City to study 2nd airport, sixth runway (Dallas: prices, marketplace)

[billl]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

What's so great about Southwest? Let's count the ways.

Moooooooooo....

[spotch]

There are lots of things that suck about the Atlanta airport, but if you grew up in Atlanta nothing says home quite like it does. From the weird parking to the long lines (i.e. traffic) to the plethora of decent (for airport) food selection to the sheer sprawl of the thing, it's just great. I'll admit that it's amazingly nice living near an airport where parking, walking to the baggage check, checking in, walking through security, and walking to the gate consistently takes 15 minutes (or less if you're in a hurry!), but flying through hartsfield still puts a huge smile on my face like no other airport ever could.

Oh, and if anyone wants another reason to feel good about hartsfield, watch "Eyes on the Prize", Episode 9 ("Power!").

[darkone]

It is time for Atlanta to gain a Love or Hobby or something like a Midway. Maybe an ideal location could be south of the Lawrenceville area? This would position it near the booming Gwinnett area and would be more easily accessible than Hartsfield for the North Fulton crowd. (Or would it? I'm not so sure I-285 to I-85N vs. 400 to I-85 to I-75/85 on a weekday evening.) As for residents in Cobb, the hike down 285 west of Atlanta is not as arduous as the trip from say Sandy Springs or Norcross to Hartsfield.

Atlanta is too crowded in the concourses and not at all pleasant. I find major hub airports (although nowhere near as busy) such as Detroit, Charlotte and Minneapolis to be my favorites. As long as Delta and AirTran maintain their hubs at ATL, which they will for the foreseeable future, congestion will still reign at ATL, regardless of there existing a second regional airport. One thing to keep in mind with a reliever airport is that one would have to lose many non-stop options while gaining a convenience factor in driving to the airport. If I lived in say Norcross, and had to get to Phoenix for business next week, would I really want to fly from a hypothetical Atlanta North Airport to PHX via DFW with a 1.5 hr. layover? Not so sure about that...

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by JPD

People see this as a plus?

Interesting.

The one time I flew Southwest my wife and I got there well in advance, and by the time we got on board every window and aisle seat was taken, so my wife and I were not able to sit together on a 4.5 hour flight.

How early do you have to show up if you want to sit with your spouse/kid(s)/friend?

FCFS seating doesn't come without that catch, of course. Again, the major benefit is quicker loading and unloading times. Typically, to get a good seat on Southwest, you have to show up about an hour in advance. Sometimes more.

And don't forget about the major benefit--cheaper fare$.

[billl]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

FCFS seating doesn't come without that catch, of course. Again, the major benefit is quicker loading and unloading times. Typically, to get a good seat on Southwest, you have to show up about an hour in advance. Sometimes more.

How does FCFS seating speed up unloading?

And if you have to get there more than an hour in advance, what benefit is there to making the actual loading process faster? You're still spending more time in the airport.

And don't forget about the major benefit--cheaper fare$.

You get what you pay for.

[spotch]

People that have a problem with Southwest have not flown them enough. I can fly Southwest from Ohio for the same prices, or cheaper, than what priceline will get me on delta, northwest, etc. And as far as the 'you get what you pay for', that's bunk. Southwest just makes smarter business decisions (see their fuel strategy over the past few years that's allowed them to buy fuel way cheaper than other competitors on average).

Southwest also treats their employees better, and you can tell because they are consistently nicer.

In the past year I've had 2 experiences with other airlines bumping someone I knew (my wife and a good friend) because they did not get to the airport and check their bags an hour before their flight. In the friend's instance, they wouldn't even refund her the money.

Southwest, on the other hand, has no such requirement and even checked our bags and let us board on a flight to Chicago where we got stuck in major traffic and didn't make it to the ticket counter until < 15 minutes from the time the plane was supposed to be taking off.

I flew airlines to and from GA probably 2-3 dozen times growing up and into my early adulthood. Basically every airline BUT southwest (and midwest, which is also good). But it only took a flight or two on Southwest to realize that they simply offer a better service at surprisingly competitive rates. That they treat their employees better than average is just another perk.

If you don't like them, fine, but I don't see what harm would come from putting them in the airport and forcing other airlines to compete with them in price and service.

[PKCorey]

I guess, I should check the master plan at work but does anyone know if Concourse E will be turned into domestic concourse or will it stay international to help with the new concourse?

[spotch]

Originally Posted by billl

How does FCFS seating speed up unloading?

And if you have to get there more than an hour in advance, what benefit is there to making the actual loading process faster? You're still spending more time in the airport.



You get what you pay for.

Getting a good seat on southwest has nothing to do with showing up an hour in advance. Getting a good seat is based entirely on when you do your online check-in. Beginning 24 hours before the flight (as with many other airlines), you can electronically check in. The first person to check in gets an A1 on their ticket. The second gets A2, the third gets A3, etc. The numbers and letters get higher and higher the further down the line you are.

When it comes time to board, about 20-30 minutes before the plane takes off they tell all the A 1-30s~ to line up in order. Then they let them walk onto the plane in that order and choose a seat.

It has nothing to do with showing up to the airport early whatsoever, unless you count 20 minutes before takeoff as 'early'. Over the past 3 years I can safely say that I've been on 30 or more southwest flights because I travel often for business. The majority of those times have resulted in me getting an emergency exit row seat (my favorite pick, because of the extra legroom). There have probably been flights where haven't gotten my first choice of seating, but for the majority of them I have, and I have not once watched the clock and jumped on RIGHT AT the 24 hour mark. Most of the time I check in at my earliest convenience, but it's usually 4-8 hours after they open the availability. I would actually say that I have better luck with southwest than I did when I flew delta, because that same strategy on delta would result in everyone picking the exit row seats in the first 15 minutes (because you specify the seats online). Getting an exit row legroom seat on delta took an act of god. On southwest you got about a 50/50 chance, even if you register later than you would have for the same delta flight.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by billl

How does FCFS seating speed up unloading?

And if you have to get there more than an hour in advance, what benefit is there to making the actual loading process faster? You're still spending more time in the airport.



You get what you pay for.

Out of curiosity, have you ever flown on Southwest?

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by billl

How does FCFS seating speed up unloading?

And if you have to get there more than an hour in advance, what benefit is there to making the actual loading process faster? You're still spending more time in the airport.

You get what you pay for.

I agree with this comment 100%, and YES, I have flown SWA many times from Manchester, NH. I have also flown JetBlue from Logan Airport, and I can tell you that JetBlue does a much better job.

Why on earth do I want to fight and queue for a seat when I can book a reserved seat and show up for the flight an hour ahead of time?