My Mom has to go to San Jose for a few days in October. When looking for plane tickets, we found tickets from Alaska and Southwest for the same price at about the same time from Seattle. I was wondering if you would suggest taking Alaska or Southwest, keeping in mind money isn't an issue.

I'd take Alaska.

SW uses 737s, and AS use either 737 or MD-80. Basically no difference.

Neither serves food.

However, AS has the following advantages:

- 7 non-stops vs 3. If something happens to her original flight, better chance of putting her on a later flight same day.

- Seat assignments on AS. None on SW.

- Unless she flies a lot on SW, she'll never get a free ticket on them. For AS, at least she can have a chance of saving up enough to a free domestic after a few years.

BTW, if money isn't an issue, why not fly First Class on AS?

rkkwan makes some excellent points as usual, but here's one thing that sometimes tips the scales for me in favor of SW. Suppose the trip gets cancelled or postponed. You will get full credit for the price you paid on a SW ticket. This credit can be used to buy another ticket on SW, not just for her but for anyone else. Most other airlines charge a fee of $100.

Just some food for thought.

Alaska wins hands down. Used both so i'm speaking from my personal opinion

And I have had such bad luck with Alaska (use to love them) I would chose Southwest.

Have slowly watched the deterioration of Alaska's miserable on-time record (although they are TRYING to crawl out of it) and have started burning up my Alaska miles and vouchers and booking on other carriers.

Although I do like having my seat assigned, that to me seems to be about the only difference these days between the two. Watch Alaskaair.com for that particular flight's ontime performance for awhile ... it might be one that isn't too bad. There are others that are chronically late.

I'm sorry, but I just can't appreciate the fun and games atmosphere on Southwest. I know there are many who do, but I'm just a curmudgeon, I guess.

Hi sunshine, it is not the "fun and gamees" that SW offers, it is getting to where you are going on time that appeals to me. I have had terrible experiences of late with Alaska or their partner Horizion Air.

Ciao LoveItaly, You're probably right about on-time percentage. I guess I'd rather have a quiet plane than getting there on time. Actually I miss "the old Alaska" before Southwest started its cut-rate fares. What can I say -- I am a curmudgeon.

At least chinchillax13514 now has a good idea of the difference between the airlines.

REMEMBER TO DONATE MONEY FOR GULF COAST DISASTER RELIEF!!!!!!

How can a person called sunshine be a curmudgeon?

Good message about disaster relief.

PM,

I have a split personality.

sunshine

I love Alaska. I flew them last week and we were 10 minutes early each way. I flew SW last month and my 1.5 hour flight was late by 4 hours! All airlines have performance problems sometime.

I love having an assigned seat and as for food, though Alaska will sometimes still serve meals during meal times, their snacks are better. Warm chocolate chip cookies on my last flight. The cabin smelled very good!