The leader in low-cost airlines worldwide, not in the States, but worldwide. Let’s find out more about Southwest.

Southwest

Herbert Kelleher and Rollin King founded Southwest in 1967. It was incorporated as Air Southwest Co. They had an idea of flying only within Texas. I mean, it is a big state. However, three other airlines didn’t like that idea. They filed a lawsuit to prevent Southwest from undercutting them in Texas. The three were

• Braniff
• Trans-Texas Airwars
• Continental Airlines

1970, the cases were resolved, and in 1971, they started to fly within Texas. The best thing was in 1979 when the Airline Deregulation Act was passed. So that meant that Southwest could expand to neighboring states. They soon grew East and Southeast in the 1990s.

They turned a profit for 47 freaking years. From 1973 to 2019. Now that is some good managing.

Here is some information for you

• Fly to over 100 destinations.
• Flys to 42 states
• Puerto Rico
• Mexico
• Central America
• Caribbean

I wonder what eight states they don’t fly to?

Fleet

They do an all-Boeing fleet to make this easier for pilots and maintenance. They only operate 737 jetliners. They did order 234 737 Max 7 jets. This order made them the largest purchaser of Boeing planes.

Experience

If you want to book first-class or anything like that, then don’t fly Southwest. They only offer economy-class seats. Why fly with them? Well, they offer

• Two free check bags
  • That is awesome
• Change up their flights up to 10 minutes prior without charges
• If cancellation occurs
  • Refunded a travel credit for the amount of the ticket.
  • Doesn’t expire
• Offers complimentary nonalcoholic beverages during flights
• If you drink, they charge for alcoholic
  • Certain holidays free drinks
• Free snacks
• There are some excellent boarding announcements.

There is no assigned seating. So you must go to your group of A, B, or C. They still do that; however, when you check in, you are assigned a Letter and a number. So you could have B25.

If you are a plus-sized person, the cost of the second seat is refunded if you take up more than one seat. Now that is nice.

They do have Wi-Fi that costs $8. However, they do have in-flight TV and other options.

Facts

Here are some facts

• Frequent flyer program
  • Rapid Rewards
• Fleet size
  • 802
• Destinations
  • 121
• Headquarters
  • Dallas Texas
• Employees
  • 66.100

Hubs/bases

Here are the hubs of Southwest

Not so Good

Well, in Dec. of 2022, it wasn’t a perfect time for Southwest. They had to cancel all of the flights. Yes, all the flights are right around the Christmas holiday. So, if you were going home for Christmas and booked Southwest, you didn’t make it. Yes, there were some bad storms across the United States. But it all came down to the scheduling program, which is dated.

My Thoughts

I first flew Southwest in Oct. 1994. We bought tickets to Seattle and got free tickets to use later. That was nice we went to St. Louis. It was nice when they came to SLC, so we got cheaper flights. I have flown Southwest quite often. I mean, the two free check bags are nice. But I have just taken a carry-on.

I am not a big fan of the open seating because if you are last to board the plane. Is it an available seating option? Nope, it is whatever is left.

They even started to fly to Hawaii in 2019. Now, that would be an exciting flight.

I can understand why they are the leader of the low-cost airline. The last time I flew Southwest was on the way home from Dallas Love Field.

Video

Yep, I did a video.

Now that I will blog about the airlines, I need to get better at taking pictures.