Last week as I was flying United I was thinking about how much I enjoy flying Southwest. Ooohhh let me count the ways…
1) Free luggage (on united its 15$ for first bag and skyrockets up to $250 per bag very quickly)
2) Drinks are only 4$ (but you can get free drink tickets everywhere)
3) People actually like there job who work there. – Southwest has profit sharing and takes care of their employees.
4) Same leg room as economy+ on united which ads 45$ PER WAY to your trip.
So no bs checked bag charge, no overcharging on drinks, no upsells on seats. I can dig it. In my case I have to drive over 60 miles to catch a southwest flight and its totally worth it.
OH YA they also use twitter, attend conferences and have a corporate blog. How do we not like them?
I talked to the people staffing the Southwest Airlines booth at blogworld:
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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We’re sorry! The video is no longer available ???
This is what i get when opening the video.
Sorry, it was set to private. Should be working now.
Works now
Looks like a good talk!
Works for me.
Works well for me too
Works for me too! Are you getting any discounts for this punt, Jeremy?
Works for me. Try again Chetan.
Nice video Shoe. Does anybody know where we can get more of these type of videos. I’m assuming that Blogworld had loads of people doing the video posting thing? These inspiring videos would be great for my site
the video is mute for me.
Turn the speakers on :p Because its totally clear here.
Its crystal clear to me..
Try turning up the volume from your audio controller menu, you may find that your volume is up but the wave is down.
Sometimes that happens to me, you just have to refresh when that stuff happens.
The video works, might have been a bad link that needed to be changed or something. Anyhow I think it is insane that United charges that much for another bag, why fly with them when there are other airlines that do not charge as much. For any corporate company of this size to be using twitter I think is awesome, you can easily communicate with them without having to wait on hold and pressing through the automated phone crap.
Steve
Air Canada charges a lot for extra baggage but no where near $250. What the hell, that’s almost another plane ticket!
No… they just set them to private before the post goes out. It was still set to private when the post went live.
Southwest is the Shiz…….. Preach on…….btw Vid works for me as well
I had the chance to talk to the folks from SouthWest at the Bare party. It’s exciting what they are doing with twitter and social media. They are really embracing the community in a positive way. And they have a corporate culture department. Very nice!
They have twitter, wow, that is cool.
you would have never expected that a company of this size use twitter and has a blog.
My thoughts exactly, that’s what I call keeping up with the trends.
you have to go with the latest trends in the market …
why not?
Yea I agree its great to see such a big company using twitter, it lets them stay personal with their clients
Agreed, it’s def really cool!
Yup, they definately keep up with trends that will keep them on the cutting edge of marketing. Very smart indeed
Companies that use the new social media are defiantly
one step ahead of those that don’t.
I just added Southwest Airlines to my Twitter . . .Sweet!
Best regards, Matt Thompson | Mattheosis.com
Original Orthodox Hubby @ Home Dad
What is the point of them having twitter?
If southwest can stay in business like this, you can only imagine United’s profit margin!
actually most of the airlines are losing money hand over fist…. they just can’t run profitable companies like SW can…. most airlines are losing huge money!
It’s because Southwest is hedged against rising oil prices.
This goes to show how corporate discipline is an indicator of the companies who are going to make through the downturn. Those who stayed lean in the good times will be fine now. Those that didn’t, it’s probably too late. Either that or they will be made lean if they are to survive.
One of Warren Buffett’s checkmarks for a business he will buy into- good management.
I think it is more on value than profit is what southwest is targeting.
The trap with these airlines is you book a flight through Travelocity, or Expedia or the like, choose the airline with the lowest round-trip fare, and THEN figure out that they screw you on everything else. After checking in a bag, and putting down a few nips of gin, well, they’ve got all the money they need from you. And then, US Airways at least, will try to sell you on their credit card every opportunity they get. Seeing all the monetization sort of puts a smile on my face…
I just wrote a post on why I like them, I just haven’t posted it yet! Thanks to the Southwest crew that hooked us up with coupons at BlogWorld! I was on a flight to New Orleans a couple of weeks ago and the flight attendant was soooo funny. The whole plane was cracking up laughing.
