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Philosophy on airline choice, vouchers, rewards etc


closetohumping

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Where do you draw the line with the discount airlines?  I absolutely will take Frontier or Spirit if it's a short flight.  There are flights to Vegas for 19.00.  Not a poor, but it's just transportation right.  But, for longer flights I prefer the legacy carriers.  Dilemma.  I want to fly into Dallas for the ou game.  Frontier round trip is about 180.  Delta is over 500.  I could pay for an extra seat for my body guard if I took Frontier.  

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I flew to Vegas in July and that's about the outer edge of where I can handle discount airlines.  For shorter flights, I'm more concerned with the flight times lining up for me.   On the Vegas trip I ended up with Spirit going there and Frontier coming home...  Both those airlines change an extra fee for a carry on, which when purchased ahead of time online, was an additional $57 for Spirit and $72 for Frontier....just for a standard overhead carry on.

Anything longer than that and I really try and stay away from discount airlines.

 

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1 hour ago, closetohumping said:

Where do you draw the line with the discount airlines?  I absolutely will take Frontier or Spirit if it's a short flight.  There are flights to Vegas for 19.00.  Not a poor, but it's just transportation right.  But, for longer flights I prefer the legacy carriers.  Dilemma.  I want to fly into Dallas for the ou game.  Frontier round trip is about 180.  Delta is over 500.  I could pay for an extra seat for my body guard if I took Frontier.  

Where are you flying from?  If Austin or Houston, I'd absolutely consider Vonlane.  I've flown Frontier, but I draw the line with Spirit.  

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Just now, Spaulding Smails said:

Where are you flying from?  If Austin or Houston, I'd absolutely consider Vonlane.  I've flown Frontier, but I draw the line with Spirit.  

SoCal to Dallas 

8 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I don’t see a huge difference between SWA and Spirit. Pretty decent chance your Spirit flight will be on a newer plane.
 

I like flying out of Hobby, so SWA is pretty much my default airline. 

Had to fly spirit for work.  It wasn’t bad believe it or not

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48 minutes ago, Zepol87 said:

Same we can’t use those at all

 

1 hour ago, royiv said:

What kind of company do you work for that they made you fly Spirit? When I was traveling for work, our travel policy prohibited the Frontiers and Spirits of the world.

Start up that limits my per diem to 59.00 per day.

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Whoever is least expensive. Done Spirit before, and was anxious. It was perfectly fine. Let's face it, if you are in cattle class as most of us are, flying no matter the airline is a complete beating. I enjoy that Southwest has free bags as sometimes I check something just to not have to deal with it at the gate.

I will say the flight times and routes are getting more important to me to where I will pony up more for better times and non-stop. I used to simply take the cheapest no matter what. Now I'll pay more to not have to wake up at 4 a.m. to get to the airport and have no layover. I'd gladly pay more for first class, but feel like the upcharge is way more than I would want to pay.

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as a tall human, i absolutely need to pick my seat, so SW in normally out.  never flown discount other than Ryan Air over in Europe maybe 20 years ago.  Normally fly AA (live in Dallas).  They actually came through after they scrapped our plane to Birmingham for the Bama game (said the brakes did not work, which was sort of an auspicious malady for a plane full of Texas fans) but we had to return back to the gate and then deplane.  We got a new plane with in an hour and were on our way.  They did piss off a lot of people in boarding group 1 by just making it essentially a free for all boarding the 2nd plane and eschewed drink service rather that wait the (they said) 45 extra minutes to load all that stuff up.  But i dngaf as i just wanted to get there at a reasonable time in my bulkhead seat.  

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I fly so infrequently (maybe once a quarter, give or take, for work and 1-2 times per year for pleasure) that I am willing to pay to sit up front.  I look for direct flights (usually ends up being United since I'm in Denver) and I pay for a first class seat.  It's worth it to me.  I have a shit ton of credit card points that the wife and I use so we can fly in business for free on international flights.

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Is SWA considered a discount airline? I fly them once every 2-3 years when the price disparity to a place is a so wide that I cannot justify taking United. Out of Houston, I'm otherwise pretty much beholden to United and the loyalty program. I don't think they're nearly as bad as they're said to be online and I use them anywhere between 15 and 30 round trips per year. 

