Have not checked my e-mails for a couple of days. Today I saw 143 incoming
messages. I have read 7 and deleted the rest. Some of the threads get boring
really quickly!!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
An tiresome obsession
Including this discussion concerning boring discussions? 
···
At 10:19 PM 6/24/2004, you wrote:
Today I saw 143 incoming
messages. I have read 7 and deleted the rest. Some of the threads get boring
really quickly!!
I enjoyed reading this week Frugal Fridays (as always), but have
to confess Southwest's not one of my fav airlines.
I don't know if anyone else notices, but it seems to me that
Southwest is a bit late taking off, more often than not.
Also, never liked the idea of "first come first serve" for an airline,
and as far as I know Southwest is the only one that does it. We
enjoy flying from Portland to Las Vegas on Alaska. For a few
dollars more we get the friendliness and comfort from making
our own seat assignments ahead of time, and they seem to be
"on time" more often.
I don't know if anyone else notices, but it seems to me that
Southwest is a bit late taking off, more often than not.Also, never liked the idea of "first come first serve" for an
airline,
and as far as I know Southwest is the only one that does it. We
enjoy flying from Portland to Las Vegas on Alaska. For a few
dollars more we get the friendliness and comfort from making
our own seat assignments ahead of time, and they seem to be
"on time" more often.
Those are interesting impressions.
Prior to 2003, Alaska Airlines was consistently among the worst
airlines when it comes to on-time arrivals...2003 saw improvement to
81.0% of the flights being on-time, versus an industry average on-
time arrival rate of 82%.
On the other hand, Southwest Airlines consistently has been the BEST
airline when it comes to on-time arrivals. In 2003, 86.3% of their
flights arrived on-time.
I certainly understand your desire to have an assigned seat, but on-
time arrivals is definitely not an area where Southwest Airlines can
be criticized.
Ken
···
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, bob972@y... wrote:
SWA used to always be #1 in the ontime category. In the past couple
years, they've slipped to the middle of the pack most months.
In an attempt to move up in the rankings, they 'padded' their flight
schedules by adding between 5 and 10 minutes to many flights about a
year ago. Ex) A flight that used to have a scheduled flight time of 2
hours 30 minutes might now be 2 hours 40 minutes.
> I don't know if anyone else notices, but it seems to me that
> Southwest is a bit late taking off, more often than not.
>
> Also, never liked the idea of "first come first serve" for an
airline,
> and as far as I know Southwest is the only one that does it. We
> enjoy flying from Portland to Las Vegas on Alaska. For a few
> dollars more we get the friendliness and comfort from making
> our own seat assignments ahead of time, and they seem to be
> "on time" more often.Those are interesting impressions.
Prior to 2003, Alaska Airlines was consistently among the worst
airlines when it comes to on-time arrivals...2003 saw improvement
to
81.0% of the flights being on-time, versus an industry average on-
time arrival rate of 82%.On the other hand, Southwest Airlines consistently has been the
BEST
airline when it comes to on-time arrivals. In 2003, 86.3% of their
flights arrived on-time.I certainly understand your desire to have an assigned seat, but on-
time arrivals is definitely not an area where Southwest Airlines
can
···
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "kkirschner" <tookewlken@y...> wrote:
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, bob972@y... wrote:
be criticized.Ken
Yep. I checked their on-time performance this morning when I read the first email in this thread. They are above average in performance, but not "#1" anymore.
hockeystl <vegasstl@charter.net> wrote:SWA used to always be #1 in the ontime category. In the past couple
years, they've slipped to the middle of the pack most months.
In an attempt to move up in the rankings, they 'padded' their flight
schedules by adding between 5 and 10 minutes to many flights about a
year ago. Ex) A flight that used to have a scheduled flight time of 2
hours 30 minutes might now be 2 hours 40 minutes.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Yep. I checked their on-time performance this morning when I read
the first email in this thread. They are above average in
performance, but not "#1" anymore.
hockeystl <vegasstl@c...> wrote:SWA used to always be #1 in the
ontime category. In the past couple
years, they've slipped to the middle of the pack most months.
In an attempt to move up in the rankings, they 'padded' their
flight
schedules by adding between 5 and 10 minutes to many flights about
a
year ago. Ex) A flight that used to have a scheduled flight time of
2
hours 30 minutes might now be 2 hours 40 minutes.
