It is nonstop. Saturday only. 2 weekends. So nothing major but it is something and unexpected for sure.
It's actually one-way STL-ECP on 3/21 and one-way ECP-STL on 3/28. One of the most bizarre one-offs I've seen.jshank83 wrote: ↑Nov 25, 2019It is nonstop. Saturday only. 2 weekends. So nothing major but it is something and unexpected for sure.
It amazes me how much service we have to the panhandle in general in spring/summer. Especially since plenty of people make that drive also.gregl wrote: ↑Nov 25, 2019It's actually one-way STL-ECP on 3/21 and one-way ECP-STL on 3/28. One of the most bizarre one-offs I've seen.
Allegiant is upping to 13x a week to Destin.
Southwest ran 8x to Panama City last year and 2x to Pensacola over summer.
Over 3 flights a day average just seems like a lot.
The South Walton Beaches are massively popular with families from St. Louis.
We drove down over the 4th of July this year, but it was juuuust long enough (especially with holiday traffic) that I would consider the cost of flying five people to be potentially worth it.
We drove down over the 4th of July this year, but it was juuuust long enough (especially with holiday traffic) that I would consider the cost of flying five people to be potentially worth it.
Southwest opened their summer schedule today. No new routes but lots of frequency changes
Austin/Milwaukee/San Antonio go to 3x a day
Seattle 2x
Boston 5x
Denver 7x
Plus other adds to New Orleans/Vegas/other. I haven't been thru is all yet.
Montego Bay and Punta Cana are Sat and Sun. Punta Cana didn't run summer last year.
Cancun back to daily.
Speaking of Panhandle Pensacola and Panama city both get 3x on Saturday. Pensacola also runs on Sunday and Panama city is daily and then 2x Sunday.
Austin/Milwaukee/San Antonio go to 3x a day
Seattle 2x
Boston 5x
Denver 7x
Plus other adds to New Orleans/Vegas/other. I haven't been thru is all yet.
Montego Bay and Punta Cana are Sat and Sun. Punta Cana didn't run summer last year.
Cancun back to daily.
Speaking of Panhandle Pensacola and Panama city both get 3x on Saturday. Pensacola also runs on Sunday and Panama city is daily and then 2x Sunday.
The number of Missouri and Illinois plates you see down there is amazing.
Southwest Airlines, the largest carrier at St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), is boosting frequencies across its June 2020 schedule with an additional 14 to 22 daily departures versus its early summer 2019 schedule. The airline’s summer 2020 Sunday schedule will peak out with 142 daily departures, 22 more than the same time period in 2019. The Mon-Friday schedules will peak at 132 daily departures, 14 more than a year ago. The Saturday schedules will peak at 117 daily departures, up 14 flights as well, over 2019.
https://www.flystl.com/newsroom/stl-new ... departures
https://www.flystl.com/newsroom/stl-new ... departures
How does that compare to Midway and Love?jshank83 wrote: ↑Dec 11, 2019Southwest Airlines, the largest carrier at St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), is boosting frequencies across its June 2020 schedule with an additional 14 to 22 daily departures versus its early summer 2019 schedule. The airline’s summer 2020 Sunday schedule will peak out with 142 daily departures, 22 more than the same time period in 2019. The Mon-Friday schedules will peak at 132 daily departures, 14 more than a year ago. The Saturday schedules will peak at 117 daily departures, up 14 flights as well, over 2019.
https://www.flystl.com/newsroom/stl-new ... departures
^ Someone posted this recently over on Airliners.net. We were at about 51 % of Midway's operations as of May 2019:
https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtop ... #p21834957
https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtop ... #p21834957
Percent of seats in May 2019 for southwest airlines relative to largest airport
100.0% Chicago–Midway
91.2% Las Vegas
90.4% Baltimore
86.9% Denver
77.6% Dallas–Love
75.9% Phoenix–Sky Harbor
69.7% Houston–Hobby
51.3% Oakland
51.2% Orlando
51.0% STL ~ Not a base of operations
50.7% Atlanta
50.6% BNA ~ Not a base of operations
50.1% Los Angeles
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Its impressive growth in one year. Certainly calls into question how privatization could possibly result in better management, growth, etc. Of course if one is just looking for a payday then maybe it also bumps up the value of a lease agreement which means more money. Right?
The good news is there is still plenty of space for growth for Southwest at Lambert.
I just wish they would assign seats. I hate that cattle call cluster.
I go to Phoenix three times a year and fly American every time because I hate the boarding at Southwest. I pay maybe 30 bucks more but the thought of getting stuck in a middle seat on a 3 hour flight gives me a panic attack.
I just wish they would assign seats. I hate that cattle call cluster.
I go to Phoenix three times a year and fly American every time because I hate the boarding at Southwest. I pay maybe 30 bucks more but the thought of getting stuck in a middle seat on a 3 hour flight gives me a panic attack.
