Yep. My sisters supposedly booked a non-stop direct flight from BDL to CLE their return when they visited. Their incoming Delta flight was CLE to Detroit to Hartford…that made sense.
Delta eliminated all direct flights…and their flight was changed to Hartford-Atlanta-Cleveland. What was supposed to be a 2 hour trip beginning midday turned into a 10 hour trip with the layover…beginning at 7 a.m.
And there was nothing they could do to change it…they tried.
Sometimes even when you do your due diligence when booking, stuff changes?
If people understand the SW boarding policy it might be ok, but we’ve had situations where people don’t quite understand that when the #s are sequential it doesn’t mean they get to stand in the first spot of the sequence when their # is the last # in that sequence (and some people got into an uncomfortable “conversation” with them about it- it was awkward standing there. Thought we might have to duck as they argued.)
And on a recent flight a young lady decided to take the middle bulkhead seat, slowly put her stuff in the overhead and seat, and when she realized that she had no space at her feet for stuff, decided to sit elsewhere, so took all her stuff out of the seat and overhead and moved down several rows, again blocking the aisle and slowly putting her stuff in the seat and overhead. Caused quite a backup.
“They still get referred to as a “discount” and even a “startup” airline, but let’s be honest, they’ve been around a good long while, and they’re effectively now one of the old-guard mainline carriers—no real difference between Southwest and Delta and United and American, really, aside from marketing.”>>
DH used to fly SW home during college back in the early 80s - he could walk up to the counter the day of and pay $25 for a flight.
They are rarely the cheapest option between BWI and Dallas Love. I looked the other week and they were $200 more than any one else.
Oh god - if I ruled the world, I’d institute these travel rules -
at the end of the carry-on bag scanner, go to the END and let your bag come all the way through instead of hovering at the part where the bags first come out. Because you’re an idiot for standing right there and blocking the people whose bags are ahead of yours. And I will tell you to move. I’ll do so nicely but you won’t make that mistake again.
if you are in line to board a flight, bend the freaking line so it runs parallel / creeps along a wall instead of jutting out into the terminal and blocking the way of passengers getting to other gates. And yes, I’ll redirect your line if I need to. I did so recently at Midway
just freaking step over me to get to a window seat (and I’ll do the same). The time lost in this charade of stand up, move out, you go I, I sit back down is ridiculous when you’re boarding a big flight.
^I hate it when people don’t get up when I try to get out. I always get up. I don’t want to have their butt on my nose. It goes just as fast.
I also think the boarding process is the best part of SW. So simple. They do have a priority seating but it’s not like AA. AA has some 5-6 special groups to priority seat. Absurd. One negative I noticed with SW seating. I am on the small side. The middle seat next to me is often taken first by a big person.
It is a cattle call at all other airlines when they call your group. Everyone jockeying for position in the mob. Also, the stupid process of scrolling through round trip flight options for other airlines annoys me. Just show me the legs going and the costs, and then the ones going back and the cost, and let me pick. I loathe the bundled round trips and trying to pick from them.
When I fly, I’ve gotten around paying the luggage fee by taking my roller bag into the gate area. When they inevitably announce that they will check your luggage free of charge at the jetway, I will get the tag from them and put it by the jetway to check it through to the destination. But I wonder how much longer will they do this free of charge until they realize this is a huge loophole and close it.
intparent, I hate that, too. I felt much less stressted out with SW. I also have to mention the extra fee I pay to seat in the front. SW $15 is far cheaper.
We used to fly SW more regularly 5-10 years ago. S1 could get really cheap SW fares between PHL and BDL that made it worthwhile, but by the time he graduated college, SW ended that route. We often took SW to BWI to visit S2 in DC. Direct flights to DC were so much more expensive that the extra trip from BWI to DC was still worth it.
We’ve only flown SW once in the past few years. Once Jetblue started service between BDL and DCA, the fares came down and now it’s cheaper to fly on other airlines than SW.
S2 is taking SW this week to go out to OAK to visit S2. He opted to not do early checkin, so he’ll likely have a middle seat, but he has a layover to break up his flight.
Was the bag oversized, @intparent? If it doesn’t fit in their metal gizmo that measures the luggage (or if they measure it with a tape measure and it is outside their specifications) http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/baggage/during-your-trip/carry-on.html , they can charge to gate check, but if they are asking people to do it as a convenience or if the overhead is full, they shouldn’t charge and he should appeal that and ask for his $ back. DS has a carry-on that is close to, but doesn’t exceed the limit. It had gotten measured on more than one occasion, but he has always been allowed to carry it on.
@shelfell,
Depending on how many people paid for earlybirrd, how full the flights are and how quickly he can check in at 24 hrs before, he should hopefully get maybe a mid B boarding group, and not get stuck in the center seat. HE’ll probably have to sit in the back of the plane, though. Curious, though- if he changes planes, can he check in for both flights when the first flight is at 24 hrs prior, or does he have to wait and do the second one later? I’d hope since its one itinerary he can do both at once
“I hate it when people don’t get up when I try to get out. I always get up. I don’t want to have their butt on my nose. It goes just as fast.”
You’re talking about mid flight when window-seat person is trying to use the bathroom or whatever. I’m talking about boarding, when someone’s in the aisle and someone is trying to get to the window. People are waiting in the aisles. Just climb over me, already, and be done with it. Or I’ll climb over you. But don’t hold up people behind you!!
When you check in for your flight, all connections are checked in as well. That is why you might check in right at the second of 24 hours prior and get B10- the people who started earlier from another city and are connecting in your city have already checked in.
jym- are you really correcting my spelling on here?
Travel is basically unpleasant these days and we all do what works best for us. It isn’t the fault of the airline if a huge person sits next to you or someone is rude in some other way. I assure you it goes across all carriers.
@jym626 -when you check in for a SW flight that has a connection, you get both boarding passes at once. This is how you can easily end up in the A group for your second leg- you are checking in hours before other people are able to.
Well, I don’t like standing in the aisle going nowhere, while umpteen people ahead of me take their time putting their bags overhead. Paying for comfort on my recent Delta flights meant getting on just after first/business and a few special needs. $39 total upcharge for two legs.
In contrast, AA coming back, I agree they loaded every special flyer first- business, credit card holders, uniformed military, mileage club, then moms/babies, then my comfort group.
A few posters called AirTran Airtrans. Having flown it for years and years, and also as ValuJet , it is an airline we used a lot. People wrote ValuJet wrong too!
Surely people have good and bad experiences on all airlines. But those that leave a bad taste in our mouthes will leave memories. I will avoid AA at all costs because of the travel mess with them, that was not completely their fault. How they handled it, and their customers, left a very bad taste in my mouth. On the other hand, AirTran was fabulous to us on many occasions. When my mom was hospitalized and dying they would tell me to come to the counter and they would personally walk me to the gate from the check in counter to get on a flight I was using travel voucher points to get on. We as a family flew something like 32 segments in 5 weeks during her illness. They did many things above and beyond to help us. That example above was just one. I will be eternally grateful.
If any of you have one of the newer Samsung Galaxy phones and sign up for Samsung Pay, you can buy Southwest gift cards at 20% off. Only $100 per day, but it adds up doing it every day.
