The Flying Critic

4 Southwest Rapid Reward Credits for New Accounts

According to the Frugal Travel Guy you can join the Southwest Rapid Rewards program from a LaQuinta Hotel promo and get 4 Rapid Rewards Credits.  You must join by September 30th.  If you don't have a Southwest Rapid Rewards account you should consider joining through this promo.  With Southwest becoming the rare no-fee airline you just might find yourself flying them.

Flying Southwest LAX-PHX - Photo Review

The Flying Critic reader Barrie responded to my recent United p.s. breakfast flight review in business class with a comment that he prefers to fly in "Cattle Class."  So in honor of Barrie here is a photo review of my Southwest Airlines flight from last Monday:

Southwest planes at Phoenix International Airport (PHX) after we landed.

The clean cabin of the Southwest Boeing 737.

Lots of legroom in the exit row.

A flight attendant gave me 3 bags of dry roasted peanuts.

After the peanuts were handed out a flight attendant brought me a Diet Coke.

The crew worked hard and were cheerful throughout the flight.  After the flight attendants picked up the cups from the drink service they asked each passenger if they wanted anything else to drink.  I took a second Diet Coke.

I enjoyed this Southwest flight more than my typical United flights between LAX and PHX.  The Southwest 737 was clean and getting the exit row resulted in way more leg room than you can get on United/SkyWest's cramped regional jets. 

Tomorrow (June 26) Southwest Schedule Extends to January 9, 2009 from October 31, 2008

Nuts About Southwest reports that:

Flight schedules for the time period extending from October 31, 2008 all the way to January 9, 2009, have been sent--and will be open for sale next Thursday, June 26

So if you are looking to grab award seats or buy Southwest tickets for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years you should be ready tomorrow morning at southwest.com.  Typically when Southwest extends its schedule other airlines also begin to lower their prices for the period covered by Southwest's schedule extension.  Tomorrow and the next few days may be a good time to grab holiday tickets.

Southwest's Response to Fee Mania

Southwest Airlines is a savvy marketer. They have a new advertising campaign that highlights their lack of most fees.  I think the ad nails the feeling of many travelers.  Thanks to Tim Leffel's Cheapest Destinations Blog for pointing out the ad.

Can You Standby for Free on Southwest Airlines? A Travel Tip

If you are on a non full fare ticket you usually can't standby for free on Southwest Airlines.  Southwest will typically require that you pay the difference between your discounted fare (called Wanna Get Away) and the full fare price. But there are two other ways that you can standby for free on Southwest.  One is if your flight is delayed by 30 minutes and the other is if is you miss your original flight and can invoke the flat tire rule.

The three ways that you can standby for free on Southwest Airlines

1. If you are on a full fare tickets you can standby for free.  Southwest calls their full fare tickets Business Select and Anytime fares.  If you were wondering why someone on a full fare ticket might need to standby it is because you can't buy a ticket on (or change your full fare ticket to) a flight that departs within one hour on Southwest Airlines.
2. If the flight that you are booked on is running late by 30 minutes you may standby on a different flight for no charge.  Often the way to figure out if your flight is delayed is to determine where your plane is coming from and then check its arrival status.  Even if your flight doesn't show delayed you can usually standby for free by pointing out that the inbound flight is delayed and that your flight will be delayed even if the delay for your flight hasn't already trickled down in the computer system.
3. If you miss your original flight and present yourself to a Southwest airport agent within two hours of your original flight's takeoff time you can standby for a later flight for no charge.  This is Southwest's flat tire rule.

Southwest typically starts to clear standby passengers 10 minutes before departure.  If the flight you want to standby on is wide open sometimes an agent will clear you right away.  Southwest usually runs their standby list first come first served.

Deal Alert: Save 15% on Southwest Airlines for travel August 23, 2008 through October 30, 2008

Southwest announced a 15% off sale for travel August 23, 2008 through October 30, 2008.  Labor day weekend is blacked out.  You must book between April 18, 2008 and April 21, 2008.  Use promo code: DING15 

More details here.

5 reasons to fly Southwest Airlines

1)    No change fees

Southwest doesn't screw you when your plans get screwed.  You might have to pay a higher fare but there are no fees.  And if your new flight is cheaper they give you the difference as credit for a future flight. 

This works for canceling also.  If you booked a non-refundable ticket (which all but the most expensive ones are) and need to cancel instead of rebook, you get the full value of your ticket back as credit for a future flight.  Those credits expire a year from when you bought your ticket.

2)    No seat assignments

Some people hate it.  I get that.  But compared to trying to get a seat assignment on the legacies if you are not an elite status frequent flyer or are booking within a few weeks of departure, Southwest's no seat assignment system gives a lot of people a chance at decent seats that they wouldn’t have on other airlines.

3)    Two checked bags for free, third one for only $25

After the industry's recent baggage fee increases, Southwest still comes out ahead of the pack by allowing all customers two free checked bags.  And if you need to check a third bag it is a reasonable $25.  Yes, Southwest used to let you check three for free, but at least they still let you check two instead of one like most other airlines.

4)    Their website is easy and it works

They make it easy to book a flight.  And that’s what you want.  No complex options and choices.  Just click Book A Flight, pick your city pair, your travel dates, the number of people and click Go.

5)    They don’t outsource their call centers

If you need to call for help you don't have to deal with the madness of an outsourced foreign call center.
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I'm not saying Southwest is perfect.  They aren't.  They make big mistakes.  But Southwest gives people without elite frequent flyer status a similar customer service experience that you have to fly 100,000 miles a year to get on some other airlines.  While United is my first choice when flying in the USA, I would never wish them on anyone who isn't one of their frequent flyers.  They treat their frequent flyers great but everyone else like crap.  That's why Southwest gets my recommendation for the typical USA domestic flyer who is taking a couple flights per year.

Some Southwest humor

Thanks to The Onion for imagining Southwest's decision to abandon their 737s.

Inflight WiFi? Several airlines have announced plans to start testing

The San Francisco Chronicle published an article today on the status the testing of inflight WiFi on airplanes in the USA.  It's an interesting read.   Here is their list of the status of WiFi testing by US domestic airlines:

-- Alaska Airlines: Testing wireless Internet access this summer

-- American Airlines: Testing service on 15 planes by mid-year

-- Continental: Testing limited wireless next year

-- JetBlue: Currently testing one plane offering limited Yahoo e-mail, IM chat and BlackBerry e-mail service

-- Southwest Airlines: Testing service on four planes in late summer

-- Virgin America: Testing service late this year

I question the reality of AirCell's claim regarding speed and network capacity:

The company said the setup can deliver 3 Mbps to the plane, which is compressed and allows travelers to share the equivalent of a 15 Mbps connection.

I have a hard time believing that they can deliver network capacity that is equivalent to a 15Mbps connection when the plane only will have 3Mbps of bandwidth.  Most pictures and other components of web pages are already highly compressed.  Compressing an already compressed file doesn't generally make it any smaller.

This service will work great when there are only a couple of people using it - but the more popular it becomes the worse it will be.  Don't get me wrong, I think inflight WiFi is a great idea and should be pursued.  I just don't like vendors who make promises they can't keep.