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It feels like SouthWest has been at the center of every scheduling disaster in the US over the past few years. Even if it’s out of their control (many of the i

It feels like SouthWest has been at the center of every scheduling disaster in the US over the past few years. Even if it’s out of their control (many of the issues were within their control), it seems Southwest fails way worse than every other US airline.

miguelazo 4y ago
That period also included a massive expansion of Southwest’s footprint— something like 18 cities. I fly a lot and never had much trouble with them until this last week. United and American have been far worse for me in terms of delays and cancellations, not to mention their disgruntled staffs.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  >not to mention their disgruntled staffs. Isn't this just normal for all American customer-service people? I guess it's relative though.
  - miguelazo 4y ago
    No. Southwest staff is almost never disgruntled. They're hired and known for their positive attitudes. The company culture is very different from other airlines, which is why there are a lot of books written about it.
giantrobot 4y ago
I've flown Southwest dozens of times. While I like their lower costs it's pretty easy to see where they are cutting costs with operations. In "normal" conditions their cost cutting is just functional. In any sort of exceptional situation their entire system fall apart.
- miguelazo 4y ago
  On what other occasion has their entire system fallen apart? Most every other passenger I encountered during this debacle said something to the effect of “this never happens on Southwest”. I do agree that they’ve been squeezing the system (especially labor) the last few years during their covid expansion, however. This weather was apparently the final straw.
  - ars 4y ago
    Every single one has had this happen. Delta by memorial day, Alaska Airline in May, a whole bunch of them Aug 7, and June 17-20, Apr 3. I happens quite frequently, but unless you follow airline news, or you were personally impacted you would not necessarily know.
  - ipython 4y ago
    The inc article I linked to above has several examples of other days where SWA cancelled hundreds to a thousand flights at one time. But today has clearly dwarfed even the worst of the previous incidents.
    - miguelazo 4y ago
      Yes, the scale is completely different. As the commenter after you noted, the events you're referring to happen all the time with other airlines as well.
  - beambot 4y ago
    Weather... or Chris Johnson. https://twitter.com/AtSouthwest/status/1606543397996855296 https://twitter.com/AtSouthwest/status/1606543397996855296
morganw 4y ago
This one affected a lot of people traveling to the 2021 US Grand Prix in Austin & it supposedly didn't affect Southwest [my Alaska flight was cancelled after four hours of "any minute now"]: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/10/22/skywest-airlines-outage-american-united-delta-alaska-flight-cancel-delay/6132114001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/10/2...
- kayfox 4y ago
  Southwest flies all the flights it markets, they do not contract regional carriers for any flights like all of the airlines SkyWest is contracted by. Regional carriers typically operate smaller aircraft with less senior crew and sorta serve to expand the mainline carriers markets and also often serve to feed the mainline carriers experienced pilots for their mainline aircraft.
verdenti 4y ago
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miguelazo 4y ago

That period also included a massive expansion of Southwest’s footprint— something like 18 cities. I fly a lot and never had much trouble with them until this last week. United and American have been far worse for me in terms of delays and cancellations, not to mention their disgruntled staffs.

midoridensha 4y ago
>not to mention their disgruntled staffs. Isn't this just normal for all American customer-service people? I guess it's relative though.
- miguelazo 4y ago
  No. Southwest staff is almost never disgruntled. They're hired and known for their positive attitudes. The company culture is very different from other airlines, which is why there are a lot of books written about it.

giantrobot 4y ago

I've flown Southwest dozens of times. While I like their lower costs it's pretty easy to see where they are cutting costs with operations. In "normal" conditions their cost cutting is just functional. In any sort of exceptional situation their entire system fall apart.

miguelazo 4y ago
On what other occasion has their entire system fallen apart? Most every other passenger I encountered during this debacle said something to the effect of “this never happens on Southwest”. I do agree that they’ve been squeezing the system (especially labor) the last few years during their covid expansion, however. This weather was apparently the final straw.
- ars 4y ago
  Every single one has had this happen. Delta by memorial day, Alaska Airline in May, a whole bunch of them Aug 7, and June 17-20, Apr 3. I happens quite frequently, but unless you follow airline news, or you were personally impacted you would not necessarily know.
- ipython 4y ago
  The inc article I linked to above has several examples of other days where SWA cancelled hundreds to a thousand flights at one time. But today has clearly dwarfed even the worst of the previous incidents.
  - miguelazo 4y ago
    Yes, the scale is completely different. As the commenter after you noted, the events you're referring to happen all the time with other airlines as well.
- beambot 4y ago
  Weather... or Chris Johnson. https://twitter.com/AtSouthwest/status/1606543397996855296 https://twitter.com/AtSouthwest/status/1606543397996855296

morganw 4y ago

This one affected a lot of people traveling to the 2021 US Grand Prix in Austin & it supposedly didn't affect Southwest [my Alaska flight was cancelled after four hours of "any minute now"]: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/10/22/skywest-airlines-outage-american-united-delta-alaska-flight-cancel-delay/6132114001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/10/2...

kayfox 4y ago
Southwest flies all the flights it markets, they do not contract regional carriers for any flights like all of the airlines SkyWest is contracted by. Regional carriers typically operate smaller aircraft with less senior crew and sorta serve to expand the mainline carriers markets and also often serve to feed the mainline carriers experienced pilots for their mainline aircraft.

verdenti 4y ago

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