Southwest starts new focus campaign on Atlanta...

[swamt]

Flash sales for travelers: LA-Atlanta airfares and New York City hotels

Cheap fares from LAX to ATL. $109.00 cheaper than the lowest round trip found online. Not to mention free bags on SWA, as Delta charges minimum $25 first and $50 for second, so final round trip differences could very well be $200 plus. With plenty of time to book, this fare sale should do very well for SWA heading in and out of ATL...

That link above didn't work, but that it the title for it...

 

[eolesen]

And as usual to fit the biased DL rules the world narrative, he conveniently fails to acknowledge the WN operation across the bay in OAK.
Whole Truth, right?

Obviously, the thought of connecting off of any of those flights to MDW, HOU or DEN was lost on him.

From ATL, there are 10 one-stop options to OAK, and 11 one-stop options to SFO in addition to the two nonstops.

WN's the king of natural connections, and for the price conscious travel (or the smokers who really need a stop), the extra two hours of travel are negligible.

 

[WorldTraveler]

there has long been plenty of plenty of one-stop options from ATL to OAK even when DL didn't serve the route.

again, WN's share of the ATL market has concentrated into fewer and fewer cities and the list will continue to narrow.

it seems to be a point of pride by some here as to what US did to WN in PHL but those same people can't seem to recognize that the same principle won't apply in ATL.

as for you, you were arguing that WN would grow far in ATL - so I hardly expect that you will admit that 2 flights/day in a dozen or more markets where DL has far more flights is not a recipe for success.

 

[DL2WN]

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[SharoninSAT]

Yup, and here we come.  Good news to finally see the focus on ATL which was actually one of the reasons to do the AT purchase.  It will be interesting to see how much focus will be aimed at ATL and how far it will go.  At one time it was mentioned that ATL would become the largest city in the network. Even larger than BWI, and others.  The past pull back from ATL before was due to moving aircraft to other major focus cities before as SWA could not get aircraft from Boeing quick enough.  Now that SWA is all over the world picking up used aircraft, maybe this will help the ATL growth now.  This will get interesting as we go foward, I do know that ATL was one of the major reasons to purchase AT, as I have said before...

 
New schedule opens on Feb. 19 from Aug. 8 thru Oct. 30.
There will be more ATL options coming… 

 

[does this plane go to paris]

Sharon, someone who is retired from DL already told the board that WN can't add anymore flights into ATL.

 

[WorldTraveler]

WN is removing destinations before summer as well. let's see the net outcome.

 

[swamt]

New schedule opens on Feb. 19 from Aug. 8 thru Oct. 30.
There will be more ATL options coming… 

Thx for the info Sharon. Good to hear. The more the better.

 

[swamt]

Here's GK quoting more on the ATL push...
 
Merger Done, Southwest Steps into Ring Against Delta
 
Delta will be a tuff one to go up agaist, especially at the same airport, this will get interesting.  I'm sure the media is pushing Delta for a response to SWA's release.  Wonder how low the fares will go, any guesses???
 

 

[WorldTraveler]

from the article:

Dallas-based Southwest faces a steep climb, because after a series of flight cuts its route network from Atlanta is smaller than AirTran's and a fraction of the size of Delta's.

And Southwest doesn't plan to add many more flights to trigger the type of increased competition that can generate a fare war and drive down ticket prices over the long term.

For now, the carrier's offensive consists of a broad advertising campaign, as well as targeting travelers to join its frequent flier program and training its Atlanta employees in hospitality.

---


this isn't the first time that WN has gone up against legacy carriers in their hubs - SLC happened years ago and WN still has a small share of the market compared to DL but they do have a presence and the same is true of PHL.

It simply isn't worth WN's effort to fight for a large portion of the market which is heavily determined by flight schedule anyway. There is no doubt that WN can retain a decent share of routes to major WN markets. the only real question is how many cities that WN serves from ATL with 1-2 flights/day will last.

I still envision that WN will end up with service to 12-15 cities on 75-90 flights/day when all the dust has settled.

There is a market for WN in ATL and WN is a good competitor. However, they are likely still larger than they will be in time.

 

[DL2WN]

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[swamt]

Southwest Airlines campaign aims to boost Atlanta business
 
Nice to see the focus on ATL now...

 

[WorldTraveler]

this is clearly the last lap.

if WN doesn't get traffic AND YIELDS up, there will be cuts before the year is up.

be sure and keep an eye on fares from MDW and BWI and let me know if DL doesn't have some specials of its own.

 

[DL2WN]

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[does this plane go to paris]

if WN doesn't get traffic AND YIELDS up, there will be cuts before the year is up.
 
Last fall, had to travel to SEA from a West Coast city and the flights were sold out using WN.  Checked AS and while they weren't sold out, their flights were pretty much full and asking 450.00 for a one-way ticket.  Checked on Delta from SEA to a southern CA city with a nonstop flight and it was only a 100.00 bucks in coach so I purchased the ticket.  3 days before the flight I got an email from DL stating that I got upgraded to First.  On the day of departure, a Sunday by the way, a typically busy day, not only were they upgrading other folks, Non-Rev's got upgraded and there 2 empty seats in first and about 20 empty in the back.  Under cutting prices, deleting  prized slot controlled flights, maybe DL needs to get traffic and yields up as well.
 
So, this summer, I'm planning to go to Europe and cashing in miles.  Pulled up flights on DL and guess what, I had a slew of options with connections in MSP, DTW, JFK and ATL all at 200,000 miles or more for a round trip in first.  Some of those flights were showing at 225,000 miles and 250,000 miles.  When I expanded the search and included SEA, guess what?  The price fell by 50% and got it at 100,000 miles.  Yields in SEA must really be bad or why are they giving away seats?  Surely it's not a promotion, right? When will the cut backs in SEA begin?  Should I be worried? (Sarcasm is included in the last 3 sentences.)