Originally Posted by ssk1127

I've been flying Southwest to/from a lot of different locations, and it seems to me the quality of service has been slowly deteriorating over the years. It used to be, as a passenger you were willing to deal with no frills to get to your destination cheaply and on time. For me, that's what really matters more than anything, so I enjoyed Southwest. It seems that over the years, though, as the airline has grown, they've run into a lot of the same problems as the other airlines. Prices have gone up so that now they are rarely the cheapest option, except for certain short non-stop routes and last-minute purchases. What's worse is that so many of their flights are perpetually late. In growing, I feel like their model of quick turnarounds has suffered because now their grid is so much larger that small things ruin their scheduling and cause ripple effects in the system. To compound this, they seem to blatantly lie about how late their flights are, often quoting times that they know are unrealistic (such as a late flight arriving at 10:10 PM and departing at 10:25 PM...when in reality it didn't land til 10:20 PM and left at 10:40 PM). The fact that the flights are becoming increasingly more expensive and less frequently on time makes it tougher to put up with a lot of things that are unique to Southwest. I find myself flying Southwest less and less as a result of these things, even with Hobby being my current home airport. Is it just me, or have other Southwest flyers noticed this pattern of deterioration over the years? It's gotten maddening for me every time I fly Southwest or pick up/drop off someone flying with them.