British Airways is getting people excited about their new A380 aircraft with a race.  Check out who wins:

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Southwest Airlines posted a $224 million profit last week for their 2nd quarter and guess what?

That’s actually down from last year.  Not terribly so but it is down.

By any observation, Southwest is flying with record passenger loads and increasing their revenue regularly.

So why are profits down?

I have a sneaky feeling that Southwest is suffering operationally.  From my own anecdotal observation over the past few years, this airline seems to find it very hard to get an airplane ready to depart on time now.  The planes are flying nearly 100% full on major routes and that presents problems that Southwest, as an airline, isn’t designed to handle well.

I even wonder if Southwest’s staffing for its operations is adequate to the current job.

And I wonder more and more if Southwest is making the AirTran merger become another version of its IT problems.  In other words:  Is this a problem that Southwest isn’t solving?

Speedier integrations into one system allow everyone to start marching to the same drummer faster.  Marching to the same drummer, even if you do it sloppily at first, is better than being in a disconnect.

An airline that takes several years to solve IT problems, merger problems and even labor problems is not an airline that is behaving “agile” and it isn’t setting itself up to succeed.

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Here are a few newsworthy items about US Airways, American Airlines and even their merger with comments:

US Airways earns record 2Q profit

US Airways has earned a pre-tax profit of $409 million excluding net special items to rack up its most profitable 2nd quarter result ever.  People can talk about how US Airways has done this on having low costs but that completely ignores something that stands out here in bold, bright letters:  These guys know how to drive revenue with an inferior network, aircraft, service model and they do it over and over and over again.

Yes, that’s who we want in charge of American Airlines Group.

The EU is going to clear the US Airways / American Airlines merger

The European Union is set to give its approval to the merger of the two airlines contingent on the Philadelphia and London route being handed over to someone else.  I continue to believe that this may not be enough for US regulators at this time.  This is a very small “give” for this merger and control of routes into London Heathrow from the United States between American Airlines Group and British Airways will be . . . stunning.

It’s time to wrap up voting in the AA Bankrtupcy

Creditors and other stakeholders cast their final votes on 7/29 and after a count is known, it must be submitted to bankruptcy judge Sean Lane in New York City who will hold a hearing on 8/15 to give approval to the merger.

Part of me expects that we will hear from US regulators about their approval of this merger on or before that date.

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A Korean News Station decided to create some fake pilot names for the pilots and crew who flew the Southwest Airlines aircraft that landed with a collapsed front nose gear.

The pilots they named were:

• Captain Kent Parker Wright
• Co-Captain Wyatt Wooden Workman

And they tossed funny stuff for interviews:

• Flight instructor Heywood U. Flye-Moore
• Skeptical passenger Macy Lawyers

To see more, Click Here.

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US Airways and American Airlines have indicated a willingness to give up a London Heathrow – Philadelphia slot pair to a competitor to facilitate their merger approval by EU authorities.

This isn’t entirely unexpected but it also reflects on US/AA being very strategic in what they’re offering up.  Such a slot pair offers little in the way of competition for the combined airline no matter who gets the pair.  No other airline is as dominant at PHL as the combined unit.

The only US based airlines flying to Europe from Philadelphia today are US Airways and Delta.  (British Airways and Lufthansa also fly European routes).  Delta’s flight to Paris is seasonal.

I think that the EU and the US DoJ will want a London Heathrow slot pair to be given up but I think they’ll ask for it to be on a route such as New York – London.  Not only will they consider what the combined airline will have in routes to London Heathrow but they’ll consider the trans-Atlantic codeshare partners of American Airlines too.

British Airways flies to US Airways hubs from London quite a bit.

I think the deal will be made but I think that Philadelphia will be a non-starter.  I put my money on Delta taking up a route and using it in concert with Virgin Atlantic.

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Transport Worker’s Union President James Little offered this comment about Southwest Airlines’ incident at La Guardia Airport (we no longer desire to comment on air incidents as they happen but, rather, wait some time for things to settle).  Mr. Little said:

Brothers and Sisters,

The incident yesterday at LaGuardia Airport, involving Southwest Flight 345, is evidence of the lack of concern Southwest has demonstrated in regards to the safety of its passengers and our members as they continue to press forward in the name of cost savings.

Thankfully, no lives were lost due to our members, the trained flight attendants, and pilots on board. As Southwest continues to outsource flight maintenance to reduce cost, the safety risks are likely to increase. This will be known as the first of more incidents to follow if Southwest is not held accountable.

