Best Airline Ad Ever!
June 4th, 2008 Posted in Travel funnies, Travel industry, Vacation deals
This ran as part of a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Pure brilliance.
Underneath what’s pictured above were these sentences:
No 1st or 2nd Checked Bag Fees
No Change Fees
No Fuel Surcharges
No Snack Fees
No Aisle or Window Seat Fees
No Curbside Checkin Fees
No Phone Reservation Fees
Yes, there are plenty of good reasons why Southwest trounces the competition in customer satisfaction surveys, but this ad sums the main one up nicely. I know what I pay for a ticket is the final price and, to borrow their language, they won’t #$*!% me over.
Now if only they would start flying to Latin America…
32 Responses to “Best Airline Ad Ever!”
By jessie voigts on Jun 4, 2008
tim - i can’t stop laughing! thanks!
By Paul Decker on Jun 4, 2008
Congratulations to SW and its agency
for consistently good work. This ad
is terrific. Once again I feel
good moving about the country on SW.
By Yannis on Jun 5, 2008
Aggressive and risky, but nice. Good job S.W.
By Abby on Jun 5, 2008
Fabulous! I think charging people for checking bags is ridiculous. SW was smart enough to plan ahead for the rise in gas prices, and because they truly value customer service, I feel good about flying with them.
By Ray on Jun 5, 2008
Quite unprofessional and very rude. I would rather fly a decent airline.
By Steve on Jun 5, 2008
Hmmm…i’ve got no gripe with the ad campaign, but i flew southwest from providence to phoenix 3 times in ‘03-’04, for 196 roundtrip….now it’s nearly double that price, even with the “wanna-get-away special”…4-5 years ago, they had ‘internet specials’ instead, which were MUCH better deals. I was thinking about making a trip out to el paso this month (from providence), and southwest’s absolute cheapest roundtrip fare was $475 bucks - and they service both providence and el paso!
what do you think, tim?
By tim on Jun 5, 2008
Thanks for the comments everyone. Steve, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the price of fuel has more than tripled since you flew four or five years ago. Fares are rising around the world accordingly. No way around it unless we all stop consuming so much energy and demand falls. But at least SW is up front about it and the price is the price. No surprises.
By rp on Jun 5, 2008
great add, brave and exciting, good work who ever the writer/exec & clients fun and ballsy.
By Mike on Jun 5, 2008
I’d rather fly an unprofessional airline that swears in its ads than try to deal with “professional” corporate con artists.
By DML on Jun 6, 2008
Mike, I completely agree!!!
By Barnegat Blummis on Jun 6, 2008
I love love love Southwest. Funniest, fastest, politest, cheapest, least lost baggage, least late planes. So you board in weird groups, who cares?
By Dave on Jun 6, 2008
Very nice ad, goes straight to the point. I wonder which agency they use.
By Jordan on Jun 6, 2008
I like that there are *five* symbols in the expletive-deleted, there.
So, if anyone were to complain, Southwest could argue they had censored the word ’screw’ and not ‘fuck’.
That is some serious cleverness.
By tim on Jun 6, 2008
Jordan–I noticed that too, but only the 4th or 5th time I saw it. I think you’re right…
By matt on Jun 6, 2008
this is absolutely hillarious! and strangely true.
By John on Jun 7, 2008
SW has raised fares, but within limits of what can be accounted for in their costs. As for some comments about cheap fares disappearing… well, YEAH. After 911 there were lots of special fares… no one was flying! Now, the planes are full because everyone flies again. Full planes, no special fares, empty planes, they run specials and fill them up. After all, cheap seats still build revenue whereas empty seats are a loss opportunity.
By John on Jun 7, 2008
The best thing about SWA is that I am NOT trapped into sitting next to someone by random selection. In other words, the absolute best perk they have is that I get to be on the plane, look at people and the density of the flight, and then select a seat of my own choosing. People that want assigned seating are idiots… and I hope they get trapped next to the crying baby often.
By Jeff on Jun 9, 2008
Being a large man, I have been concerned about airlines charging, “by the pound” which is on its face rediculous. The difference in weight between a dwarf and a Samoan wrestler is insignificant to modern commercial airlines. They haul tons of cargo and other materials besides the passengers in their holds. If they want to raise thier prices because fuel costs are high spread the price across the entire group.
By nascar on Jun 10, 2008
hahaha, this is such a great ad.
By craptastic on Jun 12, 2008
“Awesome”- I “LOL’d”!!! This is the greatest thing I’ve seen on the web! I give it 4 stars! “Oops, I just got a boner when I realized that I’m going to see my name published on the “web”!”
By November on Jun 13, 2008
Love, love, love it.
I’ve used many different airlines- I’ve been flying trans-pacifically since I was, well, one, and have crossed the US, the pacific and the atlantic many times. SW is the only one I’ve never had a complaint with, for short or longer hauls. Their staff has always been excellent, that perfect blend of courtesy and friendly.
If you work for SW and you see this, thanks for making flying tolerable!
By Grigori on Jun 17, 2008
fantastic… translate to reality, and is really funny!!!
now, how about flying to south america???
By SW passenger on Jun 21, 2008
SW is the shit, its the ONE airline terrorists will NEVER hijack, cause the passengers will kill them and they know it!!
I love SW, the stewards and stewardesses are HILARIOUS (an asian Elvis giving safety briefing!!) the pilots are NEVER stuffy and give the funniest flight info ever.
This airline rocks.
I also agree with SW’s seating, first come first serve, it rocks.
As for the ad, it is SW at its best, keep up the GREAT WORK
By Ion Home Inspection on Jun 22, 2008
Living here in Texas I almost exclusively use SW especially traveling for my home inspection association meetings. No muss no fuss as they say. This ad speaks right to that point.
Jeffrey
IonHomeInspection.com
Houston, Katy, Sugar Land
By Vicky on Jun 23, 2008
Love it. My son is in the Army and flies often.
By Levitra on Jun 24, 2008
southwest really is the best airline. very unconventional and fun, but still reliable.
By Cassyt on Jun 27, 2008
FYI- My husband, son & about 20 parents & children got stuck in Baltimore, Detroit and Chicago for 30 hours due to a minor error by SW and some weather. Without anyone writing or emailing the airline-SW sent each person in the group a $250 voucher and 2 very nice, sincere letters written and mailed the day after the flights finally ended.
Now, if they’d just fly to Minneapolis!
By DistrictofColumbia on Jul 7, 2008
nice topic,
By Travel Guide on Jul 27, 2008
Nice. The ads nowadays are innovative or rather has to be competitive to beat the neck to neck tie for market leadership.
By Eric on Jul 29, 2008
The stuff Airlines are getting away with now is a little on the insane side - Air Canada does this thing called guaranteed seating where you’ve got to pay an extra fee to guarantee your flight - if you don’t pay for it and the flight is fully booked, someone else can come along, pay the fee, and bump you off. Lovely. Really glad to hear SW has chosen a different approach!
By BILL on Aug 21, 2008
I’d rather fly an unprofessional airline that swears in its ads than try to deal with “professional” corporate con artists.
By The Fitness Diva on Oct 1, 2008
That is just freaking hilarious!