Every time I check SW, one way is more than Spirit round trip. Delta is somewhere in between.
Spirit is totally fine as long as you know what youāre getting into.
Iāve also never found a Southwest flight thatās cheaper than the alternatives. Maybe for some weird regional flights?!
Southwest and Alaska are usually pretty close in price on SEA ā LAS and PDX ā LAS, but no bag fee for my golf clubs (or my wifeās 15 pairs of shoes for a long weekend trip) on Southwest tilts it towards them. Also, itās just 6k-10k Southwest points for these flights. And we usually have a lot of Southwest points.
Really depends on market. When southwest doesnāt have a nonstop or the best connection in a market, they generally donāt try to compete and have deliberately higher fares. The big 3 are sorta the opposite.
Spirit and Frontier will basically always be cheaper of course. But theyāre often not a great option due to schedule/reliability/baggage fees.
Southwest redemption points are a ridiculous value. Sometimes the flights are basically free.
Yeah I often find Southwest is the cheapest option if itās major hub to major hub.
I fly from Chicago , and usually book relatively late, Iāve noticed Southwest is particularly expensive when not booking far in advance. And of course Spirit and Frontier are cheaper, but so is United. And Delta. In 15 years of booking flights around the US Iāve never taken Southwest. 
The prices suck and you have to fly out of Midway. No thanks.
My parents were happy with their service to Vermont though.
Iām willing to put with a lot when Iāve gotten a round trip from the Midwest with a four-hour flight as cheap as $38.
Midway Airport GOAT.
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You donāt spend 30-40 minutes taxi-ing on the runway before takeoff or after landing
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Precheck security line has never taken me more than 5 minutes to get through
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Shorter walk from Terminal to El station
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I usually find Southwest is best to non-hubs in my experience. Itās the stuff like Portland to San Diego or San Jose where Southwest looks good. Flying into Denver or DFW or SFO something is more likely to be dominated by the big 3.
Iām sure most here are aware but precheck plus clear is an absolute necessity and basically eliminates security hassles.
Flew Spirit once, from Vegas to SD. Long delay on the tarmac. They wouldnāt even give me a little cup of water. Not my favorite airline.
Had a much better experience with Frontier flying from Cleveland to SD.
Only suckers donāt bring their own (non-alcoholic) beverages onto those flights.
A sucker I am then. Probably figured itās just a quick jump back to SD and didnāt want to spend $3 on a stupid bottle of water. Still donāt think itās too much to ask for a simple cup of water when stuck for an hour on a tarmac.
Friend of mine is flying Breeze Airways this weekend. Will report what I hear.
Iāve flown breeze. Itās pretty good. Seats are comfortable, prices are low.
Sign up for the alerts when they have sales. Thatās when SW really is worth it. Otherwise itās about the same as everything else (if youāre checking bags, if not itās probably a bit more).
I meant their specific hubs: DAL, HOU, MDW, ATL, BWI, OAK, BNA and a few more. If youāre going to or from one of those places, definitely check southwest.
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Flying out of Midway >>>> OāHare. Midway is closer to everywhere Iād go (and I assume that is true for a lot of travelers).