Flying the Company Plane, gratis
I’ve said this before, but I love Southwest Airlines. It’s an amazingly successful company in an industry loaded with money-losing, flight-cancelling, bankruptcy-declaring, customer-pissing-off dinosaurs. I don’t fly a whole lot — maybe four roundtrips a year — but I always try to fly Southwest. It’s faster, cheaper and safer than pretty much any airline out there. Hotter stewardesses, too.
That’s why I was happy to download Southwest’s “Ding” application. It’s a small app that sits in the system tray, displaying the familiar striped 737 tail. Whenever Southwest has a sale or other promotion, it plays a “Ding” sound effect, and I hurriedly click on the icon to see where I can go. Everytime, memories of Caesars flash through my mind.
Here’s what makes it even better. Southwest recently changed its Rapid Rewards program so that credits are good for two years instead of one. What’s more, the company retroactively applied the change, so I’m just two flights away from a freebie. I’m heading to South Bend in a few weeks for The Observer’s 40th anniversary reunion/drinking binge. This summer, I’ll be heading to Medina, Ohio (rhymes with vagina) for Tommy’s wedding. After that, I’ll get a flight (and booze!) for free. Hell yeah.
Posted to Out and About, Reviews, Business, Personal, Products
It’s faster, cheaper and safer than pretty much any airline out there.
Do you really think so?
I’ve had more maddening delays with that airline than any other, and I hate the notion of non-assigned seating. That makes boarding a disorganized pain in the ass, and Houstonians are already bad in such situations.
As price goes, I think that’s true on short-notice flights, but I’ve rarely found a Southwest price that I can’t match on Continental if I’m a little flexible and I have three weeks to plan. Indeed, I can often beat Southwest prices.
My own personal preference is the local “legacy” airline . Hands down. Now, whether that holds under Larry Kellner (post Gordon Bethune) remains to be seen, but so far it seems to be the case.
Got the data right here.
In 2005, 77.4% of U.S. flights landed on time. 1.87% were cancelled.
Continental slightly underperformed the industry, with a 76.9% on-time rate, but it cancelled only 0.92% of its flights.
Over the same period, Southwest posted an 80.74% on-time rate, and only cancelled 0.85% of its flights.
I tend not to be flexible with my travel arrangements. If I’m flying somewhere, it’s usually for a long weekend, and it’s usually for an event with a fixed date, like a wedding or something. I’ve seldom been able to beat Southwest’s price, especially between big cities. I can’t remember the last time I paid more than $100 to fly to Chicago, which is my most frequent hop.
You make an interesting point about the seating policies. I wonder if there are any data to make an objective decision one way or the other? I can see arguments for doing it either way.
With assigned seats, you can board the passengers 10 rows at a time, and everyone knows where they’re supposed to sit. The downside is that you have people looking for their specific seat, and hoping that luggage space is available directly overhead.
With open seating, it’s every man for himself and it can get a bit hectic. Wasn’t it Nietzsche who said that order spontaneously arises out of chaos? Open seating is something of a meritocracy in which those who earn the best seats (checking in online at 12:01 a.m., trampling old ladies, etc.) get ‘em.
Then again, I can’t stand Nietzsche.
And I’d bet you that despite the jostling, open seating gets everyone on the plane faster. Part of Southwest’s genius is that the company maintains quick turnaround times and keeps its planes in the air.
Wait a minute; aren’t you traveling? Quit screwing around on the internet and crack open the minibar, dude! It’s on BigCo!
MATT IS A SKINNY LOSER!!
but i LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE him
Driving to Hobby sure beats the hour-long drive to Humble right through the center of the world’s most congested city to get to IAH. Also my ride up to Chicago for the reunion will be gratis.
Kevin,
At least it’s not a “smoke pit” any longer. I have had a few bad experiences with them, the worst being about two years ago. A bad stom raced into the Metroplex, and screwed up all the flights. I had turned in the rent car, so I couldn’t drive to DFW. Several hours later, I was lucky to get a flight into Hobby. It was a friggin zoo! There were bags from about fifty flights stacked up, and the airline folks were just pulling bags off and had no system of order.
I found my bag after about three hours of searching through what seemed to be a thousand pieces of luggage.