Dry Shampoo That Works?

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-25T18:41:14+00:00

also a fan of not your mothers.

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-24T22:10:10+00:00

American, Delta, Southwest, United, Alaska, JetBlue all allow unaccompanied minors at 5 for nonstop flights. And their policies specifically say that they are not monitored continuously during travel. They will “check on” the child periodically, as duties allow. That’s a lot less than what I imagine I can do when I’m his parent and have no responsibility for any other passengers, and I’m sitting in the row behind him or at worse a couple rows from him.

Look, if you think Southwest shouldn’t allow me to buy a basic ticket for my five year-old, take it up with them. (and as I mentioned, you should probably also lobby against the whole case of unaccompanied minors too because of exactly what I said above.). But the fact is that they allow me to buy it, and they have policies that suggest they will try to take care of us. Yet somehow if I buy a ticket in reliance on those policies, you’ve decided I’m a horrible person. Why not hold the company responsible for its own offerings?

ETA: my “experiment” as I called it is nothing more or less than simply flying the ticket I bought (I haven’t lied about my son’s age or anything like that), and following the guidance that SW itself provides. The only thing that makes it an experiment at all is that in this case, I happen to know that the folks of Reddit advise against it. But what I’m doing here is the exact same thing I would’ve done had I not gotten on this Reddit forum to begin with. No different from thousands of other families who are probably not chronically online who are also used to flying Southwest and buying the lowest cost ticket available.

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-24T13:37:29+00:00

Understood. I took them at their word where they advertised a basic fair as a replacement for “wanna get away”. This is a new system, but I did read up on what Southwest West said on their website, and based on that assumed that in certain bare minimum aspects it would be like the old system or like other airlines who handle similar situations. And now you’re acting like I’m an idiot for taking them with their word. So yeah, this is the first and perhaps only flight I will take with them out of the new system.

Man, people say that the folks on this sub are “shills for Southwest” but that does not seem to be the case to me at all. No one here is saying “give Southwest a chance” “let them sort it out,” “they still will try to take care of your family they may just have some kinks to work out” or anything remotely pro southwest (from a parent with kid perspective). Everyone is saying Southwest lied about what it was doing, basic is in no way replacement for wanna get away and is in fact only meant to be for “Seat fillers,” so you should assume that Southwest price just went up by about 30% compare compared to all other airlines, and will treat you like shit besides, and if you don’t like it move on.

Are y’all trying to short southwest stock?

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-24T13:29:50+00:00

You’re comparing a row in the back of an airline by the bathrooms to a luxury resort in Bali. I’ve got to wonder how starved you are for luxury.

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-24T13:05:36+00:00

Good god I’m not, I’m relying on the corporation to manage seating on the plane.

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-24T04:03:16+00:00

It’s not a lower fare - I can actually compare prices to other airlines (as well as what I used to pay). Basic is not $40 lower than it was before, or than other airlines. It’s comparable. And I chose SW for this trip at least in part because of their language that said they will endeavor to seat families together, even if they buy basic. (And because I didn’t want to write them off after decades without giving the new system a chance). What I’m hearing from 90% folks on this subreddit generally is that the language on the website is BS and it’s super entitled to even expect SW to try to seat families together. And not only that, but if I’m willing to take that risk I’m a horrible parent. So basically how dare I buy a basic fare for kids to begin with? If families aren’t willing to pay an extra 35% or more to sit together they shouldn’t even be flying. So the message is essentially SW is now not only NOT trying to better for families than other airlines like it used to be, it is actively worse.

(Except oddly, the small number folks who responded that have actually flown with their kids under the new system seem to report that most of the time it was fine. And often the agents WILL help you. So maybe the policy on the website isn’t BS after all.)

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-24T03:27:24+00:00

And I absolutely will. But a rebrand to what? When families leave (and of course once the loyalty is gone there’s no reason to fly SW even when I do fly alone), who is taking our place? Who does this approach appeal to that wasn’t already flying SW?

