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Why Southwest Airlines is Tops

July 2nd, 2007 Posted in General, Travel industry

I just had a rough few days dealing with a death in the family and got quite a “good, bad, and ugly” view of the airline industry as a result. The destination was Florida and relatives were coming in from seven states in the U.S. and Canada, with their last-minute fares ranging from $280 to $1,200. My family flew on Southwest and things went flawlessly from start to finish. The others? It wasn’t pretty.
Here’s why Southwest makes almost every other airline look like a bunch of bumbling idiots.

1) We called on the phone to sort things out – no extra charge of course. A real human, a native English speaker based in the U.S., answered in less than a minute. (Thanks Bridgette!)

2) My wife had a ticket on Southwest for her and our daughter for a week later, bought for $120 each. Southwest let us switch both to an immediate departure for…nothing. No extra charges, delivered with a smile.

3) I had just received a Rapid Rewards free flight voucher from Southwest a few days earlier in my e-mail. “Yes, of course you can use that for a departure tomorrow Mr. Leffel. What time would you like to leave?” I think the sky will be filled with flapping hogs before I hear those words from a legacy airline.

4) All our flights left on time and landed on time.

5) Our checked luggage arrived.

6) Everyone’s carry on luggage fit in the overhead bins.

7) The staffers were all pleasant and cheerful.

I won’t talk about the experiences of my friends and relatives who came on USAir, Northwest, and Delta. You’ve read plenty in the papers already. On most counts, it was the opposite of the above.

Chris Elliott once noted in his column that travel industry writers expend much more ink on airlines than they do on hotels and rental cars. I would say there’s nothing unusual about that at all: airlines just manage to make us angry and frustrated more often than the other two added together, so we vent. It’s a story when they don’t screw up. When your spouse says, “How was your flight?” and you can actually reply with, “Fine, uneventful, no problems at all.”

That’s a nice feeling. And unfortunately, a rare one. In my experience, it’s less rare on Southwest than the others, and that’s worth the loyalty they inspire, even among business travelers who have the budget to fly with anyone.

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  1. 6 Responses to “Why Southwest Airlines is Tops”

  2. By Judy Bierman on Jul 3, 2007

    I would LOVE to be able to fly Southwest. Unfortunately I live in the northwoods of Wisconsin where the only flight out within 50 miles is NWA’s small connector that takes me to Minneapolis.

    I recently called NWA to check on leaving for a flight a week early due to an emergency situation with my family in Texas and was told for an $100 fee PLUS additional cost of what a ticket costs NOW as opposed to when I bought it, I could leave right away. Well, not having an extra total $300+ to leave early, I had to stay home and bite my nails.

    Tomorrow I finally leave with my original ticket but I appreciate your praise of Southwest Airlines and have no doubt they earn the privilege of all that praise.

    Thanks for sharing your story. Sorry you had an emergency to deal with. Been there/done that. This country is BIG when you need to get everyone together quickly.

  3. By Sheila at Family Travel on Jul 3, 2007

    Sorry about the death, Tim, and glad you got “luv” from Southwest.

    Great line about the sky filled with flapping hogs….:)

  4. By Ching on Jul 4, 2007

    Sorry to hear about the death, but glad you had a good experience with Southwest.

    I flew Tiger airlines from Singapore to Thailand recently. They take a different approach from Southwest (where you paid no extra charges), but are still very economical.

    They start with a low base price – in my case 9.99 SGD each way plus tax. They tack on a bunch of (reasonable) extra charges for things like extra baggage, flight changes, exit row seats, etc… Even if I add those all up, they’re usually still less than the cost of a legacy airline ticket, but what I like best is that if I don’t need the extra “features”, I don’t have to carry the airline’s cost of providing them.

  5. By tim on Jul 4, 2007

    Judy, yeah it’s funny about the holes in Southwest’s route map. It’s often because a monopolistic competitor has successfully kept them out of a hub market they “own,” to the detriment of us consumers. I’ve got a friend who’s moving from another state to Nashville mainly because it’s a Southwest market and the place he lives now isn’t. This is a business traveler who makes several times as much money as I do and is at the highest elite level on Delta.

  6. By Jill Howard Allen on Jul 5, 2007

    Tim,

    I am so sorry for the loss of your family member. That always makes for a tough trip.

    I work for Southwest Airlines in our Online Marketing department. I was checking my Yahoo account for articles pertaining to us and found your blog entry. It is great to hear you had a positive experience on Southwest. To me, it always comes down to the People. Top to bottom. When you’re in that type of atmosphere, it’s tough not to be positive and want to help.

    Thanks for the kind words!

  7. By G Flight on Jul 28, 2007

    I’ve flown a few times with soutwest and have to say my experiences have always been pleasant.

    If only that were the case wih every airline!

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