Southwest Airlines Comes to Minneapolis
I brew my own beer now. Chemistry sets intrigued me as a kid and honestly, is there a better way to live out your chemistry professor fantasies than to experiment with fermentation in your basement? You can drink your results! There were lots of reasons I was interested in brewing, but the biggest attraction was the price. First of all, there’s no tax involved because the ingredients start out as “food” and not alcohol. Second, the “food” we’re talking about here is CHEAP! Buying enough Grain, malt, hops, yeast, sugar and water to brew five gallons of beer will cost you very little. My last batch boiled down to about fifty four cents per 12oz serving and the quality is a thousand times better. Who wants to pay $3 for a Miller Lite at a bar when you can open a nice Honey Cream Ale at home for 1/6th of the price?
Southwest Airlines is asking that same question. At the Minneapolis airport, the dominant male is Northwest Airlines. Currently, this alpha male is asking for $397.27 to take you to Chicago and another $400 or so to come back. Well, move over big dog, there’s a feisty new little dog in the pen and offering the same trip for a lot less money! Southwest has announced that when they enter the MSP market this Spring, they’ll be charging $69 for the same trip to Chicago.
Starting on March 8th of 2009, Southwest will offer 8 daily round trips. I love this. Can’t you just picture the other big airlines (led by NWA in Minneapolis) having a meeting, setting the price point at $400, convincing themselves that it’s not collusion, then patting themselves on the back, before receiving their year-end bonuses? Along comes Southwest Airlines, the only airline to turn a profit in 2008, and they throw a big old hostile greasy monkey right into the middle of their tea party! Being a flier based in Minneapolis has never held such promise…
Southwest does a lot of things to keep their costs low and I like most of them. They only use one type of aircraft (which saves a ton on maintenance) and they fly shorter more predictable routes. Then again, it seems like you connect a lot when you fly them (Houston to L.A. is cheap, but you connect twice), and their frequent flier plan is terrible by comparison. They don’t have assigned seats and frankly they seem to attract a more, well, “modest” type of traveler. Seasoned business professionals don’t always regard Southwest very high because their fears of being lodged in the middle of a large family with screaming babies are well founded.
Still, to save over $300 on a 70 minute flight to Chicago… that’s a beer almost anyone can swallow!
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