Southwest Approved ONLY from California

[Tamaradarann]

The relevance is that you can fly to any airport in SF Bay Area - and then get to OAK (or any of them).
(eg. We are flying LIH-OAK then, SJC-LAS by taking Lyft between OAK and LAS).
Unless I misunderstand the situation.


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I don't believe it is easy to get to any SF Bay Area airport from Long Island on Southwest. San Francisco is 2 stops coming and going including a nice undesired trip to Florida for a few hours. As I chided before, "I don't know why anyone would fly from Long Island to Florida to get to the West. Perhaps Southwest needs to study some geography in school before scheduling flights!!

 

[pedro47]

Tamaradarann, we lived in the Tidewater,VA and if we want to fly to Fort Lauderdale,FL flying Southwest these are our options:
1. Norfolk,VA to Chicago to Fort Lauderdale,FL
2. Norfolk,VA to Baltimore, Maryland to Fort Lauderdale,Fl.
Both flights with laid over time are over seven (7 1/2) hours

Sounds liked someone at Southwest needs to take that Geography 101 test on the TUGS website.

 

[PigsDad]

Tamaradarann, we lived in the Tidewater,VA and if we want to fly to Fort Lauderdale,FL flying Southwest these are our options:
1. Norfolk,VA to Chicago to Fort Lauderdale,FL
2. Norfolk,VA to Baltimore, Maryland to Fort Lauderdale,Fl.
Both flights with laid over time are over seven (7 1/2) hours

Sounds liked someone at Southwest needs to take that Geography 101 test on the TUGS website.

So you honestly expect a single airline to have point to point flights to wherever you want to go, especially when you are not even at a major airport??? Talk about unreasonable expectations!

Kurt

 

[pedro47]

The Norfolk Virginia Airport is an International Airport.

We travel to Richmond,Va International Airport and can fly direct from Richmond, Virginia to Fort Lauderdale, Fl. with Jet Blue. Driving time to Richmond is one hour and fifteen minutes. We take the early flight out of Richmond in th morning and we are in Fort Lauderdale before 10:30 AM the same morning.

Plus, it is still cheaper to fly from Richmond to Fort Lauderdale even after staying in a Marriott’s Courtyard for one night; parking is free. The hotel provides free shuttle service to and from the airport. We do tip the driver for his service. Also, we are earning Marriott’s points.

The total flight time is shorter and we are very please with Jet Blue service.
Finally, we are in the Sunshine state under 2 1/3 hours.

Unreasonable, I do not feel it is unreasonable IMHO.

 

[dougp26364]

The more I look at this, the more I feel SWA is concentrating on delivering service to Californians with everyone else as a secondary market. MAYBE, if business looks good enough, they’ll open route from Pheonix and, more likely, Las Vegas.

I could see Las Vegas as a strong contender for service to Hawaii for 2 reasons. First, Vegas is a popular destination for Hawaiians. Second, SWA’s already has a pretty strong route system nationwide going to Vegas because of its popularity.

For those of us living in the Midwest, unless current flight schedules just happen to work out with planned Hawaiian flight schedules, we’re going to have to wait until SWA’s decides it’s worth juggling some of their routes to meet up with west coast connections to Hawaii, and that might not be realistic. For the east coast they might have to wait until SWA opens up route to Hawaii that depart from Vegas or Pheonix.

 

[Pathways]

The more I look at this, the more I feel SWA is concentrating on delivering service to Californians with everyone else as a secondary market

Totally agree, this is as expected from a business like SWA. This is a huge change for them, so cherry pick the most profitable, and most likely to succeed routes which least disrupt their current business.

For those of us living in the Midwest, unless current flight schedules just happen to work out with planned Hawaiian flight schedules, we’re going to have to wait until SWA’s decides it’s worth juggling some of their routes to meet up with west coast connections to Hawaii

They do have a great connection into Midway (Chicago) already, only 10h 20m total time from HI. Go pretty much anywhere the next morning from MDW. This is actually a better connection than AK flies from the midwest. Only difference is with SWA your overnight layover is on the way back where AK it's usually outbound to HI. (Flight available right now from Indy to Maui in Sept for $183, depart 7am, arrive 1pm)

MAYBE, if business looks good enough, they’ll open route from Phoenix and, more likely, Las Vegas.

