Southwest Fans... are you reconsidering

[sam_gordon]

The big question right now is, how many of those that were caught up in this will actually stay away? Right now there are a whole lot of people saying they will never fly SW again. 25,000 RR points will sway some of them back, others will come back when SW is either the only non-stop option or significantly less expensive. I've got SW tickets MKE-MCO in two weeks. It was 17,000 RR points for my round trip non-stop in each direction, in the midst of all of this I booked a backup on Delta, 34,000 SM with a connection in the northern part of the country each direction. I've also got 4 business trips in the next 7 months, at least two of them the company is going to put me on SW, probably all 4. Travelling from MKE to BNA, MCI, LIT and LAS.

Oh, I'm sure some of those who say they'll never fly SW again will return. But, I would think each time this happens (and again, it happened a number of times in 2022), the numbers that come back will get smaller and smaller. Surely even businesses would shy away if they find their employees either can't get to where they're going, or are stuck away from home.

 

[Jacksonian]

I will look elsewhere because SW from Philly removed their non-stops during the week. They only have them on SAT ans Sun at bad times.

We live about 25 min from PHL. We began driving to BWI and flying from there when SW dropped many of their gates and non-stop flights out of Philly. BWI is a 1.5 hr drive for us so if we had a connecting flight out of PHL it's about the same time overall. We like BWI as they have many direct flights and the parking is easier than in Philly.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Not able to vote
they are never my #1 choice only because they require a 2 hour drive from my home
however for the trips where I do choose them I’ve got no problems with booking them
I want flying them during the bad days last week. Flyer them on the 2nd just fine
Delta however has delayed my flight today and delayed my last flight home.
all in all, in all my flights on all airlines southwest has still gives me the fewest delays. I don’t hold last week against them

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I like having an assigned seat

The costs is usually more than other airlines

the two free bags don't sway me because if I have a checked bag it's only one and I'll gladly pay the $50 RT fee for the luggage

One of the reasons that people like SWA is because these things don't cost extra. Yes you're right you don't get assigned seats but we just paid $320 for 2 people to select our seats for a British Airways flight and that was just one leg from Heathrow to Chicago. The other leg we haven't purchased seats for yet from Athens to Heathrow.

What made SWA incredibly popular over the years is because people started doing the math on all these added things and seat selection and the ever increasing dividing up of kinds of seats has made this even more desirable.

I think SWA sits in the middle of things. You've got Spirit and Frontier and others who have made it an a la carte experience and then you have other airlines where you're paying for luggage, seat selection and in the type of fare you purchase like for Delta Economy Comfort.

With Delta we have an Amex card so yeah we get 1 free checked luggage per person on the reservation but that's because of a perk with the branded CC and you have to pay using the card to get that perk. We hardly use the 2 free checked bags from SWA, it's not a primary driver of us flying them but flying other airlines we need to keep that in mind if we do check.

I do think SWA has added additional features and increased existing ones (like EBCI) and the new fare class WGA+ but generally you'll still want to do that math on all your travels.

As far as non-stop have you checked that recently? Being in CA wouldn't mean SWA doesn't have non-stop options. What airport you live near yes.

If you haven't flown SWA in many years do you even still check SWA airlines when you're looking to fly? If you don't do you know they are still more than other airlines? Sometimes Delta is less expensive than SWA but Delta's point program is horrible. The redemption is terrible and so it doesn't incentivize us to fly with them much because the points are just going to sit there. It took my husband to fly to Japan at an incredibly high ticket cost in 2014 just to give us any sort of boost to use 55,000 points for 1 ticket to fly to Hawaii and that was back in 2016 that we flew that.

I'm totally not picking on you, I've read several other comments but when someone says "I haven't flown them in decades/years" it changes the entire conversation (this goes for any airline, I couldn't really give you much recent experience into AA as it's been years since I've flown them, and United several years too). Things are much different. Sometimes people complain about SWA's boarding policy but are talking about it from years and years ago for example when it was done at the airport instead of online.

