Southwest Airlines

The airline is fine as far as on time baggage goes through quickly staff are friendly and helpful. However the boarding procedure (no assigned seats) is just a way to charge people for a reasonable line placement. So when considering flying SW with a family that would like sitting together add from 15 to 40 dollars to the price of a ticket and purchase the upgrade. All and all a fine airline for those flying alone but not family friendly.

Southwest 1696 on April 1st from Baltimore to Denver. By using the rapid rewards debit card we got throughout the year we are able to take a vacation for no more than $30 each year ($30 is tax). We always check in on the dot of 24 hours before departure and usually get A or B boarding groups. We love that we get to choose our own seat. The staff are always very friendly and the new free TV on board every flight is my 2 kids favorite past time.

I was horrified by the policy of changing flights at SouthWest. I had a round trip ticket and was able to return home earlier so arrived at Nashville airport 11.30 looking to get on the almost empty 1.20 pm flight. I was informed that I would have to pay $250 to purchase a new ONE WAY ticket home. I paid less than that for the round-trip flight. I did not expect this since I was told that SW was customer friendly and did not charge change fees. No they just charge you for a whole new ticket instead. I am trapped in Nashville for the next 8.5 hours thanks to their policy.

Having flown 45 weeks or so annually and now scaling back I fly Southwest for both business and pleasure. Southwest is an easy transition. With all the cutbacks and cattle calls that airlines have migrated to SW at least makes it simple ABC. If you can't figure that out sit in the middle. Their gate attendants are knowledgeable take the same stupid questions over and over yet answer them in a polite manner.

My husband and I will avoid Southwest/AirTran at all costs. Vacation to Cabo 3/1/14 with connections in Denver. 1 hour late getting off ground in Milwaukee as plane was over weight and they had to kick 8 people off. Late arrival in Denver forced mad rush to gate in different terminal for connection to Cabo. Returning to Milwaukee 3/10/14 plane was 1 hour late getting in and leaving Cabo which again created havoc in Denver for connection back to Milwaukee. The absolute kicker is they lost both of our bags going to Cabo (30 hours before returned) and returning to Milwaukee (36 hours before returned). Unbelievable incompetence. Your bags fly free - you just don't know where!

Las Vegas to Richmond VA. Booked with AirTran but transported by Southwest from LAS to ATL. Biggest problem I have with Southwest is no seat assignment. That's why I picked AirTran. With Southwest I feel like I'm treated like cattle and herded through the process of boarding the plane. I believe AirTran has the right approach for boarding. That is 1) assigned seats and 2) boarding by zones. I can't understand why the general flying public tolerates Southwest's cattle call boarding. Southwest's prices are right but their anywhere you want seating is for the birds.

Vacation to Cabo San Lucas Mexico scheduled 3/1/14. Boarded in Milwaukee with a connection in Denver. When we arrived at check in we were told the flight had been 'overbooked' by 5 passengers. We received the last 2 boarding passes luckily. Upon being seated and waiting for 15 minutes the flight attendant announced that the plane was over-weight and 8 passengers would have to leave. It took another 30 minutes to adjust the weight before we took off - 1 hour after schedule. Upon arriving in Denver an hour late we had to rush to another terminal to catch our connecting flight to Cabo. Flight to Cabo went on schedule until standing at the luggage carousel our 2 pieces of checked luggage never came out. It was not until 30 hours later that our luggage finally showed up. On our return when we checked in at the airport it was announced that our plane was delayed an hour. Taking off to Denver again we realized we were facing a potential connect issue again. Once entering the U.S. we needed to go through customs in Denver before boarding our flight to Milwaukee. Once through customs you need to claim your luggage and then recheck it with Southwest/AirTran. We then had to pass through security before racing to another terminal where our gate was located because of late arrival. We boarded the plane and left for Milwaukee arriving at 10pm on-time. We then went to retrieve our luggage and once again our two bags never showed up. It took another 36 hours to get our bags delivered to our home.

Flew from Nashville-Houston-Dallas last Tuesday. As usual so many people have to bring their suitcases on board with them these days that we leave late. We get to Houston and our connection flight is down they finally get it fixed and we leave out almost an hour late getting into Dallas only to hear they don't know where our luggage is. We later find out that the plane had a lot of freight so they made us wait an hour for our luggage. I live 8 hours (by car) from Dallas and 2 hours from Nashville. Had I driven to Dallas I would have arrived at my hotel 2 hours before I actually got there by flying. On the return trip our flight from Dallas to St. Louis was late and I had to run to my connecting flight to get there before the door was closing. I think this airline is slipping so I intend to start looking at others after always using Southwest without checking.

Flown from Houston to Las Vegas last week. Everything was good (except lots of passengers were drunk and yelling). Our flight departed on time and arrived 15 min prior to schedule. I had no complaints at all for the price it was a fair trip. The return flight was delayed 40 min. Whoever is surprised by this obviously doesn't travel a lot by plane. I say for the price their flights are good don't expect feeling as royalty of course. For short trips (4 hours max.) it's pretty enjoyable.

Feb 2014 - BUF-FLL (return). We booked Southwest mainly because of the price and I was a little apprehensive about avoiding the dreaded middle and getting a decent aisle seat. We paid an extra fee for their "early bird" check in which in our case allowed us to board with the first 25 passengers both outbound and return. It was a 3 hour flight and that's about all of the time I would want to spend in their cramped uncomfortable seating. But for a reasonable short flight I'd book Southwest again. It's a basic no frills airline with no baggage fees and it gets you there albeit not in the most comfortable circumstances.