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Re: When you fly....

Posted: May 23 19, 3:36 pm
by G. Keenan
FYI, Norwegian is a great airline for low cost long haul flights to Europe, and their planes don't suck.

Re: When you fly....

Posted: May 23 19, 6:10 pm
by lukethedrifter
Not sure what the Southwest love is all about. Seldom are they they cheapest for me. They’re fine but nothing special.

Re: When you fly....

Posted: May 23 19, 10:35 pm
by CardsofSTL
lukethedrifter wrote:Not sure what the Southwest love is all about. Seldom are they they cheapest for me. They’re fine but nothing special.
I picked Southwest because they normally have the cheapest airfare for me; and I participate in their points so I get free flights. But the last time I flew American Airlines beat their price; by a lot; so I went with them. And next week I am flying American again for the same reason. But...American Airlines planes are not as comfortable as Southwest; much less leg room. And I prefer Southwest's boarding process. I haven't flown Delta in probably 20 years since I was in the military; so I don't really have any input on them. The last time I flew United I got bumped and then my follow up flight got cancelled; so I avoid them like the plague.

Re: When you fly....

Posted: May 23 19, 10:47 pm
by lukethedrifter
Leg room is getting ridiculous. If SW provides more at close to the same price i might start looking to them. I’m 6’2”; can’t imagine how uncomfortable it is for a really tall guy.

Re: When you fly....

Posted: May 23 19, 10:50 pm
by CardsofSTL
lukethedrifter wrote:Leg room is getting ridiculous. If SW provides more at close to the same price i might start looking to them. I’m 6’2”; can’t imagine how uncomfortable it is for a really tall guy.
Southwest is definitely better on leg room. American actually reduced their leg room on their recent Airbus models...but that is a big secret apparently.

Re: When you fly....

Posted: May 24 19, 12:15 am
by Joe Shlabotnik
lukethedrifter wrote:Leg room is getting ridiculous. If SW provides more at close to the same price i might start looking to them. I’m 6’2”; can’t imagine how uncomfortable it is for a really tall guy.
With southwest you always are on a real airplane. All they fly are 737s.
They don't use ridiculous fees - you can always check 2 bags for free.
They are consistently near the top in on-time percentage and overall customer satisfaction.
Their boarding process is great and rewards those who check-in earlier (though they've been selling front line placement for a while.)
In my experience, their employees are in a better mood most all the time.
They concentrate on second tier airports which are, by and large, easier to get in and out of.

Re: When you fly....

Posted: May 24 19, 7:16 am
by AWvsCBsteeeerike3
lukethedrifter wrote:Not sure what the Southwest love is all about. Seldom are they they cheapest for me. They’re fine but nothing special.
I think the price margins have become a lot smaller than they used to be. But, when I was a kid my dad travelled all the time. Probably flew out 20 times a year. I remember going to the airport back when you could still get past security without a ticket to pick him up. My mom's compass would always set off the xray machine detectors. It was always a hassle, but still exciting and what not.

Regardless, he always, always flew TWA at first. But, then iirc southwest had a promotion of $25 flights for their 25th anniversary and around that time he started flying SWA and really liked it. They didn't have the same amount of flights as TWA then American and around that time his travelling really cut back.

So, in short, I guess I'm a product of what I learned from my dad and distinctly remember him being a big fan of SWA and partially switching from TWA to SWA. Then, TWA ceased to exist as we knew it. So, SWA is the sole survivor. Further, during this time, I remember SWA priding itself on being timely. Going fully from memory here, they used to have drink napkins showing that they were #1 among major carriers in being on time, customer satisfaction, and one other thing. Again, going fully on memory here, they did this by avoiding the major airports that were notorious with delays (Ohare, DFW, and all the northeast) citing weather and congestion (delays) as reasons they didn't fly to those airports.

Today, just pricing a random weekend, July 12-14, a roundtrip flight from Little Rock to StL is $220 and non stop both ways vs $265 (only thing close) on United which has layovers on both flights. This is pretty clearly a result of SWA's decision to use StL as a hub and has helped Lambert International survive.

https://airlinegeeks.com/2017/08/07/the ... l-airport/
The Rapid Growth of Southwest

Immediately following American’s cuts in 2009, Southwest Airlines announced it would start service to St. Louis from six different locations, and expand farther in the following year. By the summer of 2010, Southwest had already taken over from American as the largest carrier at STL, as the airline operated 83 flights to 31 different destinations across its network.

Although passenger numbers fell to their low of 12.3 million in 2010, due to the presence of Southwest Airlines, numbers began to rise again, reaching 12.7 million by 2012. By 2013, Southwest had upped daily flights to a total of 95, serving 35 non-stop destinations. These numbers saw St. Louis break into Southwest’s ten busiest cities.

Along with new flights, Southwest has shown its growth with expansion of operations within the airport, re-opening some gates in the D Concourse that haven’t seen passengers since the glory days of TWA. These gates in the concourse went through renovation in the first-half of 2017, with the bill for the changes estimated to have been around $700,000.
On top of all this, they fly one plane: Boeing's 737. (Recently they've come out and said they'll allow passengers the option of switching flights for free if they don't feel comfortable with the 737 Max when it returns to service though Southwests CEO or someone said they have full faith in the Max/Boeing and will purchase many more). The obvious advantage is all their flight crews are certified to fly all their planes as they only have one type. All their maintenance crew only have to service one type of aircraft. Etc.

In conclusion, I just get the feeling they're a better run company than competitors. They have a bigger presence in StL than competitors which directly applies to me. They buy exclusively from Boeing which I personally appreciate since I have family that works there and as I like Boeing more than Airbus or old MD80s or any other regional plane. And, having flown probably close to 50 flights on them, I can't recall any major issues. Compared to 50 flights across American, Delta, United, etc where I have countless horror stories of over booking/being bumped, cancelled flights, etc. The worst experience on SWA was out of Ft. Lauderdale to a connecting flight somewhere to Little Rock. The flight out of Ft. Lauderdale was delayed by 1.5 hours and they specifically held the flight at the connecting airport for me and maybe 5 other passengers. It delayed the connecting flight by 30 minutes or so, some of which was made up in the air, but saved me a major headache and probably 8 hours or so of delay which I obviously appreciated.

Re: When you fly....

Posted: May 24 19, 8:53 am
by heyzeus
SW is the only airline with a direct from Austin to STL.

Re: When you fly....

Posted: May 24 19, 8:55 am
by G. Keenan
heyzeus wrote:SW is the only airline with a direct from Austin to STL.
Speaking of Austin . . . flying to Austin sucks. Fares always seem really high.

Re: When you fly....

Posted: June 28 19, 7:56 pm
by CardsofSTL
I'll be flying Alaskan Airlines for the first time next week. I've heard good things.