3 ms·

I think Southwest has proven this not to be the case. Their fares are consistently lower than the majors in spite of having no bag fees and their bottom line su

I think Southwest has proven this not to be the case. Their fares are consistently lower than the majors in spite of having no bag fees and their bottom line sure doesn't seem to be hurting any. You could argue that the level of service isn't commensurate with what you'd get on a Delta or AA so its not the same product - but I'd say personally that my experiences with Southwest are far more pleasant than my dealings with any of the others. edit: s/fare/far (pun notwithstanding)

ben1040 16y ago
You could argue that the level of service isn't commensurate with what you'd get on a Delta or AA so its not the same product The people who would argue this are probably the ones who also earned status on a legacy carrier before they started really turning the screws on people in 2008, and thus have been immune to all the bag charges and seat fees all along. But, if you have no status on AA/Delta/United, you'll probably find you'd get a better level of service on Southwest, at least based on my experiences from having flown them recently.
pitdesi 16y ago
The dirty secret is that Southwest is not cheaper than the majors... I fly ~30 round trips per year and almost always will take the cheapest flight. In the past year, that was Southwest 3 times. I fly out of Chicago and actually prefer the midway airport that southwest flies out of. to quantify: http://web.mit.edu/airlinedata/www/2009%2012%20Month%20Documents/Revenue%20and%20Related/Passenger%20Revenue/System%20Passenger%20Yield.htm http://web.mit.edu/airlinedata/www/2009%2012%20Month%20Docum... For a long time LUV had lower fares (significantly cheaper than majors from 1995-2007), but they no longer do.