I've reconfirmed my decision to never fly Southwest again

[Coventina]

Aside from my recent personal problems with them, now they have Arnold Schwartznegger schilling for them.
:puke:

It's almost enough to make me want to boycott California as well.
But I can't. The King Tut exhibit is going to be at LACMA, and I can't miss that!

[spinbaby]

1. What problems have you had?

They're coming to Pittsburgh soon and we're quite excited to be getting an alternative airline.

[Coventina]

3. I had an extremely rude customer service person on the phone

who refused to let me speak to her supervisor.
She claimed she could not tell me if it was the government or Southwest who would not let me do online check in. (It turned out later that it was the gov't, but that's another story).

Then, when I got back from my trip, my suitcase was busted open and all my belongings were spilling out of it! There were my undies, riding around the baggage carousel.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. I f'ing HATE Southwest

I don't care what anyone says - I've never had an on-time flight with them, my luggage invariably gets lost, I hate being herded onto the airplane like cattle, I hate getting a middle seat even though I get to the airport an hour and a half before my flight, and I fucking HATE the smarmy unprofessional flight attendants. Independence Air for me.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. I've never understood the appeal

They don't serve Minneapolis, but when I lived in Portland, they were never more than five or ten dollars cheaper than the other airlines for the same flight.

I blame them for pushing the other airlines to think that they had to start treating their customers like cattle in order to compete.

[Coventina]

6. I used to favor them because a friend worked for them

and he told me with "insider knowledge" that they were much more safety conscious than the other discount airlines. I have no proof of this, just his word for it. He also stressed that most of their pilots were former air force pilots, and therefore very good.

But now I figure, well, America West has never had a crash. And I can at least get an assigned seat.

[mcscajun]

10. Safefy first...

From Patrick Smith "Ask the Pilot" on Salon.com:

For airline A to sell itself as safer than everyone else, there needs to be a presumption of danger aboard its competitors. This would entail some dubious statistical maneuvering. In the United States, approximately one of every 2.3 million commercial departures will be involved in some type of accident, whether minor or catastrophic. Distributing the data airline to airline, the odds do change, but only barely. Since the terror attacks of 2001, American Airlines has had one fatal accident; the other network carriers none. It would be shamelessly underhanded, if mathematically accurate, for United or Delta to promote themselves a better bet than American.

(snip)

Protocol permits any airline to call itself safe. Just not safer.

(snip)

Just because an airline doesn't showboat its safety initiatives doesn't mean they don't exist. Cynics will be eager to cite a seeming trail of greed and criminal negligence: airlines ruled culpable for certain crashes, maintenance practices occasionally found suspect, and so on. But I hasten to remind you how much a carrier stands to lose should one of its planes go down. To suggest that the industry, along with its federal overseers, is playing fast and loose with the lives of the traveling public is a terrible distortion.

[XNASA]

5. I've never had anything but great service on Southwest.

I fly 8 to 10 times a year and always try to book on Southwest. I've never had a problem. Always on-time. Always the best price.

And Southwest flies nothing but 737's, which are the safest, most dependable commercial airliners in the history of aviation.

I'm sure it helps that I live in a major Southwest hub.

[GOPisEvil]

7. Yeah, I always have good luck with them, too.

The one time my luggage didn't arrive at the same time I did was as a result of the weather. When I went to pick up my bag, they gave me a $50 credit.

I'm not fond of the cattle call seating, but I always get where I need to get when I need to get there. :shrug:

[slackmaster]

9. Same here

No frills but they get you there on time and have a sense of humor.

[stanwyck]

8. Be wary of Air Jamaica right now

due to their financial problems. They're canceling flights and diverting their customers to other airlines. But we had a real snarl getting back from Bonaire. We were transferred to Delta to Montego Bay on our departing flight. Not a problem. (except the change meant we got the "selective screen"). Then, the trip back...we flew to Montego Bay from Bonaire -- no problem, mon. But Air Jamaica had double-booked all their flights leaving. So, we were put on a plane. Taken off a plane. And then continually told we'd be on this flight, then another...until we finally just took things under control and got a flight to Chicago, spent the night, and then flew back to Atlanta. Only a 24-hr. delay. Air Jamaica can't afford to maintain all their planes (fuel costs) but they're still booking all their flights. And then trying desperately to move passengers around.
Lots of horror stories from folks going to the Carribean on Air Jamaica.
Oh, our luggage took a few days to arrive. In stages. But we got it all back.

[mcscajun]

11. Good for you! I LOATHE Southwest Airlines

I have ever since they made a public event out of their discrimination against Fat People.

Pompous Bastards.

[LuminousX]

12. I love SouthWest

Employee friendly and cheap.

[dr.strangelove]

13. SouthWORST

I am a VERY frequent flier with my business (over 150,000 miles last year). I usually fly American due to a deal they give my firm, but often they either don't go where I need to go or the schedule does not work out, so I fly something else. I have flown southwest from BWI to Portland OR a few times and at least 10 trips between San Fran and Albuquerque. I have had every problem you can think of, including oversold flights, very dirty planes (once a child's used diaper was in the seat pocket when I sat down) and most often rudeness from flight staff. I consistently rate Southwest last and only fly them now when I must. I have had some very good experiences on some other discount lines, most recently Song from Delta and I enjoy Jet Blue quite a bit. American is still my favorite, but Jet Blue probably falls in second.