<p>I love SWA
I love the free baggage
I love the ability to change times with no change fee- we learned early to just buy the first flight home from college and let DD change it if she needed to, but at least we locked in a low price. All my kids know to watch DING and rebook cheaper fares if they come up and accumulate the extra $ in their SWA credits
I don’t mind the seating at all, all I want is a window seat, I don’t care if I sit next to my family or in the back of the plane.</p>
<p>My DH dislikes the seating as he wants an assigned seat, I don’t get it, we all get there at the same time, who care where I sit if I can change flights for free.</p>
<p>DD has a flight to an interview and specifically used SWA as she may be able to get another interview the next day in the same town and she could then change her flight, no penalty</p>
<p>We flew Southwest out of Oakland. It was fine- we even had a window seat as the woman sitting in the row of three, didn’t want it.</p>
<p>We loved having free checked baggage as we flew Alaska down and they charge for all checked bags.
Since we had a " few" extras on the way back, it was nice to have the room.</p>
<p>I have a personal, intimate relationship with Southwest ;)<br>
Well, they make me feel like I do!
I book with them whenever possible. They are so fantastic!
I have never heard one “horror story”.</p>
<p>I love that if plans change you don’t lose your money.
I love that you can buy a one way ticket.
I love how friendly they are on the phone.
I don’t love the Philadelphia Airport when it rains!</p>
<p>I grew up using them, however, so I’m not sure whether it’s fair. I certainly don’t prefer other airlines’ cramped seating.</p>
<p>In addition to what other posters have said, I love that they carry Dr Pepper. Not Mr Pibb, or Dr Shasta, or root beer (who decided root beer is a sane substitute for Dr Pepper anyway?), but Dr Pepper. ;)</p>
<p>I also appreciate their “free flight” accumulation. 16 credits = 2 free credits. 32 credits = free companion ticket for a year. And you have 2 years to accumulate it. As a college student, going home for Thanksgiving (2), Christmas (2), somewhere for spring break (2) and summer (2), it was easy to earn a free flight every two years! You can also get credits from rental cars and hotel stays. Perhaps not as generous as other airlines, but a heck of a lot simpler!</p>
<p>Southwest has great customer service. My dad had free SW drink coupons, and the dog found them and chewed them up, leaving the evidence on the floor next to my sister’s teddy bear. My mom wrote a letter from the teddy bear’s point of view, telling about how the mean dog blamed him for tearing up the tickets and how the SW baggage area was his favorite of all the airplanes he had been on. My mom got a call from a customer service representative about how much she loved the letter, and I <em>think</em> they sent twice as many coupons as the dog had chewed up.</p>
<p>SW seems to really promote having fun among its employees, and that carries over to their interactions with customers. Some of my favorite flights involved really lame jokes being told by the flight attendants as they prepared to take off.</p>
<p>I’ll be taking my first Southwest flights at the end of this month (the other airlines didn’t have flights at times convenient for me). Glad to see this thread.</p>
<p>My son flies between Baltimore and San Diego and swears by Southwest. I guess I’ll be finding out why.</p>
<p>Another SW fan. DD flew them back to school and because of weather they were diverted to Austin (instead of Houston) to wait an hour for storms to pass and refuel. I got a $50 coupon. Did not have to complain or ask - it just showed up. </p>
<p>Also love - love free bags and easy no fee changes. We used the $10 early check in for the 2 kids who were flying home from the wedding this weekend. The 24 hours would have been during the ceremony and the early was a great convenience. However, that means I have now been in the A40’s - A50 when I check in instead of the 20’s as I was before. Not sure what will happen if everyone starts electing that option.</p>
If you cancel you simply get a credit to use later.
They don’t charge for bags.
They rarely have delays on the routes we fly regularly (2 or 3 places)–unlike American, our other frequent choice, which has been absolutely terrible over the past year–I"m talking 4-hour delays as a matter of course.
When they do have delays, they’re honest and communicative.
Their terminals are really nice.
The price is usually right, especially when you factor in the free bags.
I can’t imagine that there are horror stories!</p>
<p>I love Southwest for all of the reasons everyone else stated but especially because they fly out of Midway instead of O’Hare and we can get there without even going on the highway in less than 25 minutes. And:
Midway has cool Chicago area eating venues.
When picking someone up, I can pull up next to a bungelow in the neighborhood near the airport 5 minutes away and wait for the arriving passenger to call when they land.
Midway is much better on time in bad weather.
When you’re landing, you’re not so sure there really is an airport until you’re practically on the ground.</p>
<p>I skimmed through the thread, and didn’t see if anyone mentioned this reason to love SW - the flight times are set and don’t change (at least I’ve never heard of them changing.) It is so annoying when other airlines change your flight times, type of plane and thus preassigned seats, etc. We do check-in on the 24 hour mark, and have not flown them since they added to $10 early check-in feature.</p>
<p>Oh…I hate to rain on this parade but…
SW was fined over 10 million dollars last year for not doing proper safety checks on old planes. Makes me wonder what else is sacrificed in the interest of keeping fares low.
That said, I agree with the impressions in these posts. The staff is great. The service is terrific. I HATED reading about the fine and the details in the news…but it’s there…and it’s something to consider.<br>
I still book on SW but I’m also watching for more news…</p>
<p>I’ve flown SW quite a bit as well as many other airlines and I like SW okay. In addition to the positive points ‘geezermom’ stated, another thing I like is the seating arrangements. At first I balked at the idea of not having assigned seats but it’s actually worked to my advantage on SW. I make sure I do the 24 hour check-in as close to the dot of 24 hours beforehand as I can so I can get in the ‘A’ group of seats (out of ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ groups where ‘A’ boards first). As long as I get into the A group or most of the way into the B group I can usually get an aisle seat. In the A group you can usually easily get 3 seats together, etc. I like this method because invariably I rarely book more than a week or so in advance and all the best assigned seats on other airlines can already be taken. The SW method usually assures me of the seat I want as long as I’m diligent which I am. If you manage to check-in at the exact 24 hour point and get an A seat I wouldn’t bother paying extra for the priority assignment. The seats themselves are the same.</p>
<p>Another benefit to not charging for checked bags like other airlines do is that the result can be fewer people trying to stuff all their bags into the cabin to save the checked bags fee. </p>
<p>I haven’t ever ‘connected’ to other SW flights, I’ve only taken nonstops, so I don’t know if that has ramifications with the seat selection but I’m sure other posters have the scoop on this.</p>
<p>We are also Southwest fans. We’ve tried to equal their prices and sometimes come close…but when you add in the baggage charges, SW wins most of the time. We have had a number of times when our connections were going to be missed. They rerouted us…no problem. One time we were on a plane that was the last one in to get a connection. It was late by about 20 minutes and they held our connecting flight (there were a LOT of people on our flight making the same connection). We’ve never had trouble sitting together (usually three or four of us). </p>
<p>I DO always remember to bring my own music, book to read and a crossword book. There’s no “entertainment” on the SW planes and for a cross country flight sometimes that is a drag…but it’s certainly doable.</p>
<p>I like the newer seating plan. I hated just getting in line by zone. Too much bickering.</p>