Southwest's Claim to Be Cheapest Holds Up for Business Travelers with Bags

Southwest Airlines beats its competitors on fares alone just over half the time, according to a Topaz International study of fares that suit business travel schedules and common business travel city pairs. For travelers checking luggage, though, Southwest overwhelmingly costs the least.

Revisiting research it conducted in 2012, Topaz compared fares for 97 city pairs for Southwest, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, Delta Air Lines, Frontier, Spirit, United Airlines and Virgin America. To keep results relevant to business travel, Topaz limited the city pairs to those frequented by business travelers and to flight times typical of a business traveler's schedule: departing at 9 a.m. and returning around 5 p.m. with stays between two and five nights. None of the results account for corporate negotiated discounts. Topaz chose common business routes that Southwest flies and pulled fares from the carrier's site, then determined other carriers' comparable available flights by visiting Expedia and Hotwire and then pulled prices on those flights from each airline's website.

Southwest had the lowest fare 55 percent of the time, compared with 35 percent in the 2012 study. Add a checked bag, however, and Southwest—the only carrier of the group not to charge for a first checked bag—had the lowest fare 76 percent of the time. That marks an improvement from 60 percent in 2012. That was before JetBlue added a bag fee for its lowest fares under a tiered structure last year. For the rare instance a business traveler needs to check two bags, Southwest was the cheapest option 87 percent of the time, about the same percentage as in 2012.

Topaz was spurred to conduct its study after noticing advertisements from Southwest over the past year promising the lowest airfares. "Past studies have revealed that the airline with the lowest fare is not always low-cost airlines, such as Southwest Airlines," according to Topaz. "The competitive nature of airlines is such that airlines are constantly looking at their airfares in specific city pairs and adjusting accordingly."

However, the study also validates Southwest's more recent "transfarency" claim to be the lowest cost when considering bag fees and change fees, which Southwest does not charge. For corporate travel buyers, therefore, figuring out the lowest fare includes determining how frequently they are paying those bag fees and change fees.