Southwest disaster

[khardbored]

I used to fly to visit mom and dad. Took me a day in airports. I could drive and be there for lunch the next day if I got on the road first thing in the morning. That was a no brainer. All day in my vehicle or all day in airports/airplanes. I'll pick my vehicle all day every day

12 seems way too high for this but it depends on lots of factors including how far you are from the departure airport, how far your destination is from the arrival airport, whether you'd need a layover, what time you want to leave/want to get there, etc.

It's "only" 11 hours (without stops) to drive from DSM to DFW. I'm flying that 10 out of 10 times.

Lots of factors, for sure. I also consider time of day that flight leaves, etc. Group vs. Solo travel, etc. Where you're going one you land, etc.

I flew solo from DSM to St. Louis twice on Southwest (direct flight) b/c it leaves early in the AM. Wake up at 4, leave around 5:30, at airport by 6, in the air by 7:20. Land shortly after 8, got my rental car and on the road before 9. Have the entire day that way.

I know some might say "but you can drive from Ankeny to St. Louis in 5 1/2 hours!" - I have to stop and pee every 2 hours so more like 6 1/2 for me. Plus @ airport, I can work on my laptop, and I can read in the air, etc. I don't like driving before daylight. I have lounge access so get a free breakfast in STL. I feel a LOT more fresh than starting a drive at 5:30 and driving until noon straight.

Similar to Pittsburgh once. Arrive around noon vs. an entire day of driving and exhaustion. My time off is the most valuable thing.


But I can completely respect people who prefer to drive, too. And flying with little kids is a pain, too. Just a lot of factors.

 

[besserheimerphat]

RFID is currently in use in a few airlines including delta, no power needed. Ski lift tickets operate the same way now, zip your pass into your arm pocket and wave it by a RFID detector..pretty slick.

IATA follows Delta's lead with RFID bag tag mandate

Delta's

news.delta.com

You have to wave it by an RFID detector to turn the chip on, and the detector scans it. RFID "works" great for things like lift tickets and employee acces because the chip is attached to a human who swipes the scanner. If RFID is attached to a bag then there needs to be a person to find and scan the tag. No real difference between that and a person scanning a barcode.

It's technically feasible to use machine vision and automation/robotics to locate the RFID tag on the bag, position the bag and/or scanner so the can get close enough, and then do the scan. But I'm not sure there's a business case for it - airlines do a pretty good job tracking things they way they do it today. Seems like it would take a long time for a positive ROI.

 

[MugNight]

Also Southwest fares are no longer exactly “cheap.” They used to have a big fare advantage over the traditional airlines - nowadays their fares aren’t much different and the only advantage is the two free bags. I just priced a DSM-OAK trip for next April on Southwest, and their fares were basically the same as flying United from CID to SFO. That’s not a “budget” airline.

100%. They’ll have some promo for $59 one way and then the return flight is +$400. It never really shakes out.

It’s anecdotal but I seldom have on time departure or arrival when I fly southwest.

 

[BoxsterCy]

I don't do the long drives anymore.

Might be different if I wasn't lacking a co-pilot these days but I'm sort of in the 6 hours or so range these days with 8 maybe the max. Just don't have anywhere I am driving that's in the 8 so it's really 6. Never was much of a LD guy though, Colorado trips a few times, Dallas/Mpls once and Mpls/Phoenix once (both helping peeps move by co-driving one leg).

 

[Jer]

the problem with Nebraska is that I-80 follows the Platte River valley all the way across..... flat and boring.

best parts of nebraska are far from the interstate

The best part of Nebraska is the sign saying "Now Leaving Nebraska".

 

[besserheimerphat]

That’s a tough one, I put a monetary value on days off not driving all day too though.

This makes sense. The only counter point may be: how much is it worth to avoid 4 extra travel days with 4 kids? I took a 6-hour trip with my 3 over the summer and strongly considered abandoning one/all of them at various points.

Oh I totally get it. I'm the one who still occasionally pitches the thought of flying for these exact reasons. My wife does drive on these trips, but it usually ends up being about a 70/30 split. Our oldest just missed getting his license before our trip last summer, and with other big family vacations planned the next couple years I'm not sure when we might finally make the trip with 3 drivers.

Our kids have always done really well between DVD players, Leap Frog tablets, and now iPads, laptops and smartphones. When we made the trip about 5 years ago, our youngest was still taking bottles and I'd sit in the middle and feed him while he was strapped in his car seat.

 

[2speedy1]

Or if you have a big family like we do (four kids). Even with high gas prices, it ends up being cheaper to road trip from WA to IA than to fly.

It's about $1100 in gas and hotels to do 4000 miles round trip over 6 days. That's assuming 28mpg at $4 average gas price and $150/night hotel. There is some food in there too.

6 plane tickets from Seattle to DSM is going to be at least $1200, and then we have to rent a minivan or passenger van once we arrive. We could possibly save a little on flights by going CHI/MPLS/KC, but then we're also probably adding a hotel stay the night before the return flight. We also have a couple hundred bucks in airport parking.

So for us, it takes high gas prices and very cheap flights for flying to come close to breaking even.

Can you really find flights that cheap? I guess I have never looked at tix to Seattle but DM to anywhere else I have looked is usually a lot more than that.

 

[ISUChippewa]

the problem with Nebraska is that I-80 follows the Platte River valley all the way across..... flat and boring.

best parts of nebraska are far from the interstate

It's a matter of opinion, certainly, but that's why I "like" driving across Nebraska. I think that river is nice to drive along, although it certainly doesn't compare to the mountain views I get here in Colorado when I go on a road trip.

Kansas has absolutely nothing like that, much less any mountains to check out.

