Southwest Teasing Major Announcement, “A Whole New Way to Get Away”

Southwest is teasing “a whole new way to get away” on Facebook. Much of the speculation in the comments is about their Hawaii service, but the airline is pretty clear that’s not what this announcement is about.

It’s going to be something that’s good news, or they wouldn’t be teasing it. It’s also a whole new way to get away, contra some of the other speculation in the comments on Southwest’s Facebook page this doesn’t seem like a minor route announcement (“Colorado Springs”).

As a playful reply Southwest suggests it could be ‘a new flavor of peanut’ which means it isn’t a new flavor of peanut and likely has nothing whatsoever to do with inflight snacks — which, unless it was the introduction of inflight meals to Southwest (Not. Gonna. Happen.), wouldn’t be a whole new way to get away either.

Furthermore, ‘get away’ seems focused on leisure travel. It can’t really be new fare bundles, they wouldn’t be teasing if they were introducing checked bag fees, and Southwest already doesn’t charge for checked bags or have fees for flight changes. Rapid Rewards-related? One commenter wonders if it’s a change to the credit card.

So what’s going on? What change is Southwest making that could be considered “a whole new way to get away?”

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Canada?!?!? Interesting hint perhaps when they say “can’t beleive we have been able to keep this under raps”. Just in time for the summer….

  2. I am guessing red eye flights as hinted by the dark teaser with a soft glowing blue light.

    It makes sense now that their systems have been updated to allow for flights overnight.

  3. Couldn’t it just be a setup for an April Fools joke for tomorrow? Transportation by giant Easter bunny or something?

  4. Perhaps going to reserved seats (maybe as a for-fee option) instead of continuing 100% Open Sitting?

  5. A new fare class? Unbundled fare? Bare fares (with reduced or no checked bags and no free changes) to compete with low cost carriers?

  6. Also if it’s a destination, then Europe makes sense – Iceland – maybe Ireland?

    Codeshare/alliance/connections with Ryanair/easyJet?

  7. @Justin – a max could likely do BWI-DUB, LHR might be a stretch in a Southwest configuration (no first class, so lots of passengers, imagine there’d be a weight restriction, but I haven’t looked this up)

  8. Yeah, as Jon suggests, I am thinking/hoping codeshare to Europe.

    Norwegian, Icelandic, WOW…

    THAT would be a big deal.

  9. Southwest just had a huge case where peanut dust almost killed an allergic passenger.
    http://www.kvoa.com/story/37833534/childs-peanut-allergy-warnings-ignored-on-southwest-airlines-flight-to-houston-family-says

    Odd they would use the term “peanuts” so soon. Maybe a new snack to replace them because of the bad publicity.

    Basic economy would make the most sense. I know Southwest gave up it’s fare war against Spirit at BWI.

    Hopefully not the umpteeth story in the past 2 years about the umpteeth flight to Hawaii.

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