Southwest Fans... are you reconsidering

[brockash]

I know there are many here who use SW. Have the multiple problems that SW has had this year changed your thinking? Yes, I get all airlines have problems, but it seems like SW has had major issues a couple times this year that other airlines have not had.

I've had waaayyy worse experiences in the last year and a half with United than SW. From those experiences and the total lack of customer service I have yet to book anything with United again, even when they've been a decent amount cheaper, but I don't have that same feeling towards SW. - They're not my 1st choice. but ultimately schedule and price determine what I book with the exception of still avoiding United for now.

 

[Wiltony]

Yes, the companion pass would keep me loyal. Having someone fly free with me would go a long way, especially since they fly to so many destinations I love.

Yep, since they have a big hub in Denver, we can non-stop to almost anywhere we need to go, including Orlando, LA, Las Vegas, Chicago, and Cancun. The only time we need a connecting flight is when we're going to Hawaii.

We have saved well over 5k so far with the companion pass.

 

[Boopuff]

We hit a major snag (prior to the holiday mess). Flying from Miami to Denver... they forgot to tell us that our plane had a change! We booked a "no plane change" and it turned into run like the wind to a different gate. Got there and the plane waited for our luggage (thank heaven) I sent a nasty gram when we got home and believe it our not I was issued a voucher. A bit shocked, but I'll take it!

 

[FreeTime]

I’m definitely bolting on 75% of my flights. I have flown 30+ trips in the last 12 months between delta and sw. I have experienced major delays on delta but they always took care of me. The only reason I will fly SW is the nonstop to Orlando and Las Vegas. And for LV I have a flight there on delta next week and a return on sw. I booked a return on delta because I don’t think the mess will be cleaned up and am waiting to see if SW cancels it so I can get a full refund. If they don’t, I will rebook something so I don’t lose EBCI. If I feel confident with them again I will take my next LV flight on SW.

I’ve been hearing rumors that delta is moving their Detroit hub to Columbus. I’m hoping that happens. If it does, 100% leaving SW.

I also do not think SW should receive any government support to get out of this mess. I am sure they will start complaining that they lost so much revenue that they will go under. Let them go under.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

Also interested in this! We could also fly out of BOS, but prefer PVD. We were supposed to be at Disney 12/24-1/2. Our 12/24 PVD-MCO 5am flight was cancelled just as we arrived at PVD. Rebooked to 12/28 only for that to be cancelled too, sigh. So we ended up cancelling the entire trip and are disappointed we aren't spending the holidays at Disney this year. JB only has 1-2 nonstop flights daily, which isn't great but if they are reliable, I wouldn't hesitate to give them a try.

What a bummer that you couldn’t make it down there for Disney. We always take the first morning direct flight too and I was so stressed the last two years that the flight would be cancelled the morning of. Long delays but luckily no cancellations (yet). Ugh I really hope things get better because the direct flights are so nice.

I live equal distance from Logan and TF Green. If I'm flying JetBlue I tend to choose Logan only because there several flights that day where as TF Green only has 1. We are flying PVD-MCO on Jet Blue on April as it was significantly cheaper. I had JetBlue booked out of PVD to MCO booked both last July and November and both flights changed significantly so I just switched them to Boston. I always choose PVD for Southwest bc it's direct.

Logan is about a hour away for us while PVD is 20 minutes. I think the main reason we’ve never considered Jet Blue at PVD was their flight times. Was never ideal times for us. Driving to Logan probably won’t be too bad but driving home after our vacation would not be something we would like to do.

 

[SkyGuy]

I've had waaayyy worse experiences in the last year and a half with United than SW. From those experiences and the total lack of customer service I have yet to book anything with United again, even when they've been a decent amount cheaper, but I don't have that same feeling towards SW. - They're not my 1st choice. but ultimately schedule and price determine what I book with the exception of still avoiding United for now.

Agreed! We had a United flight canceled from Scotland to Chicago due to mechanical issues. They had to fly the part over from America in order to fix the plane, so we were stranded for two days. Fine, these thing happen. They told us they would reimburse hotels, but we had to find our own…it was the beginning of the Tattoo in Edinburgh. That was the first nightmare. They then told us we would all be rescheduled in our same seats on the same plane, but we’d need to call to get the new gate number and departure time the next day. I called the next day, and I was on the original plane, leaving at 8am, and my two minor children were on a different plane leaving on a 6:30 pm flight. It took me HOURS on the phone to get this corrected, then trying to get reimbursed for the hotel and taxis was another level of purgatory. Not to mention they lost our luggage on the flight there even though our flight was delayed by six hours - not quite sure how our luggage didn’t make it from check-in to the plane in six hours. We haven’t flown United since.

