Southwest Airlines

Service was good out of PBI plane looked a little tired but seats comfortable. Upon arriving in BWI connecting flight to LGA was delayed 2.5 hrs. They need to improve their LGA service. Got there but late. Still a great airline.

A mixed-bag trip from Seattle to Washington Dulles . On the plus side I had to change my itinerary at the last minute and was able to do so on Southwest at minimal cost. Flight out was uneventful. Flight back terrible I was stuck in Midway after a Dulles delay the airline stated was a mechanical problem but they refused to provide a hotel voucher. I had to find and pay for my own hotel. The gate agent was very rude.

Is Southwest becoming too big? It used to be one of the few airlines I could rely on for great customer service and quality. But it seems that with the acquisition of Airtran they also acquired the bad habits of big airlines. My last trip with them was a headache that cost me $500. I got stuck in Chicago for one night and received attitude from the crew when I tried to address the issue. It is great that they don't charge for luggage but I'm curious to see how long that is going to last.

Beware more and more Southwest is just another airline. Latest casualty is the previously elegant Rapid Rewards program which used to be 16 credits=1 free flight virtually no restrictions. It has now devolved into just another points system with ever more restrictions. During the transition they are still using Awards which was the mechanism by which you reaped the reward of a free flight. But do not convert points into an award - if you do so mistakenly you will never get them converted back into points. Found this out trying to book a flight by converting to award first which was akin to the previous protocol but the flight had "no" award seats available. You could buy a seat with your points but after conversion to award I didn't have enough points available and Southwest has made their system physically incapable of correcting the conversion not even during this period of new learning for their customers. They make no statement that I could find that such conversions are irrevocable. In other words if you make a mistake too bad - you can pay for a ticket but Southwest won't help you correct your points v. award error and you have to wait for another flight within the coming year to use it. Yes the award expires though the points do not while you continue to generate trip activity.

New Orleans to Las Vegas and Las Vegas to SFO. Excellent experience on both journeys friendly staff on time departures and bags free. I don't understand the benefit of open seating policy but that is the only thing I didn't like. I did however pay $10 extra for early bird-check in and got an "A" pass between 15-20 both times. Early-bird check in automatically checks you in 24 hours before the flight thus increasing your chances of an "A" boarding pass. In retrospect I would only do this for longer flights when it really does help if you can avoid that middle seat.

Travelled Southwest for the first time round trip Manchester Phoenix. Cannot understand the open seating "gimmick" this airline uses. On the return trip we were not able to participate in the competition to call within 24 hours and get an "earlier" boarding assignment as we were travelling in a remote area with no cell coverage. Therefore as we were among the last to board we (and many other couples) were not able to sit together. The flight attendants "helped" by continuing to instruct us to just "find a seat single seats only available". We ended up separated by 20 rows. The reason for this practice must have something to do with saving the airline money because there is no apparent benefit for passengers. But the on line seat selection process that all the other airlines use is obviously computerized and can't cost much if anything to oversee so why does Southwest do this?? Certainly feels like one of those brilliant ideas the management team comes up with that blindly ignores the needs of some passengers. Won't fly Southwest again.

TPA-MSY. I love the fact how the first and second bag are free - and they gave us our boarding passes and took our luggage away when we were still outside. The boarding and seating was a bit crazy but managed well. The small snacks were nice and great service.

The service is about the same you would get at a decent restaurant seats are soft snacks are tasty no entertainment but no big deal. The flight was smooth and enjoyable. When we were in Baltimore our plane got delayed by a storm in Panama city Florida. At least our bags were free!

Baltimore to Buffalo. We were very concerned about being able to deal with my mothers handicaps. From entering the airport in Baltimore to meeting our pick up in Buffalo Southwest was extremely helpful throughout the entire trip and made us very comfortable in our travel. I was very anxious about taking my mother on this trip and they truly came through for us. Thank you Southwest.

After flying several other airlines to/from locations Southwest does not serve I am reminded how great Southwest's business model truly is. They are reliable honest easy to work with friendly and make travel less stressful. I try to fly Southwest to ensure I don't battle the stress of other airlines.