Why Won't Southwest Let Third Party Service Providers Help Southwest Fans Manage Their Frequent Flyer Points?

Southwest Airlines is the sort of airline that seems to get a "love it" or "hate it," review from folks. The funky boarding process and the general no frills attitude of the airline work for some, but not for others. Personally, I like Southwest for short haul flights, don't mind the boarding process and especially like the fact that it's retrofitted many of its gates with comfy chairs that have outlets and USB chargers at many seats. I've also found that on about 10% of my Southwest flights, there will be a very, very funny flight attendant who entertains the entire plane (a few weeks ago, the flight attendant on my flight got loud applause for his somewhat hilarious safety warning message that included, among other things an "intermission" where he sang the "let's all go to the snack bar" song).

So it's a bit disappointing that the airline has apparently decided to take an unfriendly approach to folks who want to use third party products to track their travel and manage their frequent flyer points. TripIt is an increasingly popular service (I have an account, but have never actually used it) that many people have been using these days, but one of our readers passes along an email that TripIt recently sent out to users:

"Hello,

We're sorry to let you know that Southwest Airlines has asked TripIt and several other online travel companies to stop tracking points for members of their Rapid Rewards program. Effective immediately, TripIt Pro has discontinued point tracker support for Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards. Your program history and balance will be available until December 31, 2010 on the TripIt website and mobile applications.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and we appreciate your understanding. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Thanks,

TripIt

This seems really unfortunate. An airline like Southwest that has a funky passenger-friendly view of things should be encouraging apps that make it easier and more enjoyable to fly Southwest and to use its Rapid Rewards system. It's too bad that they're trying to shut out those third parties.

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Source: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101020/11583511512/why-won-t-southwest-let-third-party-service-providers-help-southwest-fans-manage-their-frequent-flyer-points.shtml

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