debunking the myth

Without having the exact numbers in front of me, Southwest has made money in something like 110 or 120 consecutive quarters without gouging its customers for selecting a seat and all the other crap the larger group of U.S. carriers dish out. This is not rocket science: One business model works, the other doesn't.

I detest with a passion Southwest's sit-wherever-you-want policy, but when the bottom line is key, obviously we'll put up with a little inconvenience.

 

Anybody here ever flown on Ryanair? From what I understand, they make US airlines' unbundling schemes look positively luxurious.

 

I have flown RyanAir. An interesting experience.

And the problem with visa? That's why you contact the state department directly. I use the website. It's not thje airline's responsibility to inform you, though they will tey to help. But if they send you knowing you don't meet the requirements, they get fined, pretty heft fines, so you can understand their position.

 

I don't fault Lufthansa in the least for following the laws of the land. Even if not all their agents happen to know them.

I do fault them somewhat for not being even a little flexible about the $600+ in fees/fare difference they imposed.

Face it, they were able to make extrs money by being able to sell my wife's seat to someone else AND took an additional $380 fare difference from us for a seat that may have gone unsold AND took an additional $250 rebooking fee.

A simple, "We apologize for the inconvenience, please accept a $200 voucher for use on your next Lufthansa flight" would have made a big difference.

 

Absolutely, but I don't know why you would expect it. What they did sucks, but I think you have to go in assuming any airliine will screw you given the opportunity.

The one time it didn't happen, I was shocked. I flew on Continental to Pittsburgh when my mother was in the hospital last year. While I was there, I had to extend my stay one day. I called them up ready for a fight, but once I explained that she was in the hospital and one more day would make a huge difference because that's when my brother would get there from out of town, they made the switch without any extra fees at all. They just put me on the same flight, but the next day.

The people Air Jamaica, on the other hand, can go fuck themselves with a baseball bat.

 

I just did a quick comparison for a few trips out of my area. These are the types of leisure getaways that I might take in the relatively near future. Now of course it's not scientific, but it seems to be a reasonable comparison. I chose specifically to ensure comparable departure days/times, and I restricted myself to nonstop flights.

The most frequently observed result was Southwest and American pricing out identically. A checked bag would therefore lead to at least a $50 differential on American. So in this limited sample, while bags may not fly free on Southwest, they fly less "not free" on American.

 

I guess because the only other two times I had customer service correspondence with an airline (USAirways and Allegiant) I was treated exceptionally well.

One Christmas I gave up my seat on a flight in exchange for a later flight and a voucher to use for a future flight. When the one flight I wanted to use the voucher for the following year was "blacked out" from voucher use, I sent a polite e-mail expressing my disappointment.

USAirways sent me a $200 gift certificate for use on any flight.

Another time I made an online reservation saying I would be checking a bag both ways . . . and paid the $60 ($30 each leg) to do so. Turns out we were able to avoid checking a bag on the return trip. I sent a polite e-mail to Allegiant requesting a refund of the $30 charge for a bag that was never checked, and they refunded me quickly.