The Only Place

I love it when information is easy to find and use. When I'm shopping, if I can quickly compare prices and features of relevant products, I'm happy. When buying airline tickets, I like to go to Kayak to compare airlines, prices, and schedules to find the best fit for my needs.

So why is Southwest bragging that their web site is The Only Place to find and buy a ticket on their airline? The Only Place. The Only Place, repeated about 10 times in their 30-second commercial. Maybe they think if they say it enough, I'll assume it's a good thing.

If I know I want to use Southwest, that's fine; I'll go to their site and buy my ticket. But as a consumer, I want to compare my options and choose the best one for me. Southwest is making me go to at least 2 sites by being The Only Place- that's more time spent searching, writing data down, figuring things out, and making a decision.

Southwest acts like they're doing me a favor by being The Only Place. How are they helping me by excluding their flight information from the travel aggregator sites?

Finding the best travel arrangements is complicated. I want to go to One Place, but that place is unlikely to be Southwest's web site.