I love SWA! Since they are one of the few airlines that makes money, it would appear I'm not alone.

PS: Keep the lousy airline food away from me

GoTravel: By the time all the parents with children (come on, a nine year old doesn't need help) and those who truly did need assistance boarded being in A group, we got the last two seats together on the plane.

That was 9 years ago. They have since changed that policy; families/kids don't board until after A now. And you get numbers now not just A/B/C letters, so you don't have to camp out before boarding; you have a reserved place in line.

mireaux7: but nitpicking southwest, which is well known as a low-cost airline, because they dont serve meals, dont have assigned seating, dont have adequate legroom (or maybe someone is just in denial of being obese), etc etc..is senseless.

Not just senseless but erroneous in the case of "adequate legroom." I'm 6'3" and one of the reasons I fly Southwest is that they have better legroom than the Continental and AA jets I've been on in the last year and half (in coach of course).

Actually "low cost" isn't one of the reasons I fly Southwest. In most cases the "major" airlines match their prices. I am in the middle of a trip to the east coast and Continental had a direct flight PDX-EWR for about the same price as I paid PDX-PHL on Southwest, but why would I want to sit for 5.5 hours in such a tight seat?

We now know why Southwest "makes money."

Ignoring FAA inspection requirements is certainly one way to "cut costs."

And, hey, what's a few fuselage cracks amongst friends?

Gekko: We now know why Southwest "makes money."

Ignoring FAA inspection requirements is certainly one way to "cut costs."

They did no such thing.

And, hey, what's a few fuselage cracks amongst friends?

You realize that USAir (when they were still called America West) has their own history of violations with the FAA, right?

http://www.wsws.org/workers/1998/july1998/air-j16.shtml

The dimensions of the alleged violations of safety regulations are staggering. According to the FAA, 17 America West Airbus A320 jets made 41,000 flights after they were overdue for structural inspections. Airbus Industrie, the European manufacturer of jetliners, notified airlines in 1994 that the A320 jets needed structural inspections of the cargo doors, but America West did not carry them out for two years.

Or that they were fined in 2004 for violating laws in the treatment of disabled people?

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...19/ai_n6159060

"Southwest Airlines flew 'unsafe' planes"

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/06/sou...ref=newssearch

And surely USAir's alleged past sins don't excuse Southworst's current ones.

I guess you didn't bother to read the story I posted? The title was

America West Airlines fined for 41,000 safety violations

But gee, Southwest is fined for violations and see what a bad airline they are! USAir/America West has thousands of safety violations and you don't give a damn - HYPOCRITE!

Okay I know I live in New Zealand but I thought SW airlines had the one of the best air safety records in the US.

In any case we flew them last year on our US friends's recommendation and found them to be a great airline, had no problems at all, we did the check in online, an A boarding pass and got great seats.

The thing I liked was if the price of the ticket came down you could cancel and rebook and get a refund or a credit for the price difference. There is no charge at all to change a flight, unlike here in New Zealand. I would certainly fly with them again.

Have to say I don't understand gekko's vendetta against Southwest. I fly with them every so often since I live in Seattle and have family in Spokane and Boise; these are non-stop flights and with an "A" boarding pass I usually end up in a bulkhead aisle seat. Haven't flown since the new numbering system was put in place, but I'm sure this improvement, in addition to the new non-priority boarding of families, will make things even better. Customer service, as others have noted, is generally excellent.

I'm not sure I would use SW for a long-distance flight, as I prefer non-stops...I generally use Alaska to get to California and JetBlue for the east coast. But Southwest is far and away the least expensive and most convenient way to get to other places in the NW region.

As I have no axe to grind about SW (they don't serve any routes I fly) may I offer these comments:

I think some more information is required before one either exonerates or condemns SW.

What, exactly, were the nature of these safety complaints? If we were to have our own homes inspected, I'm sure that this or that safety issue would be found. Some if found would require immediate compliance (get those obstacles off the stairs); some probably ought to be handled in the next month or two (bring the dryer vent up to code); and some might reasonably be left till a more convenient time (fixing a chimney that has taken years to degrade, and which while deteriorating won't in all probability cause an immediate problem) could probably wait until the end of oil-heating season.

In short, there are violations and there are violations. What were the nature of SW's violations, and what were the roles of the various players, still has to come out. Especially since most of us probably need some tutoring on the essential, let alone the finer details, of aircraft engineering and maintenance.

And if we're going to do a decent job of processing the information, we can't have our minds made up beforehand - one way or the other.

I don't have a "vendetta" against Southworst.

I posted two headlines & linked articles about Southworst ignoring required safety inspections:

New questions on safety monitoring at Southwest

http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...34452020080308

Southwest Airlines flew 'unsafe' planes

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/06/sou...ref=newssearch

Like I said, I'm fortunate to have a choice in airlines, so I've never flown Southworst and never will.

Thank you all for NOT flying Southwest Airlines Just keep away when the only two legacy airlines left standing will be AA and a combined DL+UA+NW+CO +USair. Just more seats on poor old Souhtwest for me.
Thank you very much.

Gekko, I am not disappointed that you do not fly Southwest airlines. I'm with Joe on that one. Although it seems if you are so worried about an airline that has been fined by the FAA for safety violations you will need to stop flying USAir as well - oops, that's right, you don't give a damn about USAir's past safety violations, because they aren't Southwest.

Key word: "past"

What year did these violations occur?

(And I'm on the warpath against USAir and its proposed policy to charge for 2nd check bags.)

Southwest will let you fly with 2 checked bags. Charge $ 25 for the 3rd one!

I've flown USAir once and never will again.

At least I'm one up on Gekko, who has NEVER flown SWA.

Gekko: Key word: "past"

What year did these violations occur?

So the year after these violations came out, 1999, you were all upset about America West's safety violations. Right? And at some point (how many years?) you decided they were an OK airline again?

No, my point is that you don't give a damn about an airline's safety violations, or you'd realize that Southwest isn't the only one to have been fined and you should be consistent. You simply don't like Southwest Airlines. You had no problem with America West's violations at the time, no doubt, because you didn't hate them.

Why not simply have an on-going thread called "I hate Southwest Airlines" and every time you can find something negative about them in the media you could post it there? You could keep that thread going as long as your "tell USAir not to charge $25" thread that you and only you seem to care about.

It's still baffling that you have such a vendetta against an airline you've never flown.

Seat pitch. Check out seat guru for Southwest airline vs any other legacy airline in coach.
Southwest only flies Boeing 737 and always gives you at least 31"-32" leg room.
Very rarly do you find that much legroom (usually 29"-31") on AA or CO or USair UA DL or NW. in coach, because they fly so many different types of aircraft you just don't know what you are going to get unless you fly Business class or better.
Continental also offers 31" on their 737 and other planes so I choose to fly them when I don't fly Southwest.

Interesting viewpoint:

Philly Road Warrior: Travelers needn't fear flying on Southwest - or on any U.S. airline

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/16440931.html

From Jed's link: "In 2006, the last year for which there is detailed data from the National Transportation Safety Board, U.S. airlines had 0.1 - yes, that's zero-point-one - major accidents for every 1 million hours flown. According to the website planecrashinfo. com, the chances are 1 in 6 million that one of the 25 airlines with the best safety records in the world will be involved in a fatal crash."

Now THOSE are the kind of statistics that are reassuring -- with not one mention of car crash statistics. Of course, the article goes on to demonstrate just how effective quoting statistics IS for the fearful:

"So each time we're rolling down the runway for takeoff, we chant that key statistic to ourselves: 1 in 6 million, 1 in 6 million."