Southwest Rapid Rewards - First WN Flight

Being a flyer who likes to save all miles for international F travel, I have avoided WN. But I took a day trip from OAK to RNO yesterday and had some thoughts.

PROS:
1. On this route: quick and cheap
2. Very efficient boarding process. This was surprising to me as I thought everyone would be dawdling and not be able to decide where to sit.
3. Efficient drink service

CONS:
1. No F class. On this less than an hour flight it doesn't matter. But I would hate to not have a chance for F on a longer haul.
2. Efficient service but not particularly personable. When I ordered my bloody mary I was just barked at: "Four dollars!"
3. Bulk head has NO tray tables!
4. No seat assignments--what if you're not travelling solo?
5. FF program. (What program?) So I might actually get a free domestic coach award? I'll just buy one.



So all in all I will definitely use WN again on this route. But only because I have little alternative in terms of convenience and price. And for many those are important considerations.

5. FF program. (What program?) So I might actually get a free domestic coach award? I'll just buy one.

Who here is going to turn down a free flight? If you use WN enough, their FF program is great because there are very few blackout dates making it very easy to get a free flight, always a nice reward.

Who here is going to turn down a free flight? If you use WN enough, their FF program is great because there are very few blackout dates making it very easy to get a free flight, always a nice reward.


Well, it's not about turning down a free flight. My travel pattern which is essentially for pleasure, not business, takes me to Europe to see parents or otherwise just to visit friends or family domestically. Since I love to fly international F and prices for full fare F RT are around $10K+, using miles for those is great. Domestic fares tend to be reasonable unless you have to fly tomorrow.

So for me free dom tix are certainly nice, but I would prefer to accrue miles for int'l travel. Unfortunately I can't do this with Southwest.

. No seat assignments--what if you're not travelling solo?


Well you do what everyone else does and check in online to get A, and pick 2,3,4,5, or however many seats you need.

2. Efficient service but not particularly personable. When I ordered my bloody mary I was just barked at: "Four dollars!"
3. Bulk head has NO tray tables!
4. No seat assignments--what if you're not travelling solo?


For the last year, I've alternated between WN and American. There's definitely a lot of difference. I, too, usually use my American miles for international RTs, which isn't an option on WN. And up until recently, I was starting to get annoyed with WN, but in the last two weeks, I've had three AA tickets that needed changing, and after dealing with the hassle, I think I'm going to go back to WN, except when I fly into WN-free airports.

The simple fact is that WN makes changing your plans very easy. On AA I buy unrestricted, but discounted, tickets, so although I don't have to pay change fees, I do have to pay the fare difference if I change flights. If I make my change on the day of travel, sometimes that fare difference is significant, because all the lower fares are gone. With WN, I always buy the full-fare ticket (which is usually about the same price as an unrestricted, but discount ticket on AA), so I'm never caught by surprise with a hefty fare increase if I change.

RR tickets are the same way. Even though domestic RTs are usually fairly inexpensive if you plan in advance, WN's RR tickets are better than an advance-purchase American ticket. They're a breeze to book and change, because there are no change fees, and no capacity controls, so if there's an open seat on the flight you want to change to, it's yours. I've gotten spoiled on WN, and I know the next time I redeem an AAdvantage award I'm going to be disappointed at the lack of flexibility.

To address your #s 2, 3 and 4, I usually don't sit in the bulkhead, but I remember those seats having tray tables in the armrest. It's been a while, so I could be incorrect. Did you look there?

Honestly, I usually don't encounter WN FAs that are extra-super friendly, but I've never felt like they were LESS friendly than AA FAs. Every now and then I see an FA on WN that goes above and beyond, and I almost never see that on AA.

If you're not travelling by yourself, yes, boarding is a little trickier. Although it's much more likely that other pax will switch with you, since their seat wasn't really "assigned". You have the same problem if you book late on AA, anyway, and then you have to get people to switch from a seat, which in many cases, they specifically chose.

