Use PayPal to Buy Southwest Airlines Tickets

by Justin Glow on

Southwest Airlines has begun accepting electronic payments from PayPal as an alternative way of purchasing its low-fare tickets.

“We want to make purchasing a ticket on Southwest Airlines as easy and appealing as possible — and PayPal is a great addition to our payment options,” said Kevin Krone, Southwest Airlines Vice President Marketing, Sales, and Distribution, in an official statement.

This is especially nice for hardcore eBay salespeople and travelers who may not have a credit card, as PayPal allows you to link the service to your personal bank account. Otherwise, I don’t see this being an extremely popular way to pay for plane tickets.

What is nice about it — from Southwest’s prospective — is that money in a PayPal account seems much more “virtual” than cold, hard cash (or credit debt), and people might be more willing to spend it on leisurely things like travel. When I used to sell stuff on eBay and get payments through PayPal, I always treated my earnings stash as a “free money” account that I could use to buy other stupid things off eBay. If I had the option of either buying another vintage coffee cup off eBay, or a Southwest Airlines trip to Seattle, I’d be much more interested in the latter.

Wouldn’t you?

Southwest Airlines to Offer In-flight WiFi?

by Justin Glow on

Sister-site Engadget got a tip from an inside source that a Southwest Airlines company presentation twice mentioned that “Inflight wireless internet connectivity” was being looked into for the low-cost carrier. Personally, I’d welcome the opportunity to do some in-flight browsing. When I fly domestically, nine times out of ten it’s with Southwest, and I wouldn’t hesitate shelling out a few extra bucks for Internet access — especially since their ticket rates are so competitive.

Southwest Airlines has seen a decline in numbers this quarter, and they’ve been announcing new features and re-evaluating old ones in an attempt to “generate more money without destroying what Southwest stands for,” said the Cranky Flier. Southwest has a high reputation to stand up to, but — unless they really screw up by changing things like A-B-C boarding — I’m not too worried. Bring on the wireless Internet!

BING-DING: RyanAir’s Obvious Southwest Rip-Off Even More Obvious

by Justin Glow on

Last month we reported on RyanAir‘s cheap airfare notification program called BING! that is strikingly similar to Southwest Airlines own DING! program. A reader pointed us to an even more glaring rip-off from Ryanair’s FAQ, which was cribbed directly from Southwest’s. Someone did a search-and-replace (s/DING!/BING!), but even so, both companies have nearly-identical FAQs. Have a look:

Could RyanAir be this dumb? I certainly don’t think so. My guess is the company who developed Southwest’s DING! program also wrote the FAQ, and RyanAir commissioned the same company to build their cheap airfare notification system. Even so, you’d think they’d have the brains to spend a few hours making it look like they didn’t completely rip-off another company verbatim. Screen shots after the jump.

Southwest Airlines:

Ryanair:

BING-DING: Ryanair’s Obvious Southwest Rip-off

by Justin Glow on

I’m sure most of you have heard of Southwest Airlines‘s cheap airfare notification system called DING! It’s a little program you download that sits in your taskbar and alerts you with Southwest’s famous in-flight *DING!* when a low fare pops up.

European carrier Ryanair recently developed their own program, and it’s quite obvious they did very little brainstorming when coming up with a name. Come on, BING? They changed one letter! I honestly can’t imagine why they’d call it BING, knowing that Southwest has one called DING. What’s going on?

[via Cranky Flier]

Airlines Learning the Art of “Sorry.”

by Jamie Rhein on

Maybe this scenario sounds familiar. You’ve just finished your airplane food lunch. Not bad, particularly since you’re on an international flight and the wine is free. Then, just when you’re halfway into the first movie, the pilot comes on and says, “We’re sorry, but the plane has lost an engine and we’re heading to ____ (fill in the blank.) You wipe your mouth on your napkin giving yourself time to regroup while you realize that it doesn’t look like you’ll be waking up where you thought you might. Instead, you find yourself being held over somewhere with meal vouchers and a place to stay. You’ll be equipped with a tiny toothbrush and toothpaste, but not a change of clothes. Yes, you’ll be sleeping in the clothes you’ve been wearing all day, in your underwear, or in nothing.

This has happened to me three times. Each time on a flight that left LAX in Los Angeles. Once I ended up in Seoul, Korea on an unplanned overnight. The second time was a dreadful experience. After taking off on a noon flight to Singapore, we ended up back at LAX by 10:30 that night after being diverted to San Francisco. The thirty of us at the end of the rebooking line, after 6 hours of waiting, were told all the hotels in San Francisco were now full. If we wanted a room on the airline’s dime we needed to return to LA. The next day, on the 12 noon flight, it was the same food and the same movie, as if, the airline was trying to pretend that the day before hadn’t happened. Since I was wearing the same clothes, they might have fooled me, but I know what clothes smell like when I wear them two days in a row.

The third time was not too shabby. On our way to Taiwan, we had a two day layover in Honolulu. Northwest put us up at the Waikiki Sheraton in a room overlooking the ocean with plenty of phone cards, great meals and communication about what was happening and why. I still happily fly Northwest.

Lately, many airlines are learning the art of apology does make a difference. A recent article mentioned Southwest Airlines as being the best at saying I’m sorry. One guy’s job is to do just that. It helps keeps customers happy and coming back when a flight doesn’t go as planned.