Reading through all of the horror stories at Southwest, I was reminded of the 2 times where United booked me on American and also proactively booked me on Air Canada just in case my flight was late. Flew home ORD - LAX on American and didn't end up having to use the Air Canada reservation and just flew my originally booked ORD - YYZ flight.

Also saw an article on why Southwest is having a total meltdown vs the big 3 and the explanation was that the big 3 use a hub and spoke model which vs Southwest's point to point which spreads the flight crews all over the place. Sure First Class food sucks on United and Polaris isn't where it used to be but I think I'll stick to United and Star Alliance.

No amount of free checked bags and folksy, funny etc. FA's can make up for the operation mess that seems to plauge Southwest when the weather goes bad.