US Airways ups ante on PHL-BOS route
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Winging It
US Airways ups ante on PHL-BOS route
Tom Belden
Big story in The Inquirer today about US Airways' efforts to protect some of the profits it has made for years on its PHL-BOS route. As you can tell from this page one story, PHL's biggest airline is losing customers to its second-biggest, Southwest, and is offering perks to those flying US on the route. In case you missed it, I pestered Southwest for a couple of years about the need for competition for US Airways on the route, as a way to bring down the exorbitant airfares, and voila! Southwest started flights this summer (because it could make money, not because I pestered their CEO, I hope.)
As the story says, one of the US Airways perks for customers is special curbside baggage check-in. Question not answered: Will it still cost to check a bag, since Southwest charges nothing?
You should be the new CEO of Southwest..too bad you can't get them to fly to Buffalo and to Columbus non-stop.. But tip your own hat anyway- you are not kidding. MHT>PHL>BUF $219 round trip. Add intentional 4 hour layover for dinner with a friend- $1250!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!— trpilotjr
- That Buffalo route is a good point. I've either had to drive to BWI to catch the flight or drive it. US Airways is like $750 r/t. I was hoping that when Southwest opened the new gates in Terminal E that they would add some extra flights, and Buffalo would be one of them. Still have my fingers crossed for the future.— Jim McCloskey
- I fly Southwest for business from BWI as I live in DE. Better airport, better baggage system, better parking, and better security lines than SW's terminal in PHL. US Air lost me with their baggage policy. It's worth the extra 30 minutes drive. Southwest has bigger luggage bins too.— SuperJ
- I believe Southwest pulled a US Airways move with the PHL Airport Authority. Getting them to get more gates and maxing out them before hand, but now to cut back service. I think they are 3 flights a day, thats including Boston. They no longer fly Non-Stop to Los Angeles, Columbus, Austin, New Orleans and reduced service to Phoenix, Houston, Las Vegas, Jacksonville sure they added some, but overall they are still short.— BaseballinReading
- All the airlines reduced capacity over the past two years, so I don't have a problem taking a city from 4 flights a day to 3 if the 4 were going out at 50% capacity. I'm jusy hoping now that's "It On !!", they'll add service to additional cities, even if only 2 a day. The bonus for SW would be that PHL-BUF is now a US Air exclusive, so they would fill a 737 pretty quick.— Jim McCloskey
