I’ve flown quite a bit, and I usually fly AA because they’re usually the cheapest. I don’t really have any complaints about them except their charge of $15 per bag you check in each way! That adds up quick, especially if you’re paying for 2 people.
But someone suggested Southwest Airlines to me for my most recent trip back to Chicago. They were very cheap, no charge for checked bags, AND they were awesome! Here’s what was different that I really liked:
1. They were humorous. On my flight home, they made an announcement that they were going to be serving drinks. 5 seconds later, he got back on the intercom, and whispered in a breathy voice: “You are veeeery sleepy! You don’t want anything to drink…” It almost sounded like a passenger picked up the mic and was messing around! It was great! Really lightened the mood, and made my trip 10X better. I think we need that a little bit on plane trips. With 911, and constant news stories about plane crashes, riding on a plane doesn’t make you feel a whole lot better, but if you know the crew is relaxed, and they’re litening up the mood a little but, it really helps.
Secondly, near the end of our trip, the flight attendants was going around with a big bags of nuts and snacks and just giving them to people, in a very humorous way, though. Saying things like “you were really good this flight, you get some extra snacks!” One guy, I heard her say “you didn’t get any snacks when I came by before? Here you go, take the whole bag!” And she gave him this bag with about 30 packs of peanuts in it! It was awesome.
2. No charge for the 1st checked in bag.
3. If you have a small dog, you can bring him on the plane (in a proper cage) for only $75, which is half the price of AA. Ours wasn’t small enough. :-(
4. They were very nice. AND, Steph and I were talking about how contrary to the movies, most flight attendants aren’t very good looking. This flight had a lady who was! Not gorgeous by any means, but “good looking”.
5. You can sit wherever you want. We found this out the hard way, when we waited to be some of the last people to board (on purpose). Steph had to ask a guy to move so we could sit by each other. But on the way home, we didn’t have any issues.