We have flown Ryan Air from London to Galway on a few occasions and that flight is short enough that it wasn't a problem, but the way they handle various fees and such is pretty wild. Their planes are basically airborne cattle cars.

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i've done spirit once flying houston to LA cheap, it was fine and a bunch of people were having a party in the back of the plane.  flew air asia from KL to phuket and KL to bangkok and chang mai.  it was cheap enough that when the person in charge of the schedule put the wrong day on the calendar we just rebought the fare one day in advance.  back then the malaysian associated air asia flew newer nicer planes than the thai associated air asia.  flew aer lingus from DC to madrid on a united codeshare when united used that flight to avoid paying their own pricier crews on that route. 

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I’ve been American Exec Platinum for years but I loved SWA, not withstanding the recent computer issues. 

They board faster. The flights are faster. The people are happier. The prices are better if you plan ahead far enough. They go into less crowded airports. They have a lot of flights per day. They have a lot of direct flights. They don’t have bullshit like carry on fees, baggage fees, ticket use by dates, etc. They’ll provide service with integrity - not withstanding the computer eff ups. They are nothing like Spirit. 

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2 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

 


SWA is a discount airline with non-discount fares. No business class, no premium economy, no ability to pick your seat in advance.

I don’t understand the people who are still loyal to them.

 

Two words: Companion Pass. Essentially every flight is half price since my wife (no pics) goes with me everywhere I fly.

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Solo travel I stick to my network/affiliates because I like the perks and racking up the points.

Family travel its routing > allegiance.  Theres a few (EU) routes we fly where direct option is only serviced by low cost carriers, and my wife refuses to fly spend more time than necessary traveling.  Especially with a toddler doing optional connection is an absolute no-go.

***

Last time I flew US discount carrier was over a decade ago with Frontier HOU-MCI.  Honestly it was more pleasant than as a 1K on United.  Airport was empty, easy parking, quiet boarding, the whole experience was almost like a casual train trip.

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15 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Bring a room temperature egg salad sandwich with you and have a body aroma of meat sweats & Newports and you're the perfect Spirit customer.

Many years ago I got stuck on the tarmac in the middle of summer.  I was flying coach, middle seat of a 3/3, and was flanked by fatties, one of whom was using the worst Wal-Mart "cologne" you could possibly imagine.  

Two hours slowly went by, and the cabin got noticeably warmer and warmer.  It was an astonishingly gross experience.

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We get SWA companion as wife flies for business.  It makes a difference.  And SWA has delay issues like the rest but I agree with @Dbeasy on the rest of the SWA experience.  Also they tend to forget to collect my drink tickets.  Shit we flew SWA to Hawaii this summer and I didnt mind it.

 

When I fly solo I prefer United in case I want to move up front.

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21 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I fly a lot for work, so the choice of American Airlines is driven by keeping my exec platinum status, which gives me more flaxibility and helps get me out of jams that come up during air travel.  

100% this. I will go out of my way to fly AA even when it's easier to fly a hub (e.g. DFW -> EWR). I've even flown DFW -> CLT -> ATL to stay AA, which I'm not too proud to admit. I'll fly AUS -> DFW and IAH -> DFW over Love and Hobby with SW as well. Every time, because the points and the status is worth it to me.

Otherwise, philosophy is I just refuse to fly Spirit or Frontier. Unless it was a life and death situation or a milestone and I had to be there and those were the only options, I'd probably just not go if I had to fly one of those.

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Convenience over cost but only to an extent. I will pay for $4-500 flights for my family and I to fly domestic over $82 Spirit flights. I won't pay $8-900. I probably wouldn't fly spirit with my family. I did fly spirit by myself a few years ago home from FLL and I just took a bunch of edibles beforehand. Delta is always going to be A1 because DTW but I shop around. This summer flew the family Delta to PHX and then SWA from PHX to OGG and it wasn't bad at all, paid for early boarding. 

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The only line I draw is the safety of a small, foreign airline.

We took 5 Ryan Air flights last winter and the first one I pretty much had a panic attack during takeoff. I was thinking with what we paid for these flights how much are they paying their pilots? But all of those flights ended up being great.

I don’t know if I could fly on a discount airline based out of some third world country though.

 

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