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I absolutely abhor southwest airlines. I think that wn is going to be the ruin of the airline industry as we know it. Their customer service is the worst. And who wants to hear jokes about water landings during the announcements.

Also I dont like being herded like cattle during the boarding process.


any takers


regards,
phfev03

They are great because you can cross the country in hours for less than $100 each way. Even if you have to sit in normal economy class for a few hours.

unless you are leaving out of bwi you have to make at least 4 stops along the way

4 stops is kinda hard to believe when they have nonstops to LAX and SJC.  

"I think that wn is going to be the ruin of the airline industry as we know it."

Have you been under a rock? WN has been around some twenty to thirty years and it is just now "going to be the ruin of the airline industry" Thats the equivalent to saying "Nixon is going to ruin the presidency as we know it"
Man, get current...

I don't much care for them. Mostly its because of the boarding process, everyone is too on edge to be first on board.

However, they do let me preboard since I'm 6'9" (205.74cm).

Brian

Ok i exaggerated a little, just to give you a little info on where I am coming from. When I lived in Midland, TX for me to fly home (IND) I had to stop in DAL, HOU, MSY, then IND. I could have subbed MSY for MCI but the connection was terrible.

Customer service was not what I would have expected from an airline known for its excellence in C/S. I guess I just had a bad experience and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

phfev03

I love Southwest. Flown em 6 times now. I prefer them over anyone's economy service. First Class on the other hand.....

Who hates them?

Perhaps the CEO's of the majors?  

My only problem is when I have to make a connection. I wish you could get a boarding pass at the originating airport for BOTH flights.

Their one day roundtrip fares are high though....along w/ everyone else.

Never flown them, but have had stock in them since the IPO - it paid for a Masters in Europe, plus a lot of leisure travel. Stock has split about 5 times and it sure has paid off big time. At least the WN growth could pay for First Class on other carriers!

actually I dont think that the ceo's of the majors are all that scared of WN for the simple fact that WN and the majors are in two seperate catagories. The structure and goal of WN is so far away from that of the majors that they cant even be compared fairly. I will admit that southwest is great at what they do, and make a killing doing it.
But I know that in the markets that WN and the top three majors are in, up until day of dep the fares are head to head. I would much rather book in advance and have preassigned seating and pay the same fare as WN.

they are the only reason I can afford to come home from school, or go anywhere.

The cattle line up is a product of people, not southwest, no one holds a gun to your head to wait in line, I never do. I fly alone, and never stand in line. With a B group boarding pass even when I am the last one on for the B's I will always get a window seat.

Fares are cheap, flights are often, crew does their job and seems to enjoy it.

Oh yeah, flights are on time, out of less crowded airports, and if things ever go wrong, which I have happened just once thus far, they tell you why, how long, and what they are doing about it.

count me part of the WN fanclub for all the above reasons.

George

But I know that in the markets that WN and the top three majors are in, up until day of dep the fares are head to head.

The flights I've been on are the exact opposite. Early on Southwest offers 49 dollars 1 way while the others are offering 250. Right around a week before departure, though, they're both offering 250.

To Phfev03: Have you been on Southwest many times or just once? If you have been more than once, I am surprised that you had such bad experiences each time! Although, we are all exposed to different things, so it's possible. Anyway, I'm sorry to hear that you dislike them so much.

To everyone else: I personally love Southwest. I was born and raised in Dallas, so maybe it just has a special place in my heart. I think their customer service is very good, for the most part. And they get you where you need to go on time. I love their frequent flyer plan, as well. However, I must say that I flew JetBlue for the first time this summer, and what they offer far surpasses anything WN has. I was shocked by how good my experience was with them. Granted, I have only flown JetBlue once, but I instantly fell in love with them. As much I like WN, in the future, I will go out of my way to fly JetBlue(even if it means driving across SF Bay to Oakland!)




Michael

Lots of people hate them ... TWA, United, USairways, I love them they are one of the greatest airlines of all times .... YES OF ALL TIMES !!!!

count me part of the WN fanclub for all the above reasons.

Me too. As far as I'm concerned, WN and B6 are the only way to go!

