I’ve mostly preferred nonstops, even if there is a slightly higher charge. It is more likely you will get from point to point with fewer delays and less likely to lose luggage.
Not to be too rude, @HImom, but I don’t think anyone prefers stopping. The only reason that most of us do it, is that it’s substantially less expensive or the airline we chose doesn’t have direct flights to the destination.
I actually do prefer to stop and change planes to break up really long flights (across the country or to another country). Maybe that’s just me though.
For our routes, Southwest has usually been about as low as the other airlines, unless we wanted to fly at 6:00 am or thereabouts, which we don’t. Then sometimes the other carriers were lower. The free bag check and flight changes have been very useful, but I agree the Early Bird is starting to get expensive. We’ve learned the Early Bird is most helpful at airports where there are tons of connecting flights rather than those where the flights originate. Also, when we lived in Chicago, we greatly preferred flying in and out of Midway rather than O’Hare.
There are very few non-stop flights from our nearby airport…to anywhere farther away than Baltimore. Usually flying non-stop isn’t a choice. But to Atlanta it is.
I’m hoping I don’t regret these reservations…with Delta. I haven’t had good flying experiences with them. At least SW has great customer service.
There are definitely people who DO prefer stopping for various reasons–saving $$, stretching, increasing chances of getting bumped, better times, better airports. It’s always a trade off. Many times there’s only one nonstop and it may be s red eye–have to balance the extra cost and pros/cons of flying overnight to decide which to book.
I live equidistant between O"Hare (UA, AA) and Midway (Southwest) and I’m indifferent as to which airport to use. I will check Southwest prices but no, I absolutely do not find them a low cost carrier. Sonetimes they are cheaper - with a connection, so no thanks. Sometimes you can snag a deal but often they are just the same price if not more expensive than UA/AA. So I don’t think something “happened” at all!
Southwest is usually the cheapest and preferred carrier for me, and I find the change policy essential- especially for my business travel. I am lifetime Platinum on American due to my 28 years in Dallas, but I hardly ever use them anymore. I’m A List on Southwest and trying to keep it for next year!
I am close to 3 Southwest cities and I generally don’t find them to be the lowest cost. When they first came to my area my H commuted between Manchester, NH and BWI every week for a year. After 6 months of this, SW customer service contacted him and thanked him for being a good customer and sent him 2 tickets to a Celtics basketball game. This was in '98-'99. Dont think this would happen today.
Main Southwest advantage that I have seen in the past is flying from less delay airports. United flies many more places, but delays are much more frequent due to depending on airports like SFO and ORD.
Yes – in Minneapolis, they fly out of the smaller terminal. TSA lines are usually much shorter there. The big terminal is nuts – more than once I spent over an hour in the TSA line in the past few years.
Southwest always seems to be more expensive. I figured it was because everyone likes them now, so are willing to pay more. That said, my son just booked them to Cancun in September. They were $20 more than Spirit, with luggage, but over $100 less than American. I didn’t realize they flew to Cancun.
We flew SW to Cancun a year ago February. It was fine. There were going to be connections on that one no matter who we flew…and the prices were favorable at the time.
I guess it’s like a lit of other things,ymmv depending on the dates, routes, and the like. I’ll just make sure I do my comparison shopping,
Airlines are quite volatile and you have to carefully watch fares, airlines, routes, etc. you also have to be sure you can actually MAKE the close connections that are sometimes “recommended.” H and I prefer to have longer connection times so we don’t stress as much when there are delays–which are all too frequent.
When you use a travel certificate, you have to book each person separately for each certificate. Once when we have UAL tech support helping us book, they booked H and me on different days! Fortunately, the error was caught quickly, within the free 24 hour change window and before the fares changed.
They fly to Cancun and other non-stateside destinations since the AirTrans merger.
Even when I’m not checking luggage and saving on bag fees, I often choose Southwest for its flexibility unless it’s considerably more expensive. It’s worth a lot to me to be able to take a later flight or postpone my return on a whim.
@Hanna I agree, SW flexibility in rebooking is a great thing. But for $120 more per person?
But to be fair. DD is flying here twice this summer from Atlanta and got $150 round trip tickets for each trip on SW.
Southwest has never been the cheapest in my searches. They’re usually at least $150 more round-trip and since I usually don’t check luggage, Southwest is not competitive. Even if I did check luggage, I’d have to check multiple pieces to consider Southwest.
I’ve used primarily Delta and American… and Frontier when I lived in Denver.
After the AirTrans merger, SW started flying into Portland, so I was really excited. But I’ve yet to find a reasonable flight through them! Other airlines are MUCH cheaper.
The flexibility is absolutely my #1 reason for liking Southwest. When we were looking for flights to Seattle, we were torn because our son was concerned about a possible work trip when we were scheduled to visit him, but between the cost difference on Alaska airlines and the fact that it was a direct flight for less, we decided to take our chances. We have taken advantage of the changing flight options many times on SW. They make it easy.