94chem said:
I think they just never explained what they were doing in a way that families could understand. I guess if you were a lone traveler, it didn't matter, and maybe they wanted it to be murky for families so they could keep kids off the planes. Either way, I never knew how it worked, and still don't. I've flown SWA and never not had a seat before boarding. Maybe I've only flown since they changed their policy. Also, I never cared about free bags. Taking anything larger than a backpack is a sign of weakness.
I can remember having this hesitation back in the mid-2000s. I thought it was going to be "too much hassle" to fly SW with my son and no assigned seats. But a few conversations with family who were flying them regularly, and I realized the concerns were unfounded.
To a certain extent, SW has been a victim of its own success. Families were willing to give up certain "perks" on other airlines for the chance to fly the whole family to Orlando for $150 r/t instead of driving for 15 hours.
How else do you explain how Spirit is still in business? Some people will put up with ANYTHING to save $.
SW really did change the industry and made air travel more accessible to the middle and even lower class.
Business travelers realized that the efficiency of SW was better than the legacy carriers, especially on short-haul flights (ie, less than 2 hours) where being in first class isn't a huge perk (if it's even offered at all, depending on the plane).
Problem is, other low-cost airlines followed suit, the legacy airlines lowered their rates (to an extent), and inflation caused SW to have to raise their prices. The days of $150 r/t tickets to anywhere worth visiting are long gone.
When prices are equal, there is no reason for someone who isn't loyal to SW to choose them over another airline.
We recently flew JetBlue, and I'd say that experience was as good as SW. They do have seat fees, but they offer free high speed internet to everyone. So, you can surf the web and even watch videos while in flight. Problem is, they don't have a lot of direct routes from IAH. But I would definitely consider flying with them again.
