Winglet to winglet on Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines will now charge $25 for an unaccompanied minor and $25 for overweight or a third piece of luggage. They will also allow pets to fly and will charge a “pet fare” of $75. Up until last fall Southwest did not post a loss in 17 years, but it has had to post losses for the past three quarters, mostly due to their locked in fuel prices.
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly stated, “We truly believe in setting the right customer expectation and not charging for those amenities that a customer would ‘expect’ to get for free.” He also points out that all other major airlines in the US already charge these fees.
Although it might be disappointing that Southwest is adding some minor fees, I think it can be understandable in the given airline industry climate.
Source: Baltimore Sun Image: Rob Speed
argh. what about the people who are allergic to pets? this just doesn’t seem worth it to me. i mean i personally don’t care so much since i am not allergic, but others might.
SW has held out a long time, but I have to agree that if you want “extras”, you should pay for them. The whole airline industry was changed so much since deregulation. People want cheap fares. You can’t have it both ways!
Duece can fly with me??? Like on the seat next to me? Totally awesome. My only complaint is those yappy little dogs like I had on my last 6 hour flight… seriously, two small yappy dogs in the middle of the plane yapping the entire way. NOT worth it.
It’s about that time when Southwest started charging fees. I saw the cnbc special on week in the life of American Airlines which was very interesting and they discussed the locked gas prices southwest had, good info on your blog though. They will have to pull their no fee commercials as they are joing the crowd. I like the fact my dogs can join me in a trip to vega now through southwest, though I don’t see that as a major selling point.
[...] airport, the hitch-hikes were exterminated, and the aircraft was fumigated overnight. Southwest recently started allowing pets to fly on their aircraft, but I don’t think this is what they had in [...]
Thank you ever so for you post.Much thanks again. Want more.
mc411 – I honestly don’t think it will be a big deal. Airlines have been doing this for a long time and even Southwest has pointed out they have allowed service animals on their flights with no issues. If you think about it, there is a lot of pet dander already on every flight, even without any pets aboard. There are always going to be pet owners who are on the plane with their dander.
We shall see, I am sure Southwest will lose some business over this, but will make up for it with the addtional fees.
David
I think Southwest did a good job annoucing that pets could fly at the sametime adding a few fees. Most media outlets aren’t even covering the fees.
Well they have rules that the pet has to fit into a container that can fit in the seat in front of you — the pets are not allowed out. So if Duece is small enough to do that he can ride with you under the seat!