Southwest Airlines closes three more routes from Atlanta. (2015, credit card)

[Atlwarrior]

Oh I wish Southwest would have just left Air Tran alone. Southwest appears to be on track to completely dismantling Air Tran previous route structure out of Atlanta.

Southwest Airlines from March 2015 is cancelling 3 Caribbean service from Atlanta. Affected routes and effective dates of cancellation as follow. eff 01MAR15 Atlanta – Aruba 1 weekly 737-700
eff 01MAR15 Atlanta – Montego Bay 1 weekly 737-700
eff 07MAR15 Atlanta – San Juan 1 daily 737-700

[SAAN]

This is why people hate mergers. The general public alot of time smiles and agrees with the airlines lies of better service and cheaper fares to comes with mergers, which always end up with less service and higher fares.

[onemanarmy]

Wow, I took that San Juan route in May and had intentions on traveling to both Aruba and Jamaica over the next 6 months using southwest.

[cwkimbro]

And Southwest had the nerve to run commercials about increasing competition....

[PKCorey]

I'm assuming, they are canceling non stop to force you to go through Orlando?

Southwest has totally destroyed Airtran.

[Pretzelogik]

Once a week flight to anywhere by any airline is totally uneconomical. Employees and infrastructure totally underused. Sorry bout that.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Pretzelogik

Once a week flight to anywhere by any airline is totally uneconomical. Employees and infrastructure totally underused. Sorry bout that.

They are very common for travel to vacation destinations where 1 stays are very common.

[ATL Golfer]

After flying Delta for decades, Southwest is a better product.

That and their loyalty program is great.

I just took my son to San Diego. I took out two SW Credit Cards. Rec'd 50k point bonus on each. Earned a companion pass for 2014/15. My son or wife or whoever I designate (can change up to 3 times in a calendar year) can fly FOR FREE with me weather I pay for my flight or use points on myself.

So, this San Diego trip. I used 20k points on myself (try getting a flight on Delta for under 40k points) and my son flew for $11 (security/airport charge).

TWO ROUNDTRIP FROM ATLANTA TO SAN DIEGO FOR 20K POINTS. INSANE. Oh, and my clubs flew for free.

[LovelySummer]

I get flights on Delta all the time for 25k and 32,500 miles. In fact, I just booked one today f2f or nonstop across the country leaving in three weeks. It can be done. I hate Delta too but I stick with them bc of the Skymiles program, which I used to purchase hotels in two countries in Europe this past year also. They are as bad as BOA. When you get too big, things do tend to go downhill.

Originally Posted by ATL Golfer

After flying Delta for decades, Southwest is a better product.

That and their loyalty program is great.

I just took my son to San Diego. I took out two SW Credit Cards. Rec'd 50k point bonus on each. Earned a companion pass for 2014/15. My son or wife or whoever I designate (can change up to 3 times in a calendar year) can fly FOR FREE with me weather I pay for my flight or use points on myself.

So, this San Diego trip. I used 20k points on myself (try getting a flight on Delta for under 40k points) and my son flew for $11 (security/airport charge).

TWO ROUNDTRIP FROM ATLANTA TO SAN DIEGO FOR 20K POINTS. INSANE. Oh, and my clubs flew for free.

[LovelySummer]

I guess I did not get it but I always thought SW was buying ATran to replace them basically and that was the only way SW could actually get into the ATL market bc Delta seems to keep everyone except ATran out for the most part. I'm not surprised at all that SW is canceling ATran routes.

If this is what SW was trying to do - get into the tightly-controlled ATL market by buying ATran, it seems a very saavy move strategically. They will probably phase ATran out completely over the next several years.