I cannot say that I hate them, however I flew them as a revenue passenger at Christmas two years ago, and all I can say is OH MY GOD! The people on the plane were, shall we say SCARY! The flight attendants were literally kicking the bags under the seats, every overhead bin was packed! On the way home I had to listen to the guy behind me bitch that there was not meal from PVD to MCO, and only drinks from MCO to FLL (which was the leg we were on), HELLO!, get what you pay for? I don't know, I don't hate em, but it is definitely a strange crowd...

I hate WN,s boarding process a lot. You could be the 1st person to buy the ticket and show up late and your in section c and there isn't enough room. Also I hate the casualness. I gives me a sense of how well kept are the airplanes, and the 30 min. turn a rounds I don't like. I love the professionalisms of other airlines. Dockers and a WN polo won't cut it. Every employee with contact of a passenger should wear a suit, or dress with a tie or scarf. When I flew on WN out of BWI-ISP the boarding agent said we had to board the plane quickly because there was a tornado watch in the area. I knew the pilot would know what he was doing but still I don't need people adding stress. The funny thing was that was the same day that big tornado in La Plata MD about 40 miles away at about the same time we left. I don't like the pilot being pressured to do a quick turnaround. I don't like them but there cheap so I do.

Phfev03,

I am not sure what Southwest customer care did to you, but whatever it is I am sorry it happened. You stated how in many markets other major airlines can match Southwest fares to the same cities. That just goes to show that to many passengers, it is not about the fares so much as to how they are treated by the company. Despite the fact that you feel you were treated bad, apparently many others feel that Southwest has excellent customer care. As far as to whether the other CEO's of the other majors are scared, I think you are wrong. If you are CEO of say United airlines, and you see Southwest is carrying many more people to Chicago then you are, even if you have cheaper fares, you would have to be worried in my opinion.

May God bless you and everyone through Jesus Christ with lots of love,

Jeff

They are awful if you are overweight

GOD! I hate the PWT that is on many of the Southwest flights. Drives me nuts to sit next to fat people with mullets and Wal-Mart shoes. Am I a snob? Of course! Which is why I avoid them at all costs.

UAL747

I hate WN,s boarding process a lot. You could be the 1st person to buy the ticket and show up late and your in section c and there isn't enough room.

Unless the flight's overbooked, you'll still get a seat. Sure, it may be a middle seat near the back of the aircraft, but you'll get where you're going. Want a better seat? Arrive earlier.

Also I hate the casualness. I gives me a sense of how well kept are the airplanes, and the 30 min. turn a rounds I don't like. I love the professionalisms of other airlines. Dockers and a WN polo won't cut it. Every employee with contact of a passenger should wear a suit, or dress with a tie or scarf.

A matter of taste, of course, but I for one find WN's casual approach refreshing. I'll bet that for people who are fearful of flying (which is a LOT of people), WN's style is more reassuring than a more formal one would be.

When I flew on WN out of BWI-ISP the boarding agent said we had to board the plane quickly because there was a tornado watch in the area. I knew the pilot would know what he was doing but still I don't need people adding stress.

Maybe that wasn't the best thing to say, but I'm sure the pilot thought he was doing the right thing. At worst, it's a minor error in judgment.

Phfex03-

Well, if you want to fly IND-MAF, you could always try United, Delta, Northwest, or US Airways...except that none of them fly to MAF. And if you don't want to be crammed onto an ERJ from DFW or IAH, then you're gonna be flying on Southwest or Southwest. And guess what...even if WN didn't exist, you wouldn't see much more service to and from MAF (aside from perhaps a few Delta RJ's to DFW) -- but you would have the pleasure of paying significantly higher fares!

Southwest may be the ruin of a couple of the high-cost, high-fare network carriers, but they have allowed millions of people to fly around the country at reasonable fares. My ticket prices between Boston and Houston have dropped by nearly one half due to Southwest at MHT and PVD, as well as AirTran's presence in the market.

Guess the bottom line is, you get what you pay for these days....

GOD! I hate the PWT that is on many of the Southwest flights. Drives me nuts to sit next to fat people with mullets and Wal-Mart shoes. Am I a snob? Of course! Which is why I avoid them at all costs.

