Westjet/Southwest code share on hold.

[drag n' fly]

Figures


http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1627986

 

[dis_guy]

"But after three consecutive quarterly loses, Southwest has decided to put its plans with WestJet on the backburner"

I'll say it again, I have no idea how these budget carriers even exist with the ridiculously low fares they charge. Apparently SW has been bleeding capital for some time now.

It's at the point now that if a family of 4 can't fly from anywhere in the US to Orlando for $500 return-all in, they think they're being ripped off.

This may be a hard to do deal anyway. SW will lose passengers if they charge WJ prices on codeshares, and WJ will go broke charging what SW does.

Such is life

 

[drag n' fly]

"But after three consecutive quarterly loses, Southwest has decided to put its plans with WestJet on the backburner"

I'll say it again, I have no idea how these budget carriers even exist with the ridiculously low fares they charge. Apparently SW has been bleeding capital for some time now.

It's at the point now that if a family of 4 can't fly from anywhere in the US to Orlando for $500 return-all in, they think they're being ripped off.

This may be a hard to do deal anyway. SW will lose passengers if they charge WJ prices on codeshares, and WJ will go broke charging what SW does.

Such is life

Very good point! Makes you wonder exactly where cuts are being made to compensate for some of the losses

 

[dis_guy]

We fly out of Edmonton and right now you can get sub $600 pp return flights to Orlando if you can be very flexible with when you go.

To me $300 bucks each way to be there in 7 hours or so compared with driving all that way and then back.

If your time is worth anything at all, flying's a better deal even at today's prices. I'd happily pay less but is that what the service actually costs and is it sustainable?

 

[Shir Kahn]

We actually prefer driving anyway, regardless of how cheap we can get the flights. Driving down is part of the fun for us. We make sure we have enough time to stop at the Mall of America, maybe the Tennessee Aquarium or any other places that catch our eye. It's one giant road trip! DW works in education and I have no problems getting time off when I want it from my work, so summer trips are fun. We usually only fly during spring break.

 

[dis_guy]

We actually prefer driving anyway, regardless of how cheap we can get the flights. Driving down is part of the fun for us. We make sure we have enough time to stop at the Mall of America, maybe the Tennessee Aquarium or any other places that catch our eye. It's one giant road trip! DW works in education and I have no problems getting time off when I want it from my work, so summer trips are fun. We usually only fly during spring break.

Now, having done my rant against driving down, it is still something I'd like to do some day, maybe taking our tent trailer (probably with A/C added) with us.

What route do you take and how long does it take you? How far do you go each day and where do you stop?

BTW, I was just in Steinbach over the long weekend. Manitoba was still looking pretty wet! Had snow in Saskatchewan, too!

Thanks.

 

[Shir Kahn]

http://www.mapquest.com/mq/6-ElG*EMgnE5JKl_xp

This is the route we take, it's a 32 hour drive according to mapquest and google earth, but I'm not sure if that's calculated with you doing the exact speed limit the whole way. I find that for the most part, if you're doing the speed limit, you're going to be passed by every person on the road! We usually do the trip in 3 days but this trip we've got an extra day scheduled for the drive down so that we can take it even easier. Our car doesn't even have air-conditioning, even though it's a fairly new car (2006), so we take those huge slurpee mugs with us and fill them with ice every time we stop to get gas. It actually works pretty well!

As for the weather here, it's showing nothing but sunshine for the next week anyway. Our weather people are actually pretty decent at predictions so I think it should be drying up fast around here.

Edit: Oh, hmm, the link to the directions didn't work. We drive to Minneapolis, then down to St. Louis, then Atlanta. Gives you a rough idea of the path!

 

[dis_guy]

Thanks for the info Kahn!

Google Maps says we'd take 44 hours to drive down! Thats 5 nine hour days in a row. Our highway "cruiser" is our Jeep Commander (mostly used for towing our camper or boat) and it has only so-so mileage.

Maybe when I retire and have all kinds of time in the spring and fall.

 

[Shir Kahn]

Heh, 44 hours would even make us think twice. You'd need to stitch two vacations together just to have enough time for travel alone!