Southwest’s new “change fee court” ads

1K: Go to hell, bigot.

@ Helixcardinal. That's great to hear about UAL, but that must be a new policy. My brother-in-law was charged a total of $700 for changing his ticket seven times when our father-in-law was dying of cancer in 2007. That's why he won't fly UAL anymore. At AA (AMR), unless they've also changed their tune recently, it's the same story. I was on a business trip to NorCal when my father was murdered. I was charged $125 to change my ticket and get back home. They allowed me to change the return date for free (because the fare allowed it) but insisted they had to collect the change fee. Later, when I spoke with the AAdvantage Platinum Desk, they confirmed the position of the SJC ticket agent and assured me they could not do anything to waive the fee. I have plenty of miles to use on AA over the next few years but when I pay to travel, I fly Southwest. FYI: As far as changing flights on the day of departure, it depends on what fare type (bucket) is available when you make the change on WN. I can fly from DAL to LAX, two hours from now, for $129. No advance purchase, no crazy change fees, no bag fees, just inventory controlled (i.e. not available when the flights are full/er. ). That's much better than you'll find on any Legacy carrier. The other big difference on WN, fares are all one way. If you're going round trip, you'll buy two one way tickets. That's where some of the confusion come into play. And where you'll find the loop holes in changing Legacy vs. WN.

Look, the WN ads are not targeted to most of you here. Most of us have some sort of status with a legacy and don't pay change fees anyway. However, these ads resonate with large parts of the population that travel once or twice a year. No bag fees and no change fees are huge for the occassional traveler. That being said I would much rather fly WN than any legacy carrier on a domestic segment. To me time is money and as such WN makes a much better use of it than the legacies do. Two examples: Boston suburb to DC. I drove to PVD and went WN to BWI to train to DC. Co worker drove to BOS took DL Shuttle to DCA. I won by over an hour. Same coworker in first on US from PHL to Chicago, I was on WN. In PHL WN used runway 35 to get out while coworker sat in 45 min lineup to get out. Beat him to inner loop hotel by 100 mins even though he left 35 mins prior to me.

thanks for posting these - hilarious. that mom in the second video is the definition of a "kettle!" let's just hope she flies southwest so I don't have to hear her complain on my next AA flight cause she had to pay a change fee. great blog!

@Annise, @Jason - just trying to be controversial. ;) And just so you know, I'm not white (Asian-American) & I'm gay, so I joke about it. The guy in the video IS very fruity AND half the jury is black. Just pointing out the obvious (to me at least). I'm sorry I offended you both.