 

[Lewisc]

For years some of us warned posters regarding issues with irregular operations and ULC like Frontier and Spirit. I never thought an airline like SW could be such a disaster.

I'm now less likely to reject Frontier.

 

[sam_gordon]

just about every single apple device that walks past my airtags will report their locations back to me

You know, there's something about that that doesn't sit quite right with me. Assuming I had an iPhone, why would I want a random person's AirTag to use my phone to pass it's location on? Does that use *MY* data? Sure, a single tag, probably not a lot, but a LOT of tags over the month?

Just a thought.

I’ve been hearing rumors that delta is moving their Detroit hub to Columbus. I’m hoping that happens.

That's interesting. I just connected through Detroit last month and the concourse looked REALLY nice and large. In fact, there was a monorail or some kind of elevated train in the concourse. I hadn't been there in quite a while.

 

[FreeTime]

That's interesting. I just connected through Detroit last month and the concourse looked REALLY nice and large. In fact, there was a monorail or some kind of elevated train in the concourse. I hadn't been there in quite a while.

Yea, it is nice. We always select Detroit as our connection versus the dreaded Atlanta whenever we can. The rumor floating around here is that is it 2 years out. I’m hopeful but we will see if it comes to fruition.

 

[_19disnA]

Detroit actually has 2 terminals and which one you use is determined by what airline you are flying. The 'old' North terminal has been redone and now used mostly by Frontier/SW/American/United. That new larger terminal with the monorail is mostly Delta (was originally a NW hub).

https://www.ifly.com/detroit-metropolitian-airport/terminal-map

 

[Tonberry]

The only real reason I don't fly SW is because I can't select my seat ahead of time. For some people, that's no big deal. For me, it is.
I've flown them once, but it was one-and done. Best thing I can say about SW is that they have (or had at this point) more flights to and from so many more places.
We have been flying JB pretty much exclusively for the past 8 years. Problem now though, is that they keep changing their flight times. Our trip from Harford to MCO started by leaving at 8:00am, then changed to 10:30am, then changed again to 12:10pm, then changed again to 2:30pm. Recently, they seem to change flight times at least once per flight and it's really making me re-think JB. They've also cut back on their flights out of BDL from 3 a day to mostly 1.

The best airline I've ever flown is Delta for nearly every reason. The problem? Unless we leave out of JFK, every flight on Delta goes into Atlanta first.

 

[Wiltony]

You know, there's something about that that doesn't sit quite right with me. Assuming I had an iPhone, why would I want a random person's AirTag to use my phone to pass it's location on? Does that use *MY* data? Sure, a single tag, probably not a lot, but a LOT of tags over the month?

Ironically, that's yet another reason why I don't use an iPhone! I won't participate in their system, but I'll happily exploit it!

I believe it's part of their terms and conditions you agree to when using their "find my" service. Not really something you can opt out of without losing lots of other capabilities. I'd be surprised if more than a handful of apple users even know that their phones are doing this.

 

[Lewisc]

Assuming I had an iPhone, why would I want a random person's AirTag to use my phone to pass it's location on? Does that use *MY* data? Sure, a single tag, probably not a lot, but a LOT of tags over the month?

It's the same system used to find my iPhone. I believe you're granting permission as a condition of trurning on that feature. I think you can opt out, but that means your data isn't being used, but you can't benefit.

Doesn't Apple use your data to check for app updates, weather, email etc.
I suspect extra data to find my iphone, airtag is barely rounding

 

[sam_gordon]

It's the same system used to find my iPhone. I believe you're granting permission as a condition of trurning on that feature. I think you can opt out, but that means your data isn't being used, but you can't benefit.

I would think "find my iPhone" would use the cellular (or wifi) data on the phone you're trying to locate. Not a connection to someone's random iPhone. I don't doubt Apple is covered (permission granted in the small print of some agreement). I just have a little problem with it.

Doesn't Apple use your data to check for app updates, weather, email etc.
I suspect extra data to find my iphone, airtag is barely rounding

Again, app updates, weather, email, FB notifications, etc, is all data used for MY needs. Using my phone's internet connection for someone else's airtag to check in doesn't benefit ME. And do I understand correctly, the phone owner doesn't even have to have their own airtag (like is needed for Trace(?) or other similar products)?