Where are you seeing that? The most recent data I can find is from
April 2004 and it covers the entirety of 2003...and Southwest is #1
(among the 14 largest US airlines -- I don't care about anyone else)
in on-time arrivals.
One can argue that this is due to padding, but I would rather look at
a padded schedule and have a real feel for when I will get to my
destination (especially if I have a connecting flight) than look at
an overly optimistic schedule.
Ken
···
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Carlos Lebron <calebr0n@y...> wrote:
I'l take SW over almost any other aitline, any day of the week.
Reasons:
1. Consistently better fares.
2. More direct flights, by far.
3. All full-size jets. They don't have some "partnership" with
Mosquito Airlines to run half their flights using head-busting
regional jets. Case in point: My mom and I are flying next week from
Birmingham to San Diego. One of the "Sick Six" airlines beat
Southwest's fare by about $80 overall--would've been even more, but
my mom gets a senior fare which cuts down the SW fare. But the other
airline wanted to puddle-jump us across the country in regional
jets. Sorry, folks, but I'm 6-foot-2 and I'm not flying 2,500 miles
in one of those little dinky things. We took Southwest instead,
connecting through my favorite city, Las Vegas.
4. A no-BS frequent-flyer program.
5. Friendly staff.
6. Great on-time record. My flights from BHM to Vegas are almost
always about 10 minutes earlier than posted schedules.
* realkyhick <realkyhick@yahoo.com> [2004-06-26 12:25]:
4. A no-BS frequent-flyer program.
Especially if you know how to work the system. Here are a couple tips
that I've discovered with Southwest:
1- The direct flight is not always the cheapest. ie. A round trip
direct flight from ABQ to LAS is $97/leg (~200 total); and quite
often a manually constructed open-jawed ticket like ABQ-PHX-LAS is
$29/leg (~120 total). It's much better to "puddle hop" in this
case, because you get double the freq. flyer credits in addition to
a lower price.
2- Never buy a non-direct flight as a single purchase. If only
non-direct flights are offered, then buy each leg seperately to
increase freq. flyer credits.
3- Never buy airfare over the phone. Besides the fact that the phone
operators don't know the tricks above (they wouldn't tell you if
they did), but you only get one credit each direction, compared to
1.5 credits if you book online.
Those are some good tips.
Here's another:
If you have a Rapid Reward free flight and are flying with someone
else who is paying, but who, for whatever reason, does not use the
Rapid Reward program, book their flight using the Rapid Reward free
flight and let them pay for your flight so you get the frequent-flyer
credits.
Artmo
* realkyhick <realkyhick@y...> [2004-06-26 12:25]:
> 4. A no-BS frequent-flyer program.Especially if you know how to work the system. Here are a couple
tips
that I've discovered with Southwest:
1- The direct flight is not always the cheapest. ie. A round trip
direct flight from ABQ to LAS is $97/leg (~200 total); and quite
often a manually constructed open-jawed ticket like ABQ-PHX-LAS
is
$29/leg (~120 total). It's much better to "puddle hop" in this
case, because you get double the freq. flyer credits in addition
to
a lower price.
2- Never buy a non-direct flight as a single purchase. If only
non-direct flights are offered, then buy each leg seperately to
increase freq. flyer credits.3- Never buy airfare over the phone. Besides the fact that the
phone
operators don't know the tricks above (they wouldn't tell you if
they did), but you only get one credit each direction, compared
to
···
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Justin Gombos <mindfuq@z...> wrote:
1.5 credits if you book online.
3- Never buy airfare over the phone. Besides the fact that the
phone
operators don't know the tricks above (they wouldn't tell you if
they did), but you only get one credit each direction, compared
to
1.5 credits if you book online.
Exception to this tip: If you qualify for the senior discount, you
must buy it over the phone. Yes, you only get one RR credit this
way, but the fare is among the lowest available for all flights, and
it is usually available even when other low fare options are not.
By the way, the phone clerks aren't always clueless, and are almost
always better than gtheir counterparts at other airlines. When I
called to book my mom's flight on the senior fare, the agent
reminded me to book my own ticket online for the extra credit, and
also reminded me to check onine in the future before booking the
senior fare to see if an even lower fare was available.