 

[disney-inspired]

One of the reasons that people like SWA is because these things don't cost extra. Yes you're right you don't get assigned seats but we just paid $320 for 2 people to select our seats for a British Airways flight and that was just one leg from Heathrow to Chicago. The other leg we haven't purchased seats for yet from Athens to Heathrow.

What made SWA incredibly popular over the years is because people started doing the math on all these added things and seat selection and the ever increasing dividing up of kinds of seats has made this even more desirable.

I think SWA sits in the middle of things. You've got Spirit and Frontier and others who have made it an a la carte experience and then you have other airlines where you're paying for luggage, seat selection and in the type of fare you purchase like for Delta Economy Comfort.

With Delta we have an Amex card so yeah we get 1 free checked luggage per person on the reservation but that's because of a perk with the branded CC and you have to pay using the card to get that perk. We hardly use the 2 free checked bags from SWA, it's not a primary driver of us flying them but flying other airlines we need to keep that in mind if we do check.

I do think SWA has added additional features and increased existing ones (like EBCI) and the new fare class WGA+ but generally you'll still want to do that math on all your travels.

As far as non-stop have you checked that recently? Being in CA wouldn't mean SWA doesn't have non-stop options. What airport you live near yes.

If you haven't flown SWA in many years do you even still check SWA airlines when you're looking to fly? If you don't do you know they are still more than other airlines? Sometimes Delta is less expensive than SWA but Delta's point program is horrible. The redemption is terrible and so it doesn't incentivize us to fly with them much because the points are just going to sit there. It took my husband to fly to Japan at an incredibly high ticket cost in 2014 just to give us any sort of boost to use 55,000 points for 1 ticket to fly to Hawaii and that was back in 2016 that we flew that.

I'm totally not picking on you, I've read several other comments but when someone says "I haven't flown them in decades/years" it changes the entire conversation (this goes for any airline, I couldn't really give you much recent experience into AA as it's been years since I've flown them, and United several years too). Things are much different. Sometimes people complain about SWA's boarding policy but are talking about it from years and years ago for example when it was done at the airport instead of online.

I check every airline before I book a flight. I only fly out of LAX or Burbank. I refuse to book a flight that isn't direct - losing vacation time because of travel irks me, so I default to LAX. I book just standard economy so only have to pay for the luggage.
LAX is about a 45 min drive from my house while it's more of a hassle than smaller airports, flights are cheaper and direct. I haven't flown Delta since 2006 so not sure about their flights but I have been flying United exclusively these past few years because the times and prices have been great. I have had good experiences on all those flights, too. American Airlines is less reliable - I've had flights canceled last minute more than once.

My sister and her family prefer SW and they normally only fly to TX, so they always get direct flights from Burbank and since they are a family of 5, the free checked bags are a huge perk for them.

I wanted to be a SW person but it hasn't worked work with my travel plans.

 

[DSLRuser]

flying out tomorrow morning for a flight to MCO for a cruise Friday....zero worries about my flight

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I check every airline before I book a flight. I only fly out of LAX or Burbank. I refuse to book a flight that isn't direct - losing vacation time because of travel irks me, so I default to LAX. I book just standard economy so only have to pay for the luggage.
LAX is about a 45 min drive from my house while it's more of a hassle than smaller airports, flights are cheaper and direct. I haven't flown Delta since 2006 so not sure about their flights but I have been flying United exclusively these past few years because the times and prices have been great. I have had good experiences on all those flights, too. American Airlines is less reliable - I've had flights canceled last minute more than once.

My sister and her family prefer SW and they normally only fly to TX, so they always get direct flights from Burbank and since they are a family of 5, the free checked bags are a huge perk for them.

I wanted to be a SW person but it hasn't worked work with my travel plans.

LAX is one of the airports SWA flies non-stop to from my home airport; it's the only one in that LA area it does. Obviously destination and season matters like you said where you want to go it's just not doing non-stop.

