Southwest Airlines

You've got 72 hours - well, less than that at this point - to book a flight for $35 one-way on Southwest Airlines. The airline is launching its annual (or is it semi-annual?) sale where the fares are based on the number of miles in your flight. For travel of 450 miles or less, one-way fares are $35. For travel 451 to 1,000 miles, one-way fares are $65. For travel 1,001 to 1,500 miles, one-way fares are $95. And for travel 1,501 or more miles, one-way fares are $125. For example, from Baltimore, $35 will take you to Boston, Detroit, Hartford, Newark and Pittsburgh.

First of all, Southwest Airlines needs to get with my schedule. I expect to see airfare sales on Tuesdays. When the airline launches them on Fridays, it gets me all frazzled. Routine, people. But the sale Southwest announced today is anything but routine. It features airfares for holiday travel - from Dec. 13 to Jan. 5. And while there are blackout dates, there are not nearly as many as you might expect for a peak travel period. Blackout dates are Dec. 23, Dec. 26, Dec. 30 and Jan. 2. See, that's not so bad. One-way fares from Baltimore range from $49 to Boston  to $199  for a trip to San Francisco.

Southwest Airlines is offering members of its Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program double points on flights to/from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Travelers must register for the promotion before booking their flights and traveling by Nov. 7. Southwest's promotion also offers double points for travel to Denver and Phoenix. BWI recently announced that the airport had its best July ever, in terms of the number of passengers, serving some 2.2 million fliers.

If Hurricane Irene continues on its current path, air travelers with flights anywhere from Norfolk to New England should probably plan on staying put this weekend. Earlier this afternoon, both AirTran and Southwest Airlines , the largest carrier at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood International Airport, issued travel waivers for customers with planned flights to about a dozen cities, including Baltimore, Boston, Hartford, New York, Philalelphia, Portland (Maine) and several others.

Enter your email address on Southwest.com to get your custom iTunes download code. That page also has the entire list of artists and songs. Here's Something Beautiful from Trombone Shorty and Lenny Kravitz:    

Southwest Airlines built its brand with a wink and a smile, bringing its customers a winning combination of low fares and high spirits. But the last week or so has brought a challenge in which price chopping and good-humored flight crews wouldn't cut it. After a section of the fuselage of one of its Boeing 737-300 airlines gave way April 1, tearing a hole in the roof while it flew more than 30,000 feet above Arizona, the airline faced the test...

For an airplane fuselage to be torn open ("Southwest grounds jets after hole opens midair," April 3) this particular plane could not have been thoroughly and timely inspected for a long, long time. After this horrific occurrence, now the inspections begin. It seems to me that the inspection process is certainly not what it is "cracked up" to be. Ruth Fried, Owings Mills

Southwest Airlines, the largest carrier at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, announced today that it plans to acquire AirTran Airways. What does this mean for customers and shareholders? Read on: When is this going to happen? AirTran stockholders and federal regulators need to approve the deal — and the airlines say it could take months for both to occur. After the merger closes, Southwest said it could then take as long as two years to integrate the airlines and begin operating as one carrier.

I 'm getting tired of working for the man. Not The Baltimore Sun. I mean my job with Capital One, the credit-card company. And all the work I do for Verizon and M&T Bank. And Southwest Airlines. Verizon signed me up as a broadband network technician. When the router or modem goes out on my Internet service (rare, it's true), the guy who fixes it is me. I'm a data-entry clerk for Capital One. They make me key in my card number and other stuff when I call so they don't have to. I check myself in for Southwest flights and serve as my own teller at M&T's money dispenser.

When movie director Kevin Smith, also known as the "Silent Bob" character in several of his films, was booted from a Southwest Airlines flight last week, the public discourse over passenger rights was inflamed. "Truthfully, how many of us would want to be in the window seat with Kevin Smith next to us in the aisle seat?" asked Doug, one many who commented on The Baltimore Sun's Consuming Interests blog. Countered Charlie: "It is the responsibility of corporations to serve all the people.