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Comment by krschultz | Hacker News Reader

Slightly offtopic, but does anyone dislike Southwest? I have spent my entire life flying Continental out of EWR because they were basically the only option and I had a pile of FF miles, but now I'm near 2 Southwest hubs and I'm thinking of making the switch since I'm almost out of Continental miles. It seems very different but I've read a lot of positive things about Southwest.

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I don't know anyone who actively dislikes Southwest, but I do know people who dislike certain policies:

- Open seating instead of assigned seating. First on the plane = first pick of seats, and you board the plane in order of when you checked in (online or at the counter.) I personally like this, but some people don't.

- Limited amenities. Bring your own entertainment.

- Singing flight attendants. On some flights, the crew giving the safety briefing will "spruce it up" by singing or doing it as dramatic poetry or something. I think it's fun, but some people find it grating.

To be fair, you also have to factor in the SWA clientele, which is noticeably less business-centric than even Airtran.

In Texas, SWA is a favorite of many, many business travelers, not least because of the casual on-board atmosphere and the funny (as in humorous) and good-natured flight attendants. Friday-afternoon flights can be almost like a party.

Perhaps that's because SWA is a Texan company and they "get" the airline?

It's a different experience, even from the other discount carriers. If you can get your head around it, SWA is easy to love: straightforward pricing and scheduling, no-frills and no-hassle.

The thing that sets most people off is the lack of assigned seating, but in the past year or so that's been mooted by the "buy your way into group AA" option.

I usually choose other airlines, because often the Southwest flights to whe I want to go have too many stops. I like a few things about them though. First, they help keep the other airlines prices down. Second, when I do fly them and have a stop or a plane change, I'm back up in the air again in no time.

The number of hops on a SW flight to a non-major destination has gotten me down, as well as (at least a few years ago) the lack of transparency on the website/tickets about how many hops you might end up on.

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