I’ve been on SW flights where the flight attendants came around and told folks they couldn’t do this!
You haven’t flown SW out of Orlando, have you? I was on a flight once where there were at least 30 families in the ‘kids’ line. Parents, grandparents, older siblings - really some groups of 6-8 with one smaller child, but a child who could walk onto the plane. I had a low ‘B’ boarding, and the plane was almost half full before I could get on (also a lot of military with pre-boarding on Florida flights).
Shortly after that, I notice SW was limiting the group to the parents and child only. If they wanted to board with the whole family or grandparents, they had to wait for their regular boarding letter/number.
It usually doesn’t bother me as for some reason these people always want to sit on top of each other in the first 10 rows and I just head to the back, hoping to get a seat next to a vacant middle seat
1 Like
At all the airports I’ve been at, they’ve been VERY strict in limiting the number of adults who could board in family boarding with a child. The policy is up to two adults, and I’ve always seen them enforce it.
2 Likes
We were traveling someplace with our two kids. We had confirmed seats with one parent and one kid together…and the second parent and kid across the aisle. We had the boarding passes.
Imagine our surprise when we were called to the counter and were told that our seats had been changed. Funny, they split all four of us up and we were single seats all over the plane. No parents with kids. Kids were 6 and 3.
I was very polite, and told the customer service person that was fine with us. And that I hoped the people seated near our young children (way too young to travel alone) were willing to entertain these kids. I would give them snacks.
Our seats miraculously got changed back. It was a very weird experience. I don’t remember which airline…but we never had this issue with Southwest.
5 Likes
I know they’re not supposed to allow this, but on most SW flights I’ve been on people save seats with impunity. Like I said above , after a while you think well - if everyone else is doing it I’m the only fool if i don’t. Today I discovered I was also foolish for following the “6 and under” policy for family boarding when I could have apparently used it for a few more years by “asking”.
~~
I think the takeaway from this thread is that like colleges and many other things, people have different experiences, requirements and expectations and some just prefer different airline policies to what others do. Personally I will be more not less likely to fly SW when it brings in assigned seating.
A lot of who people fly depends on the airport they use.
SW dominates certain airports - like Nashville and KC. And offer non stops galore that the others don’t due to their hub and spoke system.
So it’s easy to say you’ll switch but harder to do so in reality - unless you like one stops !!!
1 Like
I was checking some prices for a trip this summer. United is about $500 for the cheapest (and a bonus it goes into HHI, but a negative is that it is a much longer trip through Newark) but about $600 for the more convenient times, while SW is cheaper at about $300, with faster connections through Dallas or Nashville but into Savannah.
I’m betting SW will keep prices low for now and then they’ll go up after the May date when the new policies kick in.
2 Likes
The interesting ones are like Avelo who will fly Nashville to New Haven or Concord NC (instead of Charlotte) or Lakeland (between Orlando and Tampa) or Wilmington NC, saving a drive from Raleigh or Myrtle.
Or Breeze who my daughter just took from Charleston to New Orleans non stop.
Some of these folks are creative in ways that might work for certain parts of the audience.
Those are probably the routes that are available, and they hope to work their way into more profitable routes.
1 Like
Not sure if this was mentioned earlier. Copied from TPG Newsletter:
Last week, it (SW) stealthily devalued the number of points you earn on Wanna Get Away fares from 6 points per dollar spent to 2 — a huge reduction with no notice, which is so unlike Southwest.
They did mention changes to Rapid Rewards earn ratios in the March 11 email to customers (but this email came after the change started).
Beginning this month, we increased our Rapid Rewards earn ratio on our Business Select fares and lowered the earn ratio on our Wanna Get Away® and Wanna Get Away Plus™ fares. We will also begin to vary our redemption rates across our fare products on some high- and low-demand travel periods.
Some airlines do not even include a drink and snack.
I flew Lufthansa twice last week. A small bottle of water was all you got. Oh, and a piece of chocolate (that was really good). All other food you had to pay for.
2 Likes
A piece of good chocolate would be an upgrade over many airline snacks.
4 Likes
Domestically in Europe? I assume that wasn’t transatlantic??
Germany to Spain, and Spain to Germany. 2 hour flights. Very unimpressed. On the first flight, they changed our gate 3 times in 5 minutes, then we had to ride a bus from the terminal to the plane (which we almost missed because they kept changing the gate), hold on the bus while they fueled the plane, climb up the stairs to board. Very empty plane. They never picked up the trash (even the water bottles) and I had to walk to the front of the plane to toss my own trash after the flight attendant yelled at me for having trash.
Why keep changing the gate when the plane wasn’t at the gate anyway? Couldn’t they just drive the bus to the original gate? Got my steps in.
That sounds very …unlike Lufthansa, or at least unlike I remember it, but that was international a long time ago. Last Europe “domestic ” flights were BA (yeah I know brexit makes it technically international) which were meh,but I’ve done those before and knew what to expect, and Austrian air from Berlin to Vienna which was short but very nicely done. Would happily fly them again.
(I forgive BA because for reasons unknown to me (I lost status some years back), they upgraded us to business class on both transatlantic flights.)
As highlighted in a study by Compass Lexecon, commissioned by Airlines for America, a cross-country flight between Los Angeles and Boston cost $4,439 in 1941, $915.82 in 1978, $408.89 in 2015, and a mere $119.67 in 2024. It is also worth mentioning that airport fees and taxes have significantly increased in recent years. For example, the typical airport fee for a ticket has risen from $1.65 in 1979 to $29.70 in 2024.
Flights in the 1970s may have been a lot more expensive, but passengers also got much more in terms of service. As airlines didn’t set their own rates, they were guaranteed profits. As a result, with the money travelers paid, airlines could offer crystal glasses, complimentary champagne, and real cutlery, a sharp contrast to today’s plastic cups and boxed meals.
1 Like
Another adjunct to the meme about ‘air travel in 50 years’ is how people used to dress up to fly. Nowadays, people dress like slobs in some cases.