In response to this tragedy, I have met with our Health and Safety Director, Ed Watt, and our CARE team is fully mobilized and ready in New York to assist with any efforts in regards to the incident.

In solidarity,
James C. Little
International President

That didn’t sit too well with Southwest Airlines flight attendants who are represented by the TWU.  They responded politely but in the union world, this is the equivalent of a “shut up”.  TWU Local 556 responded with:

Due to the ongoing investigation, there should not be speculation made concerning the cause or nature of this unfortunate incident, and Local 556 does not endorse statements made by our International President Jim Little. We are very proud of the Flight Attendants aboard the flight and we believe our Company’s Mechanics work hard each day to keep our Passengers and Crew Members safe.

Mr. Little’s comments disappeared later.

I have a couple of observations:  Southwest is no different from any other airline and its safety record is, quite likely, the best there based on passengers flown daily.  The law of numbers says they will have incidents from time to time and that has happened.  The measure of the airline is how well the flight crews did during those incidents (so far they have always done very well) and how well they have taken care of their passengers (better than any other airline.)

Second, unions don’t need to grab every opportunity to play the PR game.  When it comes to crashes, incidents, etc, it isn’t necessary to weigh in with a political opinion.  People are materially and psychologically affected by these things and voicing an opinion to further the political goals of your union local at the moment of an incident is just bad form.

These acts hurt unions far more than most anything else because they reflect severely on the union in the public eye.

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American Airlines has taken delivery of its first A320 series aircraft and this is the start of a new era at American Airlines.

The A319 is the first of 260 aircraft ordered and is a “current” engine option A319.  The A319 aircraft will seat 128 passengers (8 in first class, 18 in economy plus and 102 in economy) and actually presents the start of a second era at American Airlines too.

It’s been a very long time since American Airlines had aircraft that seated so few passengers.  The last aircraft with a passenger count below that of the MD-82 was the Fokker 100 (88 seats and retired in 2004).

The A319 is counted as an MD-80 replacement in the AA fleet but I think differently.  I think it augments the airline’s fleet and offers opportunities for “thin” routes that AA has been neglecting for a while now.  The A319 may replace some MD-80’s but it will also change the opportunity equation considerably.

I have just one request for the airline:  Will someone please kill that horrific airline livery already?

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American Airlines had the exceptionally rare privilege of announcing a $220 million net profit for the 2nd quarter (American is calling it a $357 million profit excluding bankrtupcy costs.)

This is exceptional and it reflects all of the cost savings achieved through bankruptcy to date.  This number should even improve incrementally from a cost perspective for several years to come as the airline’s fleet is renewed more and capacity is grown with additional seats.

Is there  a “but”?  Yes, there is.

This is all due to cost savings, not revenue growth.  In fact, year over year, revenues for Q2 dropped ever so slightly.  While costs can drive this airline to profit, it will be revenue growth that drives this airline to real success.

Revenue growth will take from 1 to 4 years to really be perceived and I don’t expect this focus to take place until Parker & Company are officially in charge.

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With more and more leadership announcements going on with respect to those who will have a position in the new American Airlines Group when US Airways and American Airlines merge, I see a pattern.

That pattern is that US Airways leadership is being used to provide cohesive leadership structure and certainly leave no doubt as to who is in charge of this merged company:  Doug Parker.  I’ll admit that my fears that Chairman Tom Horton will attempt to interfere are unchanged.  I think that there will be a number of attempts to direct the merged company.

Now I think they will fail.  Doug Parker is building a leadership team that clearly has its loyalties in the right place.  American Airlines leaders are being used to fill functional roles whereas US Airways leaders are being used to fill leadership roles.  There is nothing wrong with this approach.  I like it.

This is a group of leaders who will have incentive to work together and to succeed (or fail) together.  I see little opportunity to breed divisions in these ranks and I think that will only benefit the airline.  The right, successful people are in charge.  The ones who comes from a company with a winning and profitable track record will be the leaders and that is only right.

I would contrast this with the Continental United merger where it seems that Jeff Smisek willing took on way too many United loyalists.  That ship has been slow to change and correct directions when necessary and I still don’t see a cohesive team in place at United.

So, well done Mr. Parker.  This is looking like a merger with the potential to meet or exceed expectations on all fronts at this time.