UAL747
------

Then your options for airline travel within the US are now very limited. You will find the exact same crowd in economy class on any other airline. You'll just have to fly first class. And that is a more limited option, and is not the same as it used to be.

You'll just have to fly by charter, air taxi service or by a partial ownership service such as netjets. They are getting more and more popular nowadays. If that costs you more, it serves you right. Because it is people like you who are making airline staff and fellow passengers miserable. It ain't families. It ain't "poorly dressed" people with walmart shoes. It rich kids and their daddies , as well as other FF elites who must have their way at the expense of everyone else. What you guys don't like is not that you arn't treated with respect at Southwest, becuase you are. It is that other, non-frequent flier elite passengers are NOTtreated like trash. You need to see other people excluded or treated poorly because that protects your own feel-good special status. You need your own special check in lines, lounges, seat assignments, etc. not because you get them, but because other people don't.

In short...... Some of us don't need to prop up our own fragile self esteem by dumping on others that way. If you want to be a snob, WN may not be for you. But thats ok, becuase your kind of demands are what are destroying the other airlines.

But that being said. I respect you for being willing to identify yourself as a snob. You've struck a blow against political correctness. And we need snobs and other bigoted people to be able to express themselves. That way, we can know who they are and how we can better face those attitudes when they surface within ourselves.

like aa777mia and others said you get what you pay for. if you want hot meals and multi drink serive flying BWI-LAX you can get it, just pay $350+. you will not get any of that for $99. yeah ok a cup of soda every 2 hours sucks, but how many drinks can you buy with the money you saved when you get to your destination.
people who fly WN and then complain sound very ignorant, unless it is your first time, you know what you are getting yourself into. its not elegant, its not fancy but they get you safely and for dirt cheap. If you are worried about getting a meal there is usually a food court in most airports......ummmmm, what a concept, buy a sandwich and bring it on board. Please if you hate WN just stop flying them, its that simple your just going to be throwing money away.
The other airlines charge you ridculous fares and what more do you really get? Yes a seat assaignment is nice, but flying WN you have to know to get there early enough....and a meal. A meal that everyone you hates WN wants, but will end up complaining about that because it tastes like cardboard.
With WN you are flying a Ford Focus, not the best looking, not the most comfortable, but cheap and reliable.

All I have to say is that one gets what one pays for...

For a $198 round trip from Boston to Florida I wouldn't expect the best customer service, inflight creature comforts, etc.

If I wanted to be treated like a king I would fly BA everywhere, but I would have to connect through LHR, which wouldn't make a lot of sense.

But having said that, I don't mind paying a little more if I know that I can select my seats on the internet, don't have to stop somewhere in between and don't have to drive to an out-of-the-way airport to fly WN (I know this last one isn't true everywhere, but in general).

Count our family in with the rest of the PWT then, I guess, as my father uses them almost exclusively for business, and unless they can't take us there, we always think of them first for travel. Never thought of myself as White Trash, i guess it's since im 1/4 chinese? hm....

I see just as many mullet clad folks on the other airlines - maybe 1 per flight.

 

I love Southwest, they make flying fun. I enjoy the jokes during safety announcements and it just seems like there crew really likes their jobs. I have flown a total of 14 segments with SWA.
I hope they are around for a long time.

I hate WN and will never fly them again.

I arrived at the airport three hours early for a DTW-PHX-LAX flight, and received an "A" boarding card ... after preboarding was completed, there was nothing but middle seats left! I'm sorry, but a 14yo doesn't qualify as a small child in my mind... anyway, 80-minute connection at PHX (home of the $3.50 Nathan's Hot Dog) and still a "C" boarding card!!! Another middle seat...

I'll never take The Big Brown Bus again.

If you like things to be CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP then fly southwest! If you want something different, choose otherwise. Thats my philosophy. If you want cheap go for it!

I love Southwest..my wife and I flew RT from MHT-BWI today..$68 each RT..
No problems boarding, pleasant crew..on time..great trip.



Jim

With WN you are flying a Ford Focus, not the best looking, not the most comfortable, but cheap and reliable.