If Debby says they’re good, they must be!
Lol so u appreciating Debby on Jeremy’s blog and not Jeremy iinstead?
its good to have the staff a little funny… makes this lighter…
time to buy stock in southwest…
Hrrmmm… I would say that right now it’s time to stay away from any stock!
Au contrare, it’s time to go bargain hunting my friend.
I agree you should buy now before they go back up
Are there any cheap stocks (like less than $10 each) you would recommend to buy?
Not true… There are green stocks that are performing quite well. The thing with the stock market is you have to invest long term to be safe. That way if you go with reputable stocks you will pretty much always get your money back when the market recovers.
yup, this is the perfect time to buy stock. The market has been down long enough now, and should recover and rise again in approximately the next 6 months.
lol it was sarcasm….
sock puppets like to do as shoemoney does….
that’s interesting enough…
and what is?
No joke – southwest is awesome. As long as you remember to print your boarding pass off early you generally get a decent seat. I used to fly the route from KC to Dallas about once a month… rarely late, never recall a canceled flight, and we always got soda and snacks even though it was a short flight.
Service always attracts passengers who have money.
Southwest and JetBlue both have high scores in my book. Spirit Airlines though? Not so much….
I’ve never flew anywhere in my life
I’m missing out aren’t I
I’m second to you, I’ve flew once, and that was to Spain =p
where you guys from?
Flying is pretty awesome. I like helicopter flights the best.
that profit sharing part sounds promising. at least it means that increased profitability of the company will result in better income for its employees. seems more fair than other companies.
Yes sounds good.. but as some one said.. they are hardly making any profits..
If I ever am brave enough to fly….it’ll be Southwest. Lovin’ the video blogging.
Do you drive? Dirving is faaaaaaaaaaaar more dangerous than flying.
I don’t think much people care about the actual factual data, just how they feel about flying rather than staying on land..
Agreed, its all in your head..
yeah the odds of a playing dropping are less than you having a car accident.
Statistically that may be true, but in a vehicle you at least have a sense of control over your own fate (even though there are plenty of instances where that is not true).
LOL man .. you sound so damn pessimist in life..
i would say that wreckless driving is far more dangerous than flying… or say drinking and driving is a real no no…
yeh, I also had a good experience with them.
Quite affordable too.
Southwest is the best. The only airline I fly.
Delta is the worst… they charge $300 for a surfboard bag each way, that is ridiculous and sometimes the fees are more than the tickets themselves. Might as well just buy an extra seat for the boards.
Each company earns on its abilities. Apparently, they can not act otherwise.
where are the girls who stroke my neck????^^
Haha. That cracked me up.
I never used southwest, I would give it a try soon, it was scary after they got all those fines for failing inspections.
I don’t have as much experience with them as I do other airlines. Personally for US flights, I love JetBlue and my favorite international airline is South African Airways. Either way, this is great PR for SW!
Southwest is awesome, it’s my favorite airline. When we were flying to Hawaii (they had a codeshare with ATA, SW flew the BWI to KC leg I think), we mentioned that we were on our honeymoon. When we landed in KC, they gave us a bottle of champagne!
There are very few other airlines that do it as well as SW. What’s really remarkable though (in a negative kind of way) is why the heck so many of the other airlines do so badly. Does United even realize at all how much they truly suck?
How about the gas –when you drive 60-65 miles each way and then parking the car, time, etc
You will have to count that as well.
I think this post is more about the overall better quality of a Southwest flight rather than the price difference.
I don’t deny that he has talked about prices in 3 out of 4 of his points.
I’m sure the last thing shoe is worried about is saving $50 on gas
Not trying to say that SW is bad..but considering the gas price, time, etc.
That’s the first time I see a flying company using a Twitter. That’s a good way to talk to clients.
I’d love to be the person in charge of the twitter account xD
I’ve always been a fan of SWA. It was better when they had a better rewards program. back when I was flying every 6 weeks, I was racking up free flights left and right.
