Originally Posted by
kangarooflyer88
And the challenge with WN is they don't fly to many destinations I want to go to (i.e. Australia or South America). Whereas it's not too difficult for me to keep my Qantas status through a mixture of flying on QF, AA and other OW partners, with WN status I must take 20 flights with them each calendar year or earn 35,000 tier qualifying points (which works out to what $5K in WN spend supposing I earn 6 points per $ on a ticket)? Frankly it's just not going to happen. Sure they'll point to credit cards, but not everyone wants to pay an annual fee or go over 5/24 just so they can get a free bag on the odd occasion they want to fly WN.
What WN had before was certainty. You always knew irrespective of what fare you bought, when you flew WN you would be able to check bags and could get a seat. This new system brings a lot of complexity and confusion and I think will steer quite a few people away. Whereas before I might be tempted to choose WN if they offered a non-stop over a connecting AA flight as I knew I would get my bags checked, now I'm more tempted to look at holding my nose and flying that AA connecting itinerary. At least I know I'll have bags and lounge access (QF Gold and OneWorld Sapphire or better members in programs other than AA or AS always get lounge access, even on domestic trips).
-RooFlyer88
Sounds like you would not want to fly Southwest with that status anyway. The avergae WN flyer in a city like BNA or SMF doesn't have your status. A WN flyer without a high level status on an airline like AA would fly them once and see how bad the service is on AA as a non status flyer and go right back to WN even with these changes for the nonstop. AA is still worse on a connection than the new WN on a nonstop.