The Southwest Effect

You've probably heard of The Southwest Effect. Of course you have, it's got a Wikipedia page. This is when a certain carrier enters a market and miraculously brings low fares to the previously persecuted denizens of the region. Not unlike a Robin Hood for air passengers.

We always kind of figured there was a little bit of bravado in such claims. Consider it a touch of marketing for the good ole boys to discuss at Rotary meetings in Podunk, USA. No longer. A colleague was buying flights to Minneapolis (MSP) from Chicago this week, a day tripper, business meeting. It resulted in a severe pain in the wallet, and he came to FMV for help.

As it turns out, help is on the way. Do yourself a favor, and spot check CHI-MSP fares, using the distribution channel of your choice, for a day-trip in February. Then lather, rinse, and repeat in March. Chart it all up, and you'll probably find something like this:



Look at that. You can go ahead and guess the general date that the market welcomes a new entrant. Or maybe the winter tourism business drops off in March or something. Draw your own conclusion, but Minneapolis probably hasn't been this happy since Garrison Keiller moved to Lake Woebegon. And now we're believers.

Standby Confirmed

We don't fly on US Airways very much, so this news fell under the radar a bit. We caught it in the WSJ today. Late last month, US announced that they will no longer charge Dividend Miles preferred members for same-day confirmed standby.


First of all, we love confirmed standby. Anytime you can get your business done and get to the airport early is a win -- and to top that off with a guarantee that you'll actually out of the airport early is a huge value to the business traveller.


That said, we think $25 is a very reasonable charge for this guarantee. Your credit card should crawl out of your wallet on it's own to pay this at the kiosk. Unless...you have elite status, you know the earlier flight's not packed, and you know you're an elite that will clear standby and get a decent seat for free anyways.


Hence, the beauty of this policy revision. It's a nice tip of the hat to loyal passengers, for those times when the guaranteed seat really means a lot (i.e. during a time of heavy loads), but US probably isn't giving much away in revenue. These passengers knew it was many times unnecessary.