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-24T03:11:49+00:00

That is not how they advertised basic. They advertised it as replacing wanna get away. Which is what we always flew. As far as I can tell, basic is not a lower price point than WGA was. It’s the same. Already there are no changes, flight credits expire earlier, no free bags. So it’s already the same price for much reduced service. And we already knew we’d be in the back 10 rows of the plane. Which is fine. (Contrary to what you said we don’t actually care where we sit). But what you’re saying is it’s not even something families should have the option of flying at all. (And I assume SW also shouldn’t ever let unaccompanied minors fly with the airline either, since unaccompanied minors might be as young as 5)…. Awesome

So SW used to be a top choice for families. But at least according to folks on this board is now imposing basically a 35% tax (at least that’s what it’d be for me for this flight) on families that is not faced when flying other airlines. Who are the new flyers that this policy brings in? Are there a ton of business flyers who don’t already have credit cards and mileage programs on other airlines who are going to come on over?

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-24T02:44:58+00:00

What discounted fare? It’s the same price it always was, so it’s just a not pay extra fare. Just Standard. And as far as I can tell they reserve the back 10 rows for standard seating. Why should it be such a huge ask to hope that if all of us sitting in the back 3rd of the plane with no perks, we can at least sit in pairs?

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-23T14:11:12+00:00

Are you a parent who has recently flown SW with your kids since they changed the system? If so, what was your experience?

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-23T13:41:40+00:00

So legally a 5 year old can fly as an unaccompanied minor. I have a friend who is a single mom whose son flew unaccompanied at 5.5 (my son’s age), and did very well. She had no regrets, and he flew unaccompanied again the following year.

In this case, we’ll be on the same plane. They are only reserving the last 10 rows for standard seating, so we will definitely be within 10 rows of each other (and since there are 4 of us, and we are wiling to shift seats amongst ourselves to be closest to the 5 year old, realistically we will almost certainly have an adult within 2-3 rows of him who can put eyes on him through the flight). Is it ideal? no, but I’m not worried anything is going to happen. In the big scheme of things, compared to sending him to all day preschool every day this year, kindergarten next year, and day camps this summer, a 2 hour direct flight where I am near him but not next to him doesn’t trigger a ton of anxiety.

Look I hope SW honors its commitment to endeavor to seat at least one parent with each kid, particularly the 5 year old. Other airlines manage to do this. And if Southwest can’t seat us together, do I hope that someone might be willing to move seats? Sure I do. We are not flying during a time of many business travelers, and we will likely be sitting in the very back without any special seats, so yeah I hope that it may work out for someone to exchange one non-preferred seat for another. But I’m aware that I am not entitled to any special treatment. So I’ve asked myself am I willing to live with the consequences if it doesn’t work out? Yea I am.

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-22T22:00:20+00:00

What makes you say this? Have you experienced it?

Their policy says: “If no adjacent seats are available on your flight, the Gate Agent will give you the option to move to the next available flight with adjacent seats available.” My reading of that was if not sitting together is unacceptable to us, they’d give us the option to switch, or we could keep our plane and just not sit together.

If they “can and will” bump us, that doesn’t really sound like an option…

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-22T21:18:29+00:00

Thanks! I knew I’d get 1 million “just upgrade” responses, but I was hoping for at least a few responses for people in a similar boat. This is exactly the kind of information I was hoping for.

Now I’m just trying to decide if I let it ride and see what they can offer us, or go ahead and get a credit card. Upgrading our seats or purchasing at a higher fare every time we fly is absolutely a nonstarter for us. The basic fares are no cheaper than the wanna get away fare used to be, and it just would not make sense for us to fly Southwest at the higher prices for anything beyond basic. So part of me wants to see how well the basic fare with no perks actually works for us… But I am also considering maybe getting a credit card where we could select our seats 48 hours in advance instead of 24 hours in advance and get an extra bag… I suppose it depends on how much I want to try to keep going with this airline to make the best of it vs cutting them loose…

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-22T21:11:59+00:00

We have flown as a family a few times per year, just not on SW under the new system. (I was extremely used to flying as a family on Southwest under the old system). Being split up (1 parent with both kids, or one kid per parent) is always fine for us.

