4 ms·

But also SW attracts very specific kind of customer. If you fly for business, or just can afford other airline, why would you fly Southwest?

by vl 4y ago

ComputerGuru 4y ago
SW is hardly even the cheapest. If not booking months in advance, SW is almost always twice the price of United or American, at least in my parts.
- CivBase 4y ago
  Maybe it has something to do with my location, but my experience has been that SWA is normally much cheaper than other airlines. I recently cut 70% off a trip I'm planning in May by switching from Delta to SWA. That's probably a uniquely extreme case, but I'll happily risk a delay of even a day or two if it saves me litterally thousands of dollars.
- el_benhameen 4y ago
  Southwest’s base fares suck, but their discount tier fares combined with frequent sales, the companion pass, and a decent frequent flyer program make them pretty competitive in my experience. That said, if you don’t live or travel on one of their major routes, they are a bad choice.
noyoudumbdolt 4y ago
They are actually more expensive, which is why they do two things to fool their customers: 1. On their flight search page, it shows the prices on a per-leg basis. Every other airline shows round trip prices. That way, the initial result on Southwest looks great and it’s only when you get to the final payment page that you realize it’s actually twice as expensive as you thought. 2. They refuse to share their data with any of the third party flight search engines like Google Flights or Expedia. Again, so people don’t realize how expensive they actually are.
- deathanatos 4y ago
  a. other airlines will charge for baggage b. other airlines will advertise prices that don't exist: it'll be the base price for the seat, but all (remaining) seats will be of the upcharged variety, so you can't pay the base price. When you make the adjustments to compare apples-to-apples prices, SWA's get a bit closer. (But I do think SWA does tend to not be the cheapest, unless they're having a sale.) I actually prefer the per-flight¹ pricing, too. That's what I'm buying: two flights. ¹IIRC, the pricing is per-flight, not per-leg/segment. (But it isn't, as you say, round-trip.)
  - noyoudumbdolt 4y ago
    I fly all the time and SW is usually more expensive than American. And that’s why they refuse to share their prices with Expedia and Google Flights. If people could more easily compare prices, Southwest would lose a lot of sales.

But also SW attracts very specific kind of customer. If you fly for business, or just can afford other airline, why would you fly Southwest?

by vl 4y ago

But also SW attracts very specific kind of customer. If you fly for business, or just can afford other airline, why would you fly Southwest?

ComputerGuru 4y ago

SW is hardly even the cheapest. If not booking months in advance, SW is almost always twice the price of United or American, at least in my parts.

CivBase 4y ago
Maybe it has something to do with my location, but my experience has been that SWA is normally much cheaper than other airlines. I recently cut 70% off a trip I'm planning in May by switching from Delta to SWA. That's probably a uniquely extreme case, but I'll happily risk a delay of even a day or two if it saves me litterally thousands of dollars.
el_benhameen 4y ago
Southwest’s base fares suck, but their discount tier fares combined with frequent sales, the companion pass, and a decent frequent flyer program make them pretty competitive in my experience. That said, if you don’t live or travel on one of their major routes, they are a bad choice.

noyoudumbdolt 4y ago

They are actually more expensive, which is why they do two things to fool their customers: 1. On their flight search page, it shows the prices on a per-leg basis. Every other airline shows round trip prices. That way, the initial result on Southwest looks great and it’s only when you get to the final payment page that you realize it’s actually twice as expensive as you thought. 2. They refuse to share their data with any of the third party flight search engines like Google Flights or Expedia. Again, so people don’t realize how expensive they actually are.

deathanatos 4y ago
a. other airlines will charge for baggage b. other airlines will advertise prices that don't exist: it'll be the base price for the seat, but all (remaining) seats will be of the upcharged variety, so you can't pay the base price. When you make the adjustments to compare apples-to-apples prices, SWA's get a bit closer. (But I do think SWA does tend to not be the cheapest, unless they're having a sale.) I actually prefer the per-flight¹ pricing, too. That's what I'm buying: two flights. ¹IIRC, the pricing is per-flight, not per-leg/segment. (But it isn't, as you say, round-trip.)
- noyoudumbdolt 4y ago
  I fly all the time and SW is usually more expensive than American. And that’s why they refuse to share their prices with Expedia and Google Flights. If people could more easily compare prices, Southwest would lose a lot of sales.