Many airline people say these two cities may be last on the list because of the way SWA utilizes their planes. They say free checked bags and fill every seat is too much weight for 737's taking off in the summer heat that will need FULL fuel tanks.

 

[PigsDad]

The Norfolk Virginia Airport is an International Airport.

And the Fargo, ND airport is an International Airport as well, but I hardly consider it a major airport!

Unreasonable, I do not feel it is unreasonable IMHO.

Well, we will just have to agree to disagree...

Kurt

 

[pedro47]

PigsDad, how would liked to fly from Norfolk, VA to up North in the winter to Chicago with a two hours lay over in Chicago and then fly back south to Fort Lauderdale, FL ?

PigsDad, hypothetically suppose you were traveling to Las Vegas by Southwest Airlines and the fight would take you to Chicago with a two (2) hours lay over in Chicago and then to Las Vegas.

Second option you could take a one hour drive to another airport in your state and fly direct to Las Vegas. Which option would you select?

I also have the right to agree to disagree. LOL

 

[PigsDad]

PigsDad, how would liked to fly from Norfolk, VA to up North in the winter to Chicago with a two hours lay over in Chicago and then fly back south to Fort Lauderdale, FL ?

PigsDad, hypothetically suppose you were traveling to Las Vegas by Southwest Airlines and the fight would take you to Chicago with a two (2) hours lay over in Chicago and then to Las Vegas.

Second option you could take a one hour drive to another airport in your state and fly direct to Las Vegas. Which option would you select?

In those cases I would look for another airline that had better connections. Your original post that I thought was ridiculous indicated that you thought Southwest needed to take a Geography class simply because they didn't offer a direct flight between two medium-sized markets. That's what I called unreasonable expectations.

Kurt

 

[Tamaradarann]

In those cases I would look for another airline that had better connections. Your original post that I thought was ridiculous indicated that you thought Southwest needed to take a Geography class simply because they didn't offer a direct flight between two medium-sized markets. That's what I called unreasonable expectations.

Kurt

Well I started bringing up the Geography Lesson needs of Southwest. I agree that our local Islip Airport is small and I don't expect a direct flight from there to Las Vegas or the West Coast. However, some flights from Islip do fly to Baltimore before flying West. That is reasonable. The one hour flight to Baltimore is slightly West and only a couple of hundred miles South. However, to fly to Florida which is 1200-1500 miles and 2.5 to 3 hours South to fly West is ridiculous.

 

[dougp26364]

Totally agree, this is as expected from a business like SWA. This is a huge change for them, so cherry pick the most profitable, and most likely to succeed routes which least disrupt their current business.



They do have a great connection into Midway (Chicago) already, only 10h 20m total time from HI. Go pretty much anywhere the next morning from MDW. This is actually a better connection than AK flies from the midwest. Only difference is with SWA your overnight layover is on the way back where AK it's usually outbound to HI. (Flight available right now from Indy to Maui in Sept for $183, depart 7am, arrive 1pm)



Many airline people say these two cities may be last on the list because of the way SWA utilizes their planes. They say free checked bags and fill every seat is too much weight for 737's taking off in the summer heat that will need FULL fuel tanks.

If Vegas and Pheonix are never added, it probably won’t be a major issue for most Midwest cities as SWA has resonable connections to get to LAX, Oakland or San Jose. We’ll just have at least 2 stops and or plane changes. Which isn’t a deal breaker as most routes for us involve 2 plane changes anyway.

 

[Tamaradarann]

If Vegas and Pheonix are never added, it probably won’t be a major issue for most Midwest cities as SWA has resonable connections to get to LAX, Oakland or San Jose. We’ll just have at least 2 stops and or plane changes. Which isn’t a deal breaker as most routes for us involve 2 plane changes anyway.

Since Southwest is flying direct from the West Coast to Hawaii I would hope they would start to consider direct flights from our local airport to the West Coast so that there would be 1 stop to Hawaii. The direct flight from JFK to Honolulu can be as inexpensive as $700 round trip. While the 2 bags free and free changeable reservation are very desirable, the direct flight may be too convenient when compared to 2 or 3 stops and an overnight stay in California.