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Fly Braniff Free:  The Braniff Travel Bonus Bonanza Program (Part 2)

Gemini Jets 1:400 Scale DC-8-62 Model: The Flying Colors of South America

After Harding Lawrence’s departure from Braniff International in December of 1980, John Casey, brother of Albert Casey (Chairman and CEO of American Airlines) was elevated to the positions of President & CEO at Braniff and Neal Robinson became Executive Vice President – Marketing.  When strategizing with Vice President of Sales, Jeff Krida, Robinson told Krida about the Braniff Fast Buck program that lasted about 6 months a decade earlier.

The Fast Buck program awarded passengers a plastic token good for their next trip on Braniff if their flight was late.  This encouraged good will among passengers and tied them to Braniff for their next flight at the same time.  Robinson wanted a program that tied people’s travel decisions to Braniff.  That was when the subject of S&H Green Stamps came up in the Robinson – Krida strategizing as Robinson remembered having to lick and past stamps into books when he was child.

On a more personal note, I can remember that there was a small store near our home at that time that was one of the last stores around in the area to aggressively market the fact that they issued S&H Green Stamps and I remember people demanding Green Stamps when they filled their car fuel tanks with gasoline during the gas crisis of 1979.  Those stamps tied loyalty to that store very tightly during that energy crisis.

Robinson, who had spent a great deal of his career tied to the reservations and financial systems of the airline, hoped that they could tie the program into the Braniff “Cowboy” reservations system so that they could identify the passengers travel with the passenger and offer a benefit to the passenger rather than the company paying for the ticket or the travel agency procuring the ticket.  The passenger would reap a reward that came at no cost to him and the program worked very well.

Gemini Jets 1:400 Boeing 727-200 Calder Flying Colors of The United States

There are plenty out there who would tell a different story.  Some would tell the AAdvantage story and some would tell the Western Airlines story.  The truth is that like quite a few developments in marketing, there were a number of people who were exploring the idea of a loyalty program.  Men like my father, Robert Crandall, Tom Plaskett, Jeff Krida and others were all of a similar generation who were doing similar things.  They had the benefit of being of the same generation and the same experiences that came with that generation.

From a personal viewpoint, I still remember very strongly the day that American Airlines announced its own program.  My brother and I both reacted strongly and exclaimed “Hey, they stole that from Braniff!”  We were proud and defensive of our father.

It’s also notable that the Braniff campaign was to be good through May 31^st  1982.  The airline filed for bankruptcy just 2 weeks before that date and my father had been gone from the airline for many months by that point.  That final element in what needed to happen to support Braniff’s survival was never done by the remaining executive leadership.

Delta Airlines accepted the points earned by former Braniff customers starting about one month after Braniff’s bankruptcy filing.   Delta had just begun their own program and wanted to earn their way into Dallas / Fort Worth in particular.

He who wins, gets to write history and American Airlines won.  The AAdvantage Program won and it is entitled to write some history.  The truth is that I do not believe that American Airlines “stole” the idea.  I strongly suspect they were working hard to figure out solutions to problems just as most airlines were and decided to try something that had worked in other forms and in other decades.

Airline loyalty eroded heavily after deregulation.  Prior to deregulation, you did not choose your airline on price.  The fare was determined by the government.  You chose your airline based on the schedule available and the service style you wanted.  Airlines drove their loyalty with that service.

Post deregulation, fares drove those decisions and particularly so among the public.  Fares were the democracy that the airline industry had never before seen and it was shocking to many just how quickly even the most loyal customers could leave based on fare that was a few dollars cheaper than the next guy.

Airlines knew how to work with loyalty and they craved a way to re-establish it.  So it makes sense that many at many airlines would be working on loyalty programs.

That brings me to an irony in closing this article:  My father was at least a father of airline frequent flier programs if not the father of such and it was a program that worked well for Braniff.  As an airline industry commentator and someone who has been observing the industry for about 20 years now, I loathe frequent flier programs.  I believe they skew the industry in ways that cause service to suffer madly and which allow bad airlines to survive years past what they should be able to do.

And when you think about it, that is a great definition for the success of such a program.

View a low resolution copy (courtesy of Braniff Flying Colors Collection, Dallas, Texas) of the original brochure:  Braniff Travel Bonus Bonanza Brochure

For additional images and perspectives, visit the Braniff Flying Colors Facebook Page

Filed under: Airline History, Trivia by ajax
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Fly Braniff Free:  The Braniff Travel Bonus Bonanza Program

The Braniff Fleet owned by the author

For the very few that remember this program, it could be argued that this really was the first modern, points based airline loyalty program to be instituted.  And some would argue that it was American Airlines who did this.  Before I go further, I should mention  that I am not entirely an unbiased observer in this story because it was my father, Neal J. Robinson, who I would argue is one of the originators of these programs.

