Back from the quick trip to Dayton.  Flew Southwest into Columbus, and drove down to DAY.  Like every trip I’ve taken on Southwest, I get home and think about how I can understand why some people are fanatical fans of them…..and why others aren’t.  Frankly, if all I ever had to do was fly short flights to/from Columbus and similar spots, they might be my number one airline too.  Great inflight crews this trip.  I’ll write up a little trip report later in the week, or perhaps this weekend.  Unfortunately, the outbound flight wound up not having wi-fi as suggested might happen by an email from Southwest the night before our trip.  More to come.  It’s good to be home.

Tomorrow, I’m flying Southwest Airlines for the first time in about a year.  MrsMJonTravel and I are headed to Dayton, but flying into Columbus and driving down.  The airfares out of DCA straight into Dayton were stratospheric, and I’ve never been an AirTran fan.  I suppose that won’t matter much longer with Southwest’s acquisition of AirTran.

I was excited to get an email from Southwest today announcing that our flight was scheduled to have Wi-Fi.  I hope there’s no equipment change because I’m looking forward to trying Southwest’s service provided by Row 44.  According to the email, the service will be available for an introductory price of $5 dollars.  I’ll be sure to blog about the experience.

For this trip, I elected to purchase Early Bird Check In for the roundtrip.  I checked in this afternoon, and received A17 and A18 boarding passes.  Good thing I did EBCI, because it didn’t cross my mind to check in for our 2:30pm flight until well after 5:00pm this afternoon!  I’ll let you know how the trip goes.

As you know, I do not comment on matters of aviation safety.  So you’ll find no pontification about the where’s, why’s, and how’s of a hole developing in the fuselage of a Southwest 737.  However, I thought this story by a blogger who was on board the flight, The Blue Muse, was worth sharing.  It’s a good story.  Read it.

In a pretty rare misstep, Southwest’s conversion from the old credit-based Rapid Rewards to the new points based program wasn’t exactly without bugs.  In fact, my account still shows 0 points even though I had existing credits.  Turns out, that was by design.  Check out this blog post by Southwest’s Senior Director of Customer Loyalty and Partnerships.  Looks like I’ll have to wait until our Easter trip to Ohio to see anything but a big zero in my Rapid Rewards account.

I’ve had a day or so to think about the changes Southwest is making to its Rapid Rewards program in March.  I don’t fly Southwest very often, perhaps 2 or 3 times per year, and the changes to Rapid Rewards are not going to impact that.  I fly Southwest when it makes really good sense to do so, and only then.  I don’t dislike Southwest, I just find that other airlines, and especially other frequent flier programs are more beneficial to me.  When Southwest finally comes to DCA, then maybe they’ll work a little better for me.  Time will tell.

In any event…on to the changes.  In summary, Rapid Rewards is evolving from a flight credit per segment system to a points system based on dollars paid, a system not unlike its fellow “low cost” (as debatable as that term is for Southwest) airlines JetBlue and Virgin America.  The more you pay for your ticket, the more points you’ll earn.  Customers that purchase higher tier fares get extra points.  Business Select fares will earn 12 points per dollar and Anytime fares will earn 10 points per dollar.  Lower “Wanna Get Away” fares will net 6 points per dollar.  You’ll still be able to earn flights with the popular Southwest Visa Card from Chase.  Purchases from Southwest and their Rapid Rewards partners earn 2 points per dollars spent while other purchases earn 1 point per dollar.  And in a new twist, holders of the Visa card can use their points to book international flights, which I assume is going to be managed by Chase and handled like their own proprietary points program.   Just as before you can earn points from Rapid Rewards partners like hotels, rental cars, etc.  Get the scoop on Southwest’s website.

But what about free flights you ask?  Well, with the new program, every available seat can be an award seat.  However, the amount of points you spend for the seat will vary based on the cost of a ticket on the flight.  For example, if a “Wanna Get Away” fare is available on you flight for $100 dollars, you’ll need to spend 60 points per fare dollar or 6,000 points.  If you find yourself trying to book a flight where the only seats available are at the Business Select fare, you’ll need to spend 120 points per fare dollar.  Anytime fares can be “paid” with 100 points per fare dollar.  So a $200 dollar Anytime fare will cost you 20,000 points.

That’s a quick summary of the new program, and there are a lot of other opinions floating around out there about how awful or how great these changes are.  From my perspective, there’s nothing awful about these changes.  I don’t think anyone should be surprised that Southwest created a program more like its closest competitors, and most notable, one that rewards bigger spenders more than those who always buy the lowest fare.  The program can still work for many, just not me at this point in time.

