Southwest Airlines
With various airlines adding more charges and giving less to air travelers, flying is not our favorite mode of transportation if we can drive in about the same time. In other words, if the time it takes to drive to the airport, the security and pre-boarding wait, actual flight time, and cab drive to our destination add up to the hours it takes for us to drive to the location, we drive.
When my husband needed to attend a meeting in New Orleans we originally planned on driving. It’s a solid ten hour drive and one I wasn’t looking forward to since we’d also have to do the ten hour return drive. The only other option was to find an inexpensive direct flight from Tampa to New Orleans. Southwest Airlines had flights that fit our schedule and our budget and we bought tickets.
We hadn’t flown Southwest recently and I forgot that they don’t have seat assignment. When you do check-in you are assigned a letter and a number which is your place in the boarding line. If you’re fairly close to the front of the line you have a good choice of seating but the farther back in the line, the seating becomes less choice and it’s more difficult to find overhead storage.
Our last flight was on Spirit Air and it was cheap, cramped, and ultimately costly since we had to pay to move to seats closer to the front of the plane that had enough leg room so that our knees weren’t pressed into the backs of the passengers in front of us, and all snacks and drinks came with a price. Since that flight Spirit has added charges for carry-on bags and downsized the bags they’ll accept as carry-on. We figured Southwest would be the same. How wrong we were.
I nosed around Southwest’s website and found they offer an “EarlyBird Check-in” for $10 one-way per passenger. While that doesn’t get someone at the front of the line, it gets them a spot before general boarding, after Business Select and A-List customers. Paying an extra $10 each way for one EarlyBird seemed a smart investment.
When I printed out our boarding passes, my EarlyBird Check-in put me in line at A-29. Even though I printed out our boarding passes precisely 24 hours prior to our flight, my husband’s general boarding position was A-49. The $10 bought me a 20 space advantage in line. It was enough for me to find us a good spot on the plane.
When we boarded, I was surprised to see that there was plenty of room between the rows and that the leather seats were roomier than most planes we’ve flown. The overhead bins were a little shorter than other planes but we were able to put our roller bags in sideways without problem.
We didn’t expect the middle seat to remain empty but it did and I didn’t have to give up my aisle seat for the flight. The flight attendants were pleasant and the standard safety message before take-off was reworked just enough to see if we were all paying attention.
As we were climbing to cruising altitude, I looked through the in-flight magazine to see what Southwest was charging for soft drinks and snack items. Another surprise! Coffee, water, juice, and soft drinks were free as were small bags of peanuts. Drinks with alcohol were standard price.
The flight to and from New Orleans was comfortable and pleasant thanks to Southwest. We won’t hesitate to book another flight with them. And we consider the $10 EarlyBird Check-in to be well worth the price.