 

[besserheimerphat]

Can you really find flights that cheap? I guess I have never looked at tix to Seattle but DM to anywhere else I have looked is usually a lot more than that.

That's what I'm saying, it's usually closer to double that. Though I'm guessing you MIGHT be able to find a $200 ticket if you invested enough time into hunting.

 

[bluestarcyclone]

That's what I'm saying, it's usually closer to double that. Though I'm guessing you MIGHT be able to find a $200 ticket if you invested enough time into hunting.

You might find that price on sun country out of MSP (I've gone that route going up to the PNW a few times), but yeah, you'd have the other additional costs

 

[2speedy1]

That's what I'm saying, it's usually closer to double that. Though I'm guessing you MIGHT be able to find a $200 ticket if you invested enough time into hunting.

It was going to cost my 5 person family $5-7K to fly to Florida for the Holidays this year. I realize holidays are bad times. But I looked at other times and it still would be close to $4k to book flights to pretty much anywhere we thought of going over the next 6 months. Allegiant you can get a bit cheaper, but by the time you pay all the fees most places were about $750+ for 1 round trip ticket.

Does not take long to realize you save a lot of money driving at those prices. Hell I looked at taking the family to the Caribbean for the holidays. Flights were ridiculous, like $2-3K per ticket to the Bahamas, just stupid prices. I admit I didnt shop a lot, once I seen how high things were I just gave up and we had planned on driving until plans totally changed.

 

[besserheimerphat]

It was going to cost my 5 person family $5-7K to fly to Florida for the Holidays this year. I realize holidays are bad times. But I looked at other times and it still would be close to $4k to book flights to pretty much anywhere we thought of going over the next 6 months. Allegiant you can get a bit cheaper, but by the time you pay all the fees most places were about $750+ for 1 round trip ticket.

Does not take long to realize you save a lot of money driving at those prices. Hell I looked at taking the family to the Caribbean for the holidays. Flights were ridiculous, like $2-3K per ticket to the Bahamas, just stupid prices. I admit I didnt shop a lot, once I seen how high things were I just gave up and we had planned on driving until plans totally changed.

Our family, my parents and my brother's family are planning a big family vacation to Maui this summer (parents' 50th wedding anniversary, 70th birthdays and our 20th anniversary all next year). It's going to cost us about $3000 for airfare. I've been using Google Flights for price change alerts since October.

Prior to COVID there used to be relatively cheap direct flights from our regional Bellingham Airport through Alaska. But now it looks like Delta owns that route between Seattle and Maui.

 

[simply1]

Our family, my parents and my brother's family are planning a big family vacation to Maui this summer (parents' 50th wedding anniversary, 70th birthdays and our 20th anniversary all next year). It's going to cost us about $3000 for airfare. I've been using Google Flights for price change alerts since October.

Prior to COVID there used to be relatively cheap direct flights from our regional Bellingham Airport through Alaska. But now it looks like Delta owns that route between Seattle and Maui.

Alaska and Hawaiian still fly direct from SeaTac, might need to book delta to Seattle then price the other 2? Or drive to SeaTac

 

[Sousaclone]

The drive vs fly thing is always an interesting thing for me. I don't really like to fly, but a lot of times it's the only practical method. There are so many variables as well. Proximity to and size of your airport is a big factor, along with the flight schedule.

If it's under 12-14 hours and I have the time, I really don't mind driving somewhere. I drove from Omaha to Houston multiple times during the holidays. Sure I burned a combined total of ~12 hours compared to flying, but I find driving a lot less stressful. It can get boring through Oklahoma and Kansas, but I used it as a chance to shut my brain off or simply just unwind myself.

The one I never understood was former regional manager who would fly from Baton Rouge to Houston. It's a sub 4 hour drive, so there was no way a 1.25 hour flight made any sense to take, but I guess when your the southern region boss you can do what you want.


Back to topic, it looks like Southwest is somewhat successfully flying routes today? Bunch of delays (~15%) according to FlightAware, but not many cancellations.

 

[carvers4math]

FWIW both my flights tomorrow showing as on time. Fingers crossed.

Hope you made it and aren’t dumped on some tarmac!

 

[NWICY]

Well drive vs. fly I've decided there is no decent way to get to Lubbock Tx. Long freaking drive and I've never figured a good way to fly there. I've made the most the B12 campuses Austin and Lubbock are the 2 I have left.

 

[besserheimerphat]

Alaska and Hawaiian still fly direct from SeaTac, might need to book delta to Seattle then price the other 2? Or drive to SeaTac

I've only flown out of any place other than SeaTac like twice. I'm very familiar with SeaTac unfortunately.

Bellingham and now Paine Field (Everett) are good options if you want to get to a place like Oakland, Vegas, Phoenix, SLC, Denver, Palm Springs, etc. But for many trips you still have to go from/through SeaTac.

I know HI instituted some strict travel restrictions when COVID started and I think part of that was cracking down on the number of routes. Hopefully they'll get back up to speed in time for us to catch some cheaper fares.

 

[HFCS]

I had a 2 hr delay in Omaha but flight took off and connecting flight is on time. Seems I got lucky on very first day is wasn’t an s-storm.

 

[simply1]

I had a 2 hr delay in Omaha but flight took off and connecting flight is on time. Seems I got lucky on very first day is wasn’t an s-storm.

Great timing!

 

[keepngoal]

3/4 of these problems would be solved if the U.S. had tough penalties. If airlines were charged $2k per lost bag, 2x cost of ticket for any flight delayed by more than 2 hours(non weather). 4x cost of ticket for any flight delayed by more than 4 hours(non weather). 6x cost for 6+hours.

interesting take….

EU has pretty tough requirements on those that provide travel…. I would be for this in the US, nicely surprised you are there too.

Linky: https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm