Southwest Airlines

Never flying Southwest again. Their boarding/seating process is horrible and needlessly stressful; their "new hip" thing among flight staff is really annoying. My fiancé and I flew across the country to get married last weekend. Of course we wanted to sit together on the 5 hour flight. But with the ridiculous system of no assigned seats there was no way to assure this. On the way back we got stuck in separate seats surrounded by a yelling and singing boy scout troop. To make things worse the flight attendants cranked up the volume on the PA system and sang the safety demonstration. In fact all announcements were done in song. This should be illegal. They seemed to think it was clever but it was a real nightmare to be strapped into one of those tiny seats surrounded by pimply screaming boy scouts and then endure warbling flight attendants blasting through the overhead speakers. A truly horrible airline. I will pay double triple quadruple to avoid flying Southwest. I will walk or crawl across the country rather than fly with these people.

This was my first time flying Southwest. I've used United an Delta most other times and now I know why. There is absolutely no room on these planes. your knees are all but touching the seat in front of you and the seats are way too small. I weigh 128lbs and I was very uncomfortable. I was hot and miserable. The captain never spoke to us during the flight. I've never had that happen with any other airline.

I fly Southwest all the time but this particular trip was not so great! I found a really cheap flight with a 1 hr layover which turned into a 3 hr layover. Because my original flight destination time was so late a 3 hr layer had me arriving at 2am when all public transportation (which I use) has ended. I think I should have been compensated for my transportation to the city.

As a former Northwest/Delta Airlines customer (exclusively) I may be easier to impress. Southwest recently started direct flights between Phoenix and Minneapolis. We purchased tickets in May at what we considered to be very reasonable fare for a roundtrip to celebrate our grandson's second birthday in Minneapolis. My father passed away two weeks prior to our scheduled departure. I called SW seeking assistance. After a brief discussion regarding the circumstances and flight availability the associate announced a fee of $783.00. With the shortest of pauses (I was choosing an appropriate reaction) he asked me to hold while he consulted with a Customer Care agent. A few more questions resulted in a change in three of the four legs of our trip for a total cost of $10.

I flew SouthWest a number of times between US cities and really like the product they offer. It is low cost and I didn't experience any hidden surprises. I also like the no fuss nature the airplane comes in people get off the next lot get on and it takes off again. It’s great if you just want to get from A to B. The two checked bag allowance is a win as I arrived in the US on an international flight with 2 bags so it was helpful to have these included without additional cost (as many/all other US airlines charged). I will continue to fly SouthWest when I visit the US.

I've been a Rapid Rewards member since 2000 and have spent time on the A-List (but not there currently.) SWA has consistently been above and beyond all other airlines I've flown (AMR Delta Continental) for customer service and they are much more likely to be on-time and not pulling booking shenanigans. Transparency on the (minimal) fees is a giant plus.

I fly SouthWest constantly - they aren't perfect but employees are cheerful legroom and storage room at your feet is better than other airlines bags are free and there are no change fees if you need to change a flights.

I am done with Southwest. I just got screwed by the inability to change a passenger just like so many others recently. The agent said they have been telling people about this for some time. News to me. As soon as I can arrange it I'm paying off my Southwest credit card and sending it and my rapid rewards card to them in pieces.

Extremely disappointed in Southwest's recent changes to the policy on the inability to change a passenger name once the ticket has been purchased. I bought a ticket for an employee before this policy took effect who was not able to make the trip. Since then SW started supposedly "enforcing a policy that has been in place" without any sort of notification. Now I'm out almost $500 because they won't refund the ticket or allow me to use the credit for another passenger - even if it's just transferred to my name. Their reason when I filed a complaint? "a proactive step to align our business with the general practice of the airline industry" So it seems SW is in fact purposefully intending to become just another airline. The really upsetting part is that only a week or two earlier another trip for an employee had to be cancelled and I was able to use the flight credit for someone else. Suddenly I can't. No notification at all. I get emails just about every other day from SW advertising their "get- away" deals; couldn't they have simply sent out an email letting us know their policy was going to go into effect? I was an extremely loyal SW customer but they've lost my business for good. I know I'm only one of many people this has affected - they told me as much when I called to complain.

Terrible customer service. I purchased tickets for my employees to take a trip in October 2011 and one of the employees can no longer go. This trip has been planned 5 months in advance. Southwest will not let anyone else use the ticket even though we gave 5 months notice. They would not allow any name transfers. Only the named employee could use the ticket no else could go in her place. They would only refund if they were given a copy of a death certificate of the employee.

Travelled SW for the first time because my son gave me and my husband SW giftcards so we booked a trip to Vegas. We paid the extra $10. each was for early bird seating we got A section between 15 and 30 that was good. I think if you are flying as a couple it is worth the extra so you can sit together. I hear some people are saving seats for their partner which I find to be cheap. Anyway to and from Vegas we had good flights I liked choosing my seat. I will fly SW again as long as SW stays with limited extra fees. I used to fly Continental only but they have imposed more fees than I care to read about. Keep up the good work SW and we will stay loyal to you.

Boston to Norfolk via Baltimore early morning. Boston to Baltimore fine but probably only because the flight was nearly empty and I could sleep. Legroom better than on other legacy carriers. Baltimore to Norfolk a horror. A very loud stewardess with a grating Southern accent spent the whole flight on the PA yelling about seatbelts how no drinks would be served due to turbulence (there was no turbulence) how no one could get out of his seat due to turbulence (there was no turbulence) how cute all the screaming babies onboard were and lastly in signature creepy Americana how there were soldiers or something onboard so to give them a loud round of applause for their service. So loud applause and the obnoxious loud flight crew prevented me from getting any sleep on the flight. I understand Southwest has a particular style - a kitsch-laden obnoxious style. It's not for me. At least the bags were free.

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!