The San Francisco Citizen

The owner of this car that was spotted in the South of Market Area of San Francisco has multiple signs visible from all angles advertising the futility of breaking in.

Now back in the day, you could go out and buy a simple yellow “NO RADIO” sign to hang in your car. Those signs went out of fashion for whatever reason, so now there’s no excuse to not create your own haiku or senryu.

Click to expand:

PLEASE
DO NOT BREAK
WINDOW

I HAVE NOTHING
INSIDE
MY CAR

NO MONEY, NO
CD
NOTHING

Does this approach work?

Well, it can’t hoit.

AGING TOYOTA

CRASH, ANOTHER WINDOW GONE

SOON, WINTER ARRIVES

Try it yourself. What would you write?

I don’t have much in my life/ But take it, it’s yours

Well, check it out. Today, Southwest Airlines (LUV) is crowing about their lack of fees.

So that means “NO First or Second Checked Bag Fees, Change Fees, Fuel Surcharges, Snack Fees, Aisle or Window Seat Fees, Curbside Check-In Fees, or Phone Reservation Fees.” Hurray!

What the “legacy” carriers don’t seem to understand is that some people really, really don’t like hidden fees. Like how some restaurants in San Francisco hit you with an undisclosed 4% tack-on when you get your bill. 

Fly with Southwest and you’ll think you’ve been transported back to the 1970’s, when fees were a four-letter word:

Nostalgic photo via Church of the Customer

Now, some may quibble about a few things, like how the cheapest fares from Southwest are only available online. But that’s as it should be, since reserving a flight by yourself lowers the expenses of running the airline. This is a better approach than a company advertising a price and then surprising you with a fee that you didn’t even know existed. The point is that Southwest has none of the new fees all the other airlines seem to have.  

Now this might put SWA at a disadvantage when they advertise their rates, because they lose all those little “profit centers” the other airlines take advantage of. But just remember that Bags Fly Free, and lots of other things are free, when you fly with LUV.

Hurray. Certain other airlines should take notice of this.