Edit to Add:

Thanks everyone!! I am thinking we may do JB down and SW back. The flight down would be a little more expensive, but I we really don't want to be on a plan for over 7 hours if we don't have to. The flight goes from Charlotte to Chicago, to Columbus, OH, then to ft Myers, FL. Coming home we would have a 3 hour layover which I am totally fine with, just not sure about the flight down.

Wow, they have you going all over the country. For 7 hours, you can drive to Ft. Meyers without the hassle of an airport and security checks. I'd also worry about the closure of those other airports in the middle of winter.

 

[supergoofy]

I love Southwest especially taking off/landing backwards.

Maybe they have changed planes but they use to have "business" seat where 3 seats faced another 3 seats. Was real nice to talk to your family like normal rather than turn and talk over the person in the next seat.

Also sitting with your back to the cockpit is a great feeling during take off

 

[DVCTX]

I love Southwest especially taking off/landing backwards. Maybe they have changed planes but they use to have "business" seat where 3 seats faced another 3 seats. Was real nice to talk to your family like normal rather than turn and talk over the person in the next seat. Also sitting with your back to the cockpit is a great feeling during take off

I taker it that you haven't flown SWA recently, the planes with the backwards seats are long gone.

 

[clh2]

Wow - That would be a tour of the Midwest. With such a crazy flight plan- I would worry about their being a change in flight crews. My experience with that has been - that you have to get off the plane while the flight crews change, and that will add to the time (although I'm sure that it is built into the times.) Long story short - I would not assume that you can just stay in the plane.

Now - DH and I LOVE flying on SW. Even if we are flying with DD (now 19) we all prefer aisle seats, so while we like to be close - we do not need to be sitting together. We always purchase the early-bird seating - just much less stress for us.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I love Southwest especially taking off/landing backwards.

Maybe they have changed planes but they use to have "business" seat where 3 seats faced another 3 seats. Was real nice to talk to your family like normal rather than turn and talk over the person in the next seat.

Also sitting with your back to the cockpit is a great feeling during take off

Most people hated those seats. Despite your love for Southwest, you must not have flown them in a long, long time; those seats started being removed in 2001.

OP, that flight routing is ridiculous! Surely there are better alternatives.

 

[laughinplace199]

OP, may I hijack for a moment?

DH & I are flying SW for the first time next month. We have to change planes at BWI and there's only 30 min between when we land at BWI and when our next flight takes off. Are we doomed?

We usually fly JB & nonstop, so this is all new to us.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Thirty minutes will be fine, unless your first flight is late.

 

[Leleluvsdis]

Edit to Add:


Wow, they have you going all over the country. For 7 hours, you can drive to Ft. Meyers without the hassle of an airport and security checks. I'd also worry about the closure of those other airports in the middle of winter.

It is actually 15 hours of just driving time from our home to Sanibel, so after stops and what not, it would be closer to 20, which we could not do in 1 day, and we would be exhausted by the time we get there, and then we have to come back home the same way.

Wow - That would be a tour of the Midwest. With such a crazy flight plan- I would worry about their being a change in flight crews. My experience with that has been - that you have to get off the plane while the flight crews change, and that will add to the time (although I'm sure that it is built into the times.) Long story short - I would not assume that you can just stay in the plane.

Now - DH and I LOVE flying on SW. Even if we are flying with DD (now 19) we all prefer aisle seats, so while we like to be close - we do not need to be sitting together. We always purchase the early-bird seating - just much less stress for us.

I called yesterday, and was told there would not be enough time to get off the plane, nor would they allow it for security reasons.

Most people hated those seats. Despite your love for Southwest, you must not have flown them in a long, long time; those seats started being removed in 2001.

OP, that flight routing is ridiculous! Surely there are better alternatives.

I am thinking we may just fly into either Fort Lauderdale or Tampa and rent a car. We can do a direct flight from Richmond to Fort lauderdale, and it would be a 2 1/2 hour drive to sanibel from there. How is driving in Fort Lauderdale?

 

[wgeo]

It is actually 15 hours of just driving time from our home to Sanibel, so after stops and what not, it would be closer to 20, which we could not do in 1 day, and we would be exhausted by the time we get there, and then we have to come back home the same way.



I called yesterday, and was told there would not be enough time to get off the plane, nor would they allow it for security reasons.



I am thinking we may just fly into either Fort Lauderdale or Tampa and rent a car. We can do a direct flight from Richmond to Fort lauderdale, and it would be a 2 1/2 hour drive to sanibel from there. How is driving in Fort Lauderdale?

I have flown SW into both Ft Lauderdale and Tampa over the past few months and rented cars. There was some road construction but we still found it very easy to navigate around both airports (both of which was the first time at those airports for us). If the choice was a flight with 2 connections into Ft Myers or a direct flight into FLL or TPA and then rent a car, I would absolutely pick the direct flight and rent a car. jmo

 

[DebbieB]

SW is very low fuss. (Although supposedly they now have Wi-fi on most flights). There's no TVs, no movies, etc.

You can get free TV on your Wi-Fi enable device. Or pay $5 for a movie.

http://www.southwest.com/wifi/

 

[SandrA9810]

It is actually 15 hours of just driving time from our home to Sanibel, so after stops and what not, it would be closer to 20, which we could not do in 1 day, and we would be exhausted by the time we get there, and then we have to come back home the same way.

It's was kind of an exaggeration on the timing. It's still probably a good 9-10 hours to set aside for travel time between leaving for the airport and arriving at your destination. That's a long time for a flight that probably shouldn't be more than a few hours at most.

I am thinking we may just fly into either Fort Lauderdale or Tampa and rent a car. We can do a direct flight from Richmond to Fort lauderdale, and it would be a 2 1/2 hour drive to sanibel from there. How is driving in Fort Lauderdale?

The FLL airport is right off 595, if you take that west you can get on Alligator Alley pretty easily. Getting in and out of FLL is one of the easiest airports I've been through.

 

[tvguy]

Thirty minutes will be fine, unless your first flight is late.

My minimum, on any airline, is an hour.