Comments on: Checked Baggage Fees : Will They Go Away? Can You Avoid Them?

By: Eric

Eric — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:19:00 +0000

There is a way around those stupid baggage fees. Carry your baggabe onto the airplane with you. Attempt to place the article into the overhead bins. When it is certain that your bag will not fit, call the flight attendane and they will happily check your bag to your destination for you without charge.

By: » Airline Baggage Fees : The Airline Industry’s Financial Salvation? - SimpliFlying || Aviation :: Branding :: Technology || Airline marketing, airline brand management, social media, Web 2.0

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:11:24 +0000

[...] months ago I addressed baggage fees here, 28/03/2009 – Checked Baggage Fees : Will They Go Away? Can You Avoid Them? , and stated I that I thought baggage fees were here to stay. Looking at the overall baggage free [...]

By: Flying With Fish » Airline Baggage Fees : The Airline Industry’s Financial Salvation?

Thu, 14 May 2009 00:40:57 +0000

By: flyingfish

flyingfish — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:19:49 +0000

Nobody,

I was responding to someone else in the same terms they were using. Generally I write my posts using an airline’s IATA code for many airlines, then go back and insert the airline names, this is done out of habit.

Many people know the airline codes, in fact if you go to most airports and look up at the Departures/Arrivals boards the flights are listed with each airlines’s two letter code rather than the name of the airline. This is why many airports also now show the logo of the airline, because people were confused seeing “B6″ listed instead of JetBlue.

When I write quite replies to comments I flip between codes and names, just because I am writing quickly. As you can see in my above post I referred to the airline as “Southwest”, “SWA” and “WN.”

I am sorry if this caused you any confusion.

Happy Flying!

-Fish

By: Nobody

Nobody — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:36:33 +0000

…Then why don’t you frickin’ say Southwest…Is it that frickin’ hard to do? Of course then you won’t get to look so frickin’ COOL by using coded nomenclature that three other people know.

By: flyingfish

flyingfish — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:02:46 +0000

John,

As Dan Webb pointed out WN is the IATA airline code for Southwest Airlines. Some codes are easy, AA = American Airlines, BA = British Airways and some are much more challenging to sort out , such as B6 = JetBlue and 3G for Atlant-Soyuz Airlines.

…sorry for the late reply. I’ve been traveling through 3 countries and 2 continents for most of day.

Happy Flying!

-Fish

By: Dan Webb

Dan Webb — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:51:14 +0000

Hi John – WN is the IATA code for Southwest.

And thanks for the blog link, Fish!

By: John

John — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 04:44:47 +0000

WN?

Sorry, I don’t get that acronym.

John
(who wonders if he gets Frequent Reader miles?)

By: flyingfish

flyingfish — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:39:40 +0000

PS:

For those of you reading these comments, check out Dan’s blog ‘Things In The Sky’ at http://www.thingsinthesky.com He has some good stuff over there.

Happy Flying!

-Fish

By: flyingfish

flyingfish — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:37:18 +0000

Dan,

I agree that WN is certainly winning on many consumer traveller fronts. Casual travellers do not think about upgrades, lounge access, elite lines, immigrations fast-track and other perks. Casual travelers also don’t tend to mind point-to-point flights or a lack of code shares.

While business travellers put a lot into the airlines economy, causual travellers are a substantial portion of an airlines economics.

That said, I like Southwest, and I have flown Southwest for a very long time. SWA has a good on-time record, staff is almost always willing to go the distance for a flyer, if there is a problem the agents are empowered to deal with it and the planes are generally quite clean. As I get no domestic upgrades any longer (all FF programs are foreign) WN is often one the first places I look for flights…and it has nothing to do with baggage fees.

I also know a number of business travellers who were woo’d by WN’s frequent flyer perk of flying with a companion at no fee. I’d love to see a legacy carrier match that!

Happy Flying!

-Fish