I am a somehow crazy traveler. One thing I would keep working on without procrastination, if this weren’t counted as one, is searching air tickets. Then I am on the way. When I was in OB class in first year, I studied a case on WestJet, a so-called low-cost airline company. But I found this wasn’t the case. For most flights the tickets were as expensive as those from Air Canada. But it was the same time that I knew Southwest Airline.
I didn’t get to fly with them till last winter break when I solo traveled to 10 cities in U.S. within 17 days. I concluded some findings why I thought Southwest was successful:
1. Simple in-flight service. No matter it’s an one-hour flight or seven hours, they don’t serve food. You can buy chips if I remember it. It cuts down their cost and so I get to pay less.
2. Online deal. Southwest’s web only deals are so damn cheap. All my flights were like $49 for short trips or $99 for longer trips. But you need to book early. Of course.
3. Their routes. This was something I found interesting but not confirmed whether this was always the case. The cross-country routes always have stops at their major airports, such as Midway, Chicago. So the basic idea I thought was they gather all passengers to their “hubs” first, and then distribute them again to their destinations.
4. Constant savings. I hate receiving subscribed emails…they are just annoying. But hey, if you pay attention to the flyers Southwest sends out, they always offer good deals, and most importantly, they normally don’t have black-out dates!
Anyway, these were what I found out after traveling with Southwest for 9 times. I am actually going to do some research on how they really succeeded as a low-cost airline company. Maybe I will have another post for my research results. I am just interested.
~Henry