^ Pay for Early Bird and you will never get stuck in a middle seat. The boarding process on WN now is not nearly as bad as it was back in the 80's/90's. That was a true cattle call with people standing in line up to an hour before boarding.
Agreed. I don't know why they wouldn't just change that. Makes traveling with someone else way more difficult.Rooster wrote: ↑Dec 12, 2019The good news is there is still plenty of space for growth for Southwest at Lambert.
I just wish they would assign seats. I hate that cattle call cluster.
I go to Phoenix three times a year and fly American every time because I hate the boarding at Southwest. I pay maybe 30 bucks more but the thought of getting stuck in a middle seat on a 3 hour flight gives me a panic attack.
I honestly have never understood what the cost benefit to Southwest is. How much can it cost to print a aisle number and A, B, C, D, E, F on a piece of paperflipz wrote: ↑Dec 12, 2019Agreed. I don't know why they wouldn't just change that. Makes traveling with someone else way more difficult.Rooster wrote: ↑Dec 12, 2019The good news is there is still plenty of space for growth for Southwest at Lambert.
I just wish they would assign seats. I hate that cattle call cluster.
I go to Phoenix three times a year and fly American every time because I hate the boarding at Southwest. I pay maybe 30 bucks more but the thought of getting stuck in a middle seat on a 3 hour flight gives me a panic attack.
I would guess (and this might be wrong) they think boarding goes faster. Or that at least is part of it. Than people in a group going to all different parts of the plane, it fills up in order, mostly. So they can turn the plane faster.Rooster wrote: ↑Dec 12, 2019I honestly have never understood what the cost benefit to Southwest is. How much can it cost to print a aisle number and A, B, C, D, E, F on a piece of paperflipz wrote: ↑Dec 12, 2019Agreed. I don't know why they wouldn't just change that. Makes traveling with someone else way more difficult.Rooster wrote: ↑Dec 12, 2019The good news is there is still plenty of space for growth for Southwest at Lambert.
I just wish they would assign seats. I hate that cattle call cluster.
I go to Phoenix three times a year and fly American every time because I hate the boarding at Southwest. I pay maybe 30 bucks more but the thought of getting stuck in a middle seat on a 3 hour flight gives me a panic attack.
I really don't have a big issue with it. Having an assigned seat is nice but I rarely have an issue getting a seat I want. And I don't have A-list or Early bird. It gets a little tougher now that we are a connecting hub since people connecting here get to check in before us. For me it is just the having to be ready 24 hours early to check in thing that is annoying, but I am too cheap to pay the 20 bucks for early bird.
Sidenote, if any of you have status on another airline Southwest is matching it. So you can get a-list for free for a year.
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Re SWA boarding procedure:
Ihave never been left to an open seat. Nor have I ever had to sit away from a family member. People save seats for loved ones and travel companions all the time and If you have young children you get priority boarding after A group. AAANNNDDD (if you’re smart) you can send about as much luggage as you want with no fees.
Only people who get stuck with a middle seat are the folks who forget to checkin.
Ihave never been left to an open seat. Nor have I ever had to sit away from a family member. People save seats for loved ones and travel companions all the time and If you have young children you get priority boarding after A group. AAANNNDDD (if you’re smart) you can send about as much luggage as you want with no fees.
Only people who get stuck with a middle seat are the folks who forget to checkin.
I got stuck in the middle seat once thank goodness only a flight to Chicago. It was prior to the early bird thing.moorlander wrote: ↑Dec 12, 2019Re SWA boarding procedure:
Ihave never been left to an open seat. Nor have I ever had to sit away from a family member. People save seats for loved ones and travel companions all the time and If you have young children you get priority boarding after A group. AAANNNDDD (if you’re smart) you can send about as much luggage as you want with no fees.
Only people who get stuck with a middle seat are the folks who forget to checkin.
I am claustrophobic and if I am in C group my palms sweat.
No has ever given me a reason that make sense for the cattle call.
^^ Yeah I fly Southwest 20-30 times a year and I agree. Full disclosure, I am A-List so I have a few other benefits that others don't, but even before that I never had any issues getting an aisle seat and whatnot as long as I checked in early enough.
Regarding Southwest continuing to increase frequency here, that is fantastic news. But as a frequent Southwest user, I'm getting fed up with the space issues at the East Terminal. Gate wise, there is plenty of space for further SWA expansion (I'm assuming another gate expansion in the old D gates is coming soon), but pickups and drop offs are getting ridiculous. As is baggage claim. I know they have plans to expand the baggage area and that can't come soon enough, but I thought I heard that was delayed. I know holidays are always going to be a little worse than usual, but the traffic backups are getting asinine. I picked my buddy up around 10pm two days before Thanksgiving and the T2 traffic on the main airport road was backed up past the Main Terminal. When I came in three days before the holiday I had a 20min wait for a Lyft because he was trapped in the traffic from the 170/70 exit into the airport from the east, his position never did end up changing lol. Finally just had to cancel and get a taxi. This was also one of the rare times I checked a bag. They had 8 recently arrived flights all on one carousel while the other just sat there empty and turned off lol.
