I have a love/hate relationship with Southwest. Depending on my mood, I love Southwest and other days I treat Southwest like the red-headed stepchild. I have even gone as far to write the
5 Reasons Why I Dislike Southwest.
That all being true; there are certain things I love about Southwest. Here are the 5 Reasons Why I Love Southwest:
The Companion Pass
- The secret weapon of travel hacking. The
Companion Pass is like a buy one, get one free coupon. The holder of the pass designates someone has his/her companion. From then on, anytime the pass holder flies on Southwest, so does the companion for free. Be it paid or award tickets, the companion flies for only the cost of the 9/11 Security Fees.
To earn the Companion Pass, you need to earn 110,000 points in one calender year. 110,000 points might seem a lot to earn, but it is very doable within one year. Here is how I obtained my
Companion Pass.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to use my Companion Pass yet. The person I designated as my companion decided to get an MBA and attend classes on Saturday. Regardless, I have learned
3 Things Since Earning My Companion Pass.
The Southwest Companion Pass is the single greatest travel tool that you must have in your arsenal.
Rapid Rewards Program
- Southwest's frequent flyer program is known as Rapid Rewards. Rapid Rewards is not your typical frequent flyer program. Instead of having set amount of miles for award tickets (ie 25,000, 50,000), award tickets are issued based upon the price of the ticket on the date of purchase.
Here is how many points per $1 are needed for an award ticket:
However, the number of points per $1 is increasing to 75 for Wanna Get Away Fares on March 31st, 2014:
Southwest's frequent sales are great opportunities to purchase award tickets. For instance, I got my ticket to Connecticut for Thanksgiving on a sale date for 6,000 points. The award program is simple and predicable, which is more than other frequent flyer programs presently.
Lower Prices = Money Back
Another unique features of Southwest is their refund program. With other airlines, a drop in price after purchase, is to bad for you. Not with Southwest. If you purchase your ticket and the price drops, you may ask for a refund from Southwest.
Southwest allows you to get a credit for the difference. Book the flight with points? The difference in points will be credit to your account instantly.
To get your refund, find your itinerary and click "change reservation" link directly under the reservation.
The system will ask you which flights (outgoing or incoming) that you want to change. Next, you will see your options to change your ticket and the price of the new ticket. Complete the steps and Southwest will eventually show your savings.
If you booked with point, the points will be credited back to your account. On the other hand, if you purchased your ticket with cash, you will receive a voucher for the difference. The voucher must be used for future travel completed within a year of it being used.
Your ticket price dropped multiple times? No problem, you can do this change as many times as you like.
2 Free Check Bags
Southwest is one of the few airlines that doesn't charge for checked baggage. Currently, they allow you to check 2 bags at no additional cost.
That small difference makes Southwest the common man's airline. The average Joe can take his family on vacation and not spend hundreds checking baggage.
In-Flight Entertainment System
As I wrote
here, Southwest is the only airline with gate to gate WIFI. That alone should be enough to make people love them. However, they go one step further. The cost to use the WIFI is affordable, at only $8 a day.
In addition to WIFI, Southwest offer DirectTV and a selection of movies for purchases. I reviewed the system
here and was pleasantly surprised.
My only compliant is that my Kindle Fire is not compatible with Southwest's system. Unfortunately, reading the message boards, Southwest doesn't have a plan to make Kindle Fires and Android products compatible with their system. This is a real shame . . .
Conclusion
Despite Southwest's IFE incompatibility with my Kindle Fire, I still LUV Southwest every once and a whilet. Southwest has all the makings of a great airline. The problem is that every once and a while they want to be a legacy carrier and they get greedy. Get too greedy and average Joe might turn their back on you.
Over the next two weeks, I will be flying Southwest with frequency. Hopefully, I can report back only good things.
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Have a question for me? E-mail me at jd@doitforthepoints.com
