Airlines, Southwest Airlines | featured news

Southwest Airlines, known for open seating and boarding passengers in bunches, announced this week that fliers can buy a priority spot in boarding group "A" for $40 per flight. Southwest will put unsold slots in the A1-15 boarding group up for sale, when available, at the gate beginning 45 minutes before departure. Passengers will then be able to use a credit card to buy an early boarding spot. The airline tested the program in San Diego in December and received positive feedback.

Southwest Airlines customers will soon pay a fee for not canceling a ticket before their flight. The airline outlined the new policy Friday at an investors' conference in New York. Right now, Southwest lets passengers who don't use their ticket apply the price toward a new ticket. Southwest says it can reduce no-shows and generate more revenue by adding the cancellation fee on restricted tickets.

Southwest Airlines said Sunday it has begun filing refunds to customers who were accidentally billed multiple times for a single flight, after a half-price online ticket promotion backfired.

Southwest Airlines' attempt to thank its Facebook friends with a half-price ticket sale backfired when customers were inadvertently billed multiple times for a single flight , they're not feeling the "luv."

A man was arrested Tuesday after his unruly behavior aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Kansas City compelled the flight crew to make an emergency landing in Texas. Ali Reza Shahsavari, 29, of Indialantic, Fla., has been charged with interfering with a flight crew, said Patrick Rhodes, Amarillo's aviation director. He was booked into the Randall County Jail in Canyon, where he awaited an appearance before a magistrate.

Celebrating its 40th birthday, Southwest Airlines started running a promotion that’s sure to turn a lot of heads. Fares start at $40 for one-way trips up to 450 miles, $80 for trips from 451 to 1,250 miles and $120 for trips over 1,251 miles.

Southwest Airlines said on Tuesday that it had completed inspections of its older Boeing 737s and had found small cracks in a total of five passenger planes.

The airline is inspecting the planes after a five-foot hole ripped through the roof of one of its jets on Friday during a flight.

Southwest Airlines grounded 81 aircraft from its Boeing 737 fleet for inspection after one of its planes with a gaping hole in the fuselage made an emergency landing at a military base in Arizona on Friday, the company said on Saturday.

United Continental Holdings Inc., the world's biggest airline
company, scrapped its 2011 growth plans on Monday and said it will
cut unprofitable routes because of rising fuel prices.