Ready for those posters to apologize that made personal attacks against myself and others. Laughing sooo soo hard this morning.

Standing by if anyone needs to dump their SW points……

When flying domestic we almost always fly Southwest for two reasons and free checked bags were either 1a or 1b.

Without this there is nothing to differentiate them.

Have flown Southwest almost exclusively the last 7 years for work (30-50 r/t a year) and didn't mind because of the flexibility of the points I earned to use for personal travel. With a job change coming up next month that will largely end my travel, the changes for assigned seating and bag fees and whatever else they're going to cook up give me no reason to stay with Southwest going forward after burn through my last few hundred thousand points.

A list preferred and business select get two free bags. A list and SW credit card holders one bag free per The Points Guy.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/southwest-airlines-ending-free-checked-bags-policy-many-passengers/

Quote:

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Starting May 28 just in time for the busy summer travel season only Southwest's most elite Rapid Rewards A-List Preferred members and passengers who book their top-tier Business Select fares will receive two free checked bags. Frequent flyer A-List Members, Southwest-branded credit card holders and other select customers will be allowed one checked bag.

Everyone else will be charged for their first and second checked bags on flights booked on or after May 28, the carrier says.

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AgOutsideAustin said:

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A list preferred and business select get two free bags. A list and SW credit card holders one bag free per The Points Guy.

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So like every other airline?

I'm glad our big family trip is in May before this. The least they could do is allow free bags through anything booked through the current window.

GigEmJake17 said:

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I'm glad our big family trip is in May before this. The least they could do is allow free bags through anything booked through the current window.

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They do. As I understand it, tickets booked after May 28 fall under the new rules.

only if the fare is cheaper. I fly from HDN a lot and it just depends who is cheaper between United and SWA. However, SWA just cut 5 flights a week from that airport so I am using United a lot more now.

Ahhh okay. I misread it as any trip after May 28th. Makes sense!

Points guy also said another point devaluation is coming. Not sure if it was referring to the new dynamic reward redemption system or something else.

So are we mad at the Aggie CEO ??

AgOutsideAustin said:

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So are we mad at the Aggie CEO ??

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Probably outside his control when Elliott took over

Same with me at Love. It's just extremely convenient to get in and out of Love and Hobby quickly.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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SWA still has almost total control of Hobby. Until that changes, they will probably still get my business. Bush is such a mess and a lot longer drive for me.

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I imagine they might be losing a stranglehold there after this. In the past, I would inconvenience myself to fly SWA to not have to pay the extras for checked bags and good seats. Now, they're no different than the big 3.

I'll be curious to see if any of the competitors have any sort of promotions to try to entice Southwest customers.

I've been loyal to Southwest for the checked bags, the low fares, and simply because I've had good experiences there since I started flying.

However, it seems like all of that is going away. The companion pass is still enticing, but I've only hit that once - and who knows if that's the next to go.

I'll wait to see if my perks extend to my companions and start comparing fares more closely. But I (and my companions) already get a free bag on United and there are more perks for loyalty there. So I may wait for a nice promotion or credit card enticement and make the jump.

With all things equal, on United I can at least use my points to fly internationally.

Hoyt Ag said:

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only if the fare is cheaper. I fly from HDN a lot and it just depends who is cheaper between United and SWA. However, SWA just cut 5 flights a week from that airport so I am using United a lot more now.

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Obviously I'll still fly them if it fits. But As a family of 5 now, Southwest offers nothing other than flight times and airport alternatives. Just another airline now.

htxag09 said:

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Points guy also said another point devaluation is coming. Not sure if it was referring to the new dynamic reward redemption system or something else.

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From email SWA sent out this morning:

Phase 1: Beginning this month, we increased our Rapid Rewards earn ratio on our Business Select fares and lowered the earn ratio on our Wanna Get Away and Wanna Get Away Plus fares. We will also begin to vary our redemption rates across our fare products on some high- and low-demand travel periods.

I was talking about it with a guy at work yesterday. People talk about how bad the corporate raiders of the 80s were. But I'd argue that PE is worse today.

In the 80s, the raiders were breaking up companies that had become stale and unlocking value by spinning off assets and companies.