What happened to the program?
I’m pretty sure they still have it, but you have to rack up a lot more flights than back in the day before you get a free one.
Tell me about it. Every single rewards program out there is either getting stricter or harder to earn rewards.
I never used that company but the first time I hear you have pay your drink when you flying I always get all my stuff free I mean in Europe.
I like Southwest a lot, too. They have a certain edge. =)
I heard, though, that they are the only airline that makes decent profits only because they did some futures deals on oil, thus their fuel is the cheapest now among the competition.
How advance southwest is!!! Airlines companies in my country (Bangladesh) can hardly maintain their timetable let alone twitter or blog
This is funny, I think
My favorite airlines are Jet Blue, Alaska, and I’m a big fan of Mexicana when I’m traveling south.
I haven’t flied southwest in a long time.
Mexicana rocks… they’ve always given me free drinks and let my surfboard bags on for free
southwest rox
You know what’s great about Southwest airlines…if you live within a couple hours of Las Vegas, and you catch a Friday Southwest flight to LV…you are guaranteed to be flying “Stripper Air” because all of the “dancers” are heading out there for their weekend shifts.. Now that’s the way to travel!
I like Virgin America better and its the same rate. Just flew to San Francisco and had an amazing flight. You watch movies and shows (including entourage) for free, play games, text people in other seats, order food and drinks from your seat, go on the internet and also monitor your flight including air speed, distance to go and much more all on a google map. It was the best flight ever!
Sounds amazing ..
What I like the most of Southwest airline is that what you pointed the $4 per drink. I usually have 3-4 drinks per flight. You can’t compare $16 to $20 spent on AA. Also, the people there are nicer and more helpful in serving you. For some reason AA flight attendants are always in a bad day. ohh well.
I’m going to be flying Southwest Airlines next week and hope my flight goes well. I’m used to flying with Air Canada so I can’t really do all that much worse now can I
I’ve taken Alaskan and WestJet as well.
I agree, I went on Air Canada once from Toronto to Montreal and oh my god I wish no person who ever flies into Canada from a foreign country stereotypes us on that airline. No comfort at all, horrible service, too pricey.
Ouch.
Wear appropriate clothes while flying SW
What’s not to love? I always try to fly with them. The ONLY reason I would ever fly another airlines is if I have to make it somewhere on the same day (morning)-like a conference. OR if Southwest doesn’t fly there (Portland).
These guys GET community.
they have very good strategy ..taking care for there customers and Employees is the biggest task but they are doing ..I hope they are best
I always feel happy to see the posts in this blogs each one has some information
-Sri
Most places think they can treat the employees like shit, but in reality if the employees arn’t happy they’ll pass that on to the customers.
There’s no SW near me as I’m in the NE US…sucks.
too bad…
Got to disagree with you on this one. I’ve flown Southwest more times than I care to recall and not one has ever been on time.
This past Christmas they canceled my flight and made no attempt to get us on other flights, it was up to all the passengers to find a way home. I had to fly into OC instead of LAX and had my finance pick me up. We ended up giving another couple a ride back to LAX so they could make their connecting flight. Southwest has always been a nightmare for me and everyone I know you flys it in California.
i guess they might have improved now..
Jeremy,
I loved Southwest too! Unfortunately when I was working, United was our company default to the East Coast.
I have a zillion United Miles…and no job, so nowhere to go?
Southwest used to have a boy and girl flight attendent team in California, and they were aspiring actors, so the flights were very entertaining. They would put on show-tunes and lip-sync the words!
Enjoy Southwest, there is so little customer service in the world, Southwest is still fun to fly.
Respectfully, Nicholas – ‘the video guy’ at BlogWorld Expo 2008
United sucks… I used them for way too many trips this month. I also won the SW Airlines contest at Blog World! Woohoo!
i thought you and Jeremy were on the same boat.
I recently flew on Southwest Airlines for a business trip to Reno! They were great! Now I am going to school for Commercial Aviation, and hopefully someday I will get to work for such a well run company such as Southwest!
