NextTrip

But, an intra-CA flight is what OP is talking about.

LegalTender

I keep forgetting that. A veritable salad bar of choices. And no deicer shortages.

joshua362

It really is two separate experiences from what I've observed from some 3000 miles away.

Exiled in Express

No change fees.

It gets me to book speculatively and the ability to refare creates a reason to return on my next trip. Friday I refared and got ~20% back as TTF, I was content with the prior price but now I have to give SWA more revenue to realize any benefit from the "savings". Like most on here I travel enough that the game mostly works in my favor.

toomanybooks

Some of us have spouses who regard airline reservations as vague suggestions rather than a firm commitment.

Once my wife made me change our departure from Orlando at the end of vacation FOUR times. For 3 people. This was back in the days of credits for one-ways, so there was no cost. Except a piece of my sanity.

And to compare legacy F with WN seating is pretty pointlesss, especially when someone else is paying. Who wouldn’t go for that?

justhere

You are comparing apples and oranges. There's an orderly line on WN. There's often a rugby scrum on other airlines, even with assigned seats, mostly due to bag fees.

And to compare an F product with WN is naive at best. Sounds like WN isn't for you and that's fine but to make illogical comparisons is a little odd.

kennycrudup

Man, I wanna drive down with you one day!

... but as I have status, Pre-Check and CLEAR:

- 20 min Uber to airport
- never more than 20 mins airport to gate, and usually 10
- because of that, I tend to get to airport ~45-50 mins before departure
- boarding happens ~T-30
- we're generally off ~T+15
- ~1H-1H15 in air
- I sit in the back so ~15 mins later I'm off the plane
- another 15 mins if I've checked a bag
- 20-40 mins rental car/drive time or order/Uber
- arrive

Most of my trips I'll leave work around 1H30 before flight time and get to my destination before 1H after touchdown. I don't know what you drive, but it's apparently got a hyperdrive and is invisible to the CHP if you can do similar times

Baybreezes

I fly Southwest when possible because it uses biggish jets, and I feel safer. I can count on having decent enough space under the seat ahead of me and thus stash a wheeled underseat bag rather than a shoulder-carried tote or backpack. That means less discomfort. Three airlines fly out of my home airport (CRP), and the two others - American and United - use puddle-jumper regional jets, on which boarding with any kind of wheeled bag is frowned upon or worse. Also AA and UA fly to big airports, DFW and IAH, so for my connections onward, I've got to plan on running to the big-jet gates or choosing a long connection time. Southwest flies me to Houston Hobby, and tight connections can actually be done. Because of that my overall travel time is less. I wish I could always fly Southwest. And connect at a small airport like Hobby.

rsteinmetz70112

I find it amusing that this thread is ongoing while there is another parallel thread questioning how Southwest can make money on their business model.

toomanybooks

Another consideration for me is that MDW is closer and easier to navigate than ORD.

jeffandnicole

Yep! LOL

But that's what happens when people look at a single flight or a single route at a single point in time (or very limited searches), and poorly thinks it represents the entire airline's pricing structure for its thousands of daily flights.

LegalTender

Several offshore sites populate WN flights/fares. Comparisons are not that cumbersome.

https://concorde.io/

3Cforme

Why do people fly WN when the fares are not competitive?

To the OP:

I don't assume people fly WN when the fares aren't competitive. I don't assume they fly AA, United, or Delta in that condition, either.

Your analysis may be backward. You assume that WN has excess capacity to dump. You should be asking yourself if other carriers made Revenue Management mistakes leading up to your short-term purchase, such that they have excess seats to dump. Selling last-minute seats at high fares is one of the primary goals of RM. Southwest might be the carrier doing it right in that market on that day.

As for the value proposition, I get WN's model but getting value out of it requires checking bags (I rarely do) and/or changing tickets (I don't, unless spending other people's money, those people who control my scheduling). If it doesn't work for you, don't fly WN - but reflect on why it works for others instead of questioning their logic.

T2A

Alaska will credit you the difference if your flight goes down in price too. No fee. Great perk on both airlines

TuxTom

The title of this thread is misleading compared to the actual question being asked. Really, the OP wants to know why do frequent flyers on intra-CA routes fly WN when the fares are not competitive? I'm not a huge fan of WN myself, but as many have pointed out, there are a lot of valid reasons to fly WN, especially intra-CA (or in my case, RNO) even if other airlines offer cheaper fares at a particular moment in time. On longer flights, I never book WN because I at least want the chance to buy or upgrade to F, and I try to avoid 737s when possible, but for routes like RNO-SAN, where WN is the only non-stop, and it's a short flight, I'll put up with it.

As for people in general, on most days and on most routes, the majority of travelers are going to be infrequent flyers, either leisure travelers or the person making the occasional business trip. Southwest has done a really good job creating loyalty among these kind of travelers, partly through their reputation as a LCC and offering free checked bags and no change fees, as well as offering more options out of mid-sized airports. I would guess that a lot of these travelers may not spend much time researching fares on other airlines once they find something on WN that they like for their trip.