Why all the hype about Southwest???

[greatam]

My friends and I are planning New Years in Las Vegas. Since I do logistics planning for a living, I got the uneviable task of booking everyone's flights. Two flying from CA (one north, one south), one from Kansas City, one from Boston, one from Florida.

 

The ONLY flight on Southwest which was comparable in price was the flight from Florida on Dec. 30. I input different days, different times (even the red-eye and a 5:45AM connection in Phoenix) for 6 different airlines. Southwest lost out on an apples to apples comparison EVERY flight except the Dec. 30 flight. I certainly see much cheaper fares (over $70.00) for the same dates, with assigned seating, no cattle car boarding call, and no inconvenient airports

 

Why all the hype? I don't get it.

[parody]

Why all the hype? I don't get it.

You ask a great question. I suppose the simple answer is that they have been around the longest as the classic "low-fare" airline. And, of course, there are good and bad points to be said about their frequent flier program and the ability to apply non-refundable fares to future flights, among other things. But, as you have found out, one doesn't need to fly Southwest in order to get Southwest type fares. Having said that, I think there is little doubt that the introduction of Southwest results in an overall lowering of all fares that competing airlines charge. The secret, however, is Yield Management -- the ability to have some "low fares", but not too many. For example, in the O/D markets that you looked at, Southwest could have had the lowest fares at one point in time, but they are all sold out and what's left are fares higher than what competing airlines are now charging. One comparison of various airfare sites has found that Southwest had the lowest fares only 7% of the time. (Note that this percentages changes month to month, but gives one an idea of the point being made.) For more details, see http://home.netcom.com/~rcowen/web_sites.htm

[Globaliser]

Why all the hype? I don't get it.

Unfortunately, because there are a lot of stupid, gullible, lazy or uninformed people who either don't know enough or don't learn enough to find out what else is on offer. "Oh, Southwest's fare is $x? That must mean that everyone else's is more. Let's not bother finding out if that assumption's true."

 

Same thing happening in the UK.

[pd933]

Unfortunately, because there are a lot of stupid, gullible, lazy or uninformed people who either don't know enough or don't learn enough to find out what else is on offer. "Oh, Southwest's fare is $x? That must mean that everyone else's is more. Let's not bother finding out if that assumption's true."

 

Same thing happening in the UK.

 

SWA boarded over 6.8 million passengers on over 85,000 flights in the month of October 2004. Thats a lot of "stupid, gullible, lazy or uninformed people". Our family fly Southwest on almost all our domestic flights and we find that they will work with their customers and are resposive to the customers request and suggestions. The on the verge of bankruptcy airlines cannot offer the same service Southwest does.

 

Here is the link to the stats.

 

http://www.southwest.com/investor_relations/fs_news_releases.html

[parody]

Although statistics can be used to show different things, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that Southwest Airlines has had the most number of enplaned passengers for the period Jan-August 2004:

 

Table 3: Top 10 Airlines, ranked by January to August 2004 Domestic Enplanements

 

Rank Airline Name Jan-Aug 2003 Jan-Aug 2004

1 Southwest Airlines 50,608,209 54,826,178

2 Delta Air Lines 52,627,725 53,883,756

3 American Airlines 49,579,706 49,336,398

4 United Airlines 38,219,862 40,781,323

5 Northwest Airlines 29,290,335 30,997,587

6 U.S. Airways 25,288,418 25,470,731

7 Continental Airlines 20,928,261 21,280,188

8 America West 13,012,679 13,443,957

9 Alaska Airlines 8,827,573 9,654,633

10 American Eagle 7,630,488 9,336,644

Source: T-100 Domestic Market

[Globaliser]

SWA boarded over 6.8 million passengers on over 85,000 flights in the month of October 2004. Thats a lot of "stupid, gullible, lazy or uninformed people". Our family fly Southwest on almost all our domestic flights and we find that they will work with their customers and are resposive to the customers request and suggestions. The on the verge of bankruptcy airlines cannot offer the same service Southwest does.

If you've done your homework, then clearly you don't fall into any of those categories. And if your experience is that WN's service is better, that's again an informed view. But the reality of many low-fare airlines' business models includes making it hard work for people to discover that they can actually get lower fares on major full-service airlines, often with better service levels.

[Phoenix cruiser]

If you want to understand the "Hype" just look at the statistics for on-time performance and passenger complaints. Southwest is almost always in the top tier. Other low fare choices like America West (which we in Phoenix call "America's Worst") usually rank near the bottom in those categories. So why save another $25 if you are going to be 2 hours late on a 45 minutes flight, as happened to me twice on AW?

[dsclark]

I have flown many times with SW. Everytime, I felt like a cow being hearded into the flying equivalent of a Greyhound bus.

However, one thing I don't deny them- I have never, ever been on a SW plane that was late! In my neck of the woods, they are always cheapest in the shorthaul market.

However, I'd never take them cross country. All there flights are short hauls andyou have tow stop 2/3 times to change planes. The low fare becomes not so low when you add on airport fees. My sister flew fro free (SW frequent flier poin ts) from Reno,NV to Miami last year and she swears she'll never do it again, even if it's free.

