SWA: WDW's new 'official' airline

[Figment1986]

Southwest sponsors the Penguin Encounter at Sea World. I wonder if that will change. Also will that mean that Disney can check you in on Southwest now?

it's not all that easy to remove Shamu from a plane :lol:

 

[MousDad]

I'm pretty happy about this, considering SWA is the only airline I will fly, unless begrudgingly forced to fly another of the swindlers due to circumstances out of my control.

Love those baggage fees that were "regrettably imposed" when fuel skyrocketed, that of course have not been rescinded. Idiots.

 

[lnsemsf]

Where did you find out about this? There is no press release I can find through google, nor any info on Southwest or Disney's site. Only thing I see is a free vacation to a worthy volunteer, and a vacation package which has been available for awhile on Southwest.com.

 

[lilclerk]

I am also a big fan of SWA, but what does this actually mean? Will there be any WDW/DL perks if flying with them? Or is this just for advertising purposes?

 

[brkgnews]

Very cool. Now if Southwest would just fly out of ATL, I could tell Delta to cram their $25 bag fee right up their friendly skies.

Wonder if we'll see some neat paint-schemes on some of the planes, a la the Shamu planes they have.

 

[brkgnews]

And 73, you raise an interesting point... wonder if this now will make them a more active part of DME?

 

[DaGoof00]

This was only a matter of time. It's family friendly (Disney likes), it's a high traffic airline into MCO (Disney likes), it's recently been doing a test run on magical express (Disney likes), it's an economy airline, so more people are flying on it than other airlines (Disney likes).

I'm actually surprised this didn't happen earlier:sohappy:

 

[Main Street USA]

This "news" is in no way official as of right now. That can change, but as of right now, this news is not true.

Southwest continues to offer special packages and deals to the Walt Disney World Resort, but it's nothing new that hasn't been happening for years.

 

[mightynine]

I'm happy Southwest is getting in bed with DME - on my last visit at Pop Century, it was great to wake up on our last day and have boarding passes and luggage tags hanging on our door - so we had to do nothing at the airport. Drop the checked bags off at the front, leave our carryons there as well, and squeeze in one last trip to MK and Epcot before heading home.

(Now, the DME bus was way late, but that's another story....)

 

[majortom1981]

yay

I really really really hope this means dme resort check in and the like.

I fly southwest to disney all the time and will be again in may for my honeymoon.

Here on long island i can fly them out of macarthur airport instead of jfk and kennedy.

I can take magical express coming in and going out but when i go home i have to check in myself to the airline.

I really hope this means full magical express now with them.

PS with southwest add $10 eachway and they will automatically reserve your boarding pass so this might help some people since swa isnt fully magical express.

 

[WDW1974]

This "news" is in no way official as of right now. That can change, but as of right now, this news is not true.

Southwest continues to offer special packages and deals to the Walt Disney World Resort, but it's nothing new that hasn't been happening for years.

Yes, it isn't 'official' yet -- as being announced to the public.

There may also be some legal and/or marketing reasons for waiting.

But they have been talking for a year and an agreement has been reached. I expected it would be announced during this event, which it still may. SW is a huge player in Orlando, much like Eastern and Delta were and I am sure that (along with the fact companies aren't banging down Disney's door to be associated with them) had a lot to do with this.

SWA is also a sponsor for Sea World parks, which others have pointed out. Although there is nothing that prevents a similar deal with Disney ... and SW may opt for another carrier.

 

[s8film40]

Well, they originally didn't want to participate in Resort Airline Check-In (not to be confused with DME) because they were concerned that RAC/Bags, Inc wouldn't be able to handle the volume of luggage that would be introduced into the RAC system if Southwest were to join. (I've read that 20% of people flying into/out of MCO are on Southwest)

I guess their "fears" have been taken care of, hence the testing that's been going on with RAC and Southwest the past few months at Pop Century (and I've heard one or two reports of it expanding to the All-Stars recently, too).


As for code-sharing, Southwest did recently take a step toward the possibility of opening that up, too. I heard they recently switched their reservation and ticketing system over the SABRE, which is the industry standard.

-Rob

They are scheduled to expand RAC for Southwest to the other resorts throughout the next few months.
GF, PO - Feb 23
CONT, WL, FW - March 2
Coronado - March 9
Y&B - March 16
BW - March 23
AKL - March 30
OKW - April 6
PO - April 20
CB - May 4

I think they just want to do it a little at a time to avoid unforeseen problems.

 

[fosse76]

Hmmm...SWA has only recently started offering flights out of LaGuardia. But I never see any of these "discount" rates they are known for. Every time I've priced a flight it's always substantially cheaper to fly the non-discount carriers. And I actually have an assigned seat!

 

[mousefan1972]

They are scheduled to expand RAC for Southwest to the other resorts throughout the next few months.
GF, PO - Feb 23
CONT, WL, FW - March 2
Coronado - March 9
Y&B - March 16
BW - March 23
AKL - March 30
OKW - April 6
PO - April 20
CB - May 4

I think they just want to do it a little at a time to avoid unforeseen problems.

If this is true, I might just hug you. :lookaroun We are flying SW for our April trip, staying at GF....

 

[MKCP 1985]

The thread title says it all.

Southwest Airlines joins Eastern and Delta as an 'official' carrier of WDW.

I've mentioned it elsewhere, but I thought it deserved its own thread.

I don't fly them often, but have had largely good experiences.

I do think it's weird because they don't fly outside the USA, don't codeshare (agreements to do so in Canada and Mexico still haven't happened) with anyone, and do not have a First Class or Business Class cabin. They are a discounter all the way.

They also didn't want any part of DME ... but yet they are now Disney's airline.

Eastern? Did I just time flash back to 1978? :lookaroun

Southwest is great - I just hope this doesn't mean they are going to start charging to check luggage and stop giving snacks (like that "full service" Delta) so they can give the mouse his cheese.

 

[Texas84]

A former CEO of SWA told me they won't go to ATL (Hartsfield) because they can't get the turnaround they need. Rumor says they looked at Charlie Brown outside of ATL but the NIMBY's killed it. Another rumor says Macon has been looked at, about an hour south of ATL. But then ATL is only a 7 hour drive to WDW.

 

[brkgnews]

A former CEO of SWA told me they won't go to ATL (Hartsfield) because they can't get the turnaround they need. Rumor says they looked at Charlie Brown outside of ATL but the NIMBY's killed it. Another rumor says Macon has been looked at, about an hour south of ATL. But then ATL is only a 7 hour drive to WDW.

They *almost* started flying from ATL last year, but some kind of grand Rube Goldberg type scenario would have had to play out with different airlines dropping routes, etc; so it summarily failed.