Southwest tips

Southwest manages to succeed where most companies, and airlines in particular, fail, selling a mediocre product, at a price that is rarely the lowest, racking up an industry-leading record of profitability, all the while maintaining a firm hold on the hearts and minds of its customers. Very few companies make so many people so happy so consistently.

Basic economy fares may be sweeping through the industry, but one airline says it’s staying out.

Although the proliferation of revenue-based programs and dynamic award pricing is changing the game in fundamental ways, the availability of award seats remains one of the key factors in determining the real-world value of any airline loyalty program. It would seem, then, that a definitive comparison of award-seat availability among the various airline programs would be a natural. The best program is the most rewarding program, no?

For years, Southwest, which already flies more domestic passengers than American, Delta, or United, has been known to have aspirations to fly to Hawaii. Last night, the company made those intentions official.

Did you feel that? Did the earth just move below our feet?

Rapid Rewards members normally earn 600 points for qualifying car rentals. That’s 600 points no matter how long the rental, or how much the rental costs—not a very compelling proposition, especially for longer rentals.

When it comes to making elite status in its Rapid Rewards program a must-have status for high-frequency flyers, Southwest is at a considerable competitive disadvantage. With no first-class seats or airport lounges, there’s just not much that Southwest can offer super-loyalists in exchange for their business.

As a self-described budget airline, Southwest lacks the cushy seats and airport lounges full-service airlines use to reward elite members of their loyalty programs. Southwest’s signature benefit for its best customers — and it’s a doozey — is the Companion Pass: free flights for a travel companion, for travelers who fly 100 one-way flights or accumulate 110,000 Rapid Rewards points.

It wasn’t that long ago that Southwest’s self-proclaimed identity as the Love Airline was a credible bit of branding, reflecting a virtuous circle of contentment among the airline’s customers, employees, and shareholders. For now, however, the love fest appears to be over.

Want to enroll in the TSA’s PreCheck trusted-traveler program? Got 9,000 points in Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program? Now you can redeem the latter for the former.

Tired of slow inflight Wi-Fi, or worse, no Wi-Fi at all? Southwest has you covered. Or will have you covered, when its newly announced upgrade program is in place.

Warren Buffett, one of the world’s best known and most successful investors, has a wildly variable relationship with the airline industry, dating back to his ill-timed investment in USAir, in 1989, which underperformed his return-on-investment expectations. He’s been a fierce critic of the industry ever since, regularly fulminating against airline investments, as he did in this 2002 interview with The Telegraph:

The travel blogosphere lost its collective mind earlier this week when Southwest peremptorily made it more difficult to earn what might be that airline’s most coveted award.

For years, Southwest has bragged about its simple, low price for all onboard alcoholic beverages: “$5 happy hour, every hour.” In fact, Southwest has held to that $5 drink price since 2009.

Could Southwest Hawaii service make way for the ‘Southwest Effect’—increased competition and lower fares for travel to the islands? We’re closer to finding out.

Southwest has announced it will increase its EarlyBird Check-In fees for select flights starting August 29.

As reported by the Branson Tri Lakes News, a passenger on a Southwest flight in 2014 that landed at the wrong airport is suing the airline for $74,999.99.

Bookings at Southwest are way down following a fatal accident this past April. The airline announced Monday that it expects revenue per available seat mile (RASM) to fall about three percent in the current quarter. Basically, RASM goes down when more seats are empty. The airline previously estimated that this number would go down by between one and three percent—suggesting April’s incident is on travelers’ minds.

Southwest will stop serving peanuts on flights beginning in August, according to USA Today.

Southwest is quietly raising fares for thousands of flights to combat what it calls “cost pressures” it expects will impact its business into 2019. And while these increases are indeed minor—said to be only $2 to $5 one-way—the move by the low-cost line could signal the possibility that airfares will rise across the board.

It’s taken longer than anyone expected thanks to lots of FAA red tape and a 35-day government shutdown, but Southwest has finally started selling flights from the West Coast to Hawaii. Here are the Hawaii flight route details so far, and what it all means.