Call me a cynic, but it’s hard not to notice the downward spiral Southwest Airlines seems to be in lately.
It started with a management shake-up—outside leadership came in, board members were fired or stepped down, and not long after that, the CEO who coined the “bags fly free” slogan left the company. Now? Bags don’t fly free, and loyalty points expire.
So what’s the selling point now? For years, Southwest made its mark by appealing to leisure travelers with low fares and simple perks. But in the last decade, they’ve tried to shift toward business travelers and higher prices. The problem? No in-flight entertainment, Wi-Fi still costs extra, and overall, the experience doesn’t match the price tag. They’re charging like a legacy airline without offering the same benefits.
Airlines have been extremely difficult to kill lately. (ex.: see Spirit). Meanwhile, I don’t know how any of us are flying. People say they are starving because they can’t afford eggs yet I haven’t seen an empty seat on any of my flights in months.
I live in the Charlotte area…so it being an American Airlines hub…naturally I’ve gravitated towards them. They are somewhat expensive…but fairly reliable. I’ve only flown Southwest a few times and they were OK. Through no fault of their own we were diverted from San Antonio to Austin I think once for a huge thunderstorm…not much they could do about that.
Regarding airlines in general. I’ll say this delicately…because I know I’m tip-toeing among some greats here () - in my job we’ve shipped some guys off to the airlines over the past what…oh…26 years I’ve been here now. And I have to admit it took some of the shine off the airline pilot aura I had…simply because some of them were…“meh” pilots. Like…very average (to put it politely). BUT…at an airline…the standardization and repetition I think shape people into better pilots than perhaps what they were if they were less than optimal. Flying 700-800 hours or whatever a year will do that.
One thing I’ll say about some of the recently publicized incidents…many of them are things I could totally imagine myself doing in a dark-night/fatigued state. So while I’m like “they took off from a taxiway???” - I also cringe a little bit inside because I imagine myself calling my chief pilot someday with my tail between my legs saying…“you’re not gonna believe this…but I tried to takeoff from a taxiway…”
Not sure about Southwest’s business model. Airlines in general I’m sort of amazed they can make money. I mean…when I’m buying $500 round trip tickets to DFW and back I’m trying to figure out how they make money off of that by the time they pay the pilots, cabin crew, ground handlers, fuel, maintenance, etc…etc… Just seems like a slim margins industry. But I don’t know nothing about nothing… I do wish American would have free WiFi…I can’t stomach paying $20 for a couple hours of WiFi…
I read a financial article a while back. Pre corona, I think? Anyway, the headline was ”Everybody but the Airlines themselves are making money of the passengers”
I’m convinced it’s a Ponzi scheme? How anything so sucky could make so much money is inexplicable. I’ll shove cash into the bank while I can. (the thoughts of “outie” Eric)
My well-known rule among my family is that I don’t ride on airplanes unless crossing an ocean is required. There’s not a beach, cathedral, museum or meal worth the utter hell that is traveling by air.
What else could we expect? The consumers (in general) demand rock bottom prices for tickets but at the same time get upset when airlines cut back on food and drinks or charge for extra carry on bags. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
People wanted airlines to be the Greyhound of the skies, as if that was a pleasant way to travel, and now that they have basically achieved that goal they are upset that airline travel isn’t as luxurious.
You can have both. And much of the world does. Many countries/regions have national carriers that imbue their service with at least a modicum of national pride. Those countries also have LCCs which for a couple of quid can take you to Ibiza for a weekend of cheap booze, bad sex and a nasty cold which you are honor-bound to spread to your coworkers on Monday.
America has plenty of the later but none of the former. At the expensive top is a knife-fight of Hub entrenchment fueled by a fast race to mediocrity. As a chariot driver in the fight, I can tell you that it’s not pretty. I do my best but I usually fall short.
With the exclusion of the Arabian oil-states, national carriers have been forced to follow suite, when it comes to reducing the cost of travel in order to be competitive. Just look at our beloved Scandinavian Airlines, which today is just a shadow of its former self.
True. But they still answer to a higher, albeit only slightly, standard than the US. When Air France or BA embarrasses themselves, as they often do, the PM might have something to say about it. When either UAL, AMR or Delta fall short, the response is to fly one of the others. There’s just no expectation of service here. Now, I will say that I have noticed a steady improvement at my airline. At this trajectory I’ll be long retired before it meets the level of service we had at CAL, circa 1998. Still, it is nice to have the occasional day where I think we gave Emirates a good run. Three or four of those days a year is certainly better than none.
I’ve been watching this season of “Drive to Survive”. (Warning: I don’t follow F1, don’t particularly like F1 and should be treated like the average housewife who likes the show: I watch for the attractive people). In one episode the drivers were asked to film themselves. Two of the 2nd tier drivers are stuck in 1st class airline sleeper seats talking about another buddy who’s “riding with Max” These (to me) kids are worth millions, yet I sorta felt sorry for them, slumming it in the front of a 787 while Leclerc is champaigning with Verstappen in (presumably) a Gulfstream or similar.
During my tenure as a ‘Civil Servant’ with our DOD I traveled to the US or Europe at least once per year. Because of the distances involved it was an entitlement to fly business class.
One journey, after I had just finalised my itinerary. I was duly summoned to the office of the Head of Delegation for a conference we were attending in the UK, they were about three pay grades above me, the worst type of bean counter and asked why I had booked business class tickets…
When I tried to explain that was the entitlement, he said that for this trip we were forgoing the entitlement, everyone was flying economy and that I was to re-book the flights.
A conversation followed, where my side of it was: ‘If he thought I was going to spend 24+ hours in transit, over 16 of them in economy class and be expected to start work the next morning, when my body is telling me it is midnight, then he had rocks in his head and if flying Business was non-negotiable then I wasn’t going. Someone else could deliver my presentation and if any of our allies had questions they could “mail them in”.’
) - in my job we’ve shipped some guys off to the airlines over the past what…oh…26 years I’ve been here now. And I have to admit it took some of the shine off the airline pilot aura I had…simply because some of them were…“meh” pilots. Like…very average (to put it politely). BUT…at an airline…the standardization and repetition I think shape people into better pilots than perhaps what they were if they were less than optimal. Flying 700-800 hours or whatever a year will do that.