The story about what drove Braniff to adopt such a program has its start in the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act just like so many other modern airline stories.  It was the opinion of many in the airline industry at that time that airlines would have to grab all the routes that they could when deregulation began so that they could hold these routes when the airline industry was re-regulated, as so many thought.  Harding Lawrence, Chairman and CEO of Braniff International certainly thought so at the time.

There was a belief among many airline executives that deregulation would last only a few months because no one believed the government and the public would have much tolerance of the chaos they believed would ensue.  In hindsight, this seems silly but in the context of the 1970’s and the history of the airline industry, it wasn’t entirely impossible either.

Deregulation only liberated the revenue and service side of the airline industry while the cost side, especially labor, remained regulated in the form of unions, union contracts and the Railway Labor Act. Many of those involved in the accounting and finance domains of airlines became acutely aware of the risk that their airlines were about to endure as prices dropped and costs remained the same.  My father was one of those men as he sat as Vice President – Finance & Control for Braniff.

By late 1979, Braniff was under significant financial pressure by having taken on too many new routes and by having ordered too many airframes and engines to serve those routes.  The company was under increasing pressure from its lenders and that fact became a matter of speculation within the travel industry and, to a lesser extent, among the general public.

The impact on Braniff as a result of that financial pressure and the attendant speculation was estimated to be that the airline was possibly losing from 5 to 10 percent in load factor on a daily basis as a result.  The airline was suffering for passengers badly just when it needed them the most.  In the pre-deregulation era, it was commonly accepted that airlines would aim for load factors of approximately 60 to 65 percent which contrasts greatly with the 80 to 90 percent load factors airlines want today.

With air fares suddenly dropping like rocks, airlines could not afford to suffer any drop in load factor whatsoever and certainly not a massive drop such as 5 percent or more.

According to Neal Robinson, his calculation (an educated guess really) was that in 1979, travel agents who were selling to the general public and to the corporate travel departments constituted approximately 65% of all Braniff ticket sales and he was certain that this percentage was dropping quickly.  The decline also roughly correlated with the level of news and speculation about Braniff within the industry.  In short, the speculation was fueling a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Mr. Robinson describes the problem here:

 I concluded the reason for that decline was the basic math of travel agent ticket sales.  Travel agents typically received a commission equal to 10% of the ticket price, e.g., for a $500 ticket, $50.  In the event of an airline failure where the ticket became essentially worthless except to the extent another carrier might honor it, sometimes on standby, the entire ticket purchase price would be lost, e.g., $500.  In that event, the travel agent would be under great pressure to refund the entire ticket price.  Thus, where the travel agent had the potential to benefit in the amount of $50 for selling the ticket, it had a corresponding opportunity to lose $500—or ten times the amount the agent had to gain if the carrier ceased operations.  I believe that made travel agents and corporate travel departments shy away from using Braniff—that in addition to the inconvenience that would result to the passengers, their “customers,” in the event the airline failed. 

 Travel agents were doing what smart business owners do:  limiting their exposure to risk.

When Neal Robinson was elevated to the post of Executive Vice President – Marketing, he concluded that three things had to happen fairly quickly.  First, Braniff needed to create the image that they were fighting their way back.  This was initiated with the Glen Geddis (designer of the Braniff Two Tone Livery in the early 1970’s) developed campaign titled Braniff Strikes Back which was thematically inspired by the Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back.

Jet-X 1:400 Boeing 727-127 Glen Geddis Two Tone Red

The second thing needed was a way to take the airline choice decision out of the hands of travel agents and corporate travel departments and get it into the hands of the passengers.  Mr. Robinson and his team believed that travelers liked the Braniff experience and even preferred it despite the fact that the airline’s relationship with passengers had recently been strained by operational problems incurred with the rapid route expansion.

The final action was to put together a business plan that made sense to banks and insurance companies who were largely Braniff’s creditors at the time and who the airline needed to reduce the constant pressure and industry speculation that drove falling load factors.

In the next post, I will talk about the program used to drive that passenger loyalty:  The Braniff Travel Bonus Bonanza

For additional images and perspectives, visit the Braniff Flying Colors Facebook Page

Filed under: Airline History, Trivia by ajax
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There are many fans in the airline world who freely speculate on what would have happened if someone or something were different when it comes to their favorite airline.  I see this a great deal in the Braniff International world.

