remphish1

Or they needed to go last minute and could get a reward seat instead of shelling out a premium...I had to book soomeone sorta last minute and was able to nab a 20,000 mile one way ticket on Delta ATL-LGA vs paying $300..worth it!

ILovetheReds

I flew Delta LAS/MSP in July and upgrade didn't clear.

The battery died in my NC headphones, and I didn't have a replacement in the case, so I tried reading. The couple next to me was complaining non-stop about having to pay $25 each to check their bags.

The wife asked me how I felt about the fee. I told her that I was exempt from the fees on the first two bags with amount of flying I did with Delta, but I ccarry on 95 percent of the time, so it really isn't an issue.

I also told her it has been standard for most airlines to charge this fee. She told me she was aware of the fee, but thought it covered both and her husband. I asked her to be more specific and she said she was aware of the $25 bee, but thought that since both tickets were purchased at the same time, they could each check a bag and pay only one $25 fee.


She then proceeded to tell me how great of an airline Southwest was for not charging this fee and kept complaining about how Delta was ripping off their passengers. I informed her that Southwest does fly LAS/MSP and asked why she didn't just fly them on this trip. She told me she would have loved to have flown them but they were $150 more for each ticket and she would have to change planes in PHX instead of flying direct and wanted to get to LAS faster and wanted to get back home faster.

People are really dumb to believe that WN is offering them a great value by not charging them $25 to check luggage with an airfare that costs $150 more.

pinworm

"People are really dumb to believe that WN is offering them a great value by not charging them $25 to check luggage with an airfare that costs $150 more. "

+1

It's the WN Willful Ignorance.

I would also add the obessive "They have no change fees!" Mantra. There are fliers who will pay the slightly higher WN fares to have a form of "insurance" against last minute change fees. Over time, a short time at that, the amount they paid extra for this insurance in the form of higher fares exceeds the change fees themselves. I am an FFer and had to change a flight 2 times in the last 5 years. While this may work for people who have less fixed schedules, if the fare is 150 more on WN, why would not not simply pay the 50 change fee on Jet Blue? To make it viable, you have to change your flight a dozen times.

Of course, you can only change it to one of a similar fare bucket...you still have to pay the diff. most of the time.

jamesteroh

Agree 100% with your post. And not to mention the devluatoin of their frequent flyer program and they only gave RR members a couple months notice about the changes (luckilly I didn't have any tickets booked that would have applied after the change but I know someone that had a DTW/MDW and a DTW/BNA trip booked with WN just because of the rapid reward credits and she would have flown Delta if she would have known).

I use to take WN a lot for DTW/MDW and DTW/BNA due to their generous RR program and use those tickets for more expensive fares. Due to RR2.0 I refuse to fly them on a paid trip anymore since I can get more benefits from DL being elite and I value a skypeso more than I do a RR point.

WN's prices have skyrocketed in the past year. Not sure if it's due their loss of the advantage to their fuel hedge or what, but I have priced WN for the fun of it on most of the Delta trips I have booked lately and in every case WN was more and in most cases the kettles could fly delta and pay a $50 RT bag fee and still save money and be on a non-stop flight.

And with change fees, I can't believe Delta and the other legacies haven't brought up they don't charge elites for SDC or stand by travel and only charge $50 for non elites where even A-list select members on WN have to pay the fare difference to fly on an earlier flight which is usually gong to be more than $50 difference and they are going to be stuck in a middle seat in the back of the bus on a full flight.

I was on a RR ticket recently and the final segment was BNA/DTW and the FA must have been an ex Delta employee or had some beef against DL because she told several of her corny jokes at the expense of DL (and the funny thing was that flight was delayed by almost 2 hours so I went to the SC and the Delta monitors showed the 2 DTW flights on time). When she was doing her announcment at the end she said "and unlike Delta we don't have checked bag fees or change fees" I so wanted to ring my call button and say "I was in the DELTA club klling time due to your delay and unlike Delta you also don't get us in on time and bag fees isn't the only thing Delta has you don't have. Delta also has a first class cabin, real food on longer flights for sale in Y, direct stops to almost any city from DTW, intrernational service, luggage interlining, lounges which would be great for your regular delays, and the ability to handle IRROPS a lot better, and meal vouchers in IRROP situations".

