on the southwest meltdown

If you’re paying attention to what’s happening in the travel industry this week, you’re likely aware that Southwest Airlines — the popular low-cost airline, and the largest domestic air carrier — has completely imploded. Yesterday, more than two-thirds of their flights canceled, not because of weather, but because that airline has generally failed to join the year of the decade of the century in which the rest of the industry is living.

And as a result, thousands upon thousands of travelers are stranded with no way to get home from their holiday celebrations or vacations. Yesterday, Southwest wasn’t able to re-book anyone until December 31 at the earliest, and into January for some travelers. What are passengers supposed to do? Just wait at the airport for a week until the airline gets their act together?

Are you really saving money?

We’ve spoken to people who regularly book Southwest, because Southwest’s fares are so much lower than on other mainstream airlines. They accrue points on a Southwest credit card, because they can rack up free flights more easily than on other airlines. But at what cost? If you save $100 on a ticket, but have to spend thousands on hotel rooms, meals and ground transportation, is that really a deal? If your ticket was free, but you can’t use it because the plane never takes off, did you really get a free ticket?

Our advice — don’t book the lowest common denominator. That’s not only Southwest — that would also include airlines like Frontier, Spirit and Allegiant. The reason flights are a bit more expensive on Delta, United and American are because those airlines have invested in the networks and technologies to actually avoid nightmares like Southwest and those other “race to the bottom” air carriers. Don’t get us wrong — the other airlines have plenty of horror stories, and we’ve got a laundry list of criticisms about them, too, but the worst experience on Delta or United is about 1000% better than what your average Southwest passenger is dealing with right now.

Did you buy insurance?

We’re not talking about credit card protections. We’re talking about third-party travel insurance that covers you for trip interruption and trip delay, as well as lost and delayed luggage, stolen personal effects, cancellation for illness or job-related reasons, emergency medical coverage, medical evacuation, and much much more. Again, people who are looking for cheap, cheap, cheap are probably not going to spend money on a policy, but we’d encourage you to think that through a little bit.

What’s the plan if you’re stranded far from home, you need to get to work on Monday, and the airline can’t re-book you for another week? Spending a couple hundred bucks on a travel insurance policy is a lot less expensive than paying thousands for hotel rooms and new tickets on another airline. Not to mention all the other things that are covered. We had a client who’s iPhone was stolen on his honeymoon in Spain. The cost of the policy was way less than buying a new phone. So, just buy the insurance. You may not need it, but if you do—for a canceled flight, a lost bag or an unexpected triple bypass in a foreign country—it’ll be worth it.

Did you book your ticket through a travel agency?

See all of those people waiting in line at the airport. See the people on the news complaining about how they sat on hold with the airline for hours trying to get re-booked? Betcha they booked directly with the airline. And let’s face it, none of the airlines — not a single one of them — is known for great customer service.

We don’t have a magic wand for that. Just this week, we’ve spent hours on hold trying to get a seat assignment reinstated for a client, (with no success, so far…but we’re still trying). And at a certain point, the airline takes over the administration of a flight and we can’t touch the reservation.

But, we are a ticketing agency, meaning we can look at the airlines’ inventory, issue tickets, monitor schedule changes, exchange tickets, and in some cases, even process a refund. If we’ve issued your ticket and anyone needs to sit on hold with the airline, it’s going to be us — not you.

And we also provide added value to our clients by putting Blue Ribbon Bags protection on each ticket we issue. If the airline loses your bag, our service promises to get your luggage to you within 96 hours, or they’ll pay out $1000, in addition to any airline compensation and any third-party insurance payout. If you’ve booked a complete package through us that includes air, this is at no additional expense to you. If you’re booking air-only through our agency, we include that package as part of our standard ticketing fee.

Need help with flights?

We’d love to talk to you about being your trusted travel advisor. If you’d like to schedule an appointment with one of us, drop us a line and we’ll set up a time to chat.