Okay, maybe a Ford Focus SE or LE might compare to WN as they are stripped down versions. But my Focus ZX3 is plenty comfortable and I think it has the same seats as the other cars. But yes, cheap and reliable are two reasons why I got the car. And I like the looks of it even if you might not. 

Maybe a Ford Escort might be a more correct description (except my last one wasn't that reliable and it was a deluxe model).

As for me and Southwest, about the only gripe is they never seem to fly exactly to where I want to go at the time I want to fly. And even then, the prices for round trip tend to be about the same with other carriers anyway (at least with the online booking services that I like to use).

Well, I happen to love Southwest.

I was a very faithful Delta traveler at one time but then decided I'd like to try Southwest and experience a different airline for a change.

Boy, the difference was sure apparent. Southwest was a much better experience for me. Never had I ever heard flight attendants or a pilot be so casual and friendly inflight. I'd never heard a pilot joke to the flight attendants over the PA system. Our safety briefing in LAS consisted of speed talking, at the end of which, the FA asked if anyone had any questions, which prompted much laughter from the passengers.

The pilots were extremely friendly. I've spoken with DL pilots before, never had one that was rude. But SW's pilots seemed to welcome me with open arms when I asked if I could take a picture of the cockpit. One FO even chatted with me in the jetway after one of my flights. On flight 441 into LAS, the captain, at the end of the flight, invited me to sit in the copilot's seat, and he took me digital camera and took a picture of me sitting there. 

And just before that photo wa taken my camera bag had overtuned and dumped it's contents (few) onto the cockpit floor. After the picture was taken I hurriedly got everything back together and left, rather embarrassed but also on cloud 9 having sat in the FO seat of a 73G for the first time. And when I got to my next gate in LAS, I noticed something terrible...I had had two very valuable items in my camera bag (I know, I know, not a safe place to put them!), one was a limited edition Stitch pin which had been sold out forever (given to me by my friend who works at Disneyland, he was worth 50 dollars), and an extremely rare lanyard with Lilo on it, only FIVE of which were ever made, and that same friend got one for me.

I was very distraught but the plane had already left when I got back to the gate. So I pleaded with the gate agent at my new gate to please see if she could do something to help me. Anything at all. I had to get those back. Well, I didn't exactly PLEADe with her but very nervously asked her help as I was already feeling sick having lost these irreplacable items. She said there was nothing she could do, but did tell me where the plane was going: Chicago.

I went to the customer service desk then with my aunt who was in my company, and when the gate agent saw this she started making phone calls. I certainly wasn't going to complain about her, I just wanted to see if anyone else might have more tools to help. But anyway she came into the customer service line, told me that she contacted the ops center in LAS and that they'd contact the pilots inflight, and ask them to look for these items, and then relay what they said back to SLC, where I'd find out after my next leg whether they found them or not.

Got to SLC. Pilots didn't find anything. The Baggage Claim agent there, her name was Carol, could see how concerned I was and went out of her absolute way to help me. She said she would contact the pilots personally by phoning them at the gate, and ask them to look for me. She said it'd be an hour though because the plane was too close to chicago to have another inflight phone call to the pilots. She suggested I go have dinner in the meantime.

These things meant so much to me not only because they were rare, but because they were given to me by a dear friend who went out of her own way to find them for me. I can't believe she was able to get the pin and lanyward, but she did, for me. It meant the world to me to have them back, otherwise I'd let not only myself down, but her down as well.

Over dinner, my aunt received a phone call from Carol, and relayed the information to me that Carol had in fact done more than she said she would. Right after I left she called Midway airport and spoke to gate agent David who was to meet the flight when it landed. Told him of the situation and said, quote "If you don't find these things I think the kid is going to have a heart attack." (Well I'm not exactly a kid, I'm 18, but I was pretty worried that day).

David called her back after the flight landed. The story goes that as soon as the plane got there he went down the jetway, boarded the plane, and asked the pilots to exit the cockpit asap so he could look for the items. Searched all over for them and found them both. He returned to the phones and told carol "I found it. But I can't leave my area here until my shift ends at 10, then I'll drop them by the baggage claim office."

Carol gave him the information about who they were to ship the pin and lanyard to, he wrote it down, and took all of that to the baggage claim office that evening.

