The new Southwest Airlines and how to keep your flight credits

The downside of any loyalty program is that you have to be "loyal," which means you have to patronize the same business repeatedly. The genius of an airline loyalty program, or a casino one for that matter, is that it dissuades you from looking for alternative values and opportunities elsewhere. I want to fly? Several airlines go there, but oh, I should use Southwest, because I'm in their loyalty program. I want to gamble, here in Casino Town there are 47,000 casinos, but I'm a Caesars Rewards member, so, that's where I'll go.

One of the abiding tenets of couponomy (for casinos or other activities) is that you need to be fickle. I understand that loyalty programs offer neato perks. But my disloyalty program works even better. Of course, your mileage may vary.

 Let's be clear here - a "loyality" program is actually a misnomer - it denotes the user as being "loyal" to one brand. Intelligent shoppers may be part of several "loyality" programs for the same service - but they will check out all of the "loyality" programs that they are established with and choose the one that best suits their needs. 

Southwest is pretty much the default airline here and I've had their card for years. The recent changes weren't great for me, I don't need extra legroom so it's an upgrade I don't use.  In fact I always avoided the exit rows because in my experience the extra tall are often extra wide.  If they want to please me they'd actually enforce the carry-on policy, it would save about an hour each way now spent on shoving in giant wheel bags and rearranging the bins to fit. 

I agree about carry on.Its a mess.People carry on every thing but the kitchen sink.I save lot of miles.I do get best seat available.For me I would pay my last nickel to check in my luggage.I am old lucky to carry myself.Let alone my week of luggage.