I heart Southwest

I'm heading to Beantown to run the Boston Marathon in April and after recently surfing for tix on kayak.com, I was alarmed to discover 1) there are no direct flights from Midway (which is so fast and easy to get to from the Loop), and 2) direct flights from O'Hare to Boston are really pricey. But on the heels of announcing it hopes to start service to NYC's Laguardia Airport late this spring, today Southwest Airlines announced it will fly to Boston's Logan Airport starting this fall.

That won't help me as I figure out my April travel plans, but still, I'm psyched. Since most of my family is spread between Kansas City and Philadelphia--two hub cities for the airline--I've racked up some serious frequent flier miles over the years and spent a lot of time on Southwest planes. And in my (non-scientific) experience Southwest flights are on-time most of the time, the flight attendants are really nice (hey, it matters) and, most important, the airline's fares are reasonable and the pricing is totally transparent: Book early and pay less. As far as I'm concerned, the more places they fly, the better.