Results tagged “Travel” from All Good Things

When is an airline not just an airline? When it consistently puts a lust for profit squarely behind customer service, fair pricing and a human touch. Enter Southwest Airlines, since 1971 a leader in customer satisfaction surveys and a business success story all at the same time. What's wrong with this picture? Nada, as we say in California. Nothing at all.

My most recent foray with the fine folks at SWA came after needing to change my departure to Tucson on rival US Air, then being told there'd be a $150 fee to do so, and an additional $700 bucks on top of that -- because the old fare had expired. "$850 dollars, one way to Arizona?" I bellowed to the reservations agent, "I could fly to Cairo for that price!" "Sorry, sir," she answered icily, "that's our policy."

Not only was I able to book immediate roundtrip passage on Southwest at a fraction of the price, there were no add-on fees for luggage, another good reason to choose them over their rapacious rivals. Their website also has a handy feature called the Low Fare Calendar tool, which shows the lowest price available for each day using a monthly calendar view. That saves you having to bounce from Travelocity to Expedia to Orbitz, etc.

All that and free peanuts and pretzels, wisecracking flight attendants and a sterling safety record. SWA has five hundred aircraft in their inventory (one of the youngest fleets in the industry) and flies over 100 million happy passengers annually. I am one of them. May they prosper.

You gots to give props to Virgin America: low fares, maximum service, flight attendants who seem to actually enjoy their work -- what's wrong with this picture? As soul immortal Edwin Starr might put it: Absolutely nothin' (Say it again)!

Why is Virgin America the better, 21st century air buggy these days? Creature comforts like 110v power outlets at every seat; 3000 mp3s to listen to; "Red," the in-flight entertainment center, with touch-screen access to flicks, television programming and a menu of actually edible food you can order from your seat without making a bloody nuisance of yourself. Coming next: in-flight broadband internet access.

It's also nice to know you're flying on brand new hardware -- in this case, the Airbus A320, with nice leather seats and plenty of legroom. They even have mood lighting that changes with the time of day -- no more fluorescent glare to blind you when it's time for a night landing. Routes keep expanding on both coasts: from San Diego to Seattle, LA and SF, Vegas and Orange County and NYC, DC and JFK, acronymically speaking. Lastly, all these creature comforts come at a postmodern low price: e.g., less than a hundred bucks roundtrip from Frisco to Seattle, less than $260 between Hollywood and the Big Apple.