There are schools who believe that Braniff’s CEO Harding L. Lawrence ran that company into the ground singlehandedly.  Some believe that deregulation did the company in, some think it was American Airlines who struck at Braniff and some think that if Braniff had continued to be managed by its CEO Chuck Beard, it would be here today.

The big “What If” isn’t just with Braniff.  It’s with virtually every beloved airline that has disappeared.  What if the unions at Eastern had not gone nuclear with Frank Borman?  What if Pan Am hadn’t suffered an image problem from the Lockerbie 747 crash?

I want to talk about deregulation.  What if deregulation hadn’t happened?

Well, the truth is that that was never an option.  We think it might have been but it really wasn’t.  Regulation of the airline industry was inhibiting economic growth.  If it was not deregulated, you would have seen the United States a highly regulated environment playing against a highly deregulated environment that would exist in the rest of the world.  Want to know how ugly that would get?

Alitalia, Air India, Aerolineas Argentinas are 3 great examples of what the US airline industry would look like as a protected, regulated industry operating against deregulated airlines.

This country nor its airlines are in control of the changes that occur naturally throughout the world.  There is no altering the dynamic forces of change to fit the needs of an airline.

The truth is that deregulation hurt all US airlines.  Not a single US airline was prepared for deregulation.  Most airlines were led by people who had no concept of how to cope with deregulation.

Successful airline industry titans either left as the writing showed up on the wall or were violently ripped from their companies as they held on too long.   In Braniff International, Harding Lawrence bet heavily on deregulation being reversed and lost badly.  Continental’s Bob Six lost his entire airline because his company was poorly equipped in leadership for deregulation.  American Airlines’ Albert Casey made an orderly departure but only because he did have a leader equipped to deal with deregulation:  Robert Crandall.

Lest you believe that only legacy airlines were affected by this, let’s take a look at airlines such as the original LCC carriers.  People Express died being started and run by people who still thought that marketshare was king.  Air Florida:  Same thing.

There is just one major airline who survived deregulation and thrived ever since:  Southwest Airlines

Arguably the best prepared airline for deregulation since it started in a threatening and competitive environment and had to fight for its existence for the first 20 years of its life.  It started in an deregulated, intra-state environment and learned how to fight before moving out of state.

What if the leaders of legacy airlines were right and deregulation didn’t happen?  It’s a question premised on the idea that deregulation might not have happened.  That’s a false premise.  It did happen, it would have happened no matter what and timing was the only issue at hand and even that was somewhat predetermined to happen within 10 years or so of when it did happen.

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An extremely nice and talented duo, Abra Schnur and Jacob Flores, are engaged on doing an oral history about Braniff.  They are doing voice interviews with former employees and family members of Braniff and then transcribing and archiving these interviews with the University of North Texas.

I’ve written about their project before.

They need subjects to interview.  I believe they have had no problem in getting numerous interviews with pilots and flight attendants but they need interviews with people who worked or interacted with the airline in other areas.  That means people such as accountants, baggage handlers, managers, salesmen, mechanics and others.

It’s a worthy cause and it costs you nothing to participate but a small amount of time.

I’ve done an interview with them and found it be a terrific experience and it surprised me how much I had to say.

Why should you do this?  Because the history of Braniff is unlikely to ever be documented in an authoritative book.  The authors who did such writing are largely gone and the acknowledged king of airline histories, Robert Serling, has passed away.  (Serling produced authoritative histories of airlines including Eastern Airlines, TWA and American Airlines.)

More importantly, if this history is not captured now, it may never be captured.  The truth is that people from Braniff are aging and there is probably a 5 to 10 year window to capture this history at best and, frankly, I fear we may have already lost some in the deaths of certain Braniff icons.

What can you do?  Contact FlyingVoices on their Webpage or their Facebook page and offer to do an interview.

Go ahead, do it now.  We’ll wait patiently while you do so.

Do you think you don’t know a former Braniff employee?  Maybe you don’t.  But forward this blog post on to others and try to spread the word anyway.

Do you have questions or wonder about the legitimacy of this?  Contact me by commenting on this blog post and I will answer whatever concerns you have.

A project being executed objectively and without agendas is rare and FlyingVoices is trying very hard to get it right.  Without participation and even sponsorship (they need money!), these kinds of projects fail and history is lost.

So go save some history and participate in FlyingVoices.

Filed under: Airline History by ajax
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So, Southwest lost my luggage.  Actually, I believe they got lazy with my luggage.   My flight into Love Field arrived a few minutes before midnight and we all trudged through the old section of the terminal to get to the makeshift baggage claim where we all waited for our bags.

