My brother forwarded me this unfortunate news about Southwest Airlines’ frequent flier program:
“After seven years of double credit for online flight bookings, Southwest is calling the promotion quits. Southwest loyalists have until December 31 to book tickets online and earn four credits per round-trip flight.” [Smarter Living]
This means that I’ll be earning only 6 free Southwest tickets per year. And unless they lower the present 100 credit threshold, I’m going to lose my Companion Pass next year. Oh well. All good things must come to an end.
On the plus side, Southwest has recently started to follow the example set by American Airlines in allowing the use of cell phones during taxi-in.
The airline industry across the board is sucking big time. Now that the fear of flying is past, it seems like they are no longer willing to offer decent rates and promotions. They just want people to fly again and allow them to break even.
I’m afraid that it will end up like the music industry though. People have decided that they don’t want to be raped on fees and won’t accept the current form of the industry. The first one to make flying comfortable and affordable to the average American will be the one to walk away with the prize.
I like Blister’s analogy with the music industry. What I really want is to duplicate airline seats on my pc. Anyone for Flightster?
My other favourite aircraft rant at the moment is that American are doing away with ‘More Room Throughout Coach’. Remember the commercials where they were taking rows out of coach? Now they’re putting them back in.