I prefer to do things myself. I don’t use valet services or travel agents–instead, I’d rather park my own car and book my own flight. Similarly, rather than depending on some third party to assign me a seat, I prefer to check in online and pick my own seat.
In fact, I haven’t flown on anything but Southwest in over a decade.
Even on the rare occasion when my family (myself, wife, and son), get B or C passes, we have always been able to sit together. I’ve always found someone willing to move to a similar seat (one aisle seat to another, for example) so that we can get a row together. More often we get A boarding, and simply grab the first empty row.
Contrary to the OP, I find them to be eminently hospitable.
One of the funniest things I heard on a recent trip was during the spiel about the federal fine for tampering with a lavatory smoke detector. The flight attendant ended with the comment, “…and we figure that if you wanted to spend that kind of money for today’s trip, you would have flown Delta!”
Right now, I think that they are the only major carrier not charging extra for two bags per passenger, changing flights, etc. After booking a flight, if prices drop, you can rebook the flight and get a credit.
I’m also 6’4" 210#and I hate SWA boarding/seating policy. I need an exit row or front bulkhead seat just to be able to fit in the seat, and with SWA there’s no way I can guarantee I’ll get one. Flying from Las Vegas to NYC or Chicago or Miami is hell if your knees are whacked for 6 hours or your feet keep getting run over because they are in the aisle.
Put me on the list of people who will never again fly SWA because of this policy. I even wrote them a complaint about it, but their response was unpersuasive. I just can’t believe that an extra five minutes spent board the airline (assuming they’re right that their way is faster) will have an impact on the cost of the flight.
But perhaps they’re right. I’m still not flying under their system. I can fly other airlines, pick a seat on line at the time of my reservation and not have to stand in a cattle line. I fly over 50,000 miles per year, every year, and SWA gets none of my business.
Exactly. Too often on other airlines I have reserved seats long in advance and found that assigned seating isn’t available or I’m stuck in the middle. If you’re in their dilithium frequent flier class you’re good, but us average joes get screwed.
If you put some thought into it, you can get a good seat on Southwest by just being with it enough to check in at 24 hours until. A 1 - 14 are reserved for business class, more or less, but I got A28 both times on my San Diego trip, which is fine. Any A will give you a good seat.
The old way was that you got assigned either A, B, or C, so people queued up long before the flight, which caused congestion at the gate. This way is far superior.
You don’t need a printer. I often don’t have one, and print to a file. The kiosks let you print a new copy of your boarding pass, which works great.
I love Southwest because they don’t nickel and dime you with extra charges for bags, seats, and oxygen.
Notice how almost all airline ads these days show only first class seats, two across or even one across, fully reclining, or even little roomettes? Alls that missing are slaves feeding the poor traveler grapes. Those of us who aren’t CEOs or bankers and who get to sit in the rest of the plane are better out of sight, out of mind.
One thing that SWA does when it comes into a market is drive fares down across the board. Flying into and out of Omaha is certainly cheaper now that Southwest flies here. It used to actually make financial sense years ago to fly into KC and drive the three hours to Omaha, but not anymore.
How do you manage this on other airlines? I’m 6’2" and 205 #, and I’m usually more comfortable on SW than another airline. They fly 737s, but the pitch seems slightly better than United 737s.
I think it’s great and I’ve never had a problem getting a seat I want. I also like Southwest’s sense of humor…specifically, I remember one after landing the captain said something like:
“We’ve arrived at our destination. Thank you for choosing Southwest. If you have any complaints or concerns about the flight…thank you for choosing Delta.”
(They must have something against Delta, given robby’s comment)
Not only that, but you can transfer your credit with no hassle. My father-in-law was going to come out, and cancelled his trip, and I was able to use the credit to fly to San Diego.
SW flight attendants still seem reasonably happy to be doing what they are doing, unlike most other airlines’ staff. Not that I blame them, considering what the other airlines have put them through. That kind of attitude used to be the norm pretty much everywhere, now it is the exception.
On other airlines I just reserve the exit row or bulkhead seat when I purchase the tickets (or when I get my boarding pass online). Lots of airlines will allow you to do this if you explain that you have a physical reason for needing the room. Northwest often reserves the seat for me, then upgrades me to 1st class if they have available seats.
As someone 5’3" and slim this is not an issue for me. Rest assured, if ever we are seated next to each other on an airplane I will graciously volunteer to take a middle or window seat and leave you the aisle. I do understand that being tall imposes limitations on you that don’t exist for me.
Off the top of my head:
Cheap fares
In some cities, since they use smaller airports, fewer flight delays
Superior safety record. To be honest, though, today’s airlines are safe enough that that point starts to look like hair-splitting.
I will not, however, argue with someone else who uses different criteria for choosing an airline, like seats they can actually fit into, or preference for reserved seating, or whatever.
Hate the seating policy - I always like to make one last minute bathroom break before getting on the plane - impossible with Southwest. Like a few other posters, I always have to get up on the flight at least once to go to the bathroom, I like an aisle seat so I don’t bother anyone.
I am flying SW next Thursday, just made a note in my calendar to remind myself to check in online on Wednesday.
I am happy about the lack of checked bag fee, that is a big plus.
Another thing I love about Southwest: no small puddle-jumper planes. I have a tendency to motion sickness, and the smaller the plane, the worse it tends to be. I don’t like gate-checking my bag, either, which you almost always have to do on those really small planes. The really small planes are always way noisier than the big ones, or at least it seems that way to me. And those little planes just do not feel as safe as a big plane to me (I don’t know if the statistics bear this out). I love that with Southwest I’m guaranteed a reasonably sized plane, no matter how short my flight.
This is more of an issue now than it used to be when I lived near Oakland airport. Lots of flights to or from Pittsburgh connect in places like Chicago, and a lot of airlines would use one of those little planes for a short flight like that.
ETA: Jet Blue’s smaller planes are also of an acceptable, non-scary, non-sick-making, non-making-everybody-gate-check-their-bag size, and I like them for this reason, too.
I like flying SWA–even on pretty short flights, they never cram you into a tiny-ass puddle-jumper plane with commensurately miniscule seats, they let you check two bags apiece, which would cost you almost $50 with other airlines these days, and they give you a free soda instead of charging you $2 for it. Yeah, sometimes you get stuck with a shitty seat, if you’re not with it enough to do your online check in ahead of time, but that happens with other airlines if you don’t buy your ticket early enough.
And boarding is infinitely faster than the times I’ve flown other airlines since the charge to check bags started up. When we flew Delta at New Years, boarding took for-fucking-ever because nobody wanted to pay to check bags so everybody had the biggest carry-ons they could use crammed as full as possible. It was a major game of luggage Tetris to get it all in, and it ate up a lot of time. But when we flew Southwest last month, most people had what they absolutely needed for the flight, and that was it. So most folks got on, maybe threw a purse or briefcase up in the bin, and plopped their asses in a seat.
I hate it because if you can’t check in online (and one time we couldn’t due to the resort’s internet connection being down) you’re screwed. I had to sit separately from my husband on a 4-hour flight once because of it. That having been said, the flights are often way cheaper, and you get what you pay for.
…In case of cabin depressurization, an oxygen mask will drop down from the compartment above your head. Place the mask around your nose and mouth, pull smartly on the hose, and insert 25 cents for the first three minutes…
How far in advance do you book your flights? I do like exit rows (I have a long inseam), but I’ve never seen exit row seats available even months in advance, on the rare occasion that I do know I’ll be flying on a certain date that far ahead. By the time I usually book seats (a few weeks ahead of time), I haven’t a prayer of getting in an exit row.
