US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Thoughts from my brief(?) time in exile with Southwest

Despite my best efforts to stick with US to take advantage of upgrades, mileage bonuses, and international award tickets, our #$@#$ corporate travel office recently forced me to take two trips on Southwest due to costs. One was from RDU-Nashville and return, the other from RDU to Austin (via Nashville) and then return from San Antonio to RDU via BWI. I was expecting to hate it more, but I didn't. Here's my somewhat random thoughts.

Southwest personnel (GAs and FAs) definitely had better attitudes than I have seen recently on US.

Seats were comfortable and clean and the pitch on the 737s in coach seemed decent (for the industry).

I did not get stuck in a middle seat even with a Group B boarding pass.

From San Antonio to BWI (3 hours) they gave us a decent little box with several types of snack crackers and cookies in it - more than I have seen in coach on US in a long time.

They don't give you boarding passes for the connecting flight when you first check in! You have to wait til you get to the connecting airport to get the pass. This is really stupid! Fortunately they are promising to fix this soon.

If the wrong people in the boarding area twitches an eyebrow, everyone stampedes to form a line at the gate 45 minutees ahead of time and you have to join in or get left at the end of the line and risk a middle seat.

Rapid Reward credits expire after a year - that sucks.

Price is right.

I'm sticking with US when I can, but I suspect the future of air travel will look a lot more like SW.

Thanks for your observations. I appreciate them as I have never flown WN, and they don't fly in and out of BOS, and I'm not about to go to PVD or MHT :).

I don't know for connections if it is possible to check in on the WN web site, or if the web check in has a similar glitch?

I have flown Southwest too. Their Rapid Rewards doesn't do it for me. I rarely fly on business so I pay out-of-pocket and all my SW credits expired before I could use them. I did fly often for a while DC-BOS but now I stay in Boston with occassional overseas trips. (for the transatlantic flights, US A330 is one of the best ships out there -catering is a different story, but for an overnight trip I like to sleep, or watch a film, not eat in a 4 star restaurant).

I used to choose US or UA for the east coast shuttle flights since I liked full service airlines with miles I could bank. But since I live near MHT too, I took Southwest about three times and Metrojet once.

On a related note:

United is really playing up the advantages of the Star alliance network and miles that can get you fun places that are not on east coast. They are going to battle in DC with Independence Air which offers high frequency flights on regional jets and a frequent flyer program somewhat like Southwest's--however Independence Air's program is based on revenue.

US might lose some flyers to Independence in some cities, like BOS for example, since the Independence model is less like Southwest ie no cattle call, no overbooking, and is similar to SW in that if you earn enough points in a year you could use them on any flight if there is an empty seat.

US still has some advantages in terms of frequent flyer program with miles that can be "banked" and network - now that they have joined Star their network is bigger. Morale will only improve if the staff thinks that they can be heard and can help to turn the ship around. This CAN be done, Continental did it -- though they went bankrupt twice.

:(

I second the comments above. My new employer travel agent has complete control...I have no input. I'm not too happy about this and it looks like my 8 year run as CP will come to an end this year. My luck lately on the other carriers my corporate TA has picked has been terrible. Last month, a redirect on NW from AMS to DTW ended up at PIT due to weather and I missed my connection DTW to RDU. Although NW put the business class folks and those with NW status in hotels once we got to DTW, my DL silver got me squat. Comair to GRR the following week resulted in misplaced luggage which I didn't get until after an important meeting the next day. AA to DFW last Sunday resulted in a 1 hour delay + a 2 hour ramp stop. The trams stop running at 10:30pm. At 11:30pm I ran from A19 to C35 but still missed the last delayed connection to MFW by 15 minutes. AA was gracious and paid for the Hyatt overnight stay after I argued the inbound on my first leg being an hour late created the problem. Today on WN, RDU to DTW via Midway, we rerouted to Cleveland. We ended up with a 6 hour delay on WN 500 to DTW. I left RDU at 7:40am and arrived DTW after 7:50pm. OK, enough venting about my bad luck...I think the younger, more energetic and enthusiastic flight crews and ground staff of WN does add significantly to the what would have normally been an unbearable situation. Everyone applauded when we finally got to DTW and the crew was still able to joke about our late arrival. No one appeared to be angry. On the delayed AA flight to DFW, one passenger was muttering and then yelling obscene statements in every direction. Maybe WN customers don't have as high expectations. Maybe WN employees enjoy their work which in turn we sense and appreciate.

In some ways this sounds like our corporate travel dept. But, I am lucky Southwest in not on are approved list and US is. And after sometime they started to understand that saving a little money with a connection was no savings at all if you did not get where you needed to be when you needed to be there.
When our travel dept started trying this I would always state that I then needed to go the night before just in case there were problems (Why do they like to make a connection through Chicago in the winter ?). They would then point out that this eliminated any potential savings and may actually cost more. And my response would always be "If I don't get there when I need to be there the entire airfare is wasted as well as my time." Therefore to make sure when connecting I would leave a day early that solved my problem.
I have flown Southwest once and would prefer to not do it again.