re: The Downfall of Southwest

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I've never and will almost certainly never fly Spirit, but what? Their first class is basically Covid seating at the front?

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no…
you have two choices at the front of the plane. 2x2 big seats or 3x3 standard seats with a tray table in the middle seat

LINK

both are far superior to anything SW offers for standard cabin, for just a couple bucks more than economy. As you’ve said you’ve never flown spirit and you don’t know, so we are trying to educate you. You do you though

Breeze used to have nonstop from SDF to MSY in the winter. Not sure what happened.

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shortsighted management always destroys companies.

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SWA bought Airtran in 2011, which is when the decline really started. Try again.

I fly Spirut a lot. The cheap direct to Cancun multiple times a week is nice. I take many 4 day weekends because of that flight.

Friend was flying from Hartford to Baltimore to FL today on Southwest with an hr 45 min connection. Original flight was delayed 3 hours so helped him rebook to an earlier Baltimore flight with a 4 hour layover. He's still in CT nearly 6 hours after getting to the airport. Said no updates when returning to the gate, couldn't get his bag, and the flight still hasn't cancelled so he cant get help from the travel agency to rebook.

I know weather was terrible for a bit but swa should've been able to get some flights out of there. American, Delta, United all got flights out. He's cancelling when he can and rebooking to a nonstop on JetBlue tomorrow morning. I asked how his first southwest experience was, what do you think his response was?

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What's the most pre-boarders you've seen on a flight? Good general question for everyone here. I think I'm at 12 including some obese woman

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If I remember correctly pre-boarding was only a thing because of the old boarding process and not assigned seats correct? Some intentionally abused interpretation of the ADA that allowed pre boarders to claim a disability that required additional boarding time, had to be granted, and couldn’t be questioned?

Regardless, preboarding for this reason isnt a thing on any of the other legacy airlines that I can recall. And given that Elliott has turned southwest into a shittier copycat version of everyone else, I’d have to think preboarding is also going away.

Count me in the list of people swearing off southwest unless absolutely necessary. Any thoughts I had otherwise were obliterated with the credit charge changes yesterday, 50% higher fees with significantly reduced benefits. After already completely shutting on their core customer base with all the changes recently. The companion pass will almost certainly be effectively ended for most people next.

My only upcoming flight with them is a direct flight in the middle of a multi-city work trip, and only because they were the only direct option.

The video in the op details the record profits they were pulling prior to covid. Had southwest invested in updating their technology and infrastructure with those profits instead of keeping their outdated and antiquated systems, the 2022 meltdown is likely just another brief blip from a winter storm and none of this shite ever happens.

frick Elliott, but also frick southwest for allowing things to even get to this point.

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preboarding for this reason isnt a thing on any of the other legacy airlines that I can recall.

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Every airline has pre-boarding... The difference is there is no significant reason to outside of overhead bin space on other airlines.

With SW, there is a motivator to claim pre-board status so you can sit up front.

It wasn't terrible pre-Covid, but after, its fricking horrible and SW has made 0 effort to reign in the fatties using it or truly limit it to just them and 1 companion as they state.

Theres a reason they call it Jetbridge Jesus... They go on slow or in a wheel chair, but as soon as that plane lands at the new destination, they are healed.

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Thankfully that's gone come January 2026.

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Problem is it’s too little, too late. They’ve run off a lot of great customers and now the changes to travel credits and free bags will alienate another demo of their customers.

I flew SW yesterday, and on my flight home from STL to MSY I watched 5 wheelchairs pre board each with 1-3 companions. A total of about 12-15 people rolling/waddling on mostly black and a few fat whites. A few minutes later the black gate agent called for active military to board. 1 clean cut white guy and his wife step forward. Probably both late 20's. The husband shows his military ID and the wife is a civilian. The gate agent won't let her board because she said its "military only." They don't cause a scene, the wife waits and boards later, and I see them on the flight sitting in separate rows, while Madea and her crew are spread out in the bulkhead.

That is a damn shame.

Not to mention I had Early Bird and was in the B group. I was pissed about that, but when I saw military guy's wife not allowed to board my problem seemed small.

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I'm probably in the minority but, I'm more likely to fly Southwest given the new changes.

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Why? I'm way less likely. Add to this that I live in Houston (Cypress) so it's a 45+ min haul to Hobby and the ending of free bags completely did away with any reason for me to fly SW unless it's significantly (>$100) cheaper.

They did just have a massive sale. Everything was way cheaper than I'd seen in a while. Rewards travel was cheap as well. I'm taking my 83 year old mom to NYC for the first time in October for 22,000 round trip for the 2 of us.

But I'm hating on all their new policies so much that I chose United (convenient airport) for $50 more to go to Nashville next month. I'll figure out how to not check a bag and use my daughter's (no pics) toiletries when I visit her there.