Southwest Airlines has started a countdown to October 13th, 2014, the end of the Wright Amendment and the beginning of Southwest’s ability to fly non-stop to wherever it wants in the continental United States.

Personally, I’m going to treat it as a countdown to my mother’s birthday (which is the same day).

My best guess on flights Southwest launches that day:

• Chicago
• Los Angeles
• Portland
• Atlanta
• Baltimore
• Newark
• Phoenix

I know you’re surprised I put Portland on that list  but I do think it will become an immediate flight.  The fares on that route today are sky high with no competition.  American Airlines flies that route with 4 flights a day and Alaska Airlines has one flight a day as well.  This is a route I feel certain SWA will pick as low hanging fruit unless something happens to that city pair in the meantime.

October 13, 2014 will be a very big day in Dallas.

Filed under: Airline News, Airports by ajax
No Comments »

United Airlines has announced routes into the fortress hubs of Delta just days after Delta announced flights into UA fortress hubs.  United is adding routes from both Los Angeles and San Francisco to Minneapolis / St. Paul and Atlanta.

Delta previous announced routes from Seattle (which is nearing “hub” status for Delta) to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

First, Los Angeles is actually no ones hub but it is a strong focus city for all.  Los Angeles serves as a major gateway city for airlines and just like New York City, everyone wants to be dominant there.  A few years ago, American Airlines spoke of Los Angeles being a part of its “corners” strategy.  More recently, Delta has been building its operations up there.

Los Angeles won’t be anyone’s hub because it isn’t suited to such operations.  It will, however act as a gateway city with significant focus city operations just as New York JFK and Newark airports serve the same role in that area.

There is a lot of first class and business class traffic in the Los Angeles area and everyone wants a larger piece of it.  Delta is ready to battle it out with United in that market and United is responding.

The two SuperLegacy airlines will trade more and more blows with each other but neither will gain advantage much over the other.  However, both will gain advantage over the smaller airlines in those markets such as American Airlines, US Airways and LCC carriers.

The one airline who can hold their own in those cities is Southwest Airlines.  They are the equal of UA and Delta from a domestic point of view.

These route announcements are just one more sign of the power the two largest airlines both have and which they will wield to gain advantage in the marketplace.

Filed under: Airline News, Airports by ajax
No Comments »

Southwest Airlines has terminated the captain who flew the 737 that was crashed at La Guardia airport some months ago.  This was done, according to SWA, after an intensive internal review of what happened.  The First Officer flying that day is being re-trained.

The Southwest pilots union has expressed their disappointment at the termination in such a way as to make me believe they barely found enough energy to do their unionly duties and object to a pilot’s termination.  In other words, I think the union really didn’t mind this one.

Southwest and Southwest’s pilots have exceptionally high standards and these guys work very hard to be the best of the best in their business.  By all accounts, they don’t tolerate fools.  It sounds like they don’t want to tolerate this one and that’s OK.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
No Comments »

One thing that the Department of Justice attempted to ignore in its assessment of competition on routes in the US Airways / American Airlines merger was Southwest Airlines.  They also ignore other LCC carriers such as jetBlue but Southwest is specifically ignored in its complaint for its lawsuit.

Quick!  Who flies more Revenue Passenger Miles than anyone else in the domestic United States?

Southwest Airlines.

Southwest is a nationally dominant airline competing in all the large markets at this time and doing so quite well.  But the DoJ dismisses Southwest both as an airline as well as its influence on city-pair routes.  Let’s be clear:  The DoJ doesn’t just relegate SWA to a minor player.  It ignores SWA at all in its competitive analysis.

American Airlines is, for instance, presumed to have no competition in Dallas / Fort Worth.  For those of us in Dallas / Fort Worth, this comes as a complete shock.   I myself have frequently written about how Southwest is both price *and* time competitive on the Dallas-Fort Worth / Chicago run.  Notice that SWA is dominant at both Dallas Love Field and Chicago Midway airports?

Ignoring Southwest Airlines is kind of like ignoring that large 18-wheel truck in the lane next to you as you travel down a highway:  you can do it but you do so at your own risk.

Many speculate that the DoJ must have had strong reasons to define SWA and jetBlue out of the market for their analysis.  I strongly suspect that without doing so, they had no argument of strength to make against a merger.

And once you start carving up the rules so you can achieve the outcome you want, bad things happen.

Filed under: Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax
No Comments »

Let’s talk about competition among airlines.  Has competition been damaged over the past 8 years?

Truth be told, I felt it would be when the Merger Mania started.  I really did.  I thought that choice would go down, pricing power would go way up and airlines would become even challenging to fly for even business travelers.

That really isn’t what happened.

Before I go further, let’s all acknowledge that the financial crisis, resulting recession and US economy has impacted the airline industry in the worst ways.  Airlines have been smacked around on an unprecedented level.  Remember how much fuel has risen over the past 8 years?  Milk?  Even the guy who mows your lawn?

What makes you think those rise in costs are any different for the airlines?  Even the cost to borrow money in that industry is exceptionally high relative to prime interest rates.  No one believes in the long term viability of airlines much.  So, it’s hard for you and it’s hard for the airlines and their prices may be somewhat higher but they are not double or worse.  They climbed as did most of your other costs related to transportation.  That isn’t inappropriate.

I have railed at the “lock” that American Airlines has on DFW and how much higher people in the Dallas / Fort Worth area pay for air fares to other major cities as a result.  Similar situations exist in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis / St. Paul, Detroit and elsewhere.  But it has been quite bad in the DFW area for years despite the competition provided by Southwest Airlines via Love Field Airport.