About a week later my Lanyard arrived in the mail. Not the pin. I called Carol again in Salt Lake to thank her up and down for getting my lanyard back for me, but also asked if she could check and see if there was a mistake in Chicago as they didn't send my pin with the lanyard.

She checked but apparently Chicago lost the pin. But at least I had my lanyward back which was far, far more valuable. And after shamefully explaining this whole ordeal to my friend, she sent me her own pin, identical to the one she gave me, and she no longer has one of her own. I felt so guilty about that but she told me not to send it back to her, consider it a "permanent loan".


Anyway, the thing is, on that trip Southwest wa not only enjoyable to fly, fun, sociable, and warm, but they went out of their absolute way to help me get my items back. They honestly shouldn't have put as much effort into it as they did, I'd say few other airlines would even make that kind of effort. But they did, and they got at least part of what I lost safely back to me. And quickly. It was my own dumb fault for losing it on that plane, but the individuals who helped me did more than they had to and they definitely have my respect.

I will be sending Carol a christmas card this year at the baggage claim office, with a thank you note included.  


Granted, I've encountered rude people at SWA. I've only encountered one rude gate agent, and some office personnel haven't always been friendly. But that exists in any company, any airline, and I refuse to base my entire opinion of SWA on some worker in an office job that's having a bad day. The airline is more than one person. And after what Southwest did for me, I have to look past the handful of people who may not enjoy their job, and recognize those who do, and do carry that Southwest spirit. They're the ones that count. They're the ones that made me a loyal SWA fan, after all they did to help. Just by being pleasant inflight, they made my day.

Delta has never treated me poorly, ever. They just are more businesslike and not very sociable inflight. I rarely have ever heard the pilot speak on a delta plane beyond the usual weather report and "thank you for flying Delta Airlines", and sometimes they don't say anything at all. I don't use that against Delta. They've been good to me. But Southwest sure is different. Southwest is fun. Delta is business.


And yes, actually, if I never get a flying job in Hawaii, I'd like to work for SWA. Who knows, I may enjoy working there, despite the lower pay. Employee morale seems to be much better. You can feel it.  

[Edited 2003-09-07 06:12:32]

IndustrialPate-

sorry kid, you're a liar or a sore loser. There are 40 people in the A group 137 seats on the plane. If 39 people in A board before you, and say 10 preboards, which is extreme, with 45 window and 45 aisle seats, we simply see you are inncorrect. (~45 window, 45 middle, and 45 aisle seats total)

Even with ALL of A, and ALL of B aboard, you still have a decent chance with families and all, in my case 100% every time, of getting a window seat.


---------------
To everyone who said you get what you pay for. You're probably all driving American cars. Yes, you can pay less, and get a better car.

The entire plane is leather seat first class as far as I'm concerned, with the best Y pitch around. This is a domestic airline, if you can't go 4 hours while winging it accross the country without a huge meal and alcohol, then WN is the least of your problems.

George

i work for a high cost carrier. but i admire what southwest has done.

the bottom line is the bottom line. southwest will keep fares affordable for everday people. it is the pricing pressure asserted by swa that makes low fares available on all the high-cost carriers.

their service, to me, is different. sometimes it's hard to remember that different doesn't always mean bad. it's just different. for short hops, which is about 80% of their business, they offer a good value. the peanuts were fine. if you can't endure open seating, fly another airline.

i think the built-in snootiness that is expected of the old mainline carriers is something that is slowly going by the wayside. southwest, jetblue and others are out there being nice to customers and operating tight ships of their own for a fraction of what the mainline carriers charge (or would charge if it weren't for the low cost carriers).

i think that within 5 years, nearly all u.s. domestic markets will be operated "southwest style". lots more point-to-point service and much less complicated pricing structures.

and besides, it's supposed to be a fun place to work. their people sure seem to like it!

How can you hate Southwest? They have reinvented air travel in the United States. The CEO's of all the major airlines are scared to death of Southwest and their fellow Low Cost Carriers. Southwest made Low Cost Carriers what they are today. A major threat to the traditional carriers. Many of the CEO's have stated in press releases that Low Cost Carriers are on the rise and are converting high mile members to the "dark side" if you will. I know of several frequent flyers for United that have jumped ship and will only fly ATA/ATA Connection because of the low fares and the service they provide.

