Woo Hoo!!!

[Beca]

Bush just signed the repeal of the Wright Amendment!!!

Going to WDW just got cheaper!!!

 

[oldshovelhead]

Good for you...and good for GWB (I like his politics!). I had to look up the Wright amendment to know what you are talking about, but it sounds like this might make life a little easier on all of us I hope.

 

[Scotch]

Unfortunately, isn't there some multi-year phase out period so things will stay the same for several years, right?

 

[LIFERBABE]

Now that is better news to me than AKV!!!!!

I hate to see American Airlines suffer, but they treated me so horribly last year that I havent flown them since. Hopefully this will be good for all of N. Texas

 

[Beca]

Scotch....yes and no.

Non-stops leaving Love Field cannot take place for a few more years. But, what goes into effect IMMEDIATELY is thru ticketing. So, the changes for us are pretty significant.

It used to be that, in order for us to fly SWA to Orlando, we had to purchase two sets of tickets for everyone. One from DAL-HOU, and another from HOU-MCO. That had many ramifications. First, it really increased the amount of $$$$. Even though SWA has GREAT deals from HOU-MCO (usually $89 each way), we had to tack on $49 flights from DAL-HOU. So, it would now cost each of us about $300 to fly to MCO and back, or for our family...nearly $1000 on the "low fare carrier". Needless to say, American Airlines LOVED this fact, and the monopoly they had on the DFW market. Now, it will cost less than $600 for my family of 3 to fly to MCO....effective immediately. We will still have to get off the plane in HOU and change planes, but it is much better.

The other ramification is baggage. If we flew SWA before, it was against the law for them to allow our bags to fly all the way to MCO. So, we had to allow enough time in between flights to go to baggage claim, retrieve our bags, stand in line at the ticket counter to check them in again, get back thru security and get on our plane.... a ROYAL pain in the ***. It absolutely made some connections impossible!! This was exacerbated by the "no liquids" rule because now everything HAD to be checked. It also made it impossible for us to use the Magical Express baggage option from our home. We had to tag the bags at our stop in HOU...another big pain.

We also had no "flight delay protection" when we flew to MCO. For example, say we had purchased the $89 fare from HOU-MCO. The full fare on that is over $300. Now, say there is a rain delay in DAL, and we miss our connection in HOU. We are not protected because they are two separate flights. So, we get to HOU only to discover that if we wanted to get on a plane to MCO, we now had to pay an additional $200 per person (upgrade to the full fare) to purchase "last minute" tickets on the flight. If all outbound flights were full, we would also not be given "priority stand-by" status due to our delayed flight, so we would just go to the bottom of the stand-by list. SWA was not trying to be "unhelpful" in this, but if they "recognized" a long-haul flight out of DAL in ANY way (i.e. helping delayed passengers, or putting bags all the way thru), they could lose their carrier license, and face stiff fines.

So, even though non-stops will not be allowed for a few more years, the thru-ticketing option is HUGE for those of us who want to fly SWA to MCO from DAL.

It's a really good day!!!!

 

[aDVCguy]

What exactly is the "Wright Amendment?"

 

[Beca]

What exactly is the "Wright Amendment?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Amendment

This is a really good digest version.

 

[dumbo71]

Hey Beca,

You must be a Texan as well. I just moved out here and I'm thrilled with the repeal of the Wright amendment. More choices is always good. American will be forced into dropping there prices to Orlando as well.

Drop me a pm, I'm in Southlake. Where are you?