Seems to me that Southwest are learning the hard way that not being competitive and transparent with consumers about their pricing is bad for business.
Everyone has their own preferences, but I wonder is there a tangible advantage to flying Southwest to those that prefer it?
One neat trick: you can rebook your exact same itinerary if you see it cheaper and get the difference as a credit (for the Wanna Get Away class fares; if you booked with the pricier ones, you'll get it back as a refund to your credit card).
Why does Southwest even have any jurisdiction here? It seems like they won a preliminary case, but don't we have established president that scraping websites is legal, thanks to hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn?
Not SW-specific, but air travel generally:
- Climate change: carbon footprint nearly 44% greater than a single occupancy vehicle but multiplied over thousands of miles
- Monetized misery with short seat pitches, junk fees, and preferential treatment with $$$
- Inconsistent, sometimes terrible customer service (About 10 years ago, I was stuck at Heathrow but Virgin Atlantic once showed me how to and let me use their booking terminal directly to find a flight on any carrier. They definitely had customer service.)
- Regular inconveniences like endless gate changes (AA pulled this 11x in 6 hours to me at DFW)
- Sketchy maintenance practices like offshoring MRO
- Close calls and ATC shortage