The End of Southwest as We Know It?

[thetrailboss]

Holy shit. Hopefully none of you are flying or trying to fly SWA right now. Complete shit show with 2/3 flights canceled again tomorrow. This is really bad for SWA. Herb Kelleher is rolling in his grave. They’re too big now IMHO.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/27/business/southwest-airlines-service-meltdown/index.html

Last year SWA just completely canceled our return flight out of MHT. “Weather” was the excuse. Considering that they bumped me a couple weeks earlier to a completely different schedule I was skeptical. Next flight out of MHT? Not for four days. Thank God I was staying with family. We could only get out of BOS. That was the last SWA flight I took.

Flew Delta today. Plane was full. Saw one guy have a yelling match with another passenger in the terminal. Both Delta and SWA have pretty much given up on MHT and PWM, which sucks IMHO. BOS is a dirty, crowded, outdated shithole. Especially when traveling with kids or skis. From the POV of those making decisions in Atlanta or Texas, BOS is a bigger market and “only one hour south” of MHT but man it is not at all convenient.



I was a big fan of SWA and we flew them religiously to and from NH/VT for more than a decade. Now no way. They are just another big airline that has lost their way.

 

[thetrailboss]

Buttigieg warns Southwest CEO he will hold airline accountable after 'meltdown'

Out of roughly 2,700 US flight cancellations already made for Wednesday, nearly all of them belong to Southwest. All other US airlines together account for fewer than 100 of those cancellations.

www.cnn.com

 

[deadheadskier]

I'm sorry, but in no way is Logan a dirty and outdated shit hole. Crowded and a pain to get to? Absolutely. But it's definitely not dirty or outdated. I actually wouldn't even call it crowded other than the security lines and the garages. Wide walkways, plenty of seating by the gates, decent restaurant capacity and choices. At least that's been my observation during the 4 or so flights a year I've been taking from there for several years now. I prefer Manchester all day, but the scheduling and pricing out of Logan for about a decade has forced me there.

I've never really been a fan of Southwest because I like to pick my seat. My folks are likely screwed this Friday coming up for my uncle's memorial. They bought Southwest tickets before the meltdown.

I abhor the airline industry in general. Very little accountability to paying customers, the size of the seats on the planes have become an insult. It's a joke of an industry in this country just like rail. We bail them out when times are bad, they make money hand over fist and gouge people when times are good. Should just nationalize the whole network. Maybe in 50 years we'd catch up to the rest of the modern world.

 

[thetrailboss]

I'm sorry, but in no way is Logan a dirty and outdated shit hole. Crowded and a pain to get to? Absolutely. But it's definitely not dirty or outdated. I actually wouldn't even call it crowded other than the security lines and the garages. Wide walkways, plenty of seating by the gates, decent restaurant capacity and choices. At least that's been my observation during the 4 or so flights a year I've been taking from there for several years now. I prefer Manchester all day, but the scheduling and pricing out of Logan for about a decade has forced me there.

I've never really been a fan of Southwest because I like to pick my seat. My folks are likely screwed this Friday coming up for my uncle's memorial. They bought Southwest tickets before the meltdown.

I abhor the airline industry in general. Very little accountability to paying customers, the size of the seats on the planes have become an insult. It's a joke of an industry in this country just like rail. We bail them out when times are bad, they make money hand over fist and gouge people when times are good. Should just nationalize the whole network. Maybe in 50 years we'd catch up to the rest of the modern world.

I may be harsh on BOS. Especially coming from brand new SLC. The biggest thing is that it’s not convenient at all for us. The toll is a PITA for us.

 

[deadheadskier]

I may be harsh on BOS. Especially coming from brand new SLC. The biggest thing is that it’s not convenient at all for us. The toll is a PITA for us.

I get that as a Regional resident. It's 39 miles from us to MHT. We can be parked and inline for security within an hour pretty much any time of the day. Logan is only 57 miles, but during rush hour I need to budget 2.5 hours time to do the same just to be safe.

Logan's location is a curse for regional travelers, but couldn't be better for locals. If you live or a just visiting Boston alone, it's location can't be beat. You can be downtown in a heartbeat. Contrast that to say JFK or LaGuardia and NYC. But one of the problems with an airport so close to downtown is it limits the ability to build vertically and thus contributes to sprawl. You'll likely never see a building taller than the Hancock due to FAA flight path restrictions. San Diego has the same issue.

Anyways, back to SWA. Unless a miracle happens, my folks are SOL for coming to New England Friday. Looks like all Thursday flights from Ft Myers are cancelled.

Unbelievable that there's not enough oversight and this airline can continue to operate without the needed IT investments to keep up with volume. Southwest has made billions and billions of dollars over the past dozen years. Greedy bastards allowed this to happen while laughing all the way to the bank.

Southwest Airlines Gross Profit 2010-2023 | LUV

Southwest Airlines annual/quarterly gross profit history and growth rate from 2010 to 2023. Gross profit can be defined as the profit a company makes after deducting the variable costs directly associated with making and selling its products or providing its services. <ul...

www.macrotrends.net

I'll say it again, Nationalize the air and rail networks. Privatization of certain commodities like this one gets completely botched because of greed.

 

[thetrailboss]

Anyways, back to SWA. Unless a miracle happens, my folks are SOL for coming to New England Friday. Looks like all Thursday flights from Ft Myers are cancelled.

Unbelievable that there's not enough oversight and this airline can continue to operate without the needed IT investments to keep up with volume. Southwest has made billions and billions of dollars over the past dozen years. Greedy bastards allowed this to happen while laughing all the way to the bank.

Southwest Airlines Gross Profit 2010-2023 | LUV

Southwest Airlines annual/quarterly gross profit history and growth rate from 2010 to 2023. Gross profit can be defined as the profit a company makes after deducting the variable costs directly associated with making and selling its products or providing its services. <ul...

www.macrotrends.net

I'll say it again, Nationalize the air and rail networks. Privatization of certain commodities like this one gets completely botched because of greed.

They grew without preparing for it.

 

[thetrailboss]

Far from a shock, Southwest meltdown was 'perfect storm' of well-known vulnerabilities — Los Angeles Times

A combination of bad weather, outdated technology and vulnerable flight schedules played into the mess at Southwest Airlines.

apple.news

 

[thetrailboss]

Southwest CEO apologizes to customers, employees: 'There will be a lot of lessons learned'

After more than 15,000 flights were canceled over the Christmas holiday, leaving thousands of travelers in a lurch, Southwest Airlines says it's finally catching up. The airline said it plans to resume normal operations Friday with "minimal disruptions." In an exclusive interview with "Good...

www.yahoo.com

And the stock has dropped 5% in value during this mess.

 

[Edd]

Southwest CEO apologizes to customers, employees: 'There will be a lot of lessons learned'

After more than 15,000 flights were canceled over the Christmas holiday, leaving thousands of travelers in a lurch, Southwest Airlines says it's finally catching up. The airline said it plans to resume normal operations Friday with "minimal disruptions." In an exclusive interview with "Good...

www.yahoo.com

And the stock has dropped 5% in value during this mess.

Surprised it didn’t fall farther.