Southwest ended bags fly free, even after the CEO sent a message to all customers promising never to do that.
In doing so, they gutted the reason people buy their tickets over competitors (and even spent more money to do so). They decided instead of be like their less financially successful competitors JetBlue and American. But worse. Southwest doesn’t have lounges, first class or even galley ovens. And their inflight wifi is worse than any other U.S. airline that offers inflight internet. What reason would you fly Southwest, aside from schedule and price now?
Of course, the airline’s Chase co-brand credit card customers, and Rapid Rewards elite members, still get free checked bag allowances, of course.
But anyone who knows a simple trick can still get free checked bags on Southwest, too. And this restores much of the value they’ve taken away. I had seen this but failed to write about it. Frequent Miler discussed it on their weekly podcast.
When the airline laid out its turnaround plan a year ago they leaned into the vacation package business. They felt they could get their customers to buy hotels and car rentals, and they’d earn commissions on the sales.
- Southwest Airlines Vacation Packages still get 2 free checked bags.
- You don’t have to book a hotel. Just book airline tickets and a car rental.
- Bundling a car rental sometimes even gives you the flight for less money than just buying the flight directly.
- But even if not, you can still save on your flight compared to paying for checked bags.
- And just don’t pick up the car if you don’t need it.
You do have to book roundtrip, this is valid on cash bookings only (no points bookings), and you can’t use a Companion Pass in conjunction with Southwest Getaways bookings. The points you earn don’t count towards Companion Pass, either.
Of course the people most likely to need free checked bags are also the ones who don’t have and aren’t going for a Companion Pass.
Finding fares cheaper with a car at Southwest Getaways than just buying the flights directly at Southwest.com won’t be the base case, but it’s worth checking for. Bundling the car with flights and comparing that to the cost of checked bags, especially if you’re checking two bags, does seem like it will frequently save you money.
This works best on two passenger trips (splitting the car cost across two people). And on shorter trips, when you’re renting a car for a shorter period.
The main reason that Southwest sucks is that they don’t have USB charging ports on most planes. Not enough outrage exists about this.
If you buy a package with a flight and care rental and don’t pick up the car, wouldn’t Southwest charge for the car rental? This seems like a hack that is too easy and they will close it if true.
Oh, so, the solution is… pay them more money… got it.
Southwest has many more planes with charging ports than Frontier (not that we use that as our measuring stick). And so many of us only fly short-haul nonstops on WN, so it’s not a big deal.
On every SW flight recently they are asking for people to check bags at the gate for free.
I’m guessing it’s to avoid gate checking after boarding begins, which would impede departure.
Where’s @Tim Dunn to tell us how he expects WN to operate wide-bodied aircraft sometimes soon? Pal, I wouldn’t count on it, ever, especially while they play these silly games on bags.
Schedule and price are my top 2 reasons for selecting any airline (except spirit). Last time I checked hotel and airline bundles with jetblue, the hotel cost more than booking the two separately so I’m not sure i have faith in vacation packages operated by economy airlines.
WN markets towards a group that DL AA UL pax do not really fly to MCO as their primary destination.
Who wants to spend 6 hrs on a WN plane
@Tomri — Exactly. No one. But some expect them to do First Class (recliners), long-haul wide-body, lounges, etc., all of which is absurd, because their ‘vulture’ capital activist investor (Elliott) will never put the money towards those investments (which take time to implement). Rather, they’ll just nickel and time, until the loyal customers are gone, then load it up with debt, merge it (Northwest-style) or allow others to purchase any remaining assets (Pan-Am-style); they know their game and their exit.