Until several of us discovered our bags weren’t there.  Curiously, it appeared that among us, most missing bags had come from the East Coast.

There was a section of baggage being supervised by SWA staff between the two makeshift baggage claims.  I went over there to check on the location of my bag because I thought there might be a chance my bag went ahead of me.  You see, when I got to St. Louis that night, I noticed that an earlier flight to Dallas (Flight 110) was leaving late and I wondered if the bright purple transfer tag with DAL on it wouldn’t have caused my bag to transfer quicker than myself.

But when I handed my claim ticket over and asked the staffer to check around for my bag, I got “You need to go to the office and file a claim.  That bag ain’t here.”

I was fascinated by the fact that she knew this despite there being 100 bags give or take in the area.  This woman had all the bag claim checks memorized for those bags.

Next I went to the bag claim office and when it was my turn, I was asked what they could do for me.  Again, I handed over my claim ticket and asked that they find my bag.  This staffer, without saying anything else just started typing.  Then she asked for my driver’s license.  Now, I’m kind of weird about handing over stuff just because someone asks for it.  Particularly identification and credit cards.

“Why do you need my license?”  I asked.

“Do you want us to find your bags?”  She responded harshly.

So, I don’t do snippy very well when I am  overtired and I have been patient for the day.   I explained (firmly) to the staffer that I did want my bags found and that my question as to her purpose for my driver’s license was not inappropriate whatsoever.  She responded that she wanted to get my information for getting the bag back to me in slightly less snippy tones and I gave it to her.

Then I asked:  “So, is my bag lost?”

She looked at me blankly and I repeated:  “Is my bag lost?  Does Southwest not know the location of my bag?”

“Yes, it’s lost”, she replied.

“Then tell me it’s lost before acting as if I should just blindly follow your lead.  It would also be nice to hear an apology for misplacing it.”  I stated.

“Do you even want me to find your bag sir?” said the staffer.

I really don’t do snippy well when your company has lost my bag and then behaves as if I am the inconvenience.  That’s when I asked for her supervisor.  Her supervisor sent her to get a can of water and curiously 2 police officers showed up.  As soon as they did, I hit “record” on my iPhone.

Before any of you attempt to lecture me on privacy laws, recording that conversation is absolutely legal in the state of Texas and most anywhere else.  It’s a public conversation.  However, Texas also has one party consent.  It was legal so don’t send me messages about this.

The agent finished her work on getting my info, printed a one page form and then kind of blew me off.  At this point, it’s worth explaining something:  I was not upset in the least about my bag having got lost.  Well, maybe a tiny bit but not really much at all.  Bags get lost.  In almost all situations, they are returned in a very timely manner.  There was nothing in mine that was essential or valuable.  I was highly confident that it would be found early the next day at the worst.

But I do not like to be treated as an inconvenience when an airline has made the mistake.  There is a culture among airlines that has them pushing off the problems created by the airline onto customers.  I don’t buy into that and I very much do hold the airline responsible for its part.  They are getting paid hundreds of dollars for a service.  Airlines have a particularly bad habit of turning lost baggage customers into ugly stepchildren in the process.

I was really not worried about this issue at first because it was, after all, Southwest Airlines.  A business that is, first and foremost, customer centered.

Except when they lose a bag these days.  In that case, they are a defensive legacy airline acting hostile towards its customer.

I waited to speak to the agent’s supervisor and I explained that I was disappointed about how I was treated but that I was not particularly concerned about the bag.  I told her that it is very important to simply say “We lost your bag and we’re very sorry about that.  We will do all that we can to reunite it with you as soon as possible.”

They say the first step to fixing things is admitting you have a problem.

In the supervisor’s case, she wasn’t quite ready to admit a problem.  I find it disappointing that at the end of a long day, my chosen airline had staff acting like American Airlines instead of Southwest.  It does point to a trend I’ve seen with Southwest over the past 2 years and I do wonder if Southwest is losing its customer-centric culture.

Now, I did get a phone call at 8:10am the next morning from Southwest saying they had my bag in Dallas and offering to deliver it immediately or in the evening.  That person was acting like she was all over the problem and very motivated to make something happen.  And she did.  My bag was delivered that night by 9pm by my choice and I was plenty happy.

My bag did not even get on my plane in Newark.  I find that particularly sad since I arrived at the Newark airport about 90 minutes before my scheduled departure and checked it at the curb when I arrived at the airport.  Southwest had about 85 minutes to get that bag on the aircraft and by all appearances, they may not have even tried hard.