We ideally do non-stop if we can it's usually cheaper anyhow so I get you completely on that. Sometimes we can't get around it like our Cancun trip in April only on Saturdays-Sundays is there a non-stop option for SWA but the only other options are less than ideal. AA, Frontier, Apple Vacations and Vacation Express are the only other airlines offering non-stop. We're flying on a Monday coming back on a Tuesday. I too dislike losing vacation time if we don't have to so we often take first flight if we can and usually last flight. Not always but majority of the time.

My DISer friend had a nightmare situation with United last summer trying to get from KC to Paris it was a disaster and on the way home from Paris they diverted his flight to another state. Of course that can happen with any airline. I'd still fly United in the future but they have issues at times. With their nightmare we learned for our cruise next year to fly in even earlier than advised just to give a cushion. One of our other DISer friends booked a 13 hour layover when she was going to Paris a few months later than the other couple that turned into a 16 hour layover (got stuck in PA).

I've heard so many complaints about AA that's for sure.

I like Delta actually, they would be my second choice but their points program doesn't make it worth us flying them all too that often. Generally just when SWA doesn't fly somewhere. Now that SWA has added Hawaii....they look very nice for that destination. Although there is still some issues getting us home in 1 day due to not flying red-eyes. That's something they could improve on just for travel over waters and such.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I voted that I'd be more willing to book elsewhere. For flights to MCO, I would book United or Southwest depending on whichever was cheaper. I used to fly Jetblue but they removed all nonstop flights from Baltimore to Orlando and I don't believe they do flights from Dulles. Southwest's response to this situation doesn't give me a lot of consumer confidence in them right now. I never had an issues with Southwest in the past (sometimes they were better than United), though I really hate not having an assigned seat.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Southwest's response to this situation doesn't give me a lot of consumer confidence in them right now. I never had an issues with Southwest in the past

Unfortunately they didn't earn any favors today when people's promotional companion passes (which we have one) was supposed to load into the system to be available today to use. First it wasn't showing up on people's accounts, then when it was you couldn't book the flight. Luckily our flight is at the end of the month so it wasn't super pressing but some people needed it for travel tomorrow and such. It's should be all good now, my husband was able to book my ticket and it shows up in my account, but yeah after the holiday mess it's not a good look.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Unfortunately they didn't earn any favors today when people's promotional companion passes (which we have one) was supposed to load into the system to be available today to use. First it wasn't showing up on people's accounts, then when it was you couldn't book the flight. Luckily our flight is at the end of the month so it wasn't super pressing but some people needed it for travel tomorrow and such. It's should be all good now, my husband was able to book my ticket and it shows up in my account, but yeah after the holiday mess it's not a good look.

That and the fact that people are still missing their bags (I saw someone on the Southwest thread say they don't have them after 9-10 days) is a bad look for Southwest. The meltdown of their outdated scheduling system was an issue that the company knew about for a long time but refuse to address. Not great.

 

[SkyGuy]

flying out tomorrow morning for a flight to MCO for a cruise Friday....zero worries about my flight

I fly out Saturday, and SW has canceled several flights out of my airport (as well as delayed several out of other airports). I don’t think it’s weather. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It’s making me quite nervous!

 

[TinkAgainU]

IMPORTANT --- If your flight on SWA was cancelled, be sure to check your email - yesterday I received a polite apology email subject line "An Apology From Southwest CEO Bob Jordan" where I was given a code to use to add 25,000 points to my account (or a family member's account) in addition to refunds, of course. Email went to my junk mail, so I'm glad I noticed it.

 

[jo-jo]

The thing I like about SW is being able to cancel a flight and still be able to use the credit . Not sure about other airlines.

We weren’t caught up in the Christmas storm issue but did book for another trip. Perhaps if I was stuck somewhere for three days, I’d feel different.

 

[keishashadow]

We were in the first wave of mass flight cancellations in August 2020. That was trip to MYR Allegiant cancelled less than 24 hours out. Rebooked on spirit a few days later. All went fine

To their credit, Allegiant was very generous with credits. Enough to retain me as a customer

Have traveled thru 2 other large flight cancellation issues (not weather related since). Had delays, flights still departed (SWA & spirit). Lucky us

Legacy Carriers don’t offer NS into mCO from my market. Ugh

We run a SWA branded CC for travel. It is always the first airline I check

For me, it’s not SWA recent struggle that is particularly disconcerting … it’s their pricing.
flights have nearly doubled for the usual trips I take most years on SWA.

