Shoved Off Southwest

Dennis Keith discovered the dark side of Southwest Airlines' "freedom" on a trip from Los Angeles to Baltimore two weeks ago.

The Newport Beach, CA (PRWEB) May 19, 2005 -- consultant had paid $306 for a two-stop flight that took him through Phoenix and Nashville. His itinerary started in the early afternoon and ended at about 10:30 p.m.-a long day on the road, but enough time to get to his meeting the next morning.

But Keith's journey ended unexpectedly in Phoenix. "Southwest oversold the flight, and I got bumped," he remembers. "I had to pay $800 one-way for a United Airlines red-eye that got me into Washington at 8:30 the next morning. And I had one hour to get to my meeting."

When Southwest's marketers dubbed the carrier the "Symbol of Freedom," they were thinking about the airline's low fares and few restrictions. It's probably the same freedom Money magazine's readers had in mind when they ranked Southwest No. 1 for baggage handling, customer service, on-time performance, price and safety.

But freedom comes at a price, particularly as the busy summer season approaches. Southwest overbooks its planes to such an extent that it's forced to kick confirmed passengers off flights more than almost any other major airline, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Last year, Southwest bumped 12,074 unwilling passengers, or about 2.16 customers per 10,000. (Another 72,142 were bumped voluntarily). The previous year, it booted 13,230 fliers, and the year before that, it knocked 17,177 passengers from its flights. That's more than three customers per 10,000.

In contrast, Continental tossed only 360 confirmed passengers off its flights last year, or about 0.10 passengers per 10,000. United's ratio was a scant 0.49 customers per 10,000 in 1997.

Southwest Airlines claims its "involuntary denied boardings" record is misleading. "Those numbers don't reflect overbooking," says Susan Yancey, manager of corporate information at Southwest. "About half of our 'denied boardings' come from passengers that arrive at the last minute and try to get on the plane."

I'm not sure that's a valid excuse; other airlines have the same problem and they manage to deal with it. With everything else going its way, I think Southwest is just shrugging off the only significant blight on its record. Too bad, because with tourist season around the corner-and more corporate travelers than ever tempted to try Southwest-the uneasy mix of screaming babies and stranded road warriors trapped in the same terminal could test any traveler's patience.

To understand why Southwest overbooks its flights, you have to understand how it books its flights. The Dallas carrier uses an antiquated reservations system developed by Braniff airlines. The old computers aren't sophisticated enough to project how many seats to fill on a given flight, according to technology consultant Richard Eastman, who is chairman-elect of the Washington, D.C.-based Travel Technology Association.

"Southwest is using a somewhat inferior system," he says.

Patricia Coates, editor of the Travel Distribution Report, a newsletter that tracks airline reservations systems, thinks the Southwest problem runs deeper. She points out that the airline handles its seat inventory differently from its competitors. It only participates in one reservation system and prefers to sell most of its tickets directly to customers over the phone or Internet.

"What we're talking about here, probably, is an intentional Southwest directive," she says. "It looks like overbooking is Southwest's policy."

You could blame the computers or the distribution, says Nick Bredimus, an airline consultant. But ultimately, Southwest is the way it is because of its business philosophy.

"Southwest is a unique airline," he says. It goes beyond the peanuts and soda served to passengers, the first-come, first-served boarding, or the crew's irreverent attitude, inspired by Southwest's legendary chief executive, Herb Kelleher.

Southwest's high-frequency schedule means passengers can be bumped from a flight and rebooked an hour or two later without much inconvenience, he observes. Unless they're corporate travelers.

"Business travelers often have strict schedules to which they must adhere. They can't take the chance of being bumped from flights," says Darrin Deany, a spokesman for corporate travel agency BTI Americas in Northbrook, Ill. "The next flight out just may not get them to their destination on time."

Bottom line: if you're traveling on business, better ignore the media hype and go with a major carrier.

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