I understand SWA's reasoning for wanting to maintain their presence in a single terminal and I know this won't happen...but damn...just move them to T1 and let them have all of C. So much extra baggage and pick up and drop off space. Or at the bare minimum at least get the damn D Concourse open so people could walk through to T1 which would make it a little easier on the pickups and drop offs. Anyway, sorry for the rant...I couldn't be more thrilled about how much busier Lambert is getting, but it's getting to the point of inconvenience in T2.
Regarding Southwest continuing to increase frequency here, that is fantastic news. But as a frequent Southwest user, I'm getting fed up with the space issues at the East Terminal. Gate wise, there is plenty of space for further SWA expansion (I'm assuming another gate expansion in the old D gates is coming soon), but pickups and drop offs are getting ridiculous. As is baggage claim. I know they have plans to expand the baggage area and that can't come soon enough, but I thought I heard that was delayed. I know holidays are always going to be a little worse than usual, but the traffic backups are getting asinine. I picked my buddy up around 10pm two days before Thanksgiving and the T2 traffic on the main airport road was backed up past the Main Terminal. When I came in three days before the holiday I had a 20min wait for a Lyft because he was trapped in the traffic from the 170/70 exit into the airport from the east, his position never did end up changing lol. Finally just had to cancel and get a taxi. This was also one of the rare times I checked a bag. They had 8 recently arrived flights all on one carousel while the other just sat there empty and turned off lol.
I understand SWA's reasoning for wanting to maintain their presence in a single terminal and I know this won't happen...but damn...just move them to T1 and let them have all of C. So much extra baggage and pick up and drop off space. Or at the bare minimum at least get the damn D Concourse open so people could walk through to T1 which would make it a little easier on the pickups and drop offs. Anyway, sorry for the rant...I couldn't be more thrilled about how much busier Lambert is getting, but it's getting to the point of inconvenience in T2.
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Sunday is my 51st and final flight of the year, due to 99% of our work being with the Dept of Defense we have to fly within reason the lowest price for that particular trip so as you can imagine I’ve flown AA for all my trips to Texas, United to Northeast (few AA trips to DC), SW mostly to Arkansas (direct to Little Rock) and 1 delta trip to ATL. I really have no preference but I do like AA main cabin extra the best.
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Southwest really does seem to turn their aircraft around quicker than other airlines. Obviously the free checked bags help with that, but supposedly the boarding process encourages people to get their things in the overhead bin and get in the seat quickly when they spot one they like. That said . . . I still hate 737s and didn't find their cabin particularly comfortable compared to the majors. But at this point I'm pretty much a comfort plus or better believer. (Especially since I tend to fly long haul.)
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Relevant video on boarding methods.
Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
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I thought SW's boarding process (or lack of seat numbers on tickets) had to do with their antiquated computer system? Am I misremembering that?
I agree with all of this, especially the last paragraph.sc4mayor wrote: ↑Dec 12, 2019^^ Yeah I fly Southwest 20-30 times a year and I agree. Full disclosure, I am A-List so I have a few other benefits that others don't, but even before that I never had any issues getting an aisle seat and whatnot as long as I checked in early enough.
Regarding Southwest continuing to increase frequency here, that is fantastic news. But as a frequent Southwest user, I'm getting fed up with the space issues at the East Terminal. Gate wise, there is plenty of space for further SWA expansion (I'm assuming another gate expansion in the old D gates is coming soon), but pickups and drop offs are getting ridiculous. As is baggage claim. I know they have plans to expand the baggage area and that can't come soon enough, but I thought I heard that was delayed. I know holidays are always going to be a little worse than usual, but the traffic backups are getting asinine. I picked my buddy up around 10pm two days before Thanksgiving and the T2 traffic on the main airport road was backed up past the Main Terminal. When I came in three days before the holiday I had a 20min wait for a Lyft because he was trapped in the traffic from the 170/70 exit into the airport from the east, his position never did end up changing lol. Finally just had to cancel and get a taxi. This was also one of the rare times I checked a bag. They had 8 recently arrived flights all on one carousel while the other just sat there empty and turned off lol.
I understand SWA's reasoning for wanting to maintain their presence in a single terminal and I know this won't happen...but damn...just move them to T1 and let them have all of C. So much extra baggage and pick up and drop off space. Or at the bare minimum at least get the damn D Concourse open so people could walk through to T1 which would make it a little easier on the pickups and drop offs. Anyway, sorry for the rant...I couldn't be more thrilled about how much busier Lambert is getting, but it's getting to the point of inconvenience in T2.