Southwest

[bullshiznitz]

I'll never get the hate on Southwest. I've had 2 jobs that required a lot of travel, including my last one. Chose to go SW every chance I could. I think the fact that I was a seasoned traveler opposed to a bunch of 'newbs', was always to my advantage. Because I knew the process, I ended up with a window seat every time (no matter when I booked my flight). It would be really hard to accomplish the same on any other carrier.

And as others have mentioned, I found the rewards program and the process of changing flights much much more customer friendly than the main carriers out of my home base (Tampa one job, Denver the other). Always found their customer service to be better than others, and have never had a bad experience that I can remember with them.

As for comparisons: Frontier, no complaints on them. Was always my second choice when I was flying out of Denver. American, absolutely nothing good to say on them. Pretty much bad experience from start to finish everytime I had to use them. United, was a hit and miss for me. Changing flights was way too expensive with them, and their rewards program took a long time to build up free flights. Had some really long delays with them (although most of the time stemmed from those miserable airports in Chicago). Haven't had enough experience with Delta to form any good opinion on them.

 

[UCFBS]

SWA+$15 early check in = pick any seat you want. Pick a window seat at the front of the plane and you won't have to worry about anybody else (families, clueless people, etc)

But for $15-20 on most other airlines, I can get more seat pitch and other things too. As I said, same difference.

As for comparisons: Frontier, no complaints on them. Was always my second choice when I was flying out of Denver.

I had been favoring Frontier over United when I have to travel west. The only thing is that they fly a lot of AirBus. I've now been on 2 different A320 aircraft that have had landing gear issues, the last one being the last time I flew Frontier just a few months ago.

American, absolutely nothing good to say on them. Pretty much bad experience from start to finish everytime I had to use them.

American dropped to the bottom of the Big 5 in one of the recent airline quality studies IIRC. The last time I flew them, at the counter the lady gave me flak about how "thick" my bag was that would go under my seat. I picked it up by the handles and showed her how it "thins out" and fits in the metal sizing frame, and she was still mouthing. I just walked away from her, clearly she just wanted to argue, much less didn't understand the FAA regulation.

United, was a hit and miss for me. Changing flights was way too expensive with them, and their rewards program took a long time to build up free flights.

They are all going this direction. They also started to retire some of fringe benefits from Continental that Continental promised they'd never retire.

Had some really long delays with them (although most of the time stemmed from those miserable airports in Chicago).

Airport delays are often the reason for a lot of issues. ORD and even MDW can be a pain. In all honest, if I have to go to Chicago, I'll see if I can line up with Allegiant into RFD.

Haven't had enough experience with Delta to form any good opinion on them.

I started flying them again last year. Part of the reason was them leasing the former AirTran 717s from Southwest. A lot of pilots love to fly them and their departure rate was the best for many years. The other is that they were #1 in a recent study for passenger satisfaction. As much as I don't like ATL, given the other hub options of other carriers, you can't find much better.

In any case ... I appreciate all the commentary here. I am going to start comparing Southwest every time I go to book for the next 3 months. There are enough good stories to merit reconsideration, including those from experienced travelers too.

 

[crambone]

They are the only airline that flies direct to Grand Rapids out of Tampa (where my corporate office is located) so I have to use them.

 

[crambone]

Actually, I merely think they are the cheapest direct flight to Grand Rapids out of Tampa. My work always makes me do that flight and I have honestly never seen any other flights cheaper.