Southwest Airlines Community

If you tell the gate attendant and / or the flight attendant at the front of the plane when you board that you were just married and are headed for your honeymoon, then you might get some recognition while on the flight.   BTW, congrats! ... View more

I definitely understand the frustration. My biggest issue would be that of price because it doesn't seem to reflect that of a low cost airline. Now a lot of that is due to higher fuel costs right now, so I can give a little slack. As far as the delays and cancelations, all airlines are being affected by weather, pilot/staff shortages, among other things. So, Southwest isn't the only one affected here. Don't forget we're still on our way out of a pandemic. People are still getting sick, so there's going to be callouts.    As far as "Other airlines offer a wider range of nonstop flights and red eye flights!" I will definitely agree with you on the redeye flights and hopefully they're in Southwest's future. As for the nonstop flights, that is true to a degree, but really only if you include long-haul and the regionals (SkyWest, Envoy Air, ExpressJet, etc). Comparing just the domestic mainline networks, Southwest has more airports with more service than most of the legacy carriers. American has the most number of hubs at 10, which means for the most part, on a legacy carrier, you're not going to have service to more than 10 airports unless it's from their hub (American - 10 hubs; Delta - 9 hubs; United - 7 hubs). On Southwest, you can get service to at least 10 airports from a whopping 50 airports! Now some of these are on a more seasonal basis, but that's still a lot of airports with at least 10 nonstop destinations on Southwest. And there's even a lot with service to 8 or 9 airports, not to mention, Southwest has the most nonstop service to Cancun and San Jose del Cabo in Mexico. ... View more

It's probably a good idea for somebody with a respiratory condition such as COPD to avoid unnecessary exposure risks right now. Such as being inside an enclosed container with other people and not wearing a mask.    Personally, I'm taking as few exposure risks as I possibly can these days. ... View more

@Cable-TV-Guy      I will be back on SWA when I won't have to wear a mask.  I have COPD with a low blood O2 level to being with.  I'm left gasping after just the 45 minutes or so grocery shopping from wearing a mask!   That might be a very long time depending on the virus.   See my response to your other post about what you can do about your mask issue.   ... View more

Def an interesting read! Check it out here. ... View more

@Cable-TV-Guy wrote: After a long hiatus, I decided to give Southwest a "second chance" this past October/November.  I did, and I was very favorably impressed.  So much so that at this time of so much trial for not just the world around us, but one which has the airline industry and its employees in so much jeopardy, I am adding Southwest, its team members, and their families to my prayers..  After seeing the e-mail of today regarding Southwest's customer favorable change in policy regarding unused funds, I am all the more convinced that if any airline survives this trauma, it'll likely be Southwest.  Please stay safe and continue to set the example to all businesses on what customer service can be.  God Bless... Well said. All airlines will need lots of prayers and lots of government help to get thru this. ... View more

Not surprised in the least!  Southwest seems to be the Westjet of the U.S. ... View more

@Cable-TV-Guy wrote:   It's not a question of price for the A321. It is a question of availability.  Airbus' factories are running faster than ever - at the highest capacity ever. The aircraft is sold out for the next 5 years, so it can't just "turn out a few more" for Southwest.   The only way any airline gets a few A321s in the near term is if Airbus talks another customer into giving up some near term delivery slots. ... View more

Here's one for the books:  Recent flight I was on... I was in an aisle seat.  In my peripheral vision, I saw the passenger in the aisle seat across from me open their laptop and proceed to edit what turned out to be an adult video for a podcast!  SMH!!!  Fortunately, I didn't see any kids walking towards the forward lav.  When I went to the lav, I mentioned it to one of the FA's.  She told me I wasn't the first to mention it to her.  And, that she and the other FA's had made trips up the aisle trying to catch the passenger doing this.  But, she said unless she and another FA saw it for themselves, they couldn't even ask the person to close the laptop.     I mention this as one of SWA's competitors is now training their FA's on how to deal with passengers viewing X-rated videos on-board.  I'm not a prude.  Nor am I a voyeur.  But, as a retired TV engineer and long-time tech geet, I notice when people use electronics.  As I said before, this one had me SMH!  ... View more

The weird thing is, I can "assemble" an itnerary myself with separate SW flights going IAD-LAS and then LAS-RNO on the same day with rasonable connection time and seats available on both flights.  But, the SW website won't assemble a similar match.  Maybe they need a new IT system as tyhis seems very Wells Fargo!   Sad because SW has me soured on flying other sirlines..  ... View more

Perhaps I should explain that not all of my flying has been as a commercial passenger.  I have a logbook with my hours in, shall we say, Row 0 Seat A in a C-152.  It was something I enjoyed doing until I was rear-ended by a drunk driver while driving home from work one afternoon.  The injuries cost me my Medical...  Had my then 6-week-old daughter been with me that day, her injuries would've been fatal.    I hope that FA does get the recognition she deserves.  All I could provide was her description, as well as the flight info.   The cabin was too dark for me to discreetly read her name tag.   I also hope that SW recognizes that FA's are crewmembers as critical to safety as the men and women at the "front of the bus".           ... View more

@Cable-TV-Guy wrote: SInce I'm an old man who doesn't do Fakebook or Twitter, is the Customer Service phone # the only way to compliment an SW employee? Just being nosy, old man here as well, but what does age have to do with social media?   Oh and great story tpskelleyjr thanks for sharing. ... View more

I was doing touch and gos in Lubbock years ago. Including me, two Skyhawks  were doing touch and gos.   I had just turned on final and the tower cleared the other plane to land. I wasn't about to risk asking the tower whether it had made a mistake since if it wasn't a mistake, I was about to be run into by the other plane. That was not the time for talk. It was the time to fly the plane.   I made a sharp turn to the east, abandoning the pattern, and got on the radio to tell the tower what I was doing. The tower cleared me to the parallel runway.   The guy in the tower forgot who he was talking with. He forgot my tail number and used the wrong one while talking with me. ... View more

@Cable-TV-Guy wrote: Chgoflyer,   TNX for the input.  Yes, perhaps I'm a tough judge!  For 36 years, my job required me to be both an engineering and human relations perfectionist.  And, like I said, I started flying when it was pretty much a luxury for most people.  As far back as the mid-1960's, my parents and I were flying several times a year.  Men wore suits and women wore dresses.  And, yes times had to change as a result of 9/11.  But, when I attended a business meeting at the Virginia State Police Academy in Ruchmond a decade or so ago, there was a sign in the lecture hall that read, "You Can Be Tough As Nails And Courteous".   As for the Southwest part of the experience, except for the last flight, it was pretty good overall.  And yes, the FA on the second flight was specific about laptops.  And, yes I saw people using laptops on the ground.   I'm already looking at the SWA website trying to plan my next trip.  That's how satisfied I was with them.           Ok, glad to hear that you're generally pleased, despite your overall rating. Personally, I'm not sure I would be giving more business to anyone I graded a "C-/D+".    Obviously, things did change after 9/11. But many of the changes that have happened to air travel since then frankly have nothing to do with that event, and are more a result of things like economic factors.    One minor comment -- not to beat a dead horse -- but just in case it's unclear, laptops can be used on the ground. The only time they need to be stowed is during takeoff and landing. 😉   Hope your future air travels are great!   ... View more

I flew JB once R/T IAD-LGB, a service no longer available, alas.  In some aspects, it reminded me of SWA... ... View more