 

[rangerxenos]

We've never had any issues with Southwest, and I will continue to use them.

Unfortunately, I also don't have a lot of non stop choices from BDL in CT, Spirit and JetBlue nickel and dime you to death on bags (both checked and carryon), and I have friends who haven't had really good luck with either.

 

[brockash]

Agreed! We had a United flight canceled from Scotland to Chicago due to mechanical issues. They had to fly the part over from America in order to fix the plane, so we were stranded for two days. Fine, these thing happen. They told us they would reimburse hotels, but we had to find our own…it was the beginning of the Tattoo in Edinburgh. That was the first nightmare. They then told us we would all be rescheduled in our same seats on the same plane, but we’d need to call to get the new gate number and departure time the next day. I called the next day, and I was on the original plane, leaving at 8am, and my two minor children were on a different plane leaving on a 6:30 pm flight. It took me HOURS on the phone to get this corrected, then trying to get reimbursed for the hotel and taxis was another level of purgatory. Not to mention they lost our luggage on the flight there even though our flight was delayed by six hours - not quite sure how our luggage didn’t make it from check-in to the plane in six hours. We haven’t flown United since.

Yeah last April for the first time in my life I, along with my 2 minor children, had to spend the night at. DCA. The whole trip was a nightmare nd United was no help and totally unacceptable "customer service" the entire time, at. every point, at each airport involved and I heard absolutely nothing back from them when I sent an email expressing my concerns and treatment. I watched a guy literally almost lose his mind and get arrested the 2nd morning of our connection (apparently his 3rd morning trying to get on the flight) and was utterly disgusted with how the gate. agents dealt with the situation. - These were ppl. getting paid to do their job, well-rested, very familiar with flights/flying got to sleep in a bed the night prior dealing with ppl. who paid a good amount of money to have their plans totally disrupted, some sleeping at the airport for 2 nights and they were so unhelpful. It took me literally 5 mins. to help the guy out to get him ok. I happen to travel often and understand more of how to get info. on my own and. how things work, but not everyone does.

On the opposite side I flew American about 2 months prior to this flight and there was bad weather that messed things up for us, but we were well taken care of and very well treated and that schedule change was nowhere near as severe.

Needless to say, I canceled my United cards as soon as I got home and while I'm sure there will eventually come a point that I may book with them again, but in 41 yrs of flying I've never had such a bad experience or ever stopped using an airline.

 

[Lewisc]

I would think "find my iPhone" would use the cellular (or wifi) data on the phone you're trying to locate. Not a connection to someone's random iPhone. I don't doubt Apple is covered (permission granted in the small print of some agreement). I just have a little problem with it.

Again, app updates, weather, email, FB notifications, etc, is all data used for MY needs. Using my phone's internet connection for someone else's airtag to check in doesn't benefit ME. And do I understand correctly, the phone owner doesn't even have to have their own airtag (like is needed for Trace(?) or other similar products)?

Find my device allows you to locate an iPad. Many iPads don't have cellular modems. Depending on your carrier phones might have dead spots. Apples solution is ingenious.

The question is if the ability to find your device meets your needs. It's selfish to think you should be able to use the program to find your device without contributing.

I have a bigger issue with ISPs which configure your router to create a hotspot for use by other customers

 

[Neener16]

We've never had any issues with Southwest, and I will continue to use them.

Unfortunately, I also don't have a lot of non stop choices from BDL in CT, Spirit and JetBlue nickel and dime you to death on bags (both checked and carryon), and I have friends who haven't had really good luck with either.

I fly out of BDL as well. I’ve never had a problem with SW either and agree with the nickel and diming you on other airlines. I also like the flexibility of SW and have the credit card so often fly on points. Flying out west with them this spring, hope I didn’t just jinx myself!

 

[Cheburashka]

Ironically, that's yet another reason why I don't use an iPhone! I won't participate in their system, but I'll happily exploit it!

I believe it's part of their terms and conditions you agree to when using their "find my" service. Not really something you can opt out of without losing lots of other capabilities. I'd be surprised if more than a handful of apple users even know that their phones are doing this.

All cell phones track their users if not disabled. That isn't specific to iPhones.

 

[hsmamato2]

I'm still locked in with points and CP, but I'm also eyeing other options and backups,I no longer trust them like I used to. Been using SWA for years (lots of great deals) but since Oct 21 messes I've been leery