Accordingly, I’ve been waiting increasingly longer to book until I find something I can live with & using points at times as a cancellable fail safe

Surprised I’ve been splitting most travel over the past year or two between spirit and allegiant.

Had expected a degree of reluctance from casual travelers, going forward to the point SWA would roll out a big promo to soothe feathers, nada so far

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

going forward to the point SWA would roll out a big promo to soothe feathers, nada so far

SWA runs frequent sales, pretty sure they just ended one with flights as low as $59 (last year had flights for $39 a few times IIRC), they run random other targeted promos like promotional companion (which is what we have and why we're going to Puerto Rico in a few weeks; my husband had to fly 4 RT flights during a time period which he did), promotional A-list (although I think that was mostly 2021 to get some people traveling more), extending A-list benefits through targeted offers (like my husband who got that in 2021 if he flew 4 RT flights during a time period,), etc. In December they ran a points off promotion I forget the percentage but by that I mean the fares were a certain percentage off (maybe 30??) We booked our Puerto Rico (well my husband's since mine would be under the promotional companion) during that.

I'm not sure honestly what type of promo you were thinking they should run company-wide and be able to confidentially carry that on the books. I can't condone their debacle but realistically I don't know what they could offer either wide-spread.

 

[keishashadow]

I'm not sure honestly what type of promo you were thinking they should run company-wide and be able to confidentially carry that on the books

SJU is one of my favorite cities to spend a few days exploring pre cruise. Have avoided since the various storms, my understanding they are still rebuilding but, getting there. Enjoy your trip

I’m well versed with SWAs & their sales & have participated in several of their promos after running the numbers .

They tout a sale nearly every Tuesday. Unfortunately, it’s becoming rare to beat what I find on their schedule release dates in my market. Nice to know somebody is snagging a $59 fare tho

Admittedly, not that much flexibility to switch the dates on my FL/DVC trips that are booked 11 months out or for a cruise, well before SWA releases their schedule/prices

I do book some trips to travel Tues thru Thursdays when it suits my plans. The few times I’ve seen any appreciable SWA price drops

As an incentive, something along the line of a buy one fare, get half off a companion fare Bonus that would be redeemable after booking/completing a new RT fare (of an expenditure of a couple of hundred $).

TBH I’d settle for seeing a NS one way fare for dates I need from PIT to MCO under $200 (other than the occasional midweek flight I see that arrives late at night)

However, I don’t see SWA being slow enough anytime soon to the point they need to fill any seats. Not with all the credits/vouchers that must be out there now waiting to be redeemed. If anything, fares may take a bump

Those who were inconvenienced recently, especially those stranded for days away from home over the holidays, deserve to be generously compensated by SWA

IMO The rest of us need to hear they are taking a long, hard look to find a way to tweak their system of operations and labor issues or this situation can easily repeat itself during the next weather event

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

SJU is one of my favorite cities to spend a few days exploring pre cruise. Have avoided since the various storms, my understanding they are still rebuilding but, getting there. Enjoy your trip

Thanks, we're actually stopping in Orlando for the night on the way there before continuing on because the connection was too short for our comfort (I think it was 35mins) so we'll hopefully have enough time for a late dinner with our DISer friends that moved down to Orlando plus another DISer friend that lives in my area but will also be down there. We're looking to have a quick fun trip

Those who were inconvenienced recently, especially those stranded for days away from home over the holidays, deserve to be generously compensated by SWA

I agree although I know many of them are getting points thrown their way (most seem to be getting 25K per passenger). I think the luggage part is more aggravating at the present moment to some.

I think I was asking because you said you expected them to "roll out a big promo to soothe feathers" I can't feasibly see something company-wide that they can do and carry it on the books. It's already estimating to cost them $825 million. During the early parts of the pandemic various airlines were doing all they could to offload their points in their system because for passengers it's great but for airlines it's costing them money.