Nowadays, a PE group comes in does a leveraged buyout of a solid company, foists the debt used to buy the company onto itself then distributes cash to the equity holders until a companies go bankrupt.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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SWA still has almost total control of Hobby. Until that changes, they will probably still get my business. Bush is such a mess and a lot longer drive for me.

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Same

My drive time to IAH or HOU is about equal. I used to fly SWA almost exclusively for work travel primarily because of the convenience of HOU.

Last year, my recurring travel started taking me to destinations where United had more convenient flight times, so I started using them for nearly every trip. I dreaded it at first because of the cluster that IAH is. However, since I go there more often now, I've figured out where to park and how to navigate the terminals. Now, it typically only takes a few minutes longer for me to get to my gate at IAH than it did at HOU. IAH also has more amenities (lounges, restaurants, etc) than HOU.

With the changes at SWA, I don't foresee using them in the future unless there is a large cost savings.

TexAg2001 said:

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My drive time to IAH or HOU is about equal. I used to fly SWA almost exclusively for work travel primarily because of the convenience of HOU.

Last year, my recurring travel started taking me to destinations where United had more convenient flight times, so I started using them for nearly every trip. I dreaded it at first because of the cluster that IAH is. However, since I go there more often now, I've figured out where to park and how to navigate the terminals. Now, it typically only takes a few minutes longer for me to get to my gate at IAH than it did at HOU. IAH also has more amenities (lounges, restaurants, etc) than HOU.

With the changes at SWA, I don't foresee using them in the future unless there is a large cost savings.

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I was a long time devoted SWA flyer in the same situation being equidistant from IAH and HOU. I got a SWA credit card, had companion pass for a couple of years, still have 200+k SW points. But about 2.5 years ago, they became completely unreliable and cost me nearly $2k in extra travel costs due to flight delays and cancellations across multiple flights that they blamed on weather, but had nothing to do with weather. They offered a couple of $200 vouchers instead of paying me back for my expenses.

Since that time, we moved to Bastrop and fly out of AUS now. Any SWA flights we would take are mostly connecting through DAL, while United flights connect through IAH. Not having to deal with the ground situation outside of IAH makes it much less unpleasant to fly through. Since DAL is ground zero for SWA delays in my experience, I now avoid them like the plague and fly United almost exclusively.

I have a United CC also and have prioritized all my spending through it instead of the SWA card. My wife still flies SWA because the schedule is the only one that works for the places she needs to go, but she has been delayed on more than 50% of her trips through DAL lately. They are not a good airline operationally, and taking away the reasons that people were still flying them and devaluing the reward points will not make more people want to fly them. I am probably going to work to spend down my points balance with SWA on flights where I can afford to be late/cancelled and close that CC and get another one that gets me points I want to use.

The only time I have checked anything on Southwest is a shotgun and a Yeti a couple of times. I try to avoid checking bags as much as possible so I don't care at all about this change. Only thing I care about is ticket prices coming down but I doubt they will.

It wasn't that long ago that SWA said their (expensive) outside research found they'd lose more market share over time than bag fees are worth.

But the stock is way up and I'm sure Elliott and others will cash in a little in the coming weeks before the next earnings call.

Total mismatch of timing here, considering they just lowered earnings expectations the other day due to economic concerns.

I guess they're betting they maintain their total monopolies at a few key airports and can keep families on board with their point to point network. But bag fees and families don't mesh. I imagine the legacies will now be trying to chip away at those advantages with a little more "oomph."

Captain Winky said:

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The only time I have checked anything on Southwest is a shotgun and a Yeti a couple of times. I try to avoid checking bags as much as possible so I don't care at all about this change. Only thing I care about is ticket prices coming down but I doubt they will.

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I find it so much more enjoyable to drop the bag off and go through security and the airport and the aisle and all that than keeping the bag with me.

As long as they are the only serious option at some key airports, I'll have reason to still favor them.

We've got the credit card in my family to get us one free bag but the points devaluations and limited international network have had us pushing expenses much harder towards our other card.

I've had a companion pass and been A-list for well over a decade now and have 1mm+ miles save up. But with SW pulling out of Cozumel (I go 3-4x a year) and devaluing the points, I'll seriously consider moving over to United…just as soon as IAH is fixed.