ABearWithFurniture Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 With all the talk about airlines/airports making the rounds, just thought I'd throw this out there. I generally travel by plane at least one day approximately 40 weeks out of the year. My company, as one of their travel rules, specifically states we are to travel through SouthWest unless it doesn't fly into a local airport. So most of my flights I do use SW but fly most all the other carriers at some point during the year at least 1-2 times. I picked a random date in the future (Tuesday, June 10th, 2008) for a 1-way flight on each of the major carriers just to see what their cheapest flights, layovers, time was like and this is what I came up: (these are all base fares and don't include tax, checked bags, security fees, etc...) June 10 - Houston to LA SouthWest Flight 1564/1927 1 layover - Phoenix Price - $105 Total travel time (in hours including layover) - 5:05 United Airlines Flight 775/1449/6451 2 layovers - Denver and Phoenix Price - $178 Total travel time - 7:20 American Airlines Flight 3574/1109/813 2 layovers - Dallas and Austin Price - $212 Total travel time - 7:50 Delta Airlines Flight 2044/1030/7788 2 layovers - Atlanta and Phoenix Price - $245 Total travel time - 12:47 (but you get to see lot's of America ) Continental Airlines Flight CO1420/CO4380 1 layover - Atlanta Price $403 Total travel time - 7:33 NorthWest Airlines Flight 3823/3586/181 2 layovers - Atlanta and Memphis Price $1,247 Total travel time - 9:44 Jet Blue - Doesn't fly from Houston to LA Reason for Southwest's cheap flights stems basically from this blurb I pulled from that StarTribune article about the airline ratings... "Southwest, which led the pack of big airlines with a customer satisfaction score of 79, is the only major U.S. carrier that is not being hammered by high fuel prices, because the Texas-based carrier hedged much of its fuel supply at lower prices." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broncosn05 Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 You forgot one which would be #2 on this list... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outshined Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 (edited) My guess is that NWA does not fly into HOU that much, so they code share with Delta to get you from HOU-ATL and then it is probably NWA from there. If you fly out of IAH, NWA drops to $482 and one layover. Who would want 2 layovers anyways on any of those flights Edited May 22, 2008 by Outshined Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABearWithFurniture Posted May 22, 2008 Author Share Posted May 22, 2008 Who would want 2 layovers anyways on any of those flights Especially since Atlanta is the other way...you almost get to fly back over the airport you left (5 hours before) on your way to your original destination... Point is, a lot of these airlines have operated on a monopoly mentality for years and years until SouthWest came along and defined pretty much what the friendly skies should be...JMHO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outshined Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 (edited) Point is, a lot of these airlines have operated on a monopoly mentality for years and years until SouthWest came along and defined pretty much what the friendly skies should be...JMHO Remember the Hawiian Airlines plane that opened like a sardine can over the pacific ocean 10-15 years ago? There were fatigue cracks in the fuselage that did not get repaired or were not found when the aircraft was in for a heavy maintenance inspection. Well since that happened, mandatory inspections were set in place for the 737's. Sometimes there is a reason they operate for less... Edited May 22, 2008 by Outshined Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEC=UGA Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 You should move somewhere else... Atlanta to LA on June 10th: Delta $154, 4 hr 23 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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