Positive experiences with Southwest Airlines

Airlines are similar any other consumer item/service in that one person may love a given carrier and the next person may hate it. I personally like Southwest Airlines, and will proceed to tell you why.

I've flown Southwest off-and-on since 1976, however, I didn't use them much between when I moved from Texas and when they began service to Baltimore in 1993. When they started at BWI, flights to most of the destinations that I frequent required two or more stops. Despite their turnaround being amazingly fast, this kept me from flying with them. In recent years, their service has expanded so I can generally get non-stops. I also don't mind one stop with no plane change, which greatly expands my flight options. They now have as many flights from BWI as all the other carriers combined, and have their own terminal.

This year, my family made six flights before, on, and after Thanksgiving. All left on time and arrived early. So much for holiday delays. They recently modified their boarding process by assigning a number to their boarding passes. Seating is still open, but this means you no longer have to scramble for a good place in line.

In my experience, they have excellent customer service. Last summer, we sat on a plane for a couple of hours as severe storms passed through. This was clearly unavoidable and, despite being inconvenienced, got over it immediately. When we got back in town, we found a letter of apology and two $100 vouchers for future travel. This was before Jet Blue's much publicized problems earlier this year.

Inexpensive, convenient and efficient, 'nuff said.