I’ve been checking flights for a trip for my wife and a couple of my kids out to visit family in California
(SEE ALSO: How this family of 8 spent a week in California for under $600)
Because it’s the summer season, I’ve been having a nearly impossible time finding 3 award tickets to travel most of the way across the country. While I had great luck finding EIGHT tickets on Delta last May, this time, I was finding very few dates where there was any sort of saver availability.
Then I remembered to try Southwest. It would be transferring my Chase points to Southwest which isn’t a super great use of Chase points, but, as I always say… the best use of your points is the one that gets you WHERE you want to go WHEN you want to go there.
Ridiculous Southwest routings
I did manage to find tickets for about 25,000 miles roundtrip, which is comparable to what I’d expect to pay on any of the legacy carriers for a domestic roundtrip. I looked at cash tickets but a cross country ticket between 2 non-hubs was in the $500-$600 range on most airlines, and half of those were redeyes one direction or the other.
(SEE ALSO: The folly and fallacy of using miles for economy flights)
But while I was searching, I found some pretty ridiculous routings that Southwest was publishing, and I want to know which you think is the worst
In case you were having trouble visualizing, that’s
Or do you prefer Option 2 (I suppose SLIGHTLY less ridiculous…) 😀
But still not one I’m super interested in flying, unless it were the good ol days when you earned points per flown mile! 🙂
Pictures courtesy of gcmap.com copyright Karl L Swartz
What do you think? Which of these would you like to fly? Got any other ridiculous Southwest routings? Leave them in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
As a resident of Sacramento these type of routings are all to common 🙁
Of the two, the first one is the worst, IMO:
5:30 am? Ouch. Total travel time is 15.5 hours instead of the best one-stop at just under 6 hours. And while you can get lunch at Priority Pass’s Timberline Steaks in Denver, an evening meal is not in the cards.
The second flight is a scant 12 hours, by comparison. It leaves after x-lunch-x , er, snacks in CVG’s Priority Pass – The Club, and allows for a real evening meal in the same Timberline Steaks in DEN. Almost manageable. Especially if the price was right.
Today, I was on WN 232… SAT-ATL-LAX…. yup, look it up. Can’t make up these routes
Hey what are you complaining about there is only one time you actually have to get off and change planes. Reminds me of the island hopper round in the Pacific. 🙂 I’d prefer the 1st routing because you get the extra joy of getting up extra early to make a 5:30 am flight.
Oh and Southwest used to award per flight so the “miles” really wouldn’t matter would it, maybe I’m wrong.
They’re both pretty great. By the time you get well into the trip, you’ll be sitting in a sweet bulkhead seat. Add in the fact that you love to see the country, and both are big winners.
Option 1 is a tough journey but look at the icing on the cake.
1. Brief stop in SEA. Ride the trains between the south satellite and concourse B (Southwest).
2. Long stop in Denver. Admire the terminal roof, which looks like the Rocky Mountains. Look at the Blue Mustang statue. Compare concourses. How about the overhead walkway that planes taxi under between the terminal and Concourse A.
3. ABQ is a pleasant airport and sand colored terminal.
4. Food is a little short at MDW but see the dive bomber by Concourse A
5. Get lots of peanuts on Southwest.
6. Since you can check in 24 hours ahead of the first flight, you should get a low number for the last MDW-CVG flight.
Don’t see a problem here. Southwest is the favored airline of folks who want to see all 50 states – perhaps all in a single trip.
Another reason why I don’t waste my time flying or looking for award tickets on the Cattle Call Airline
So u actually got me curious and I looked up what WN publishes on expert flyer for CVG-SMF
The rules are ultra simplistic : 2 total “transfers” allowed, one per direction
So they don’t treat any stop-fuel-go as connections at all since there’s zero risk of misconnect … so if u just take the 30,000 ft view of ur choices :
Itin 1 is (1) “section” A with 1 refuel and 2 legs, (2) transfer at DEN, then (3) section B with 2 refuels
Itin 2 is (1) “section” A with 2 refuels and 3 legs, (2) transfer at DEN, then (3) section B Nonstop to SMF
(I labeled them as “sections” since calling them “segments” would just cause more confusion)
I’d say do it once just for the heck of it, but ur seat of the pants won’t be thanking you for it =p
I was looking at tickets from MSY to SEA for Thanksgiving last year, the best routing was MSY-DEN-SEA going, but the return flight had the wonderful option of SEA-MDW-TPA (change plane) -BWI-DAL-MSY. Some Southwest routings you really get left scratching your head on their scheduling. I consider finding those gems one of the fun quirks of the airline.
wild indeed . Not your question, yet 25k rt seems a bit high for SWA. Maybe you’re stuck with a low-volume (for SWA) start from CVG. (know the feeling — same thing with RIC) Yet Southwest has often saved us with last minute re-routings and emergency flights (like when Delta stranded us for 2+ days in SFO) — particularly when we find the odd-ball, yet super-cheap early morning or late night routings betwixt SW hubs like Dallas (Hobby) or MDW, LAS, or BWI (sometimes staying over cheap at Dallas) Nice thing about flying/planning with them, of course, if a new sale comes along, and/or you find something better, you can make the changes with no penalty.
25K on Southwest was not my ideal situation indeed. But that is the same (or similar) that I’d pay if I wanted a domestic award on one of the legacy carriers, and cash tickets were even more expensive
Jesus, what a waste of time.
@Dan —> Not to say these routes don’t exist — they certainly do! — but just for the heck of it, I just logged on to SWA and up popped SMF-MDW-CVG (WN1410; 1:25 layover @ MDW; WN379), with a total travel time of 6:30. The return is exactly the reverse routing, WN2400 (CVG-MDW), 1:30 layover; WN6419 (MDW-SMF). Neither route involves a red-eye. Just sayin’…
As for “crazy routings” on Southwest, approximately 25 years ago — long before 9/11 — I once had to fly from Oakland to Boston for work and had to bring several cases of wine with me. This was before Southwest actually flew into Logan, but rather flew to either Manchester, NH or Providence, RI. I was *very* concerned that Southwest would lose my “luggage” if I changed planes, and so I chose the ONE route that involved no plane changes: OAK-MCI-BWI-MHT. Of course, I was the only one on the plane that made the entire flight — or rather, the only one not part of the flight crew! The FA’s couldn’t believe it, and gave me a HUGE plastic bag full of the Southwest peanuts as a “reward.”
Of course, I still had to rent a car and drive to Boston….
P.S. Forgot to mention I had a wine tasting to do the very next day, hence the fear that SWA might lose the wine, and I’d be at the Boston Wine Expo with no wine to pour…
Trying to get to Pensacola non-stop from Atlanta is impossible. You might go to Houston or Orlando or even further afield.