6 ms·

Southwest Airlines has the best website, best checked luggage policy, best change policy, and now no overbooking. The big four domestic airlines all treat coach

Southwest Airlines has the best website, best checked luggage policy, best change policy, and now no overbooking. The big four domestic airlines all treat coach passengers like cattle, but Southwest is the least predatory. Edit: Also, consider that Southwest is very profitable despite the fact that they don't have first class or business class sections on their aircraft. Yes, passengers pay different fares. But as far as I know, they all sit in the same crappy seats.

praneshp 10y ago
Virgin America[0] has a better website, in my opinion. Southwest has always been nice to me, but when they had their big outage in May 2016 they were quite rude to everyone. https://www.virginamerica.com/ https://www.virginamerica.com/
- codydh 10y ago
  It's a shame they're being folded into Alaska in the coming years.
  - malkuth23 10y ago
    Alaska is a pretty nice airline actually with a fair number of benefits that no one else seems to offer. I hope they grow viable in Southern California.
Veratyr 10y ago
To offer a counterpoint, Southwest also offers the worst boarding procedure, unless travelling alone or with kids. My wife and I were going on vacation and it was impossible to get seats together as we were pretty far back in the assigned line positions and by the time we got on the plane, there were no two vacant seats next to each other. After landing we discovered that checking in at the right time might get us further ahead in the line but we tried that, checking in within minutes of checkin opening and were still pretty far back in the lines. We ended up buying an "upgrade" to get us ahead in the line and next to each other. For us to do that for both flights, we'd have been paying ~50% extra for a feature that comes by default with all other airlines. Also, while interacting with Southwest's famously "better", more "caring" staff, we were met with total disinterest and absolutely no sympathy.
- scythe 10y ago
  The reason that checking in earlier doesn't get you the first spot in line isn't that the tickets go really fast like concert tickets. It's because customers who are on a connecting flight can check in 24 hours before their first flight and therefore more than 24 hours before their connection, giving them priority. I almost always have a better seat on my second flight than my first on Southwest. This isn't a bad strategy by them as it tends to give better seats to people on long itineraries who have been waiting around, and since those people fly long distances they are also high-value customers.
- WillPostForFood 10y ago
  Counter-counter point: Southwest boards faster, by far, than airlines using the standard pre-assigned method. That means less time sitting on the plane, or waiting to board the place. Also means less abuse of selling seat upgrades.
  - brandonmenc 10y ago
    Anecdotally, boarding speed is not my major complaint - failing to secure an aisle seat, however, is.
    - davidf18 10y ago
      Exactly!
    - lucasmullens 10y ago
      Fast boarding speeds lowers their cost. That's one of the reasons Southwest can often be much cheaper than other airlines.
      - mac01021 10y ago
        Any time I fly I try to get the lowest possible fare by using priceline/kayak/whatever. Southwest never comes up among the lowest prices.
Aloha 10y ago
I'm an Alaska Airlines loyalist, I don't like the "flying bus" approach to boarding.
econnors 10y ago
Southwest was a case study in a business class I took in college. Our materials credited their success to their management style of encouraging enjoyable, fun behavior from their employees and giving them the freedom to "do the right thing". It may be a stretch, but I imagine if United employees felt they had the freedom to circumvent policy to "do the right thing", the situation could've been avoided.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
ransom1538 10y ago
Southwest has never had a fatal accident (as a passenger). That is damn good. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1248 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1248
- codydh 10y ago
  I'm curious, are there stats for this that are adjusted for the number of flights/total time of flights/total number of passenger-hours flown? I found one list[0] but it didn't quite give that: [0]: http://airsafe.com/airline.htm http://airsafe.com/airline.htm
- dx034 10y ago
  These stats are usually better for new airlines (in Europe and US at least) because air travel has become so much safer. Accidents are so rare now that it's just luck if you had 0 or 1 accident in the last decade.

praneshp 10y ago

Virgin America[0] has a better website, in my opinion. Southwest has always been nice to me, but when they had their big outage in May 2016 they were quite rude to everyone. https://www.virginamerica.com/ https://www.virginamerica.com/

codydh 10y ago
It's a shame they're being folded into Alaska in the coming years.
- malkuth23 10y ago
  Alaska is a pretty nice airline actually with a fair number of benefits that no one else seems to offer. I hope they grow viable in Southern California.

Veratyr 10y ago

To offer a counterpoint, Southwest also offers the worst boarding procedure, unless travelling alone or with kids. My wife and I were going on vacation and it was impossible to get seats together as we were pretty far back in the assigned line positions and by the time we got on the plane, there were no two vacant seats next to each other. After landing we discovered that checking in at the right time might get us further ahead in the line but we tried that, checking in within minutes of checkin opening and were still pretty far back in the lines. We ended up buying an "upgrade" to get us ahead in the line and next to each other. For us to do that for both flights, we'd have been paying ~50% extra for a feature that comes by default with all other airlines. Also, while interacting with Southwest's famously "better", more "caring" staff, we were met with total disinterest and absolutely no sympathy.

scythe 10y ago
The reason that checking in earlier doesn't get you the first spot in line isn't that the tickets go really fast like concert tickets. It's because customers who are on a connecting flight can check in 24 hours before their first flight and therefore more than 24 hours before their connection, giving them priority. I almost always have a better seat on my second flight than my first on Southwest. This isn't a bad strategy by them as it tends to give better seats to people on long itineraries who have been waiting around, and since those people fly long distances they are also high-value customers.
WillPostForFood 10y ago
Counter-counter point: Southwest boards faster, by far, than airlines using the standard pre-assigned method. That means less time sitting on the plane, or waiting to board the place. Also means less abuse of selling seat upgrades.
- brandonmenc 10y ago
  Anecdotally, boarding speed is not my major complaint - failing to secure an aisle seat, however, is.
  - davidf18 10y ago
    Exactly!
  - lucasmullens 10y ago
    Fast boarding speeds lowers their cost. That's one of the reasons Southwest can often be much cheaper than other airlines.
    - mac01021 10y ago
      Any time I fly I try to get the lowest possible fare by using priceline/kayak/whatever. Southwest never comes up among the lowest prices.

Aloha 10y ago

I'm an Alaska Airlines loyalist, I don't like the "flying bus" approach to boarding.

econnors 10y ago

Southwest was a case study in a business class I took in college. Our materials credited their success to their management style of encouraging enjoyable, fun behavior from their employees and giving them the freedom to "do the right thing". It may be a stretch, but I imagine if United employees felt they had the freedom to circumvent policy to "do the right thing", the situation could've been avoided.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

ransom1538 10y ago

Southwest has never had a fatal accident (as a passenger). That is damn good. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1248 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1248

codydh 10y ago
I'm curious, are there stats for this that are adjusted for the number of flights/total time of flights/total number of passenger-hours flown? I found one list[0] but it didn't quite give that: [0]: http://airsafe.com/airline.htm http://airsafe.com/airline.htm
dx034 10y ago
These stats are usually better for new airlines (in Europe and US at least) because air travel has become so much safer. Accidents are so rare now that it's just luck if you had 0 or 1 accident in the last decade.