Ok, I've been reading how Southwest is the best and how the majors have to learn from them or disappear. Well, I had some time to kill in the office today(4/1) and I did a price comparison.<BR>1. TPA - SEA<BR>4/2 - 4/7 - SW-$638 / AA-$323<BR>4/9 - 4/14 - SW-$435 / AA-$327.50<BR>5/2 - 5/7 - SW-$278 / AA-$267.50<BR><BR>2. TPA - LAS<BR>4/2 - 4/7 - SW-$633 / AA-$290.50<BR>4/9 - 4/14 - SW-$416.50 / AA-$320.50<BR>5/2 - 5/7 - SW-$256.00 / AA-$280.50<BR><BR>3. TPA - Chicago (SW-Midway/AA-O'Hare)<BR>4/2 - 4/7 - SW-$416 / AA-$562.50<BR>4/9 - 4/14 - SW-$221.50 / AA-$336.50<BR>5/2 - 5/7 - SW-$176 / AA-$213<BR><BR>So, the only place that Southwest beat AA on prices was TPA-Chicago. Where are the great deals on the other destinations? <BR>I'm not saying that Southwest doesn't have other better deals but as you could see the myth that they are always cheaper is just that, a myth.<BR>Also, very important:<BR>I used tomorrow's date with return 5 days later, next week Tuesday with return 5 days later, and next month(5/2) with 5 day return on all the comparisons. I used Southwest.com and AA.com.

AA<BR>Since you have time on your hands today--LOL!!-- should I go to Japan on Friday??<BR><BR>http://www.msnbc.com/news/893950.asp?vts=040120031240.<BR>Thanks

While I am far from an apologist for SW, your handle indicates a potential bias in favor of AA. Don't forget a few salient points in your comparisons:<BR>AA and other majors typically cut their prices in markets where they compete with SW, often resorting to a &quot;loss leader&quot; strategy, but they can't sustain the fares over the long haul.<BR>The AA fares are likely such temporary competitive reductions, whereas SW sells its seats at lower fares all the time. As has been noted elsewhere in this and other forums, AA is offering some really incredible deals right now - out of desperation to get their load factors up. You may not be doing an applea to apples comparison.<BR>

My experience has been that buying tickets with a bit of advance notice...AA wins. Buying within the last week of travel...SW wins. Just from my experience only.

Seamus raises a good point. Where the majors compete indirectly with SW in the same general market, they are often higher. As an example from LA to the Bay Area you can usually find tickets on SW for around $60 (to OAK) with a 2 week advance purchase. To fly AA or UA would cost over $100 (to SFO). From the LA area, SW doesn't fly into SFO and UA/AA do not fly into OAK but the general market is the same. I would opt to save $40 and fly into OAK (even if I didn't already prefer OAK to SFO). SW can also be lower on fully refundable, unrestricted fares.

So out of thousands of routes and flights, OP found 5 on particular dates in which AA was less expensive. I think a lot more data is required.

Rufus,<BR>You could believe anything you want, but that day I just picked my favorite destinations and went with that. <BR>As far as thousands of destinations are concerned, I believe AA may be close, SW is not.<BR>Choose your airline and enjoy. This was not meant to be 'my is better than yours&quot;, it was just a comparison.

While I am not a promoter for American, I have found over the years that most of the time I do just as well pricewise flying on American (or Delta or United depending on where I'm going) as on Southwest, plus I get my frequent flyer miles and an upgrade from time to time and an assigned seat which is worth a lot to me. I absolutely hate the cattle car feel of Southwest.

When I go to the SW website to check on fares, there are different fares available for different flights on the same route. I don't see how one can generalize and say it is always less expensive to fly on a particular airline. I notice that, with flexibility re. flight times and some advance notice, the low fares are similar between airlines. This is because discount carriers, like SW, ATA, etc are offering such good deals that others have to match them to be competitive. So, you should be grateful to the discount carriers, whether you are flying on them or not.<BR>And, I would suggest the majors start learning from the others. I haven't noticed SW or ATA filing for bankrupcy lately....

It's the statistician in me coming out. Such comparisons are worthless for general use, but if they are the routes you fly, then, of course, they are useful for you. But they still say nothing about any overall comparison of SW and AA.

American will &quot;fare match&quot; like schedules, but they do not consider airlines like SW, or Frontier their like competitor. They should.<BR><BR>That being said..I was browsing a fare on AA from KC-SAN..fare 299 on AA...SW 215.00. AA lowered their fare the day after SW came out with their &quot;click and save&quot; fare. AA's fare today is $219. I booked AA for the convenience of the un-mob scene at the gate and assigned seats.

Back in the '70s, when SWA stewardesses wore orange hotpants and high heeled boots, I was living in El Paso when SWA started service there. Prior to that a round trip flight to Dallas by the regular airlines would be $400 or $500. SWA came in and offered something like $79 each way. (The numbers aren't correct--too many yars ago to remember, but it was a drastic price difference something on the order shown.) The next day the other airlines had new lower prices posted--announced by signs written on butcher paper and bed sheets hanging above their counters. SWA is still fun to fly, but back then it was an absolute raucous laugh riot the entire flight.

Well folks, just be glad you don't live in a city into which SW is not allowed to fly (DCA and IAD..nearest landing point is BWI for SW) and you'll all soon LEARN that the presence of SW in any market causes the other &quot;majors&quot; to drop their prices accordingly. I wish SW flew into EVERY airport since the current administration for all its talk about capitalism,, etc., etc., has not seen fit to allow &quot;market forces&quot; to do their work and winnow out the too many seats and too many airlines flying that supply and demand would cause to happen. No, first we get Delta screaming that &quot;we cannot wand everyone&quot; after 9/11 because &quot;the public wouldn't stand for it&quot; and then they whine about the costs of providing security and want help with that..then they futz around and cannot make it so they want even more help. And we all wonder why ticket prices are so high. Somebody needs to go bankrupt and stay there.