Every carrier has their problems, Southwest has the "cattle call" boarding process; United/American has the money problem; Continential has the Newark hub problem and so forth and some people dislike a carrier for certian reasons. I wouldn't go as far as you have said and say i hate a certian carrier. I may not agree with how the company is run and so forth but if that carrier can get me to my destination the quickest and the cheapest then i'm going to ride on them. Several times i've been bumped off a flight while non-reving and i'll go over to Southwest and if i have a pass left for them i'll use that otherwise i'll get a ticket and off i go.

Never flown them. I would love to but the boarding pass thing sounds pretty bad, other than that they sound like a nice airline

P.S.

I'm glad Southwest has open seating. Because if you're stuck with a crappy, dirty window which is impossible to shoot decent pictures out of, you can always move.

You can't do that on DL or UA or the others where if you get a bad window, tough luck, because you've got that window your whole flight!

Yup, I do like having a decent window to take good inflight pictures through. I try and clean my window before the plane departs, with a tissue, so that no smudges or anything get into my pictures, but sometimes a tissue only goes so far....

i dont look at SWA as low cost. I mean yea they have very good fares but theyve been here for way longer then most of those other airlines. It sounds kinda dumb but i think southwest is a major airline.

Continential has the Newark hub problem..

What exactly is the "Newark hub problem"? I think that a very funny statement. The other majors would kill to have a major hub in NYC that is as expansive and global as EWR. So, what's the problem with it?

Tbear815 - Are you sure youre a stock holder? Ive been an investor since the IPO and my stock has split 14 times!!! You need a new stockbroker if he has only told you about 5 of the splits!!!!!

I hate Southwest!

I live in Phoenix and every time I am in Terminal 4, it is a zoo at the C concourses (Southwest Gates). Although Southwest claims it has no hubs, PHX and DAL are its main cities. It is always crowded in the Southwest areas and everyone is in a rush to board. Most southwest flight involve multiple inconvenient stops. I am surprised that no one has mentioned the new Southwest livery...I liked the old one but I can't even look at the new one! Who would ever think of putting purple and brown as the dominant colors on an airplane! Who would ever think about even putting purple on an airplane!

Expressjetphx:

I see by your profile you are between the ages of 13 & 15. It's sorta hard for me to remember back that far, but I do seem to recall thinking I knew everything about everything.

First of all, you say the WN concourse at PHX is a zoo. I could argue that it's not a zoo. But let's say, for the sake of argument, that it is.

Why is it a zoo?

It's a zoo because there are a lot of passengers flying WN.

Why are there so many passengers on WN in Phoenix? They have a hometown airline (HP) that flies to the same destinations (in a lot of cases) for the same fares (or lower ones). Ever stop to wonder why so many more of those folks are flying WN over HP? Could it be that WN is a much better airline?


And I really, really, have to take exception with your comment that "most Southwest flights require many inconvenient stops."

I am looking at from Phoenix to--- in the current schedule, and find that

to go to Albany there are 3 connecting flts, all with a single stop (where you make the connection)

To go to Albuquerque I have a choice of 12 nonstops

Amarillo has one 1-stop directi flight and 3 connections, all single stop

Austin has 4 nonstops and one 1-stop

BWI 5 nonstops, 2 1 stops

Birmingham gets a nonstop, two 1-stop connections and a single 2-stop connection

Boise gets 3 1-stop direct flights, 2 1 stop connections and a single 2 stop connection

Buffalo has a nonstop and 4 1 stop connections

Burbank has 7 nonstops

Chicago 4 nonstops, 3 1 stop direct flights, 1 1 stop connection and a couple of 2 stop connections

Cleveland gets 4 1 stop connections and 2 2 stop connections

Columbus has a nonstop, a 1 stop direct, and a 1 stop connection at BNA

Corpus Christi gets 2 1-stop connections via HOU

Detroit gets 2 nonstops, a 1 stop direct, 2 2stop direct, a pair of 1 stop connections, and a pair of 2 stop connections

El Paso gets 8 nonstops

Ft Lauderdale gets 3 1 stop connections, 2 2 stop connections, and a couple of 2 stop direct flights each day

