DING! ROCKS! Southwest's new fare alert is Phenominal

Pittsburgh is served by Southwest and AirTran :p

I like AirTran. In general, they usually have the cheapest (although not always the most convenient) flight out of PIT - at least as far as our travels go.

I'm scared to fly Southwest. I've heard it referred to many times as the "bus of the skies." (i.e., crowded, noisy, dirty and bare-bones).

I usually fly America West or United. I guess I'll be flying United exclusively now, since AW pissed me off during my last vacation.

I'm not really a big fan of Southwest, to be honest. I don't like being herded like cattle at the gate, having to get to the gate 2 hours beforehand to get a decent seat, the "comedy" of the attendants doing the safety demos, getting 1/2 a cup of coke rather than the whole can on a trip to California from Alabama, and in all my recent travel searches, they're never the best price.

In fact I looked into flights to get to Dorney for CBuzzCon, and SW was the MOST expensive out of Birmingham. American, United, USAir, Delta, and Continental all had better rates to get to either Philly or Allentown.

Maybe I'm missing something...

I have flown on Southwest before and I have found the planes to clean and the crew to be quite friendly. The thing I enjoy is the mocking of other airlines in their saftey spiels.

With that being said, we are flying Delta from ORD to MCO for Spring Break (see if anyone catches what the airport codes are). We normally fly out of MCI, but it was less to go from ORD.

AirTran...heh-heh-heh. You wouldnt believe how few people remember that this is the same company that was Value-Jet. I guess the RCT theory of repainting and renaming a crashed ride actually works in real life.

Seriously though, Air Tran isnt bad. I just hate that to go pretty much anywhere from DC you have to stop in Atlanta first (I had to do that once to get to Chicago for a funeral).

Also, let me be the one to piss in the Southwest "Love Pool". They just dont "do it" for me. In my experience, the timeliness of the service is about par for the course with everyone else. The people on board tend to be more loud and "rowdy" (I like to sleep on flights). And I just despise the "cattle call" way they let people select seats. Not to mention that oft times I find SW prices to be right in line with the other carriers or even higher. I guess that comes from me not booking everything a month in advance.

And then, on top of all that, they only fly out of BWI. BWI in and of itself isnt a *bad* airport but it's hell to get out *to* the airport from No. VA (Northern Virginia). I'd much rather find a flight from Reagan (National) or even Dulles in a pinch. It shaves at least an hour off my travel time.

Therefore, even though they have drastically gone downhill since 9-11-01 by cutting MetroJet, US Airways is still my airline of choice. With their partnership with United, I can get to just about anywhere I need to go from National or Dulles often non-stop.

But in general airlines are high on my "bad customer service list" right behind Comcast and Verizon.

lata, jeremy

--who has been suprisingly satisfied with the service from Cox Communications

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Fafolguy said:
Maybe I'm missing something...

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Nah, you're flying out of Birmingham. ;)

It's all about location.

I just started keeping an eye on SW since they're come to town. The only possible flight we might have to do this year is if we head to Texas like we'd like to. It's a trip that becomes a "yes" or "no" solely based on cost.

As it stands right now SW has the cheapest flights I could find to Houston by $60 a ticket.

Fafol, you got screwed on that flight. I got fed twice with that snack pack thing from New York to San Diego.

Yes, the cattle herding is what I was refering to as "unique", though you're supposed to be there 2 hours early anyway ;)

ord=o'hare

MCO=orlando

MCI=???

I know MKE is Milwaulkee and MDW is Midway, but dont know an MCI in the vicinty of Chicago

so Swoosh, you're going to drive from wherever you are (Somewhere in Missou, if you are talking about KC-MCI airport) to O'hare, pay their exorbitant parking fees, just to save how much on airfare to Orlando? The economy parking lot is $13 per day!! (Kansas City - MCI's is only $5 a day) then you have to add on gas costs, not to mention wasted time...

*** Edited 3/4/2005 2:07:22 PM UTC by redman822***

MCI = telephone instead of fly.

Even if you don't like flying Southwest, they're helping you. Generally everywhere that they show up, prices go down. The majors aren't worried about USA3000 or AirTran and their ilk because people still have that half-assed idea about those airlines.

I don't think people consider Southwest in with that discount group... they think of them more like a regular carrier with lower fares. Therefore, they become competition; therefore, I'll be able to fly UsAir or Delta for the same price soon, and still have it count on my current frequent flyer cards and have a reserved seat.

No one beats the Europeans, though. When I was over there, they were offering E20 flights to Italy and Germany from London on EasyJet.

(By the way, is there a way to insert a Euro symbol instead of using "E" ?)

SWA's fares never seem to be competitive for me out of DTW, and they don't fly anywhere interesting direct. I might fly them if they were actually cheaper, but they never seem to be. Plus, I hate that cattle call crap too.

Spirit, on the other hand, goes several interesting places, and are often well under NWA's fares. The planes are a bit dated, but adequate, the service is also adequate (but bring food with you), and their on-time performance seems to be pretty decent.

Am I the only one that just loves the fact that Northwest has renamed themselves NWA?

Think they fly Straight Outta Compton?

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kpjb said:

(By the way, is there a way to insert a Euro symbol instead of using "E" ?)

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Hold down the Alt key while you type 0128 on your 10-key pad. Make sure number lock is on. When you release the Alt key, the € will pop up.

Sandi

pshhh im still stickin with united...I love them...plus I got so many milage plus credits I can go anywere in the world for pretty much free.

Of course, Hooters Air recently started flying out of PIT to Myrtle Beach for just $99 - so that's always an option if boobies and wings matter on your flight.

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redman822 said:
so you're going to drive from wherever you are from to O'hare, pay their exorbitant parking fees, just to save how much on airfare to Orlando? The economy parking lot is $13 per day!! (Kansas City - MCI's is only $5 a day)

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Well my fiance goes to school at ISU in Normal, so ORD is not that far away. It was a package deal thing with the motel and with MCI you end up having to make a minimum of two connections to get to MCO. Oh well, you get screwed in the end anyway. :)

Gonch, I took a quick flight to Myrtle on Hooters once... though it is only like 45 minutes in duration, it was a fun and very unique flight, worth the 100 bucks to say I did it :)

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Lord Gonchar said:
Of course, Hooters Air recently started flying out of PIT to Myrtle Beach for just $99 - so that's always an option if boobies and wings matter on your flight.

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Boobies are nice, but I absolutely refuse to fly on a plane that doesn't have wings.

I'm surprised it took so long. :)

I just lobbed that one out there and nobody was swinging at it.

I am probably in the minority here, but I love flying Southwest. I fly them much more than any other airline. In the last 4 years or so, I have gotten around 15 Rapid Reward tickets as they sometimes have incredible credit deals. It's a very easy program to use and has saved me a ton of dough. You have to look for the deals sometimes but it usually pays off in a big way.

I was planning on using one of my Rapid Reward tickets to go out to California for a couple of days in a a few weeks but the day I need to fly back is a blackout day. No trip for me.

Besides the crews, I have never seen a difference in passengers no matter what airline I take. If an airline can get me from point A to point B safely and cheap, then I am all for it. I usually sleep on the flights anyway.

I just downloaded "Ding" and found some cool deals. Thanks for the info Sam.

-Sean