Southwest Airlines

My husband and I flew from Las Vegas to Baltimore return. The seats are small and extremely uncomfortable no elbow room. The seat cushions were thin and caused tail bone pain. We will never fly Southwest again for a flight longer than 1.5 hours. Clearly passenger comfort even on a flight of almost 5 hours is not a priority to Southwest.

Flew non-stop from Hartford to Las Vegas and back. Flights were delayed and overbooked. No meal service available food consisted of an assortment of mini ritz peanuts etc. Beverage menu was good.

RNO-DEN-RNO. All went well. On time except for return flight in which they held the plane 15 minutes for some connecting passengers that were on their way. We were kept informed. Crew were pleasant on all flights. The captain stood by the exit and said his thank you as we all exited. Baggage arrived safely except mine was covered in snow in Denver.

BWI-DFW-BWI in Big Front Seats. Had misgivings about flying Spirit but decided to give them a chance due to perfect non-stop flight schedule for my meetings and cost savings (Spirit was half the price even after paying extra fees to carry-on bag and Big Front Seat equivalent to a standard US domestic first class seat). Pleasantly surprised: reasonably orderly boarding experience new airplane clean cabin professional crew and on-time flights both ways. Would fly them again.

Concerns my wife who flew from Minneapolis with a connecting flight in St. Louis. Final destination Kansas City. Plane left Mpls on time arrived in St. Louis 30 minutes late but were assured connecting flights would hold. Upon arrival the flight left for St. Louis about 10 minutes before the arrival of my wife's flight. There were 18 people on the Mpls flight headed for KC. So presumably the flight to KC had 18 empty seats. Next flight left approximately two hours later. Upon arrival in St. Louis there was no one at the desk they had to hunt down an SW employee to find out what was going on.

San Diego to San Francisco. Just how a budget airline should operate. No frills but easy check in comfortable seats clean plane on time departure and a sensible boarding system. Never used before but very impressed and all for just $50.

Connecting flight from Indianapolis to Austin. No choice but to fly. Got to Dallas and have been stuck on the tarmac for over 2 hours and counting. I could have driven from Dallas to Austin. The car is faster less hassle and more reliable for these trips. I have to travel back to Dallas tomorrow and you can bet it will be on 4 wheels!

San Jose CA [SJC] to Seattle WA [SEA] on 10/10/12 returning on 10/14/12. Flight time is only 1:45 and maybe this is why I didn't mind having no video or audio entertainment there was WiFi access available for purchase. First time dealing with their reservations system via phone and the process of re-booking was quick clear and painless. Flights were on time cabin crew friendly and efficient soft drink peanuts and cheese crackers were free and my checked bag was free. I look forward to flying with them again for the holidays in December.

Most recently I flew round trip from Bradley in Hartford CT to BWI. Southwest is definitely a mixed bag. I guess if you have a small barking dog it's great for you. Unfortunately if you are stuck on the plane in the vicinity of this yapping dog which yapped incessantly for the entire flight it's not so great. If you were lucky enough to get an "A" ticket that's wonderful but if you end up with "C" like I did that means you are forced to fend for yourself to try and find space in the overstuffed overhead bins. Since I don't check baggage and can never seem to be lucky enough to get an "A" ticket I'll only fly Southwest out of sheer necessity. It's always a free-for-all stampede of confusion-in this case the flight was overbooked so you've got people milling about unsure what's up. The space for standing in line for the flight is ludicrous since the line is largely ignored by most-like standing in line at the movie theatre for tickets-all of a sudden people just happen to show up to join their party and cut in front of you without an excuse me or any kind of courtesy whatsoever. Flying on Southwest is like getting on a bus-no assigned seats. You definitely feel like part of the herd only difference is you do get a couple of packages of peanuts and a cold drink from a smiling flight attendant.

I travel from the Washington area to Denver several times a year. Previously I used United but I am increasingly using Southwest. The flights are cheaper and the quality of service is higher. My only complaint about Southwest is that the seat could have used a little more padding. I realize delays due to weather or other problems occur but United lies about the cause.