What was once a pleasant but quirky airlines has become a massive source of headaches. Except for the liberal bag policy, there is hardly anything left to like about those bozos. The Rewards plan used to be great but is no longer, but I can live with that. On the other hand, the PROGRAMMED delays to allow them to round up the connecting cattle is getting hard to accept. The score in the past year? 75 percent of flights delayed at least one hour and 20 percent canceled for the next day. Yes, that is 5 percent of flights that left and arrived within 1 hour of the announced time.
If you live in a hub city, this could be annoying. But for those coming in on flights, I love that they will wait a bit. Just happened for us last weekend. They also have the best boarding-seat selection process. I don’t have any beef with the rewards, and like that I can easily mix & match my round trip legs without picking through their pairing choices. And… No change fees. I still think SW is head and shoulders above all other U.S. Airlines.
Geez, I’m flying with them one way next week. I paid more for SW so I could change my ticket if need be. I could have flown business class on United for the same price! Oh well, maybe it will be fine.
Recent trip…my kid got stranded at Midway flying SW. They couldn’t get her a flight to her destination before the following evening. Oh,…and her plane was on the ground a full hour and ten minutes before her connection took off without her. They couldn’t get her plane to a gate…yep…sat on the plane for well over an hour after it landed.
She got to sleep on a cot in the airport with hundreds of others. Booked a flight with another airline the following morning at 7 a.m. so she could get where she needed to be. Went online and banked her miles…or so she thought. They didn’t bank the trip. After haggling with customer service, they did refund her ticket cost…because they could not get her to her destination.
On her return trip, she also missed her connection, but it was United…who gave her a food voucher, taxi voucher, hotel for the night, and a confirmed seat the following morning.
We are planning a trip in October that will either be SW (which has been our preference up to now) or Delta.
Oh…and their spring flights just opened up on SW and they are VERY expensive.
I wished I could concur but I can’t. Perhaps we have a different definition of hubs and spokes, but the problems of increasing delays and cancelations happen in ALL the routes I have flown lately including Dallas, Austin, El Paso, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and the situation in the Bay area is just a joke.
Further, I am not sure what there is to like about the boarding-seat selection process which I consider a true cattle roundup. Fwiw, I do prefer reserved seats over the group boarding that forces people to sit at the computer to grab the seats … that are usually taken by the connecting passengers. I am not sure what they do but getting an early boarding pass WITH the fee has become a good investment. But an investment that I can avoid at other airlines.
Baggage allowances at SW are generous for people who carry a lot. Not important at all for the others and especially not for the ones who can rely on loyalty programs or CC to waive those fees. Again, it makes no difference to me and Southwest is usually the most expensive on my routes – probably from burying those free bags.
Southwest WAS a great airlines but they are hardly head and shoulders above all other airlines. They just became just as bad as the others. The difference is that being a premium traveler on the other eliminates the agony of travel. The contrary happens on Southwest as they want to be the socialist airline.
To add more negatives, their online system sucks big time. Try to access your reservation while in route! You can’t as it is neither upcoming or past. Just in limbo!
I really wish I could still LUV them as I grew up with them. Love Field was the first airport I ever saw. And it just makes the changes harder to swallow. I wish they were better but they are not … anymore.
xiggi, re: bay area flights. SFO is notorious for delaying short haul flights. Fog management system, my leg. When it gets too foggy, the flights have to be spaced apart with more room… And one runway gets shut down. The airport traffic control system gives higher priority to international and cross-country flights. So commuter suckers who fly Southwest and Alaska have to sit and wait. That’s why I always fly out of OAK or SJC (love the latter).
SW does NOT always hold flights. On the trip above…my kid got off her first plane ONE gate away from the second. It was eight minutes before takeoff. The doors were shut…just like on USAir or any other carrier. There were ten people on my kid’s plane making the same connection. Nope…they didn’t wait one extra minute for them.
But SW used to do this…it was something that made them stand out. They waited when there were folks who were a tad late. I’ve been one to run to the next gate on their advice…because my plane was being held.
Not any more.
If I’m going to miss my flight because of delays by the airline, at least I want an airline who will give me a hotel voucher…not a cot in the concourse.
Point well-taken, Bunsen, and why I usually get in and out from Oak. It also reduces the chance for some to miss the runway altogether! But OAK is not immune to the delays. I used to rely more on SJC when I lived at an equidistant point but it takes more time from San Francisco.
Thumper, there is a good chance that the flight that did not wait was loaded with passengers from a previous flight who were turned down
I am soooo thankful that SW will hold a flight. I ran to a gate last month as the door was closing and begged them to wait for my dh, who isn’t as fast as I am.
The two free bags are a godsend for a kid in college moving himself in and out of his dorm. I like the boarding system. We never pay the upcharge and almost always are in the A group. We like to sit in the back, which is less popular, I suppose, so we always get the seats we want. And I just booked ds2 a flight back to DC from Texas for January, nonstop for less than $150 into Reagan. It all works for me.
I agree with those who still think it’s the best. Just got a roundtrip Chicago-Atlanta for $88! They are not perfect, but they are head and shoulders above the others(which is not saying much). I do like Virgin America as well, but they have limited flights. Delta, to me, is the connecting flight airline. No thanks.
I am happy I read thIs thread so I could book flight for ski trip to Utah next March. All airlines seem to be bad these days. I admit I am a little concerned, because our connection is only 45 minutes on the ground, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
One of my sons just booked on SW, Boston to Chicago to visit his older brother. $82 ROUNDTRIP. Unbelievable.
My family really likes Southwest and fly them when we can. I will be interested to see if their service has deteriorated when another family member flies later this month and I have to make a late at night airport pickup.
We are doing SW for the college move next week for the 4 free bags between us. Hopefully there will be no weather related issues in Phoenix!. The kid spent 4 hours on the ground in Atlanta n the way to his orientation. SW delayed the take off for some plane issue then they got into a band of storms. I am at the never again point after this trip down. I booked Alaska non-stop for the route home and we use Alaska almost exclusively. I’ve never had a problem with them. I am not a fan of standing around in line at the gate either. I’d much rather fly non-stop and know my seat than spend more time on the ground than in the air for an already long trip.
Of course, the other problem in the Bay Area is that the other big airline is United, whose delay record is generally worse than that of Southwest, because its hubs are in San Francisco and other highly delayed airports like Chicago O’Hare.
Most airlines won’t give you any such thing unless you have high level frequent flyer status or some such.
Yes, I have a strong preference for non-stop (or fewest possible stops) flights because each stop means another hour plus of travel time plus risk of missing the connection.
I have to say that I’ve sent complaining emails to both United and Jet Blue in the last year and never heard back from them. They weren’t huge issues, but ones where they could definitely improve communication with passengers and prevent a snowball of nastiness from thus forming.
I guess, since I didn’t hear back, that they really are bad at communicating!
