WTF, Southwest?
If I had a Save Me from the Hell of Modern Advertising Bill of Rights, the phrase “up to” would be banned. Violators would have “MY IQ IS AS LITTLE AS 50” tattooed to their foreheads.
I just bought a plane ticket on Southwest. I already bought it when they shoved this graphic in my face. I didn’t really get a great deal. I paid a little over $200 for a one-way flight from Chicago, IL to Charleston, SC. It wasn’t a bad deal, but it was nothing to light fireworks over.
Then, on the post-transaction confirmation page, I get, “You just saved up to $120 roundtrip.”
First of all, isn’t their shopping cart software smart enough to know I bought a one-way ticket? Let’s say I saved up to $60 one-way, taking the average. So I might have paid $260 total for a one-way ticket instead of $200?
Secondly, if you squint really hard and read the fine print, you’ll see that this cute graphic is telling me that Southwest doesn’t charge baggage fees, and if i was high-maintenance enough to check a bunch of bags, then I would have saved $120 r/t.
Big effing deal --- last time I flew to Europe I paid $500 round trip, and I checked a bag. That would be something to make a graphic about.
Enough hype. Just tell me my credit card was approved.