I had to fly to Chicago again this past weekend and took Southwest once more.  That caused me to consider Southwest as an airline with respect to where it is and what is happening with it today. 

In many respects, Southwest remains my favorite airline.  I like how they move their planes.  I like their seats and I like the prices quite a bit, too.  They still largely have a friendly and motivated staff and they take their jobs seriously.  Their service is far more consistent than many other airlines and, as an airline, they’re pretty creative in how they get the job done.

I’m also a bit irritated with them and I’m really irritated with the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. 

I’m irritated with Southwest because of the now 3 flight attendants who have tried to either A) move my briefcase from the bin above me to the back or B) tried to convince me to move it under the chair in front of me.  All because they are unwilling to say “no” to the new business travelers they have carrying their entire life with them.  I was traveling on business each time.  I had a lot of stuff with me in fact because of the work I was doing and I still managed to check my bag.  Ironically, I got into my ride’s car in Chicago and left before several of the business travelers managed to who were waiting for taxis. 

But don’t tell me that the overhead bin is reserved for large suitcases.  Poppycock and balderdash.  They aren’t, they never were and just because you find gate checking bags difficult doesn’t mean you get to move my briefcase to the back of the plane to make it more convenient for someone else to put their large suitcase up in a bin.

I’m also irritated at their gates.   Their gates in Chicago and Dallas are cramped, hot and uncomfortable.  Even with the new “business areas”, they are cramped, hot and uncomfortable.  So much so, that I realized I was getting tired from just jockeying for a seat in a gate area.  And you know what I noticed?  Many of the seats are being taken up by people putting their large bags in the seats.  There has to be a better way.

Southwest has announced that they won’t withdraw Airtran from DFW until November 21st and now Dallas and Fort Worth mayors are being crabby about that.  Well, I tend to agree that getting that done earlier is unlikely to be a very difficult thing to do and is unlikely to inconvenience many more additional passengers.  But it irritates me because this is, in part, who Southwest has become as an airline.  They’re becoming the company that doesn’t cope with its size very well.  It’s lethargic because it lacks the IT infrastructure to deal with its size.  They could be a lot more agile than they are.

I’m irritated with the City of Dallas because Love Field really is abysmal as an airport.  Yes, it’s being renovated and that means inconveniences but that does not mean that restrooms need to be dirty and stores and restaurants need not act entitled to every last dollar bill in my wallet.  The terminal is blazing hot already and nothing has really been done to accomodate passengers during this construction.

Frankly, this is a job that should have been done 10 years ago, not scheduled for completion sometime in 2014.

The way the use of Love Field airport is being dictated even post 2014 is silly.  I get that Fort Worth wants to be a Big City and they aren’t small, for sure.  But please quit acting like your whole world crashes if airlines use Love Field.  It was the preferred airport in the Metroplex back in 1959 and remains so today.  It’s a shame that Fort Worth couldn’t support a similar airport but they couldn’t do so in the last 50 years.  DFW serves them very well and it isn’t inconvenient to most of that city. 

If Fort Worth needs more airline access, how about we let them build an airport in south west Tarrant county?   The entire Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex has over 6 million people.  We can support more than just DFW airport these days.

But the petty squabbling that goes on between these two cities over airports is just stupid in 2011.  And both Southwest and American Airlines could stand to get a bit more real over that subject as well.  Let’s not be naive:  the reason both those airlines continue to poke and prod the city governments over the issue is driven by their desire to continue to monopolize their respective airports in the area. 

Southwest could stand to become a better airline and I think they’re actually headed towards some serious trouble.  They’re innovating on the customer side but I don’t see them investing in their infrastructure quite the way a big airline should.  Holding on to perfectly good things is fine but you must reinvest in your systems from time to time to continue to grow and compete.  Let me point out that Southwest is using a reservations system it bought from Braniff originally titled “Cowboy” and developed in the late 1960’s.  Yes, it’s basic reservations infrastructure is 50 years old and never was all that good to begin with.

Why does this irritate me?  Because I think Southwest is good and it could be really great but for how slow it is moving these days.

Filed under: Airline News, Airports by ajax