southwest.com: The BEST Domestic Airfare Site
Written: Aug 05 '01
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The Bottom Line
Great prices on an airline that's no worse than anyone else. Save $100s!!!!
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| Full Review |
(let me just start by saying that I feel uniquely unqualified to follow up Sordid-1, but I'm greedy, so I might as well give it a shot).
Here it is in one line or less: SOUTHWEST.COM FREQUENTLY HAS THE CHEAPEST TICKETS ONLINE. GO NOW!
Want more detail before you give me that coveted HR? OK, here goes....
With all of the recent insanity in the online travel market, Southwest has decided to pull to the sidelines. As such, you can't count on finding their fares anywhere other than on their own website. This means, in a nutshell, that Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, and the link will rarely have the lowest fare, because Southwest beats them all.
For instance, Yahoo! Travel is currently listing a $120 roundtrip fare from Sacramento-Las Vegas as being the lowest and Orbitz has fares starting at $128. Southwest.com has internet fares starting at $46 each way. In fact, I just helped my mom buy a ticket from Oakland, CA (no less convenient for her than San Francisco) to Manchester, NH (where she actually wanted go to!) for $220, tax included. That's about $200 less than the fare war prices on the "big guys".
The site is quite simple. Want to know what it costs to go somewhere? You can use the "Fares" tool to enter a city pair and find the applicable fares. Need a time? Try the schedules tool. Want to tie it all together for a reservation? Try the reservations tool.
Best of all.... The reservations tool will tell you not only what fares are available, but which are not. This lets you know that if you can reschedule, you can save month. Very honest of Southwest.
The site is fast and usually reliable. I have trouble on it occasionally (a couple of times a year), but that's no worse than any of the big guys.
One other web goodie.... Through the end of the year (2001)if you buy your tickets through Southwest.com, you only need four round trips for a free ticket!
Although this is a review of the website, it's probably appropriate to enter some notes on the Southwest experience. Planes are small. Seats are tight. There's no assigned seating, so GET THERE EARLY. There are no meals, so get there even earlier to buy food for the flight. That's the bad part (which is, remember, no worse than any other airline today). Here's the good. Flights are pretty much always on time. They tend to not lose baggage. If you miss a flight, I've found that they're relatively cool about letting you standby the next flight.
If only they'd do something about those ugly orange planes...
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Location: Edina, MN
Reviews written: 65
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me: Husband. Traveler. Manager. Glutton.
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