Nuts About Southwest

This is probably one of the sole reasons I fly Southwest. I'm spontaneous and whimsical, yet hard-working and change my plans often.
The lack of change fees, allow me a jet-setting lifestyle at a fraction of the cost of any other carrier!

Angela, not that's there is anything wrong with your customer service, fares, flight frequency, or efficiency of operations....but none of those are reasons for flying Southwest for me. You guys aren't particularly cheap (except for last minute fares) and operations are roughly equivalent to most others. Your customer service is better when there is a problem, but in normal operations, it's pretty much the same as the others.

The big reasons why I fly Southwest are (1) no change fees, (2) no assigned seating, and (3) the Companion Pass. Note that these are the things that are unique to Southwest. Every other airline has customer service, fares, flights and operations, and every other airline thinks they have good customer service, good fares, lots of flights, and efficient operations. Some are right, others are not :-)

Don't lose the things that are unique!

I need to agree with Loren on 2 points (I don't fly enough to get a companion ticket). I like that I can make a reservations and, if something causes me to have to change the reservations then I'm not out even one thin dime. And open seating! I can't say enough about that! I love it today, loved it ever since I took my first flight on SWA decades ago, and will always love it in the future.

Southwest got my Thanksgiving ticket from Lubbock-Houston this year because of no change fees since I may have to change my ticket that week to return early. Even though IAH is more convenient for me, I do not want to put myself at risk of having to pay Continental's change fee. On another note, Southwest is generally the most reliable airline in Lubbock, so they also get my business for that. I can handle a weather delay, but the weather meltdowns that the other airlines here can have sometimes helps to keep me on Southwest whenever possible.

I had an incident back in October '06 where my travel plans changed during my outbound layover and it was then that I first realized how amazing Southwest customer service is.

Having been hit with change fees from other airlines for even the most far off dates, it has been refreshing to be able to make summer travel plans and have the flexibility to change them on a whim (which I have). It's one more reason why I like to fly on Southwest when I can and why I suggest it to my friends. I am an Emergency Medical Services provider at my university and I helped plan a group trip to a conference in Baltimore. Southwest was a great fit for our group because of the price, but also because I knew if someone had to cancel, the credit could still be used towards future travel without penalty.

Let me start with "I love SWA".

Then tell the story of my flight from Phoenix to Vegas last month, the one where I got to the Phoenix airport 30 minutes before the prior Vegas flight, with only a carryon, to be told that "since your flight is on time and you got an internet fare, it'll cost you $75 to get on the earlier (not full) flight".

Yep, my flight, an hour later, ended up being delayed nearly 2 hours, as although the equipment was arriving in Phoenix on time, the crew who was to take it to Vegas was coming from elsewhere, and were delayed, WHICH SWA SHOULD ALREADY HAVE KNOWN.

OK, maybe they didn't know. But where the harm lies in letting passengers fly earlier on non-full flights (maybe SWA could have resold my seat on the later flight, they certainly weren't selling the empty seat on the earlier one that left unfull) even if their flight seems to be on time is beyond me.

Rant over.

I love SWA.

L2K there is a lot to do in getting a flt ready for takeoff, one is you have to know how much wieght is on board so you know how much fuel you need. By boarding passengers at the last minute you add wieght, and if the fuel truck has left, now you have to call it back to add more fuel,and wait,now the flights late. And if you add the fuel ahead of time and you do not add passengers, you use more fuel to fly the added wieght of the fuel you did not need, which adds cost to company which they in turn pass to the passengers in higher fares. So to help keep cost down they don't change without a charge. Although 1 or 2 people won't hurt, 5 or more will make a difference. Thats only one reason to not move people. not enough room to explain the others.

Thanks for the comments guys...it's great to see that our "no change fee policy" is recognized and actually drives purchase decision. As part of my job, I look at a lot of market research and try to figure out and what motivates travelers to choose us (or not choose us!) when making travel plans. You're feedback is appreciated!

Angela - I'm surprised that you are surprised that the lack of change fees is a huge factor in purchase decisions. The top three reasons people espouse over and over again about their preferences for SWA are:

1 - Open Seating
2 - Lower Prices
3 - Lack of gouging over change fees.

Actually, the number one reason is the Employees - it is just more pleasant to fly SWA than anybody else.

Personally, the lack of change fees is not a factor for me - I think I've had to change my flight maybe five times in the last 20 years (though last month I did miss my most important flight ever - and the next flight to Dallas would cause me to arrive too late).

And Southwest is facing new challenges, Mr. Kelly has already stated that some kind of change is coming to the boarding process, and it isn't an automatic given that SWA will have the lowest fares. Since there is a cost to SWA for changing a flight, it would not be surprising to see some sort of penalty imposed at some point.

If/when this happens, all we ask is that you don't gouge the Customer. it would be great to have no fee up to 96 hours in advance, then maybe $5 or $10 in the four days prior to departure. Since hotels can somehow manage inventory control by allowing changes or even complete cancellations (with full refunds) as little as 24 hours in advance, surely airlines could too.

Since you didn't ask, the three biggest negative factors people mention about Southwest seem to be:

1 - The devaluation of the Rapid Rewards program.
2 - Standby requires upgrading to full rack rate.
3 - Open Seating.

1 - It used to be that somebody with a Rapid Reward ticket had the same privileges as the person paying full fare. It seems like SWA considered RR tickets as well earned and treated RR pass flyers accordingly. Any flight, any time, any day (except four or five near-holiday days). Now SWA claims no blackout dates, but in reality many flights are blacked out.

And - earning Rewards is still unbalanced. If I take a $30 Ding flight from El Paso to Albuquerque, I receive the same reward benefit as the person as a person taking a $350 flight from Baltimore to Phoenix.

2 - The standby issue is well known and well discussed, and I absolutely understand Southwest's reasons. But is in in essence a one-day-only change fee. Maybe increased revenue from an across the board change fee would offset revenue from the "standby requires upgrading to full fare" policy.

3 - And of course, please ignore anybody who lists the open seating policy as one of their reasons for not liking Southwest - they know not of what they speak.

And (this is just me personally, but I'm sure many others would feel the same way), even if SWA eliminated their Rapid Rewards program, always sold seats at or slightly above the competitors price, and added change fees - they would still be my first airline of choice.

Why? It's simple - the people of Southwest are just the best to be around. From reservations, to check in agents, to gate agents, to flight attendants, and all the way to the (rarely needed) person who is in the baggage claim booth. The number of positive interactions between Customers and Employees at Southwest is light years above that of any other airline - and probably any other business too!

WOW... FCFree here! I was surfing around on Flyertalk and found a link back to this page. Thank you for reading my post.

The 'no change fee' feature really is a huge advantage. The change fee is just a really annoying thing with those 'other guys' in Denver. More people than you might think know about the no change fee feature. Where I found this page from back at flyertalk, they are all talking about it.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8079770&posted=1#post807...

Thanks again for reading my post!