Southwest Airlines

Southwest gets zero stars for one reason and one reason only. Their "Open Seating" policy. Bags fly free but at SW passengers are just another bag. You pay good money to stand in a cattle chute and then maybe have to ask someone's permission to sit in a seat if you are not lucky enough to get a good boarding position. With other airlines I know I will have a seat of my choosing no matter when I board. This is called "Customer Service" which is apparently a foreign concept to SW.

Flew from Vegas to Chicago. Once we got the Vegas airport we noticed a very disgruntled vibe. The usually happy Southwest employees were very grouchy and seemed bothered to be there. We boarded the plane actually got the very first seat with tons of leg room and finally had the opportunity to stretch out for the long ride home. From the moment the plane was to take off the complaining started. I guess there was some sort of issue with the transair merger and the flight attendant union because that is all I heard about for the entire flight. They just went on and on as if they were out for coffee at some cafe. I don't even think they realized how inappropriate it was to complain while they were on the job and within earshot of customers. It made us very uncomfortable and annoyed. Once we landed and all of bags didn't make it that kind of sealed the deal for us. No more Southwest. Beware when you check your bags you may not see them again. We did get our bag back at midnight so we were the lucky ones. I guess the "we don't really care" attitude of Southwest is my major complaint.

6/08/12 Flew from LAX (Los Angeles) to LAS (Las Vegas). Flight was delayed by 20 minutes which was not even bad. We were further delayed in the air for 20 more minutes because President Obama was landing at the same airport as we were. Other than that the flight attendants were courteous the seats were decent had good leg room (I'm 6.2"). Returned on 6/12/12 LAS to LAX. The incoming Flight was delayed for 2.5hrs due to bad weather from the region it was coming from. I got my round trip ticket for $90. I'll definitely fly again!

I have flown Southwest a number of times now. I have never experienced a problem with their staff whatsoever. I just got back from a trip from KMCO (Orlando) to KPIT (Pittsburgh) I am a student pilot myself so when we landed I asked one of the flight attendants if I could peek in the flight deck and they were very nice. The seats are all leather with adequate leg room. That is coming from a guy over 6 feet tall. I like the fact that Southwest does not separate the cabin by class. Apparently recently they began offering Nilla wafers as an In-Flight snack. I did not particularly care for them. Bottom line I would recommend flying Southwest. You can get a round trip ticket for $200.

When my flight was changed I thought my seat was guaranteed - after waiting 6 hours at the airport and finally on the plane I got called to the front just to get pulled for another passenger and then was told I need to pay extra to guarantee a seat on the next flight that was another 4 hours away. The worst 11 hours of my life.

I printed my boarding passes at home I got A50 for departure 6 hours after the printing starting time (24 hours) and for my return I got A44 printed only 20 minutes after the beginning of the 24 hours window. So whether you print your boarding pass early or late makes no difference. At the airport there are no instructions about the boarding process. So finally I stood in line with the rest. On my return they had 2.5 hours delay the excuse being the weather in Houston. On the return trip the flight attendants gossiped and laughed loudly like 2 schoolgirls preventing us the exhausted passengers from getting a bit of rest. All in all do your best to avoid Southwest even if you pay a little more.

LAX to Vegas to Burbank. On time seats very comfortable cheerful staff. Very laid back feel. The only downfall is no entertainment and planes seem a little old. Great for the price.

Flew SWA for the first time between Boston and St Louis for business. On the way out to STL I had a non- stop however on the return I had to fly through BWI (Baltimore). Nevertheless both flights were pleasant and I was very impressed with their overall care of their paying customers. Will definitely fly them again.

Two round trips so far have been excellent in every respect: on time easy boarding pleasant crew (glad to say official flight time is under 2 hours; can't comment on comfort on a longer haul.) Of course SW is known for the several special ways it rises above the competition: consistently cheap fares (at least for our route) those two pieces of free checked baggage and the free reservation changes. Easy to use website is another nice advantage. As I mentioned among us we will likely be doing 6 or more round trips on this SW route each year for a while so I will be sure to review again if any of the above changes.

RNO-DEN-IAD-BWI-LAS-RNO. Good fares pleasant staff on-time for the most part and when a delay comes up we are informed. This trip held true to that again. But my only issue on this trip and it is not a fault but rather a comment. Flying cross country non-stop on a 737 for 5 hours is a bit brutal. We did get on a brand new 737-800 for the longest sector from BWI to LAS which was nice but still a very long trip on a small plane that was packed to the hilt. The crew were pleasant on all sectors. The ground staff at BWI were great and the Skycap had us laughing. All in all a good product with no complaints really. Just remember to buy a meal before you get on a long flight and if you don't mind a long flight on a small plane then Southwest is the way to go. Plus you can't beat the two free check-in bags.