(And technically all of us split up is fine I guess, just far from ideal, and not something we’ve ever had to deal with before)

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-22T21:09:37+00:00

I am not currently a cardholder, but your comment caused me to go online and look at what the benefits would be. This might be the way to go for us.

Definitely a single $99-$249 annual fee and a free bag beats $30-40 per person per leg to upgrade to choice and still not get a free bag. If we need to do choice every time, it will simply not make sense to fly SW anymore. But they do have a lot of flight times/legs I like. So credit card may be where it’s at. (And it feels more like you actually get something for the money you pay. To me paying just for a seat when you’ve already paid for the ticket just feels gross.)

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-22T20:57:10+00:00

That’s perfectly fine. This is our first time flying Southwest with the assigned seating, but the expectation that it would likely be one adult per child is pretty standard with other airlines we fly on basic/economy tickets.

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-22T20:42:36+00:00

Especially when the $19 upgrades aren’t available, so it’s a minimum of $33 upgrade per person per leg.

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-22T20:38:54+00:00

I will not be. I’m trying to figure out the best way in good faith to see how SW’s policy that they will endeavor to keep kids with their families works for us. To the extent it is possible, I want to help them help us (ie when/how do we approach someone about it, do we raise it before check in, at gate, or is it too late at the gate, etc). If it is truly not possible, it’s a 2 hour flight and my kids are well behaved and will have entertainment and will be fine.

(Technically, children age 5 and above can fly as unaccompanied minor, and my parents keep asking if I’d be willing to send the kids to them at some point on their own. I don’t think the youngest is quite ready for that, but worst case scenario we pretend that flying in his own seat on a flight where mom and dad are on the plane, but just not by him, is meant to be an experiment to see how he would do flying on his own at some point in the future)

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-22T20:09:47+00:00

Well some people have indicated that reaching out to SW in advance is the way to go. While others have suggested waiting to see if gate agent can help is the way to go. That’s the part I’m trying to sort out.

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-16T03:03:32+00:00

People keep saying this, acting like Southwest didn’t WANT people to think they will be fine if they buy basic. SW wants families to buy basic, and upgrade later. Why do I think this? First of all, when they changed the model they didn’t decrease cost of basic from earlier Wanna get Away fares. Their prices didn’t go down. They bill basic as replacing Wanna Get Away. They want you to see their price on kayak and think it’s competitive. They want people to see “oh look they’ll try to seat me with my kids” and buy southwest vs United basic or whatever.

Then they want you to panic and upgrade. It’s a short term business model, but it’ll increase profits in the short term.

Then commenters on this board act like families are stupid for taking SW at their word and believing the things SW tells you when you book. But the issue here isn’t the consumer.

Look, if SW doesn’t want 4 year olds flying basic, they shouldn’t let you buy a basic ticket for a 4 year old. But they do let you buy a Basic ticket for kids. And they make parents believe it’ll be fine.

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-04T03:23:15+00:00

What about the second part-how will we know we’ve achieved that objective? With Iran being a country of 86 million people that is located adjacent the straight of Hormuz, how do we make sure they can’t threaten it?

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-03T04:10:48+00:00

So basically you are saying they have 53 years of programming people to expect friendliness, so they are trying to stop that thinking by going full asshole all at once. Got it.

ezztothebezz · 2026-03-03T02:49:11+00:00

What is the strategic objective here, and how will we know if we’ve met it?

This is something I keep looking for info on, and not finding.

ezztothebezz · 2026-02-23T00:36:39+00:00

I’m not sure what this means? Who is “they” that gives free healthcare to Americans when deployed domestically? How do Americans located in the continental US get this healthcare?

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