So we’re flying someone in for a couple days of meetings and work. He lives in a state just outside of Southwest’s Love Field reach.
A one-stop flight on American costs almost as much as a nonstop to Bogota, Columbia. The nonstop American flight costs $400 more.
In contrast, a round-trip to Little Rock (where Southwest can fly direct) on American is only $200.
The most ridiculous part of this madness is that I can’t go to Southwest’s website and build a multi-segment trip to work out the transfer. More than doubles the time involved in booking a ticket, as you have to match up the disparate connection times. (My understanding is that this is part of the Wright requirements and not web laziness on the part of SW.)
Wright Amendment protectionism may be good for American Airlines, but it’s bad for my small business. And lots of other businesses and consumers like me.
And I’m not even sure it’s good for American. Unless their flight is full, they’re going to have a $0 revenue seat on a flight where they could have gotten $400 out of us.
