Twenty years ago, I used to travel for business a lot while teaching for a big computer company that no longer exists. My company frequently tried to push me to Southwest, because they could save $10 by making my flights less-convenient.
The three issues that stick in my mind most were:
1) the time I arrived in Phoenix for an advertised flight to Burbank, only to discover that while the flight was still listed, it was going to be over an hour late, and now still listed the destination as San Francisco. They had cancelled the leg I was supposed to be on, and were going to get back "on schedule" by making us all fly to San Francisco and then wait for another flight that would take us to Burbank. Worse, they then announced that there was no point in contacting their competitors because all other Burbank flights were booked. In actual fact, they were not, and I got home on a competitor.
2) I was flying back to Burbank from Las Vegas (after riding there with a friend who took advantage of the free room). As was often the case with Southwest, the announcer at the gate was announcing Group Numbers faster than the door agent could collect the numbers. As a result, many of us were elbowed by a guy who was pushing his way through the crowd announcing "Low Number! Coming through!" despite the fact that his group number was no lower than many of us who were waiting politely had. Admittedly, this guy was the jerk, but the airlines boarding method led to this behavior.
3) I was flying from LAX to Albuquerque, and again had a medium/low number. But the plane was (Surprise, surprise!) late, so while the announcer was announcing Boarding Groups, the door agent was telling people "Ignore him! In, in in!" This led to my not being able to find room overhead for the sample case containing my teaching materials. So, I am struggling to get the case under the seat in front of me, and the flight attendant tells me I have to sit down because the plane is moving! I am not a small person, and it's not like I'd sat down and gotten back up again. They had simply not bothered to look to see if the aisles were clear before closing the door and started moving! The pilot could have lost his license because of the crew giving him false safety instructions.
Number three was the last straw. I decided that if they were that lax in their safety standards for something as obvious as a fat passenger still standing up in the aisle, who knows what other safety standards they are skipping to get on schedule.
For the rest of that career, I decided that any destination less than six hours away was easier to get to by driving (Especially on Fridays, when students occasionally asked to come back after lunch to work on our computers, so you had to book the flight home based on the chance that they would, but more-often meant that you couldn't leave town for four hours after the class was over).
My six hours calculation was based on the time it would take to get to the airport, the time it would take to pick up or return the rental car, the time to get through security, the mandatory sitting around waiting for the flight time, the boarding time, the actual time spent flying, the time it takes to get off the plane and to baggage claim, the time it takes to get your luggage, and the time to reach your home (or hotel). Even if it is a one-hour flight, it takes a minimum of six hours out of your life.
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