Comments on: Trip Report: A Stop in Every Time Zone

By: CF

CF — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:41:30 +0000

Nick – I’m not sure why Southwest continues to avoid redeyes. I believe in the past it was related to aircraft maintenance schedules, but I can’t imagine that would be the case for such a large fleet these days. Maybe it’s crew scheduling? But you would think that would be a good way to increase utilization time and help spread out the costs.

By: Nick Barnard

Nick Barnard — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:37:36 +0000

I think I’ll have to put Southwest near the top of my list to fly in the near future. I’ve never quite gotten the appeal (besides the fares.) Quite frankly I appreciate a good quiet flight. Although I’m all for a humorous safety briefing.) (An aside: I like how JetBlue gets their announcements out of the way in a quick announcement at the beginning of the flight.)

The major draw away from Southwest for me as of late has been the lack of redeyes flying east.. I pretty much refuse to waste a whole day flying east. Why do they have an aversion to redeyes?

By: CF

CF — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:15:19 +0000

Ivan – I’m working on my year end tribute to airlines that went under in 2007, and that’s where I’ll talk about MAXjet. Unfortunately, I am not able to get any inside information. I know they were bleeding cash for a variety of reasons and just couldn’t raise any more.

By: Ivan B Zhabin

Ivan B Zhabin — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:07:16 +0000

Ah, the fascination with old-school Southwest… Many short hops and holiday schedule–sounds familiar. I have flown them on Thanksgiving Day a couple of years ago, and when choosing flights found it amusing that they practically shut down for the afternoon. It’s the right thing to do though.

Off topic, but I think the readership anxiously waits for CF comments re: MaxJet debacle, given the prior “Across the isle” interview with one of their VPs.