Harlingen has 4 single stop connections daily

Houston has 6 daily nonstops and 5 single stop connections

Indianapolis has 2 nonstops, a 1 stop connection, and a couple of 2 stop connections

Jackson MS has two 1 stop direct flights and a 1 stop connection

Jacksonville has a 1 stop direct and a 1 stop connection

Kansas City gets 4 nonstops, a 1 stop drect, and 3 1 stop connections

Las Vegas service consists of 19 or 20 daily nonstops

Little Rock has a nonstop, a 1 stop connection, and a 2 stop connection

Long Island/Islip gets 5 1 stop direct flights each day

LAX service consists of 14 nonstops daily

Louisville receives a nonstop and 2 1 stop connections each day

Lubbock service is 2 1 stop direct and a 1 stop connection

Manchester gets 6 1 stop connections and yes, a 3-stop direct.

New Orleans has 2 daily nonstops, a 1 stop direct, 3 or 4 1-stop connections, and a couple of 2 stop connections.

Norfolk, from Phoenix, consists of 3 1 stop connections

Oakland gets 6 nonstops and 10 1-stop direct flights

Oklahoma City: 3 nonstops

Omaha: 2 nonstops, 4 1-stop connections

Ontario: 13 nonstops

Orange County: 5 nonstops

Orlando: a nonstop, 3 1 stops, 4 1 stop connections

Portland: 2 nonstops, a 1 stop, a 2 stop, 9 1 stop connections, and 3 2-stop connections

Providence: 2 nonstops, 5 1 stop connections

Raleigh-Durham: 2 nonstops, 3 1-stop connections

Reno: 3 nonstops, a 1 stop, a 2 stop, 10 1 stop connections, and a couple of 2 stop connections

Sacramento: 6 nonstops, 9 1-stop direct, 9 1-stop connections

St Louis: 5 nonstops, 2 1-stops

Salt Lake City: 7 or 8 nonstops, a couple of 1 stops

San Antonio: 4 nonstops, 2 1-stop connections via ELP

San Diego: 15 nonstops

San Jose: 5 nonstops, 4 1 stops, 5 1 stop connections

Seattle: 2 nonstops, 3 1 stops, a 2 stop, 3 1 stop connections, 3 2 stop connections

Spokane: 4 1 stop connections, 3 2 stop connections, and 1 2-stop direct

Tampa: 1 nonstop, 1 1-stop, 1 2-stop, 4 1-stop connectons, 3 2-stop connections

Tulsa: 3 nonstop, 1 1-stop connection via MCI

West palm: 1 2 stop connection via AUS


And that's it in a nutshell. What does all this mean? It means that you are way off the mark when you suggest that to fly Southwest you are going to have to stop at an infinite number of intermediate cities or connecting points.

Of course, that brings up the old theory that if you have an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters, at some point one will write Shakespeare.

That was recently tried and all the researchers ended up were a bunch of computer keyboards covered with monkey poop. But I digress.

The bottom line: the folks who allegedly hate Southwest, for whatever reason, are primarily people who do not fly Southwest. To know them is to love them. After all....

they really are "the somebody else up there who loves you."

First of all, you say the WN concourse at PHX is a zoo. I could argue that it's not a zoo. But let's say, for the sake of argument, that it is. Why is it a zoo?

I'm not saying it's a zoo, but there's no place to sit down to eat after you've purchased food... that's a bit odd.

I forgot PHX to BNA....3 nonstops, and 3 or 4 single stop connections. Also one daily 1-stop/no change.

And in addition to being the somebody else up there who loves you, they have also spent a good portion of the last 32 years "spreading love all over Texas."

Being in El paso, I frequently change planes in PHX when taking WN someplace up the left coast. And it may sound odd, but after I buy food, I usually sit down in one of the seats in a gate lounge area. Call me old fashioned....

TxAgKuwait: Don't forget WN offers non-stop PHX to CLE on the weekends.

It's easy to become a little snobbish if you fly a lot, and sit up front with FFPs or not. I wonder how many Weddings, Christmases, Thanksgivings etc. etc. have been attended only because of WN, long before the new LCCs came along?