PotomacApproach

Good point. Evo drove me away. They offer nothing to the business traveler, especially when BS fares are barely less than DL or AS paid F.

boeing727

I fly STL to PHL round trip 3 times a month year round. I am A+ and very happy with A16-A18 boarding numbers 98% of the time. All that flying and now someone who lets say flies twice a year, could for $25 could grab an A1-A15 boarding pass and beat me to an exit row seat which I covet. I'm really disappointed. I get why they are doing it, but they devalued my loyal A+ status.

joshua362

+1. Yup, I just worked my tail off to earn A+ by year end. And love that exit row seat too.

I'm thinking this just won't work and/or will lead to chaos among the infrequent flyers at the gate. What are they really pushing / promising? The "chance" for an exit row on a thru flight in exchange for $$ ?? Another chance that you won't have to gate check your luggage? Saving 10 minutes in the boarding process? I can see the fighting now...

nsx

Is is possible that this idea originated on FlyerTalk two and half years ago? Yes, it's possible:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...mer-check.html

^

expert7700

Interesting to note that of all the maps shown in the PDF Investor-Day presentation, Gary Kelly's slide (near the end) is the ONLY one which shows Alaska & Hawaii. May be inadvertent, however the slide headline is titled "Route expansion"...

jco613

from their site: Effective for tickets purchased on or after December 15, 2012, for travel on or after February 13, 2013, the 3rd checked bag and any bag thereafter is $75 per piece and the overweight and oversize baggage fee is $75 per piece. Large media camera equipment is $75 per item, and sporting equipment is $0-$75 per item.

denCSA

This is just a preview of what's to come.

When WN sent out its RFP for a new IT system, guess what one of the top requirements was...? Ancillary Services!

Bag fees are coming in a few years time.

nsx

Maybe sooner. I have just listened to the VERY LONG webcast.

I heard no mentions, not one, ZERO, of "no fees". Ditto for "no change fees".

Plenty of mention of new fees, ancillary revenues increasing, and overwhelming emphasis on financial performance as the foundation of growth.

Bob Jordan said:
"Southwest will respond as we always have aligned with the core brand attributes that have made us so successful:
-Delivering excellent customer service
-Providing value
-Being open and honest with our customers
-Flying when and where they want to go"

Nothing there about No Hidden Fees. Nothing about Bags Fly Free. Hmmm.

Plenty about conversion of all the -700's to 143 seats by the end of 2013. Plenty about how they are selling much more points to partners (with revenue not recognized until the points are redeemed, meaning that an award redemption becomes effectively the same as a cash ticket sale).

A couple of mentions of a change from segment-based to O&D based revenue management, making the network optimization more sensitive to O&D potential revenue. This is expected to improve annual revenues by $150M-$175M.

Gary Kelly's closing remarks:
"We are America's favorite airline. A component of that of course and an important one is our low fares and our low costs. But we walk that fine line of having an inexpensive price but also coupled with great service. And we don't want to lose that. So we envision that in the future we can pursue the opportunity to be North America's favorite airline.
(snip)
We can only grow if we have a reason to give new customers to change to another airline. We must have a competitive advantage. And clearly if we want to grow this airline the single most significant competitive advantage we can bring to the market is lower costs and lower fares. And that will continue to be our vision going forward."

Translation:
We are not wedded to any particular pricing strategy, including No Hidden Fees. We will do anything necessary to maintain low prices.

Perhaps this focus on costs is posturing for labor negotiations, which are expected to be very difficult in 2013, involving all 5 major unionized groups. A strike could damage the company severely in 2013, but unfavorable contracts could damage the company even more over the next decade. On the webcast the company stated that its negotiations would center on finding ways to achieve a target cost per available seat mile for each group of employees. That's a reasonable structure for negotiations, but each employee group will naturally want to grow its piece of the pie at the expense of the other employee groups. It's going to be tough.

expert7700

so basically in 2012:

the fee for oversize/overweight bags went up
while the fee for oversize/overweight people was eliminated (free 2nd/3rd seat now)

ursine1

I think it's amazing that Gary Kelly still thinks Southwest has low fares.

3Cforme

I saw that and didn't think it a bit inadvertent. He didn't say when WN would be flying to Alaska, Hawaii, or near S America, but it can (and should) happen.

freebee

Let me get this straight-I should pay $12.50 for Early Bird Check-in in the hopes of getting an exit row and then either pay even more at the gate for an empty A1-A15 slot or watch as someone who never purchased Early Bird pays that same fee? Is that fair?

FindAWay

Who said it is the same fee? It will likely be more for unused BS positions at the gate than for EBCI. And, if one buys EBCI, one may only have to pay the fee difference for open BS positions.

cxn

The flying public accepts bag fees. WN sees that. Go to the front page and no where do you see, Bags Fly Free anymore. WN will have bag fees soon enough.

Already booked my Q1 travel for next year. Not one WN flight. Last year or years past it would have *all* been on WN.

Often1

DOT rules make that illegal. Once a ticket is issued, it can't be repriced and the ancillary fees needed to be disclosed at the time of purchase. Thus, when WN imposes a new fee, it can only apply effective a given date and only for tickets purchased after it makes its announcement and corrects its website and other disclosures.