Southwest Airlines NOT charging for bags

[casey2]

Baggage-fee blowback

Southwest Airlines just couldn't resist taking a jab at its rivals after American Airlines announced this week that it would charge most travelers $15 for the first checked bag on domestic flights and others said they are considering following the move because of rapidly rising fuel costs. In a news release Thursday, with the headline Southwest Airlines Reaffirms Its Two-Item Free Baggage Allowance, the carrier disputes a New York Times story on the subject that said Southwest was going along with others considering matching the fee. "That is not true," Southwest says. The carrier says it has no plans to change its policy of allowing two free bags, and concludes:

We look forward to seeing you onboard very soon. (And bring your luggage!)

[dougp26364]

If only SWA flew out of our city. But, that's the problem with us and SWA's. They have strict demographics and our city doesn't qualify for their service. If all other airlines follow the SWA's model for profit, they turn a profit but many small and mid-size markets will be without airline service.

[Luanne]

That's great. Up until fairly recently Southwest used to allow three bags to be checked free.

[zazz]

Originally Posted by dougp26364

If only SWA flew out of our city. But, that's the problem with us and SWA's. They have strict demographics and our city doesn't qualify for their service. If all other airlines follow the SWA's model for profit, they turn a profit but many small and mid-size markets will be without airline service.

Wichita has Air Tran and Allegiant? That's something at least. I don't think its a given that SWA will never come there. SWA serves plenty of markets that are smaller than Wichita.

One of the problems with low fare carriers is that once they come in and fares drop, folks start going back to take the legacy carriers to get FF miles and first class upgrades. Rather than demographics, SWA may be looking at the fact that AirTran has had a pretty mixed history in Wichita and has had to dip into the city subsidy because they aren't making money on that route.

[dougp26364]

Originally Posted by zazz

Wichita has Air Tran and Allegiant? That's something at least. I don't think its a given that SWA will never come there. SWA serves plenty of markets that are smaller than Wichita.

One of the problems with low fare carriers is that once they come in and fares drop, folks start going back to take the legacy carriers to get FF miles and first class upgrades. Rather than demographics, SWA may be looking at the fact that AirTran has had a pretty mixed history in Wichita and has had to dip into the city subsidy because they aren't making money on that route.

Wichita has attempted several times to attract SWA's to our airport. We've been told every time that Wichita does not fit it's demographics. Exactly what the difference is between Wichita and Oklahoma City I can't say but to SWA's there must be a big difference.

Airtran, Allegiant and Frontier all serve Wichita. All have poor cash positions and losing any of them at any moment is always a possiblity. Allegiant has apperently discontinued service from Wichita to Orlando recently. Frontier has filed bankruptcy and Airtran has relied on subsidies from the city and county to support it's service here.

Frontier had served Wichita once before but pulled out because the route was not profitable (Mesa airlines was running the route at that time). This time around their flying prop-jets from here to Denver while UAL is flying Canadair and 737's on the same route. I'd fly Frontier but my wife hate's the prop-jets with a passion. I'm trying to fly Airtran when I can but, they don't make it easy by not releasing rates much past 6 months and there's the constant spector that if subsidies dry up they'll pull out. It's tough to pass up a good fare when it's available just to wait and hope Airtran will be as low or still be flying when I need them.

[casey2]

I think it's the SWA model for have 7 nonstop departures from a given city with a certain load capacity.
They know the numbers that work for them and the won't deviate.

My Father lives in West Texas. He's 3 hours from Dallas, 3 hours from Midland, 3 1/2 hours from Lubbock, and that means from Houston we have to make a 7 hour drive or take the Express Jet hopper plane that is several hundred a seat.
So we take the 7 hour drive.

Now if they would just find a way to make Hawaii profitable.....

I personally think they could really make a niche at flying NonStop to Kauai, Maui, and Kona from the Mainland redeye on Thursday night, Friday and Saturday to get us TSers there for maximum vacation. Then we could avoid the HNL altogether. What a waste of 3 - 4 hours.
The problem is that it would Cost so much money to get it going b/c their current equipment/resources won't work for those over water flights.

Oh well...

[Carolinian]

Look's like SWA is borrowing a trick from European LCC's.

The European legacies starting adding on stiff fuel surcharges and used come-on fares that looked cheaper but were actually more expensive than competitors when the excessive fuel surcharges were added in. Several LCC's responded to this by dropping their own surcharges entirely and quoting all-in fares instead. These LCC's are now far more honest in their pricing than their legacy rivals.

Originally Posted by casey2

Baggage-fee blowback

Southwest Airlines just couldn't resist taking a jab at its rivals after American Airlines announced this week that it would charge most travelers $15 for the first checked bag on domestic flights and others said they are considering following the move because of rapidly rising fuel costs. In a news release Thursday, with the headline Southwest Airlines Reaffirms Its Two-Item Free Baggage Allowance, the carrier disputes a New York Times story on the subject that said Southwest was going along with others considering matching the fee. "That is not true," Southwest says. The carrier says it has no plans to change its policy of allowing two free bags, and concludes:

We look forward to seeing you onboard very soon. (And bring your luggage!)

[zazz]

Originally Posted by dougp26364

Wichita has attempted several times to attract SWA's to our airport. We've been told every time that Wichita does not fit it's demographics. Exactly what the difference is between Wichita and Oklahoma City I can't say but to SWA's there must be a big difference.

Its tough. We only got SWA a couple of years ago in Philly. And with US Scare running the show here, I found myself driving to Baltimore a lot. I don't know what their motivation is for skipping out on Wichita. Little Rock, OKC, Jackson, and Spokane all seem to warrant service and I don't know what their attraction is. I am actually suprised AirTran's service to Chicago didn't work. American and United must be killing you folks on that route.

I am not sure that you can book SWA fares much further in advance than on AirTran.