West Jet is just like them……….. makes sense to me.
I Hate all American Airline companies. Flying elsewhere in the world is much more enjoyable. Free drinks, free snacks(even on 45 minute flights), better service.
I really like Emirates – Ther’s so many channels, games, and movies taht by the time you decide what you want to watch you’re already landing.
True.
I travel abroad a lot…and have to say that international flights are much better specially operated by other countries with some exception.
Bu this year–We were charged even for water when had to fly to Lithuania (E Europe)…but not charged for any drinks up to Amsterdam–but no big deal.
I believe that the main advantage is not the movies and music. But this item will add a pleasant sensations -)
These days, every business in on twitter and the guys follow up with feedback from users.
That is nice to see them hear. They want to provide a better service. Cool, nice attitude!!
Twitter is indirectly changing to a feedback box along with a microblogging tool then?
Lol yea, I suppose its like customer support + news updates.
I keep getting new followers on my Twitter everyday.
If you think you have a lot of followers check out Shoemoney’s twitter, he has thousand of followers and only follow around 100 people.
Well I hope Southwest can get me the hook up for my Vegas trip in March.
I’ve always enjoyed using Southwest for my flights even though I hate flying
I am also a big southwest fan.. rewards for flights + southwest visa from chase = lots of free vegas trips
until you donate all that money on the carps table anyways
Yeah, those fish really know how to take your bankroll when you’re not paying attention.
hehe or the slot machines
Free flights are always nice as is free hotels via the Starwood card.
I like this rule :
“3) People actually like there job who work there. – Southwest has profit sharing and takes care of their employees.”
It means that they treat their employee well. Since airlines business had a strong competition nowadays. I think they realize that employee is one of their main asset. So they can work together to provide excelent services to customers.
It is nice to hear about airlines doing more than just complain about how difficult their situation is right now. All the news I have read about airlines for some long time now deal with the fuel prices and their struggle to keep operating.
it’s online corporate booking tool, can save you a bundle.
more than a bundle
Are you usually using this airlines for your travel?
nice to see the profit sharing thing. It motivates the employees to realize the importance of good service.
And $250 for a bag is way too high. Sometimes if you are carrying just an old changeover, its well under $250.
You know Shoe$, when it come to it Southwest is not that bad. I used to fly them from Washington to Texas frequently.
Best regards, Matt Thompson | Mattheosis.com
Original Orthodox Hubby @ Home Dad
I saw the President of Southwest, Colleen Barrett speak at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit (a leadership conference for churches) a couple years ago. Even just the little things they do were impressive, like having photo walls in the corporate office where everyone stuck snapshots of their kids, families, pets, etc.
Sounds like a good way to keep employ moral up, our office is so full we have no room for the luxuries
southwest ftw.
I haven’t flown Southwest lately but the last time I did the staff seemed to be a lot happier than their Delta/United/AA colleagues.
Good info, thanks.
Very cool! Excited to hear that airlines are taking steps to accomodate bloggers and social networking people.
How is a forced 50% pay cut to all employees taking care of them?
I honestly can’t believe anyone would carry on working anywhere if they dropped the pay by 50%?!
Southwest may be great, but I am a fan of Midwest Airlines. They are not huge, but if you are flying into or out of MKE they are worth the money. No charge for drinks, no charge for chocolate chip cookies, and they even have nice seats (though now you have to pay a tad extra for them). I also think they have service out of Omaha and Kansas City.
I love the Russian airline. Service is not very good, but they have a beautiful stewardess.
I can’t get them locally, but you can see they get it! I have decided to stay consistent with one airline (USAir because best locally for where I travel). No baggage charges if you are a silver or above, fast check in, and frequent free upgrades to first class. Do the credit card, and if you are not a silver or above you can still do the first class checkin line and faster security line.
continental is also a very good airline except they just added a baggage fee.
I like Southest as well, never had a problem with them. I also like flying Frontier Airlines.
Wow, nice airlines!