SWA def. will suffer lasting PR consequences here but from a business standpoint I still want them around so I can't expect them to go under or be under extreme financial stress (since airlines in general suffered greatly during the pandemic already) just to give promos out. That's why I mentioned what SWA has done over time. They do promos throughout the year over the years that I would already count as big ones (A-list and Companion are huge) so I guess I was trying to figure out what big promo you were thinking to soothe feathers company wide as in every RR member.

IMO The rest of us need to hear they are taking a long, hard look to find a way to tweak their system of operations and labor issues or this situation can easily repeat itself during the next weather event

Def. agree there. They've known they needed to adjust and modernized their system. Even doing so won't prevent issues we know that with other airlines that have multi-day meltdowns but their tech is way too old to have been using this long.

 

[keishashadow]

so I guess I was trying to figure out what big promo you were thinking to soothe feathers company wide as in every RR member.

A big PR promo in sense it would be a reduced fare that would appeal to many customers and easy to redeem

Doesn’t take much to grab peoples’ attention via an email blast announcing 1/2 off a 2nd fare. An actual BOGO wouldn’t be financially prudent

This sort of promo would churn new bookings/income from the required first booking; along with the $ involved with a 2nd booking (full fare & the 1/2 off fare)

Easier option = 23% off (2023 lol) one RT per person would work by me. Do I think it will happen? No, they will be too busy sorting out this mess

I have seen stranger promos. Years ago, Before AirTran was acquired by SWA, Wendy’s offered specially branded sodas cups to collect & redeem for a flight. One pp offer. Manager at Wendy’s location was happy to sell me a sleeve of unfilled cups that equated to 3 RT flights at a big discount.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Doesn’t take much to grab peoples’ attention via an email blast announcing 1/2 off a 2nd fare. An actual BOGO wouldn’t be financially prudent

Well they already did the percent off (which I hadn't seen that much before) just before this mess that's why I mentioned it and it was per leg. It's how we got under 5,000 points for 1 from Orlando to Puerto Rico (I forget how much it was from our home airport to Orlando).

Half off second fare IMO wouldn't really help/make people feel the best because it requires at least 2 people to go. My husband travels a lot for business (he'll be gone in 4 days for a work trip for example and flying SWA), he's solo. There are a lot of solo travelers (and def. ones caught up in the mess) that would get upset that they are being treated unfairly.

TBH I think they are already doing a lot and I know they will be running these sales and odds and ends promotions at various times. Financial compensation they should probably step up more than just giving the points back but like I said the financial loss is a lot already. It's already costing them any profit for the quarter.

It's possible the Feds may hand down fines, they are already investigating the incident. Unless you want the company to potentially go under you'd have to weigh the odds here. About the only thing I can think of is a perk like A-list as a promotional thing but it couldn't be done company-wide, it'd have to be targeted like it has before and for a confined time period like the promotional companion pass (which ours is good until March 8th). They've done the promotional A-list with a time frame before earlier on in the pandemic. A-list will cost them in terms of points earning since you earn more points if you fly revenue flights but other than that it's just Boarding Position although the same-day change/same-day standby is a good perk but I'd say most leisure travelers don't utilize it, my husband who travels a lot for business has used that frequently enough.

 

[_19disnA]

My experience has generally been that any of the budget airlines are OK when things go well but awful when they don't. Part of the reason they are 'budget' airlines is they cut corners/costs on things so there might be fewer fligth choices, little/no non-stop options and extra charges the tend to make them not nearly as cheap as it would appear. If they only fly a certain route 2-3x per week, you are out of luck if weather or a mechanical issue forces a cancellation. Larger airlines have more planes available and can usually substitute another plane. Regardless of what time of year you travel, those are considerations when deciding which airline to choose.

SW knew they had an out-dated IT system and did nothing in apparent effort to save $$$. Clearly that didn't work out so well when combined with severe winter weather.