toomanybooks

I am still trying to decide. In my estimation, WN has risen a bit comparatively for domestic travel.

For international, buy from whomever is cheapest.

tatterdema

Nope, I don't feel better about WN. It is a race to the bottom IMHO, just because there is a leader, doesn't make the others in the race less likely to win. The other cuts will just embolden WN to take the next one further.

ursine1

Seriously?!

I've been a WN customer since the early 90s and I think they're definitely headed in a downward direction. I used to be a huge fan, now I begrudgingly fly them when it works for my schedule or wallet. And even that is becoming more infrequent.

lrickets

yes, wn is deteriorating and we as customers, cannot do anything about it.

nsx

Do I feel better about WN? No. Am I resigned to endless devaluation of all programs? Yes.

There are two areas of improvement over the last decade: Travel time (pre-check, A-list, fly by) and international premium class accommodations. The international business and first class travel experience is far beyond what it was 10 years ago. Unfortunately now so is the price in miles. But it's something you should do at least once in your life.

rsteinmetz70112

While I don't agree with your evaluation I'd like you to expand on each of the "improvements" your see:
In my experiance the travel experiance has not improved in time but especially recently devolved by sitting on a loaded planes waiting for late connections. Pre-check, a-list and fly-by have not improved my experiance except marginally and mostly at the expense of others. Even the fly-by experiace has been devalued by pre-check.
I absolutely don't get this. Are you referrinmg to air travel in general? Has Southwest started stealth Internation travel or develpoed an invisible First Class?

Sorry, I usually understand where your are coming from but not this time.

nsx

Yes, especially non-US carriers. Lie flat seats are very common now

rsteinmetz70112

Lie Flat seats are as far as I know only offered on long haul International routes at a significant premium fare. Some Carriers are introduicing them on long haul US domestic flights, but as far as I can tell the jury is still out on whether that will be sucessful.

I know I wouldn't pay for one but I;'m not an investment banker or CEO of a fourtune 100 company. I doube Herb would have paid for one either.

nsx

Me neither, but that's what credit card signup bonus points are for. Most recently for me: 65k Ultimate Rewards points converted to UA miles for 11 hours in First Class. That was just one credit card signup and a little spending. Also some luck for the seat to become available less than 24 hours before the flight.

texashoser

That's kind of obvious, isn't it? The point by NSX was that, for those than can afford it, biz/first class international travel has gotten a lot better as far as the in-flight experience goes.

Luckily for my wife, her company pays for biz-class fare when she travels internationally. She just recently flew Emirates and Singapore and is now rather spoiled! Of course, that Emirates return flight was 16 hours. Sitting in coach for 16 hours sucks!

Michael El

Southwest was a great airline until 2008. KEL/G entered the race to the bottom in his quest to become a legacy carrier. It should be renamed Southworst.

sdsearch

No, because UA, AA, DL, and WN have recently all devalued in one or more ways.

And the devaluation on WN affects me (the worse seats, the 7/6 increase in redemption cost).

While all the AA changes don't affect me (I always fly "carry-on only" and so bag fees are irrelevant to me, and I never do the kinds of redemptions that have been taken away, and redemptions I do do haven't changed), and with my lifetime Plat status (earned before Dec 2011 back when credit card churning counted) I get free access to Main Cabin Extra seats.

So they have not "scrod" all their customers. That have made numerous changes, but each change individually affects only certain customers, so there may some customers not affected by any of the recent changes at any particular airline.

And, in any case, there's one "legacy" airline which (so far) hasn't announced such sweeping changes. So I could ask:

UA, AA, DL, WN have recently scrod their customers; do we feel better about AS?

toomanybooks

Yeah, what was I thinking?

They all suck, every last one of them. I'll just play the field from now on.

sdsearch

Actually, they only suck for those who don't have status or those who have too-high expectations. As a mid-level status holder on AA, I get free access to Main Cabin Extra, which didn't exist there a year ago, and its equivalent didn't exist anywhere less than a decade ago. Before I had to fight for very few exit row seats, now I can get the equivalent of exit row seat legroom over several rows, hardly ever sold out, while still having a normal tray table. So actually, life on AA has to me (as a tall person always wanting legroom) net improved compared to a couple years ago.

And on AA, I can reserve that. On WN, all I can do is pray that I get one of those very few exit row seats once I board.

But playing the field means you never have status anywhere (and can't even justify having the airline's credit card for its perks), so it's a self-fulfilling phropesy of sucking.

wanaflyforless

AS is mostly a regional player; I generally don't consider them to be comparable to UA, AA, DL, and WN. In my neck of the woods I would say B6 is the friendly airline that we feel better about.