Southwest Airlines

A few weeks ago I was looking to book a flight from Seattle to Orlando. Using the preferred Microsoft travel site, the best price I was able to find was $917. That sounds even more absurd today than it did back then. I decided to search Kayak and was able to find similar flights for around $750. That still sounded high so I checked prices at Southwest Airlines and was a bit surprised to find a flight for $580. That seemed a lot more reasonable so I booked a ticket with them.

When I told several of my coworkers that I booked a ticket with Southwest they laughed and hassled me a bit. I guess traveling on Southwest isn’t very cool since they don’t have a first class section. I was surprised to hear them say how much better Delta or United is. I guess they don’t read Consumer Reports where Southwest was rated at one of the top four airlines, well ahead of Delta or United. Here is what they said:

If JetBlue, Southwest, Frontier, or Hawaiian flies your route, look no further. All four of those airlines provided a superior experience, according to CR readers, at a price that?s often lower than their competitors.

I am a big fan of Southwest. I’ve flown a number of airlines and Southwest and Alaska Airlines are my two favorites for travel within the US. Of those carriers serving Europe, SAS is my favorite although British Airways and Lufthansa are also very good.

One reason I enjoy flying Southwest is their employees are always happy and make me feel like they appreciate my business. They also don’t take themselves too seriously. After the stress of getting through line after line at the airport, it’s refreshing to be among a group of people who genuinely like their jobs and go out of their way to help.