I've been a SW member for many years now, and am a frequent flyer (2 x a month recently). But I've noticed that "supply and demand" is causing the vanishing of direct flights. For example Dallas (DAL) to Milwaukee (MKE) used to be at least one direct flight a day (usually the early am one). Now, every flight makes inconvenient stops in either Kansas City (not a nice airport) or St. Louis. These stops make you get off the plane, SPRINT to the next gate, maaaaybe get to use the restoom, pray your checked luggage made it too, re-board (but since this is a 'layover' or 'connecting flight' you'll effectively lose your boarding status since the plane will be mostly full from prior passengers), and then finally fly out and land at your desitnation, 1 to 3 hours longer than is should have taken. I love SW, really, I do. But not having direct flights is making me question my loyalty. SW doesn't do anything special for my family that mandates loyalty like a family member would, but I wish it would. We all know that the reason for cancelling sooooo many direct flights is money. "supply and demand" like Lindsey, and employee posted in another post: "There are a lot of things that go into schedule planning, but ultimately supply and demand are a big part of the equation - I'm sorry your nonstop flight between GRR and MCO went away for the time being. It's a difficult decision to make significant changes to a market's flight schedule, as we know that no matter which routes we alter, some Customers may be inconvenienced. I hope you'll take heart in knowing that we are constantly reevaluating our flight schedules, and hope we can still meet your travel needs. Lindsey Community Manager The Southwest Airlines Community" But like DAL to MKE (where every flight I ever took was 100% booked) and many other Direct Flights, the "Supply and Demand" factor is that having a connecting flight allows them to hustle more people on a per share $EPS basis at the cost of customer satisfaction. Even though I'm only a few K miles from Companion Pass, I'm pretty sure I should start flying American or Unitied (ug, hate these airlines) but they get me to my destination HOURS earlier on what should be a hop skip and a jump. But for some reason, EPS is ranking higher than our satisfaction, and our long term happiness with SW as a company could be at risk. Sorry SW, but until more direct flights are available, I won't be stopping over in KC and STL anymore.
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