A school group was on a flight to California with me one time. They boarded last and asked us to leave the back of the plane for them, but it was sort of unclear where the ‘back’ started. My friend and I were over the wing (she picked, I don’t like being over the wing) and one of their teachers was our middle seat buddy.
They had to have a few people move around because the kids weren’t old enough to sit in the exit rows.
They were not quiet.
Last month I had to book a 7am SW flight to NY only 14 hours ahead. Didn’t love the rear, middle seat… but I was glad to get something. Boarding process with tolerable for me, but my husband would have hated it (and refuses to fly SW). We mostly fly United out of Denver. Lots of flights, and our Chase United Visa gives us free checked bags. Lately we’ve been checking bags even when we use carryon rollerbags (which make things easier on the plane and later in the trip).
Impressive principal!
Unpopular opinion here, but we just booked SW tickets, and I was so much happier paying $30 to reserve a particular seat than I would have been paying $15-20 early bird that may or may not actually get you an A boarding position (or, as has happened to me before, gets me an A slot only to find that my flight is part of a multi-leg flight and the plane is already pretty full when I get on).
I may be a little less happy later if I decide to check bags and then pay extra 
I received a notice that my SW credit card annual fee is being raised to $229/yr. That’s not worth it to me so I’m going to let it expire. No free bags for me, but I just booked a flight for Feb that used most of my miles and a $30 credit I had left on my account to pay the taxes. My daughter moved from a SW city to an AA city so maybe I’ll try that.
From how much ? Mine going up too - I think $69 to $99. I’ll cancel. You have opt in so if you don’t they cancel you.
Mine started at $40, then went to $99, and then last year it went to $149 for a ‘premier’ level which did get me a lot more points on the anniversary and more per $$ spent, upgrades to A level etc. It was worth that, but not $229. My United card, also through Chase, went from $99 to $149 and I think I’ll keep that one (two passes to their lounge per year).
My notice said I needed to opt OUT by Dec 28.
I’m not fussed about the seating changes, but. Costing more than $100 a seat extra plus seat & bag charge vs a bag-included charge on United (free seat selection) on two different flights? They’re pricing themselves out, never mind the other stuff.
Yep. I’ve stopped flying SW. They are more convenient to my home in TX and ease of getting in and out than DFW but now they are always more expensive than every other airline. They’ll be in bankruptcy soon. Private equity ruins everything they touch.
I am so glad Southwest was still Southwest when we needed it living in the western suburbs of Chicago. We could fly nonstop from Midway just about anywhere we wanted to go. It was our top choice domestic airline.
Then we moved to San Diego, son moved to Seattle, SW stopped nonstop service between the cities. We discovered Alaska and never looked back.
Don’t know about BK - their revenues and stock price is way up.
But I do think they’ll lose the ethos or soul of the airline and in 5 years go back to some of what they lost.
But financially, things are going ahead of plan.
The reality is - they are dominant in some markets and really the only choice - that’s me in Nashville. So you’re flying them whether you want to or not - unless you want to stop.
SWA used to be our go to as they have a good number of flights out of Hartford, but they have reduced their destinations from BDL and with the new changes we have found other options to be more affordable and often easier. We have enough SWA miles saved up for a round trip flight for the two of us so we will use those up, but it is sad to see that they went from our go to airline to using them only because it can be free with banked miles.
I am counting days till December-DD graduation. SW and flying to Memphis is nightmare. Once she is out of Memphis I doubt we will ever use SW. We never used it before too. It is just we have very few choices with Memphis. Prices are also astronomical for us. $400 round-trip for Sping break. (I was watching prices for 9 months. ) We can fly to Europe for that much money.
Depending where C26 ends up (currently 3-4 choices depending on one more decision, between 3 airports) we may stay with SW for school flights - they are by far the most convenient for Denver with a bunch of daily OAK-DEN flights, and a couple of OAK-MDW flights a day - the cost differential with other carriers will also need to take extra time & cost getting to SFO into account, and the equation changes if it’s just one person flying vs 3 in terms of more expensive flights. If they end up at PIT no one flies direct from OAK and that would definitely mean almost no more SW (our annual girls trip to Indian Wells aside where SW is easiest)
Memphis has always been a tough airport - at one time the most expensive in the country.
My kid wants to fly to see her grandfather - Denver to Vegas. It’s $89 regularly but on the week she wants to go, $500. The airlines plan for high demand times - that’s why prices are high during the Spring Break season.