For extremely short treks, such as OAK-RNO, efficiency in drink service sometimes makes the interaction less than personable. Although it may have been the FA, I would suspect it was also a function of the flight time (esp. if the flight was crowded or there were delays in being able to start the in-cabin service).

As for no bulkhead tray tables - they're starting to put one in for the exit row "lost" seat (where the seat ahead of you is missing), so maybe - but then again, since my experience is that because these seats are popular with preboarders (both for physical reasons and families with small children), they may prefer the room and manuverability that you get with just an armrest versus the 'bucket seat' that the in-the-seat tray table creates - and so there may be a good reason to not install them there. I would be surprised to see them upfront, actually.

The simplicity of the FF program is also its biggest weakness, at least if you want to travel internationally. If you do any domestic travel, however, it really is hard to beat (especially if you travel last minute or find that the cheap seats are sold out on one or both ways of your travel dates). Time will tell if the ATA experiment will result in the availability of awards to Hawaii, Mexico and - maybe - a variety of international destinations, but that may be a while off - if at all.

With WN, I always buy the full-fare ticket (emphasis added)... so I'm never caught by surprise with a hefty fare increase if I change.
I've periodically seen similar comments from other posters in this forum and I've always wondered why one would buy the full fare for a WN flight if the exact same flight was also offering discounted fares. As an example, LAX-LAS is currently available at $39 as a Promo Fare while Refundable Anytime is $95 - a $56 differential. If your desired flight is available at $39, why would you not buy the less expensive fare?

WN has no change fee, so if your LAX/LAS plans require a last minute adjustment, the worst case scenario is that you pay that $56 buy-up and end up at $95, which you were willing to pay in the first place. It's not like the legacy carriers where the change could cost you up a $50-$100 change fee, plus a fare differential that could be hundreds of dollars more.

The only risk I see in this approach is that the flight you need to change to is completely sold out. Depending upon the city pair involved, the day of travel and the liklihood of your needing to change flights, that is certainly a valid consideration (a last minute change between LAX/LAS outbound Friday or returning Sunday is next to impossible).

The only risk I see in this approach is that the flight you need to change to is completely sold out.

Am I missing something? Even if you have a fully refundable full fare ticket, you cannot change your reservation to get onto a sold out flight, can you? :confused:

I do agree with your post though, why anybody would pay more than they have to for a ticket is beyond me unless the company is paying for it AND there is a better than 50% chance that the return flight will be changed. Having a fully refundable in that case might make it slightly easier so you don't have to fiddle around at the airport to pay the upcharge.

Well you do what everyone else does and check in online to get A, and pick 2,3,4,5, or however many seats you need.

That's not always possible. E. g., I bought my outbound less than 24h before departure and got my first SSSS ever. Couldn't do online check-in. Got B at the kiosk. The nice thing was I didn't have to wait in line. GOT VIP tx from TSA. (Since I was only going for the day, I had just a small shoulder bag with magazines, keys, etc.)

Honestly, I usually don't encounter WN FAs that are extra-super friendly, but I've never felt like they were LESS friendly than AA FAs. Every now and then I see an FA on WN that goes above and beyond, and I almost never see that on AA.




I just always had the impression that WN FAs were extra friendly. Didn't they used to dress in short-shorts? Thought that was one of the trademarks.

I often fly AS and while many of the crew are quite nice, there are always the ones that are less than personable.

I do agree with your post though, why anybody would pay more than they have to for a ticket is beyond me unless the company is paying for it AND there is a better than 50% chance that the return flight will be changed.

You have described my situation to a tee: I travel on WN almost exclusively for business AND my plans change A LOT. It saves me the hassle at the airport when I do change. More importantly, though, if I completely cancel a non-refundable ticket, even though I can re-use the dollars, it makes my expense reports a nightmare. My accounting department would give me a hard time if I tried to expense a ticket that I didn't use, then subtract that amount from my next ticket. They're already bad enough. :)

And Nobbi, I remember flying WN many years ago with the "jokey" FAs. That's not so much the case anymore. But like I said, I don't have any problem with that - it's not like they're downright rude or anything.