I’m still distilling this, but details on the new Rapid Rewards program are available at Southwest.com.  Comments to come.

Short answer, not as much as the pundits think.  Delta has been competing successfully with Air Tran for a long time now.  While Southwest is a much stronger company than Air Tran, the broohaha about their being some kind of low fare juggernaut is overrated if you ask me.  Their costs are higher than Air Tran’s, and at a minimum I think this means that it’s not likely that they are going to swoop in and throw a bunch of trash airfares into the Atlanta market.  Furthermore, most really informed travelers know that Southwest doesn’t always (if ever) offer the absolute lowest fare in any given market.  What they do offer is reasonable fares, generous ticket change policies, and the ability to check up to 2 pieces of luggage included in the cost of your base fare.

Delta has a fairly loyal base of business customers in the Atlanta market, first class cabins, normal boarding, assigned seats, and the ability to fly you to many, many more cities on its global network than a combined Air Tran and Southwest.  Delta will certainly need to be on its toes as it faces a much stronger competitor in its home town, a competitor with an almost mythical reputation for customer service.  But in the end, I just can’t see this deal being the end of the world for Delta….yet.  Opinions vary, and now you know mine.

I don’t typically blog about airline business deals, airline safety, and decisions made by the Departments of Transportation or Justice, or decisions they may make in the future.  I’ve got my reasons, and a little judicious googling would yield an answer as to why that’s the way I do things.  Of course, if I ever meet you in person, I’ll gladly explain why.  That said, I cannot let today’s announcement that Southwest Airlines is buying Air Tran pass by without saying anything.

I don’t fly Air Tran as a matter of personal preference, but I do fly Southwest from time to time.  Let’s face it, I think that today’s announcement may be just about the biggest deal in the history of domestic airline travel.  I’m a little loathe to use cute buzzwords like “game changer” but that’s exactly what this is.  I may not say much about the whole thing on the blog, but you can rest assured that I will be watching this deal move forward with great interest, and a little bit of envy for the folks who are making it happen.  And if I ever do meet you in person, I’ll be glad to discuss why I feel the way I do about this deal.

I had no idea this was in the works, but according to this Flyertalk.com thread, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) and Southwest Rapid Rewards are now partners.  You can earn .5 Rapid Rewards credits per qualifying stay at any Starwood hotel and transfer your Starwood points to Rapid Rewards at the rate of 1,500 points per Rapid Rewards credit.  This is one more travel option for those of us that carry the fabulous Starwood Preferred Guest credit card from American Express.  More details on the partnership here.

I’m a big fan of the Starwood Amex card, and carry it as my primary credit card.  Starwood points are among the most versatile of frequent traveler currencies out there, and I highly recommend that all travelers at least consider the Starwood Amex for their primary card.   Starwood points transfer 1 to 1 into most airline frequent traveler programs, United and Continental being notable exceptions.  While I’m not a big Southwest flier, this new partnership with Rapid Rewards is just one more feather in Starwood’s cap.  Visit spg.com/transfermiles for more details on the points to miles transfer program.  And oh yeah, you can use those Starwood points for hotel stays too. 

ETA: I just noticed Ric at Loyalty Traveler has weighed in on this topic.  Check out his post for more insight.

I’ve posted previously about my experience with Southwest’s Early Bird Check In (EBCI).  I thought I’d share the scoop on my most recent EBCI experiment.

Mrs MJonTravel and I took a trip from BWI to Columbus (CMH) over Mother’s Day weekend.  About 2 weeks before, I knew that I would be in the middle of a business trip at the 24 hour before check in point, and really in no position to check in for the next day’s Southwest flights.  Furthermore, at the 24 hour mark before our return flight, I would be sitting in the middle of a Church service and I really didn’t want to be whipping out the iPhone to check in, lest I be frowned upon by less understanding folks.

Seems to me that situations like that are exactly what EBCI is made for, so I went to Southwest.com and paid for it.  For the record, on the way out, we were A26 and 27, and on the return, A33 and A34.  I don’t think $10 dollars per person each way is at all unreasonable to ensure some peace of mind, and overhead bin space.  Flying Southwest?  Don’t forget to think about EBCI.  This is one extra fee that really is value-added.

Courtesy of Mrs MJonTravel, and possibly (probably since she received a mailer) targeted, so your mileage may vary.  Sign up for The Rapid Rewards Report and The Rapid Rewards E-mail Update at southwest.com/rremail by 5/31/10, remain subscribed for 3 months, and earn 2 Rapid Rewards credits.  No promises, but worth a shot if you aren’t receiving these emails already.