Southwest -- Why I LUV them and You should too
Written: Apr 15 '02
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Southwest Airlines is a company that makes money. Lot's of companies do. But not many combine fiscal achievement with an absolute devotion to their customers and their employees. Southwest does.
You've probably seen their planes. They've got some painted like Shamu the whale, some painted like the Texas state flag. And they've got others painted their colors of tan, two shades of orange and white. They are not the prettiest planes in the sky, but they don't have to be...they have the cheapest fares and the best customer service in the business. They don't sell their tickets anywhere but through their website or their customer service phone agents, so they don't worry about SABRE or Worldspan booking fees. They also never pay travel agents commission -- this means that the user always gets the lowest fare. If you check out my review on Jet Blue, you'll see that they've done some things similar to Southwest to keep costs and flight times undercontrol. Chiefly, they:
Don't rely on a hub and spoke system of airports, so they usually fly point to point. This means that you'll spend more time in the air, and less on the ground. It also means you'll almost never have a stopover.
Always tries to fly into major cities lesser airports. Which means instead of flying into Newark, JFK or Laguardia in NY, Southwest flies into Islip on Long Island. This helps keep the costs down and it also keeps travelers out of the heavy airport traffic at the majors.
They only fly one kind of plane (Boeing's 737). This means that every attendant and pilot can move from one plane to another without worry, as they've all been trained to this specification.
They don't serve food, just peanuts and drinks. This means that the planes don't have too much garbage on them when they land. People and luggage are then the only things that the flight crew needs to worry about getting on and off when they land, so SWA gets the planes back up into the air quicker than anyone else.
They have fun up there. If you've never flown SWA, then you can't possibly understand how funny these people are. They play games like who has the biggest hole in their sock (winner gets a free drink coupon) and just make you laugh the whole flight.
So I LUV (LUV Field was their first airport and is now their stock symbol) Southwest Airlines. But would I LUV the swa site?
Well, I do, but not because it's a great site. It could use some tune-ups on the interface side. I mostly love it because I know some of it's history. When the internet loomed large in the nineties, Herb Kelleher looked inward to see who in his shop could build a transactional website for him. He found a core group of programmers who built the site for him in a couple of months (on time and underbudget) for $70,000. This site, found at http://www.iflyswa.com, was one of the first airline sites to have booking capabilities... and it only cost 70K. To put this in perspective, British Airways was launching their website at a similar time and it cost them about $5MM!
Let's take a brief look at the website. Most of the front page is taken up by a southwest plane and logo. This could and should be downsized a bit. The content links are up near the top of the page, and this is where we can find our "Reservations" link.
The page that comes up is information-heavy for the user, but I think that you can get through it pretty easily, as it's laid out well. One interesting thing here is that Southwest lets the customer start to book all 3 travel parts here in one process... it's about all the user! Other airlines would not do this type of thing, as they'd assume it would hurt their air booking volume on the site. Southwest trusts the customer.
I put in a test from NYC to Las Vegas five days out. The site comes back immediately (less than 2 seconds) with a fare display. The ticket prices are anywhere from $198 each way(nonrefundable) to $314 each way (completely refundable and changeable). None have stopovers. The cheapest round trip nonstop tickets on Orbitz are $400 on National. This is a bit misleading as National owns Vegas, but even then, SWA beats them on the lowest price.
To complete the booking, the consumer only needs to select the outbound and inbound flights and supply his/her information on the next screen -- this 4 screen booking process is the fastest in the industry. It's a major reason why SWA.com does over 2 BILLION in ticket sales each year.
It's also another reason why I LUV Southwest Airlines!
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Member: Brian H
Location: Northeast
Reviews written: 297
Trusted by: 108 members
About Me: I'm an Internet GEEK.
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