Yesterday I was at the pool with the kids. A little boy was upset that a toy frog had fallen down the pool drain, so I reached my hand down to get it for him. It was a real frog. It was a dead frog. It was a very squishy dead frog. I pretty much flipped out and gave the kids their money's worth of entertainment. :-)
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Tonight Kevin and I are going to a Colts' game! I'm so excited because a) it's my first professional football game and b) it's a date night!! We got free tickets through Kevin's office. The seats are really good apparently--four rows up from the field.
Football seems like such a fall thing. I haven't even checked the weather, but I feel like I need to bring a big hooded sweatshirt or something. I'm not even sure I'm ready for summer to be over yet!
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Recently we purchased airline tickets for the girls and I to visit family in California. After realizing that it would cost $50 to transport each of our carseats (2 carseats, $25 each way = $100!) because of the extra luggage fees the airlines recently started imposing, we decided to pay $10 more per ticket and buy seats on Southwest. Southwest is currently the only airline that doesn't charge luggage fees.
Thank you Southwest for standing alone and refusing to pillage young families!
It's not the business travelers who will pay--it's families like us with young children who have no choice but to bring all the extra baby paraphernalia. It's not like, when I fly, I bring along a carseat, stroller, pac-n-play, etc., etc., just for FUN. You know?
It was only a few months ago that we purchased a brand new carseat for Meredith--it was $65 after using a coupon. Why should I pay $50 to transport a $65 carseat?!!
Anyway, thank you Southwest! I am your newest, most loyal customer!!
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Yeah, Southwest pretty much rocks.
My sis-in-law relayed a conversation to me where a worker at American Airlines was riding next to her and the conversation turned to operating airlines.
He was of the firm opinion that it was very unfair (and should be stopped) that Southwest has the fastest turnaround times and better all sorts of stuff.
Why? Because they aren't unionized, apparently. They hire a bunch of young guys (cheaply) to move baggage while his airline has a bunch of older guys, one of which is a friend of his who has double-knee replacements and can't move as quickly, and has been with the company for many years!
And even worse - the airline stewards do "extra" work like cleaning up the plane after landing. AA is unionized and they aren't allowed to do that, so AA has hour-long turnaround times while Southwest has 20-minute turnarounds.
He felt it was very unfair and Southwest ought to be forced to operate the same way that AA operates.
When we went down to Mississippi last summer, we found out about a program run by their local library that rents car seats.
That was very helpful in keeping the costs down. I wish more libraries would do this!
I wasn't aware that they were charging for car seats. Before the recent change in rates car seats and strollers never counted towards your luggage count, so I would check with the specific airline to find out if they are now counting it towards the extra luggage fee.
When my sister flew in April Delta told her there was no charge to bring a carseat even though she was already bringing her max limit in free baggage.
But then... they might have changed this.
But yes, Southwest does rock... they are normally not too bad in prices and they fly almost, but not quite, anywhere.
Wade and I are going to the game tonight too... the new stadium is sooo cool! We'll look for you from our nose bleed seats LOL!
~Emily
Southwest also still does not charge for drinks and snacks during the flights. I flew USAirways recently and it was a horrible experience... 5 hour cross country flight without so much as a sip of water! And of course they only take cash on the plane so if you don't have any cash you are pretty much out of luck.
Southwest is good. Now, if only they had more flights to Dulles... :)
Love the frog story! You must have been hilarious! :)
It may be more time than you want to devote to the cause, but you could write a letter to Southwest praising them for allowing carseats etc and another to the airline you almost chose explaining that the reason you went with Southwest instead was their carseat charge, and that you never plan to fly that airline again until they amend their policy.
If they never hear from customers, it's hard for companies to make that kind of change.
Amyway, I'm glad you found a better deal!
Southwest sucks.
They treat everyone like cattle (no reserved seats) and won’t give you extra snacks or even a whole can of coke (you have to be content with the little midget cup that holds two sips of beverage) and a bag with two peanuts in it.
BTW, Delta does NOT charge for strollers or infant seats. To quote the Delta website:
“Strollers and child restraint seats will be checked for free and are not counted as part of the standard baggage allowance.”
Delta doesn't charge for luggage at all. We just flew with them and got to check a bag a piece -- no charge.
About the frog: Oh. My. Gosh. GROSS!
Gotta love SWA. Every tenth flight is free - that means no figuring out crazy mileage - what could be easier?
southwest is crap.
I love the frog story!
And I just ranked my fantasy players for the draft tomorrow morning. We are getting fall weather and I'm not ready for summer to be over yet.
You shouldn't be charged for car seats; we just flew and they don't count toward the extra baggage count. Nor did our stroller (it was gate-checked) or diaper-bag (carry-on). But we have the best airline out here (Alaska). In my travel industry work I like Southwest because it doesn't cost to make a change to a ticket. But personally I am a control freak who likes to know where I'm going to sit. And their frequent flyer program is really lame compared to Alaska's where we rack up miles for all kinds of things and can start using them to discount flights when we reach 7500 miles. US Airways is the bottom of the barrel and has my most likely to go belly-up. We got stuck flying them home and the flight attendants were jumpy and haggard, probably from having to listen to customers complain about the $2 a drink (for water and soda) and $1 for coffee and tea policy. They charged us $89 for a lap infant which Alaska told us they would refund us since we were supposed to fly them home but couldn't because of weather. (But who heard of getting charged for a lap infant!)
Most airlines still don't count carseats and strollers as baggage. But just to be sure, call first.
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