BWI to MEM - SW has a daily non stop - that’s new I’m sure - and $147 (it’s actually $146.47 but they round up). That’s on many days in March. It’s the same going back - so it’d be $293 RT.
it’s just the days that matter but it’s just like if you take a cruise. The day it ends, anything before 6P is sky high.
Supply and demand. They know the demand and they price to it. Airlines, not just Southwest, are all like that.
That they have a non-stop - for you is a huge win!!
Southwest hack for A List members.
Flying home from Vegas.
On the way out, I bought the cheapest (basic) fare which wasn’t a good time. I’m A List so at midnight prior, I can go on line and do same day standby.
I signed up for a non stop instead of the one stop I bought. It showed me 10th on the list.
When I arrived 10 hours later, I asked if I had a shot because I’m #10. They said I’m #1 but it shows #10 because they take the 9 last buyers and don’t assign them a seat til 30 mins b4 in case they have a higher revenue customer.
I ended up on a one stop because they were sold out but had one person who hadn’t checked in. I could wait 20 mins to see if they came or hop on a one stop in a different terminal that I had to run to. I chose that. Austin has really good airport eats btw - the peach taco. But I got in 4 hrs plus earlier than the ticket I bought.
Coming home I booked the redeye (11.59p)for cheap bcuz other flights were triple. I paid $40 more for choice. I’m not sure if this is for everyone or A List only. But you can confirm a different flight at midnight the night prior. So I did. I’m on the 8:50 non stop that showed no seats (likely due to what I showed above) but when it gave me options to change to they had 5.
I’m in a middle seat whereas in the past I would have boarded after the As and got an aisle. That part sucks.
For the company, the stock is near a double since the changes took place.
Not a big fan day to day but since I own some stock at least there’s that.
If you fly SW and there are a lot of flights on your route, check the benefits of choice - which seems to be $40 more than basic. It could be you can by the cheapie fare and snag one hundreds more same day as I did. Just not sure if that’s A List only. Couldn’t tell from their benefit sheet.
I flew on SW to Mexico last week. They announced flight was full so if you wanted to gate check your carry on, it was free. Well the flight wasn’t close to full. Then the big thing became could they switch seats. Flight attendant announced 2 or 3 times to sit in your assigned seats and they’d let you know later if you could switch and where, because they knew because of the weight, etc. Honestly, we’d been picking our own seats for 50 years and NOW they tell us we were doing it all wrong and that they had a secret way of balancing the flight?
Well, maybe in the back they were letting people switch to seats in the back but not in the front (I was in row 7). After about 2 hours, I went to the bathroom and rather than climbing over 2 people (my friends) to the window I just sat in the aisle on the other side of row 7. I could tell from my year of high school physics that the plane was not going to tip over because I sat on the other side. In fact, all the rows on the right side of the plane were full and on the left side many had empty seats. I don’t think it was balanced at all.
SW did give us all the snacks we wanted, but no full can of soda. Flew United on the way back and they only gave us a cookie OR pretzels, not both (and yes I asked), but a full can of soda. United offered a (free) check of the carry on bag at baggage check.
It’s always something.
With soda, it’s always hit and miss. Depends on the crew.
As for the luggage trick, I read all airlines do it - say we are over full - because it helps speed the boarding.
I hate the new seating. Next week, I’m in row 22. At least they give me an aisle but I’m always between row 3 and 10 so that sucks.
But I appreciate the stock price is waaaaaay up although all the airlines and cruise lines fell a lot this past week due to oil prices (hint, might be good stocks to buy because fuel costs will come down most likely).
Yeah, it stinks - but their profit profile is exactly what the “investors” wanted when they took an activist position.
The old Southwest policy of including checked bags at no extra charge also helped speed boarding because there were fewer carry-on bags and less competition for overhead bin space.
The old Southwest policy of not pre-assigning seats was also the fastest boarding method of those actually used by airlines (although Steffen boarding order, which is not used, is theoretically faster). Without pre-assigned seats, passengers quickly pick any nearby acceptable seat, rather than waiting until they get to a specific seat.
We just flew SW to SoCal along with many others going to the tennis. First flight with new boarding system. Full flight. Easy boarding. One person in a wheelchair (looked like that was typical for the other SW flights too - definitely confirming the jetway Jesus …). No complaints. For me personally less stressful than open seating & boarding.