This week, I booked my first flight on Southwest Airlines in nearly 3 years. This will be the first of several flights I take with them in the new year for both business and personal reasons. This particular flight is of the personal variety, paid for with Rapid Rewards points transferred in from Ultimate Rewards – 9,638 of them to be exact. Granted, Delta’s schedules are better on the route I wanted to fly, and the dollar fare price was the same for both carriers. In truth, I’d booked Delta first, then out of curiosity checked out Southwest. Same fare, then I priced it in points. Knowing I have plenty of Ultimate Rewards in the bank, I transferred them in and went for it, while canceling my Delta flights within the 24 hours “worry free” window.
The whole transaction – from thought to transfer to purchase took not much more than 5 minutes. I had flight times that worked, and best of all, I kept some cash in my pocket. I’m certain I’ll miss a few trappings of elite status on this quick weekend roundtrip, but it was time to experiment with Southwest out of Atlanta in much the same way as I did with AA/US late last year. Will I “heart” Southwest? Only time will tell. (Image courtesy of Southwest Airlines.)
One thing is for certain, given the unknowns surrounding SkyMiles, it’s time to think about other options. In the end, my decision may be that the bigger airline with better schedules and proven operational reliability is the way to go with the loyalty program being somewhere far down the list. But it’s time for this Atlanta-based flier to at least consider some business decisions of my own. What about you?
-MJ, February 7, 2015
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One of our usual flights is from MCO-LGA. Delta was always the default. The next two trips to NYC, we are trying Jetblue to LGA and EWR and also UA home from EWR. Lets see how this goes. Still taking 1 DL flight. The price was right but it’s from JFK. If the trip there isn’t too bad we can add AA to possible options for future flights.
I’m almost ashamed to say I’ve never flown JetBlue. Not that I wouldn’t, they just don’t serve Atlanta, and it never worked out well when I was in DC either.
ATL based Delta PM here. In the past couple days, I’ve booked away from DL to SW (direct flights) for 2 round trips. Something I would not have done in the past few years. Definitely time to look at other options.
West Coast flyer, switching to Southwest and Alaska. Delta is like the old AT&T now. If you are old enough you may remember a Lily Tomlin skit quote:
“We don’t care, we don’t have to. We’re the phone company”.
Ahhh Southwest the airline I hate to love. I love that they have no change fee. I love that most of the time they are on time. I love that for the most part award availability is not an issue. I hate that they have no first class and they expect you to line up to board. I hate that when traveling together you can’t board
I did a status match this year from Delta to United. Because I am Plat on Delta, I got Permier Platinum status on United. So far, I have been semi-impressed with the service on United. At least they’re not as bad as I thought previously. I decided that I’m not going for status per se this year. If I manage to keep status on either Delta or United, that’s fine, but I’m not actively seeking status like I have in the past. The programs just don’t seem to have enough benefit to do that any more.
@Damon,
I get the feeling the worst of United’s operational issues are behind them. That doesn’t mean they’re perfect, just better than they were.