Southwest gets aggressive and we don’t notice?
Yesterday on my post about flights between Dallas / Fort Worth and Milwaukee, the surprise of that investigation was that Southwest Airlines was most probably the best choice based on cost (price + baggage fees + convenience from doorway to doorway) and service (mainline aircraft and service product).
Well, that got me to wondering about other routes out of the DFW area that I’m generally interested in. So, I checked on flights between Dallas and Portland, Oregon, another city I have an interest in. Southwest offers a number of two stop connections between the two destinations at competitive prices but your travel duration on those would be excruciating.
However, Southwest *does* offer a couple of flights each day that are one stop – no plane change flights. And guess what? They’re pretty reasonable in flight duration. Again, I cannot tell where that one stop is but it must be mostly right along the flight path. Best of all, their price is about as good as I’ve seen in a long time at an advance purchase fare of $129 each way. Again, considering that Southwest doesn’t charge for baggage and is more convenient in the Dallas area, this is the best deal all in all.
American Airlines offers 5 non-stop flights a day (all 4 hour long flights using MD-82 aircraft) for the same nominal price and charges for baggage.
And I have to tell you, I think I’d rather fly Southwest even with one stop. AA’s MD-80 aircraft are woefully worn out, uncomfortable and their crews are surly at best. Southwest offers me a more comfortable seat, most likely a newer aircraft and certainly a better maintained cabin and a service staff that was happy to get out of bed that day and go to work.
So, what does this mean? Well, it’s hard for me to research every route that SW and AA might compete on but it looks as if Southwest might be getting aggressive with American on a lot of routes that AA has been dominating with almost zero competition for a long time. Southwest is doing it by offering direct, one stop, no plane change flights and they look pretty good to me.
If you live in an area served by Southwest, it may very well pay dividends to take the extra moment to see what they’re offering on your chosen route. Just remember that you won’t pay baggage (or non-alcohoic beverage) fees and you will fly on mainline aircraft with friendly service staff. That has a value in and of itself.
In way, it is a shame that Southwest continues to refuse to list itself with online travel agencies like Expedia and Travelocity as I think they would compare so favorably against legacy airlines that it might well be worth it.
Now I’ll stop acting like a Southwest commercial.
The one-stop your your example flight from Dallas to Portland listed above is….Kansas City
Well, well. If that is true, I’m surprised. I expected something like ABQ, OKC or TUL.
Just remember that you won’t pay baggage (or non-alcohoic beverage) fees and you will fly on mainline aircraft with friendly service staff. That has a value in and of itself.
You’ll also fall victim to the dumbest seating policy ever, unless you a.) get to the airport four hours early or b.) use online check-in at the earliest possible nanosecond to get into the A boarding group – something that is not usually possible with group ticketing.
In way, it is a shame that Southwest continues to refuse to list itself with online travel agencies like Expedia and Travelocity as I think they would compare so favorably against legacy airlines that it might well be worth it.
They may refuse to list with *mainline* agencies, but they aggressively market to niche/boutique travel agencies (*cough-cough-RoadRebel-cough*) that cater to smaller segments of the Business Travel universe.
Now I’ll stop acting like a Southwest commercial.
Heh… That’ll be the day…
-R
(who is a victim of SWA#2958 from HOU to JAX this coming Monday)
If you have a business class ticket with SW, you get some boarding priority. And while I don’t like middle seats more than anyone else, middle seats comprise just 1/3 of the aircraft which means you have a 2 out of 3 chance in getting your desired seat with just a tiny bit of effort.
And while I don’t like middle seats more than anyone else, middle seats comprise just 1/3 of the aircraft which means you have a 2 out of 3 chance in getting your desired seat with just a tiny bit of effort.
That’s effort that you do not even get the chance to expend if you’re stuck in group travel, as SWA has the additional (stupid) policy of not allowing groups online check-in. Therefore everyone else who *does* get to check in like civilized travelers in the 21st Century gets put in A Group and those of us stuck in group travel get stuck in B Group, and by the time we’re allowed to board all that’s left are middle seats.
Nor, last I tried, are we often allowed to upgrade to BizClass. Such is the nature of Group Travel.
-R
(yeah, that guy…)
Not a business class seat, a business ticket which you may very well be traveling on in the future. This is a relatively new development with Southwest and it’s worth checking to see what “class” ticket you have.
Not a business class seat, a business ticket which you may very well be traveling on in the future.
That’d be interesting, but knowing RoadRebel, I’m not optimistic.
-R