Instead, they sent it on a late night flight from Newark to New Orleans.  The bag was then transferred to an extremely early flight from New Orleans to Dallas arriving at 7:25am the next morning.  Clearly someone had thought this through in terms of routing.  This was a “least impact” route.

I strongly suspect that some bags were kept off my airplane for weight purposes.  After all, it was a 737-700 with 143 seats that were crammed full with a full complement of overhead luggage and a full complement of checked bags.  If so, double shame on Southwest.  If not, then Southwest was just lazy.

Some time ago, American Airlines used to weight restrict its flights from Chicago to Dallas and vice versa on their MD-80’s.  If you flew from Chicago to Dallas mid-day, your luggage didn’t show up with you quite often.  It came about 4 or 5 flights later on a flight that wasn’t full.  American Airlines did this because their aircraft were weight restricted with the heat and full loads of fuel required.

I hated that behavior then and I would hate it now.  But I will never know for sure what happened.  That’s OK.

As for Southwest . . . well, if they were to challenge my account of my interaction with their agents, I would welcome them to come over to my home and listen to my recording.  It would save them from a very embarrassing moment.  It would not be wise to issue some announcement saying the had investigated and the passenger was treated appropriately.  Calling those cops over was overkill and certainly not due to me yelling or screaming.  I did neither.   The police officers were curious about SWA’s behavior too.  They were in a good mood and one of them followed me out to the curb where I waited for a parking van to pick me up.  We had a short and pleasant conversation.  He was genuinely curious to know what had SWA so worked up.  That makes me wonder why the baggage agents were so afraid.

Was it because they had done this to way too many people already that day and they knew that many were very angry over missing bags?

That recording will stay private unless necessary to refute the airline.

It was not a happy experience that night at Love Field.  It wasn’t exactly a one-off experience.  It didn’t feel like a one-off experience because I did not encounter one cranky agent.  I encountered 4 of them.  It used to be that if an agent did such a thing at Southwest, the other agents would pull them aside and tell them to get it together.  That definitely didn’t happen that night.

Would I recommend against checking your bags now?  Nope.  I think you are a fool if you’re carrying luggage onboard with you.  If you want to be a fool, go be a fool.  But in over 3 million miles flown, that was just the 2nd time I’ve had a bag misplaced.  Both times the bags were located and effectively in the right city in 8 hours or less.

Would I recommend against Southwest?  Nope.  But they go on the watchlist now.

I would point out to Southwest one very important thing:  They were not the cheap flight when I booked that trip.  United Airlines was the cheaper flight and it was non-stop.  But I chose Southwest for the superior customer service experience.  A few more incidents like that and it won’t make sense to book Southwest.  I can move on to another airline or just go with the cheapest.  If I’m going to be abused, I may as well be saving money while I’m being abused.

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I advocate using Southwest quite a bit on this blog and my trip to New Jersey last week was an excellent example of why.  No muss, no fuss.  Check in was fast (I use Early Bird Check In) and the new terminal at Love Field is fantastic.

My flight to St. Louis was fast and uneventful and ditto from St. Louis to Newark.  It was efficient and pleasant and I was reminded twice just how nice the seats are on SWA compared to other airlines.

My trip home had some issues.  In the grand scheme of delays in Newark, mine wasn’t bad.  Some thoughts on that experience.

When a tarmac delay is absolutely, positively unavoidable, keep those window shades closed.   We pulled over into a waiting area and as soon as the captain announced we would be sitting for an hour or more, window shades snapped upwards.  I got up and met the flight attendant in mid-aisle and explained that I wasn’t looking for trouble but that I wrote the Flying Colors blog and recommended that she ask passengers to close those blinds again to avoid heat.  To her credit, she responded that it was a good idea and immediately did so.  As a result, by the time we did taxi, I was actually a bit chilly rather than over heated.  But I do wonder why that wouldn’t be a flight attendant’s first move anyway.

It’s clear to me that SWA is becoming more corporate and less people and that struck home when I sat in a cabin for 1+ hours with nary a peep from flight attendants or pilots on what was going on.  Even if you announce that it will be an hour wait, keep talking.  It helps.  It really does help.  People don’t feel forgotten.

