Is Southwest Airlines worth it?
Often, it's a bare bones flight that isn't that cheap. And it's definitely not fast.
I was lounging by a pool in Southern California when Southwest Airlines melted down (again) in December 2022.
My husband and I had flown down for the holidays from our home in Seattle on Alaska Airlines, but many in our family flew Southwest. While we enjoyed a fast nonstop, I was astonished at how long it took for our East Coast relatives to make it to California. Now with the airline combusting before our eyes (and with our relatives’ return trip fast approaching) I found myself asking a simple question: is Southwest actually worth it?
It turns out that “worth it” is a tricky thing to quantify. Generally, people value time (or convenience) and money, with some people being absolutists on either end and most of us willing to exchange a little of one for more of the other. When comparing Southwest to mainline carriers there are other factors too. For example, Southwest doesn’t charge for bags while mainline carriers let you choose a seat.
Disclosure: all of the mainline carrier flights I researched for this column ended up being nonstop. I did not actively search for nonstop flights; it just worked out that way.
To make a comparison, I evened the playing field as best as I could. My fictional passenger - let’s call them Sam - is just going away for the weekend, and so won’t be taking advantage of Southwest’s free bags but also won’t be paying to check one either. I compared flights that departed at roughly the same time and mixed up evening and morning departures. Finally, I picked city pairs that are all hubs or focus cities for Southwest and at least one mainline carrier. This means that these are routes where Southwest and the other carrier(s) face a lot of competition and their fares should be highly competitive.
Quantifying the value of time is trickier. I settled on dividing the difference in fare by the difference in time. This tells us how much money Sam saves for every extra minute (and thus hour) they’re willing to tack on to their trip for a cheaper fare. Finally, all fare data was pulled on February 17, 2023. With that, let’s hit the skies.
Seattle —> Denver —> Seattle (3/3/2023 - 3/5/2023)
Seattle is a hub for Delta Airlines and Alaska Airlines, while Denver is a major hub for Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.
To Denver:
Southwest’s last flight of the day leaves at 5:26 pm. It doesn’t arrive in Denver until 12:25 am the next morning, after having made a stop in Las Vegas. Ultimately, this flight takes 6h00m to arrive at its destination.
Delta’s flight leaves 2h30m later, at 7:56 pm, but arrives in Denver nearly an hour before the Southwest flight. Delta’s nonstop flight takes a comparatively swift 2h40m to get to the Mile High City.
To Seattle:
On the return, Southwest’s flight leaves Denver at 7:20 pm, again stopping in Sin City, before touching down in the Emerald City 5h35m minutes after leaving Denver at 11:55 pm.
There’s a United flight that leaves 15 minutes before the Southwest flight, at 7:05 pm, and arrives in Seattle at 9:07 pm - 2h48m before Sam gets there on Southwest. It’s a nonstop flight that takes 3h02m to make the trip.
What does it cost?
Southwest: $437.96, incl taxes and fees. Total flight time is 11h35m
Delta/United: $259, incl. taxes and fees. Total flight time is 5h42m.
Delta/United is clearly a better choice. The fare is -41% cheaper and the flights are almost six hours faster.
Denver —> Dallas —> Denver (3/3/2023 - 3/5/2023)
Denver is a major hub for United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, while Dallas is the main hub for both Southwest Airlines and American Airlines.
To Dallas:
Southwest has a nonstop (a first (and last), hooray!) that leaves at 8:20 am and arrives in Dallas at 11:20 am. The flight time is a speedy 2h00m.
American has a 7:00 am departure that arrives in Dallas at 10:02 am. It’s nonstop and takes 2h02m.
To Denver:
On Southwest, it’s no nonstop home for Sam. There’s a flight departing at 7:30 pm that arrives in Denver at 10:55 pm. But they have to change planes in Houston and it takes 4h25m to get home.
American has a return flight that leaves at 7:04 pm and arrives back in Denver at 8:09 pm. It’s nonstop and takes 2h05m.
What does it cost?
Southwest: $292.96, incl taxes and fees. Total flight time is 6h25m.
American: $378, incl. taxes and fees. Total flight time is 4h07m.
Southwest wins this one on price, but American will get you there 2h18m faster - or 36% faster - for just 29% more money. If Sam balances cost and time then American is the better choice. If not, Sam saves $0.62 for every extra minute - or $37.20/hour - they’re OK spending in the airport and on the plane.
Atlanta —> Los Angeles —> Atlanta (3/3 - 3/5)
Atlanta is the main hub for Delta Airlines and a hub for Southwest Airlines, and Los Angeles is a hub for Delta Airlines.
To Los Angeles:
Up and early, Southwest has a departure at 7:05 am, which arrives in Tinsel Town 8h40m later at 12:45 pm after stopping in Phoenix.
Delta has a flight leaving at 8:30 am. It’s nonstop and arrives in LA at 10:39 am, 5h09m after leaving Atlanta.
To Atlanta:
Southwest has a flight that leaves LA at 1:00 pm, stops in Nashville, and arrives in Atlanta at 10:45 pm after a 6h45m flight.
On Delta, Sam leaves LA at 1:25 pm, arriving in Atlanta 4h10m later at 8:35 pm on a nonstop flight.
What does it cost?
Southwest: $547.95, incl. taxes and fees. Total flight time is an astonishing 15h42m.
Delta: $828, incl. taxes and fees. Total flight time is 9h19m
The winner here on price is, again, Southwest, but Delta will get you there 40% faster - a shocking 6h23m faster - for 51% more money. If Sam is willing to wait it out, every minute they do saves $0.77 - or $46/hour.
So is Southwest worth it? I guess it depends on who Sam is in real life.
If they have limited vacation time, plenty of disposable income, or just value being able to choose a seat and get somewhere quickly, Sam would probably choose the mainline carrier option in at least two of our three pairings. It’s also worth noting that if Sam opts for Southwest, they would spend an enormous chunk of their long weekend just getting there and back.
If Sam is retired or not employed, on a fixed income, or isn’t fussed about frills like seat selection, they might choose Southwest. But Southwest is only meaningfully cheaper on the Atlanta —> Los Angeles —> Atlanta routing, and it comes at the cost of flights that are vastly longer than they need to be.
Southwest doesn’t list fares on comparison sites, like Expedia or Orbitz. One reason is that they don’t want to pay the commission fees those sites charge. But it also makes comparing fares harder.
Southwest has trained a whole generation of flyers that they are a love brand (see what I did there?) that will always have low fares, good customer service, and fewer fees. And that’s mostly true. They were the cheapest in two out of three of our city pairs (though that Seattle to Denver round trip is pretty egregious). If price is all you care about - and you have essentially unlimited time to get where you’re going - it’s probably going to be your best option.
But most people don’t make travel decisions solely on price. Spending almost 1/5th of a three-day weekend just getting to LA from Atlanta and back isn’t a particularly good value. There’s also the stress of no seat selection, almost certainly having to pay extra to get out of a middle seat, and the uncertainty of multiple stops (especially in inclement weather). December’s weather meltdown - which every other airline recovered from fairly quickly - shows the fragility of Southwest’s point-to-point system.
In short - at least on the three city pairs we chose - Sam would spend significantly longer getting to their destination and not save that much money flying Southwest. The airline offers low-cost carrier service with mainline carrier-adjacent fares.
The takeaway: definitely shop around and pay attention to how long that cheap fare takes to get you where you’re going.
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