I try to like Southwest but I can’t. They have the best flights for us but I hate the survival of the fittest approach they promote when they refuse to assign seats. I also hate it that they don’t seat people with small children first (or second, after the disabled). They also make it a lot harder to pre-board online than, say, AA.
4 responses to “Southwest”
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I love Southwest for business trips! I like their free bags policy; I hate it when United makes me pay 25 dollars to check in a bag . Our university does not reimburse baggage fees, although they would reimburse a slightly higher fare on a different airline, so I always try to fly southwest when there’s any chance of checking in a bag.
And of course Southwest’s cancellation/change policy is beyond amazing. They don’t even charge a change fee so long as you cancel/change upto 10 mins before departure; you can just simply apply the balance to a different flight!
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I now wonder if my university reimburses baggage fees. I never had a chance to find out but now I wonder
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“I hate the survival of the fittest approach they promote when they refuse to assign seats.”
You can pay Southwest a fee for “upgraded boarding,” meaning you get to be among the first passengers to board, and can take one of the seats near the front of the aircraft (rows 1 to 15). The fee used to be 10 bucks and worth it — now it costs $30 to $40.
Back in the early 1970s, Southwest Airlines flew ONLY to locations within the state of Texas. Its stewardesses all wore short shorts, and since its home airport was Love Field in Dallas, the airline’s slogan was, “We’re spreading Love all over Texas.”
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I just traveled with Southwest over the Thanksgiving break – myself with my two kids (4 and 2), and I found them pretty family friendly, despite the crush of holiday travellers. We were able to do “family boarding” after the A group but before the B group. On the outbound leg, I didn’t notice that you could get on the plane at both the front and the back and I had trouble finding 3 seats together because I got on at the front (d’oh!). But the steward was extremely helpful and some nice people switched seats for us so it was okay in the end. (Had I spotted that you could board at the rear of the plane, I would have made a bee-line for those steps and there would have been zero problems in the first place.)
On the return, it was boarding from the front only and I easily found a row of 3 seats for me and the kids. I love that checked bags are free – I hate it when people start fighting about space in the overhead bins. And a Southwest employee was super nice and helpful to me and my kids when I was checking my bags and getting our boarding passes. So Southwest gets a thumbs up from me!
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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