I guess for the kettles that fly once a year to disney though.....

pinworm

I have had similar urges to heckling the cornball jokes about it being "all first class, sit anywhere but sit now!" on WN when I am sitting in an all coach config on a "free flight" that now takes eleventyhundred flights to earn next to a COS who was not made to purchase 2 seats and behind the line jumper who boarded with A20 on his B30 pass.

stdatwmu

Agreed, but it's a great business plan!

ILovetheReds

Cornball FA and GA jokes are like kettles. They are both common with WN, and they both are a pain for the frequent flyer.

pittpanther

Argh! It's too bad this thread has degenerated into a WN bashing thread.

Southwest doesn't need me to defend them, but for people that don't have status, Southwest is often the better choice. WN is one of the only airlines where I can open my laptop while sitting in coach - most other coach rows are just too close together to be able to work on a normal sized laptop.

Sure if I have status on an airline of course that airline will provide a better experience than WN. But as a FF with status, even I often have to fly places where my preferred airline doesn't go, or doesn't go at the time I want to fly, or only has a tiny plane to that destination. Again, WN can often provide a better product - it just depends on the circumstance.

That doesn't make me a kettle, I just don't have blind allegiance to any one airline or FF program.

GadgetFreak

A few years ago, back when I still flew US, I was doing a mileage run from LGA to PHL and LAS and back on the same day. I get on the plane in LAS and I am on the aisle in the last row of first, a 757 I think. There is a guy across the aisle from me who seems normal enough but is a bit active, playing with the seat and stuff. Finally he says to me, "is this first class". I tell him that it is. He gets a big smile on his face. He gets out his cell phone and calls someone and tells them he is in first class although he says he doesn't know why but it's great. He is having a very animated discussion with this person about his good fortune to be randomly put in first class. I thought this a bit odd, even for US, but go about my preflight business. Then they do a destination check, boarding was still going on at the time. They announce PHL and the guy bolts upright. He turns to me and asks, "did they just say we are going to Philadelphia?" I tell him yes. He says he is going to San Francisco. I tell him, "you are going to SFO through PHL unless you get off this plane before the door closes." He jumps up getting his stuff and confronts a flight attendant who confirms we are going east. She asks for his ticket and she stares at it and asks him how he got on this flight. He says he just gave his ticket to the agent. At this point I get up and follow to see more of the discussion as they move to the door and get other people involved. Apparently he went to the wrong gate and presented for this US flight to PHL a United ticket for SFO (hence the miraculous move to first, he was in row 6 in coach on a smaller plane) and the automated scanner took it without objecting. There was a big meeting near the door while I listened, trying not to laugh, and eventually the group of them moved back to the gate to figure out what happened.

Rejuvenated

I once heard "Why do the wheels need to come out before landing?"

Ancien Maestro

or.. "why do I need to put my suitcase into the overhead bin?"

stdatwmu

Wow. We might have a winner!

tentseller

Wheels are not needed for landing all the time, just most of the time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db5w_BW1SAc

Mskitty

Not really a dumb PAX story. Actually, it's kind of cute.

Was seated next to a Dad traveling with his 6 year-old daughter. After getting settled in their seats the little girl pulls out the emergency card that explains the water landing procedures. She asks her dad about it and he begins to explain it to her. A short time later I hear...

Girl: Daddy? Can we play on those rafts?
Dad: No they're not for play, they're only for emergencies.
Girl: I hope we have an emergency.

t325

"Because your air fare would have been a hell of a lot more if airplanes are one-time-use only"