[slkmcs]

Perhaps it is different for me being near Chicago. I fly SW often and usually non-stop or one stop. Never had to change planes. Maybe I just travel where they fly direct; Vegas/Houston/Atlanta/Providence [instead of Boston]. Yes, SW is like the "Grayhound of the skies". But they do what I ask an airline to do. Get me where I want to go, at a reasonable price, in one piece and on time.

[joelmarj]

In todays competative market, SW is no longer the easy winner. I have now found that Song and Jetblue are consistently cheaper than SW, and offer more direct flights to popular destinations. I also have the advantage of living in NY and living centrally to all 3 airports (Islip, LaGuardia and JFK) so I have an opportunity to shop around for airlines and airports. I will always select a direct flight over any connections, regardless of airline, but my experiences on SW will prohibit me from ever booking a non-direct flight with them again. I also can't tolerate the "cattle-call" of SW. Frankly, I'm not seeing a whole heck of a lot of benefits on their part by not assigning seats. They used to go with a "boarding-cardless" system so it was a cost savings at that time, but now with security they have to issue them anyway, so why not just allow seat assignments? Or at least allow the option.

[steveweese]

One advantage that Southwest has over the others is that allow more bags with heavier weight than the other Airlines do. A big advantage for cruisers going for 14 plus days.

[Coolmama_1]

One advantage that Southwest has over the others is that allow more bags with heavier weight than the other Airlines do. A big advantage for cruisers going for 14 plus days.

So true. You may check 3 bags and 70lb weight limit.

[NHLady]

Southwest is the ONLY carrier that has direct flights from Manchester to Orlando and West Palm Beach (That's where we ususally fly to to cruise!) We have 2 small children and changing planes is really a hassel, especially since many times, I fly alone with the kids ahead of DH (he's got a hectic schedule and can't always take the few days ahead/after that we do!) It doesn't hurt either that for our upcoming cruise we paid $460.00 FOR ALL FOUR OF US to go to Orlando!!! And yes, that includes tickets for both kids! Closest fare on the other carriers is over $700.00 with a plane change in D.C. or $780.00 for a direct flight out of Boston (2 1/2 hour drive, expensive to park, etc) Plus I've never been stranded, late, had lost bags with Southwest, unlike US Air, which is the airline I flew with for years. If Southwest ever gets like them, I'll find a new place to spend my money (That's if there's any airlines left!! LOL!!!)

 

Karen

[cruisintwinsmom]

It seems like it really depends on the market. For us they have the best price with the best schedules. And, yes, it does make sense to do a search before booking to ensure that you have the best price. As someone mentioned above, for southwest it's all about being on of the first to book so that you can get the lowest prices.

[kelmac]

Where we live, SW occupies 50% of our airport gates and we have become sort of a SW "mini-hub" because of flight restrictions out of Texas. (they can only fly "X" number of miles out of Dallas Love Field and Houston Hobbie). Their FFP is great for us, because we make many short flights to Phoenix, Tucson.., and rack up a couple of free tickets every year. Their program is based on flights taken and not miles traveled. We use these tickets for the long haul flights; like non-stop to Orlando, LA, Oakland, Seattle, Portland, Tampa, Chicago, Houston, Baltimore, and we can "one stop it" to Ft Lauderdale. New York, Boston.

Interesting note--Southwest just moved into the number one spot of paying it's employees the largest amount (in pay package), compared to the company's total budget. Their philosophy has always been--"take care of your employees, and they will take care of everything else." And no, I don't work for them, or know of anyone who does--I just like their business model.

 

Enjoy!

Kel

[MandyGirl]

Interesting note--Southwest just moved into the number one spot of paying it's employees the largest amount (in pay package), compared to the company's total budget.

 

Kel - Out of curiousity, do you have a website link you can share for that? I'm assuming it's total compensation (stock options, 401k, profit sharing) instead of upfront salary.

 

By the way - Southwest is currently fighting the Wright Amendment. :) And of course airlines at DFW are fighting back. It's the Wright Amendment from the 1970s that keeps flights out of Dallas Love Field limited (schedule service with more than 56 seats - AA came in to Love with long hauls on Fokker 100s reconfigured with exactly 56 seats a few years ago but pulled out shortly after putting Legend Airlines out of business). Houston Hobby has no legal limits that I know of - just whatever the Southwest Schedule Planning department decides to use for nonstops and directs (you can fly nonstop HOU-BWI, HOU-Chicago MDW, etc).:)

[kelmac]

MandyGirl,

 

Sorry I don't have a link (yet) on that Pay package thing. I'm sure I read it in our business section of the Albuquerque Journal (Local Newspaper). I will try and track it down and get it to you. I'm sure it has a lot to do with Delta's people rolling back their pay package. I travel a fair bit, and Southwest, Delta, American and AmericaWest are my main airlines.

[MandyGirl]

Thanks - that make sense now. If I'm thinking right the average cost per seat mile is about a 3-cent difference, accounting for difference in overall budget for the airline (Delta vs Southwest). With Delta taking the cutback, it made the difference in percentage of overall budget.