I used to think United was soo good. Sooo bummed. I have choke Virgin Atlantic miles who are partners with them.
I used to think United was the best. That is quite unfortunate they started that BS. Go SW!
Thanks for this info
Southwest Employees really do seem to enjoy their jobs. When I think of flying Southwest, I think about a couple of years ago when I was flying home to Indiana for Christmas and as we landed in Louisville, the male flight attendant started making hoof noises like we were reindeer landing on a roof. It was very cool and a good memory that I will never forget.
I have always used and loved SW. They are the best airline and will continue to be awesome if they keep their fees low.
I must have a try soon =)
American Airlines for me… Out of rochester international they have the most flights around.
Dude, if it’s cheaper then go for it. As long as you get to your place that you want to go on time then it’s cool to pay the least.
I would just probably sleep the entire time.
Gotta love $4 drinks!
I live in atlanta and the nearest southwest is in birmingham. It is worth the 1.5 hr drive. besides the parking is quick and right across the street. Southwest had the right idea…..everyone needs some luv
I’m glad you decided to mention SouthWest, specially in a time when half of your air ticket is taxes, fees, surchages and what not. On top of that some airlines want you to pay for bags, drinks, snacks? I say go with Southwest!
my favorite will always be the one Carrot tops likes: DELTA – Don’t Expect Your Luggage To Arrive!
I’ve never flown Southwest, but that reminds me of the way Virgin treat their customers. I love them.
Any Airline that is cool enough to use twitter is ok with me.
Comparing them with UAL is like making the case America is a great country… compared to Sierra Leone. You people should be outraged at having to pay for drinks, pay for a reasonable amount of bags, pay for normal legroom. What’s next, how about a cord dangling above the window so you can pull it when you want to be dropped off?
Here’s an idea, cut the headcount of the marketing team, axe the people blogging and twittering out their spam, and instead use that money to fund me a friggin jack and coke.
So this is what you have to do to get free drink tickets? What a waste of bytes and a waste of my time.
Southwest had that reality show on A&E and it really turned me off from the airline — I don’t think that show painted them in a good light at all
:O I am soooo scared of flying…and southwest airlines doesn’t do anyone any favors! LOL it doesn’t soothe my soul to know that southwest airlines is a cheaper flight, meaning that they probably don’t do topnotch airline check and cleaning before take-off. Naw..I’ll stick to northwest airlines.
The problem with southwest for me is the lack of business or first class. For those of us who fly enough to accumulate frequent flyer miles for free upgrades, this would is a deal breaker.
Thanks for pointing this out. This post by Jeremy only had the pros of Southwest Airlines. Now where are the cons?
This year in feb I was on SW to florida, One can feel that the employees are really there to take care of the passangers.
One attendant even sang a parody song and commented something very funny on jetblue…
Maybe I will prefer your choice when I move to United States.
I think you would really prefer using a cheaper airline that will cost you less money. That would be the smart thing to do.
There is bound to be lots of consolidation within the airline industry, and only the leaders will survive.
Southwest in the US sounds a lot like WestJet in Canada…except I don’t think WJ uses Twitter yet…
I’ve never used Southwest Airlines but I’ve heard a lot of great things about them. Not that I will ever use them because I like to use cheap airlines to get wherever I want.
I just wanted to say that I find Southwest to be cheaper. If you sign up for Ding (a little icon on your computer), southwest gives you some great deals. I usually pay $79 one way from Manchester NH to Orlando FL. With no baggage fees to worry about and a great staff on every flight I have flown on…
I love Kingfisher and Emirates
Took a business program through Dartmouth’s Tuck Business School. They held out Southwest Airlines as practically the most perfectly managed business. Hard to find a flaw. Great employees, cost savings in the corporate DNA, loyal customer segment. The list is long of what they do right. Hard to come up with what they do wrong.
One of my aspirations- Southwest has 50 round trip flights gets you a free companion for a year.
I do notice a definite difference in personality of the staff when I fly SW compared to others. They seem more happy or in a better mood. Maybe they pay their staff more.