Be very careful about your reasons for sitting.  The captains announced that they were told to hold.  Then they sat in a hold area for about 75 minutes or more not including taxi time (which can be considerable at Newark Liberty airport) and then took off on a new flight plan that had us ducking north considerably to avoid storms. See, right there, I know that the dispatchers loaded a lot of extra fuel and knew there would be a hold.  What if someone like me figures out the truth and calls y0u on it?  Just tell the truth SWA.  Tell your passengers that you had to board everyone and move out of the way and that you’ll be doing everything necessary to make people comfortable during the wait.  Don’t get caught in fibs.

I still know of no airline that can move planes into and out of gates as well as Southwest can.  While I watched their ops in St. Louis, I saw some old school SWA moves on the airplane dance that even today manage to impress me.  They had one flight depart for Baltimore and another came into the gate all in about 90 seconds.  Very well done.

All the nice business select seats with USB ports for charging?  Not a one that I tried actually would charge.  Not a single one.  I tried 4 rows of 3 seats each without any luck.  That’s just poor form.

I think that some people are taking advantage of Southwest’s bending over backwards to be accommodating.  I watched 4 people board in Newark from wheelchairs.  A husband and wife proved to be exceptionally able bodied in St. Louis and a third man miraculously found his ability to walk from the vicinity of gate 20 all the way down to around gate 5 and back.  I’m not saying for sure there was fraud going on but I will say that it is possible I witnessed a healing if some kind of fraud wasn’t going on.

Row 44:  One More Time I must say that Southwest has *got* to get on the ball and get this onto all of its aircraft.  This is a killer app that they should be using to their advantage and I observed . . . nothing.  No one even invited me to use it in the pre-departure briefing.  Hey Southwest!  I’ll endorse your Row 44 Wifi any day you want but you’ve got to get moving on that product.  You’ve had more than enough time to get it out there into the fleet.  There is money being left on the table here.

I tried the new seating that SWA is deploying onto its aircraft.  It’s not horrible.  It’s superior still to AA seating that I’ve experienced.  It is thinner and it is a touch less comfortable for that reason.  It’s also ever so slightly more narrow and that bothered me.  It wasn’t quite tight but it was pretty snug.  The seats also sit lower than the old ones and I suspect that’s to create the illusion of the seat pitch not changing.  Well, it didn’t change.  It’s not bad but it’s a bit of a downgrade and that makes me sad.

That said, it’s also the best “thin” seating I’ve experienced.  Thin seating is the new reality so I’ll still prefer SWA seats but not quite as much as I used to.

Southwest flight attendants continue to deliver a pretty consistent experience.  I find myself sympathizing with them a lot because they have to spend a great deal of the boarding time explaining to people why their Whopper Bag can’t go up into the overhead compartment and will have to be gate checked.

I watched at least 14 bags get gate checked on my return home and I think Southwest would be wise to start telling people at check in and prior to boarding that if they’re in the “C” group, they would be very wise to check their bag. Chances are, it isn’t going to fit and they’ll have to make the Walk of Shame up to the front of the aircraft to send it down below.

In the last few years, all but one flight I’ve taken was 100% full.  Most of those flights are on Southwest.  When I say 100% full, I mean just that.  100% full is actually not desirable and I think that Southwest needs to move more 737-800 aircraft into the system pronto.  I also think that Southwest needs to work a touch harder at earning a profit in light of the exceptional load factors being experienced.

Tomorrow, a story about Southwest that isn’t quite as positive.  I’m waiting because I want to see how Southwest performs today right to the end.  I’ll give you a hint though.

It involves me, 4 baggage agents, 2 police officers and about 22 minutes of recorded interaction with those people over a behavior.

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SWA’s Row 44 Wifi is shockingly good. This is my first time using it and I find it way, way better than GoGo.

Now I wonder why this is still not on all aircraft because this is literally the first time I’ve been able to try it out.

SWA is likely not pushing it much since availability still remains iffy. But they should be deploying this rapidly and shouting about it often.

It’s a superior experience and I think businessmen would listen.

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My connection is chasing me out of Boston. This should be fun. I wonder if DAL has a curfew. I can’t remember.

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We took off about 17 minutes ago. Not the worst experience but I hate that fibs got told.

This airline is losing its advantage in giving up its honesty and clarity. It is hiding just like the others.

But I’m on my way and let’s hope I have a connecting flight in STL to get home on.

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The announcement ignored the fact that you pushed this plane with enough fuel to sit on the Tarmac for hours.

You pushed from the gate knowing what was going on. You wouldn’t have the taxi fuel otherwise. You wanted that gate.

And for that, I lose respect for you SWA. You became AA with that move.

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1 hour and not a peep from our cockpit. It’s not hot. Actually, it cool now. But it is long past time for an update.

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