That has changed dramatically now.  Airlines are now competing with American Airlines in the DFW area for the first time in decades on many routes.  There is now real choice when going to Chicago or Denver.  I can fly to Newark (NYC) for fares less than $700 for the first time in a decade.

And the same is true in other cities now.  Those cities are seeing airlines which finally have enough scale and network that they are comfortable making a play for passengers in new, non-traditional markets without just buying the customers.

Witness Delta’s recent announced intention to take the West Coast Shuttle traffic away from the incumbents (United and Southwest Airlines.)  That would never have happened even 3 years ago.

We often talk about Southwest and the Department of Justice recently referred to them as largely irrelevant in competition when they filed their lawsuit.  But wait!  Southwest is already competing strongly against airlines such as American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Airlines in their fortress hub cities and to take them as irrelevant is just silly.

Need I remind people that Southwest has entered non-traditional markets such as New York La Guardia and Newark Liberty Airports?  Southwest *bought* its way into the Atlanta market and it gave a world class beating to Frontier in both  Milwaukee and Denver.  In fact, United got its head kicked in by SWA in Denver as well.  Continental was so afraid of Southwest that as United it went to war against them operating (potential) international flights out of Houston.

There is more high profile competition in place today than we have seen in almost 2 decades.  Let’s celebrate that for a moment because it *is* good for the consumers.

Even the casual traveler has seen new options in the form of the ULCC carriers such as Spirit and Allegiant Air.  In fact, those ULCC carriers are actually keeping LCC carriers such as Southwest (who really isn’t an LCC anymore), jetBlue and Virgin America honest.

Even I can admit that I’m wrong and I admit it.  We *do* have considerable competition today and it is more healthy competition in the right ways than in the last 30+ years.

Filed under: Airline News, Deregulation, Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax
No Comments »

If we use the premise put forth by the US Department of Justice that the US Airways / American Airlines merger is bad for the consumer, then we need to take a very hard, long regulatory look at all of the US airlines, many of its busiest airports and taxes as well.

If anyone was truly concerned about competition in the airline industry, the Justice Department should have continued to block mergers as they did with the original United Airlines / US Airways merger (which was vastly smaller than the one being proposed today).  Instead, they did not.  Rather, a few years later they signaled with US Airways the idea that mergers were necessary in the airline industry landscape.

Quite frankly, I was perfectly happy to see the status quo maintained pre-2005.  That landscape saw:

• Delta Airlines
• Northwest Airlines
• United Airlines
• Continental Airlines
• US Airways
• America West
• Southwest Airlines
• AirTran Airways
• American Airlines
• Alaska Airlines
• jetBlue

It was a pretty well balanced mix of airlines of both the legacy and LCC flavors and pretty well distributed across the United States.  Barriers to entry were, compared to today, fairly low.

Then several bankruptcies occurred which included US Airways, United Airlines, Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines.  One airline (America West) had to get a massive loan after September 11th and essentially reorganize itself to survive as well.  Another airline, American Airlines, got Billion Dollar givebacks from its employees to lower costs instead of performing a bankruptcy.

Of the 11 airlines listed above, 6 suffered exceptional financial trauma.  Another 2 existed on fine line of financial trouble:  AirTran Airways and jetBlue.  Only 3 managed their finances appropriately and saw appropriate returns on investment:  Southwest, Continental and Alaska Airlines.

So we permitted mergers and this is what happened:

• 2005:  America West takes over US Airways and retains the US Airways name.
• 2008:  Delta and Northwest merge as equals and retain the Delta Airlines name.
• 2010:  United and Continental merge as equals and retain the United Airlines name.
• 2011:  Southwest Airlines takes over AirTran Airways and begins the wind down of the AirTran name.

By 2011, the competitive landscape was dramatically different and American Airlines had to throw in the towel (it should have in 2006, in my opinion) in November of 2011 by filing bankruptcy itself.  In the 2012 / 2013 period, the new airline landscape looks like this:

• Delta Airlines:  Revenues  $36.6 Billion (2012)
• United Airlines:  Revenues  $37.1 Billion (2012)
• American Airlines:  Revenues  $24.8 Billion (2012)
• Southwest Airlines:  Revenues $17.0 Billion (2012)
• US Airways:  Revenues $13.8 Billion (2012)
• Alaska Airlines:  Revenues  $4.6 Billion (2012)
• jetBlue:  Revenues  $4.9 Billion (2012)
• Virgin America:  Revenues $1.3 Billion (2012)
• Frontier Airlines:  Revenues $1.4 Billion (2012)

As you can see, the airlines that exist today are hardly equal despite the perception otherwise.  For instance, Delta and United Airlines both are roughly equal as airlines but the next biggest by revenue is American Airlines which is a staggering $12.3 Billion behind.  If you added US Airways revenues to American Airlines revenues in 2012, you still come in at just $38.8 billion.  Put another way, the new American Airlines Group would operate at roughly the level of United and Delta Airlines.

Southwest would be at a disadvantage seemingly but Southwest’s revenues are based entirely on US based operations and therefore see Southwest operating at parity with the other 3 large carriers.  So, now we have 4 carriers operating at roughly the same scale in the domestic US market.

The remaining four airlines:  jetBlue, Virgin America, Frontier and Alaska Airlines have combined annual revenues of $11.2 Billion or a number that is still less than that of US Airways.  It’s notable that those last 4 airlines are nowhere near national airline scale.  They are all regional or niche in their marketshares.  They can and will survive and at least 2 of them have every opportunity to organically grow much larger.

What my point in all of this?  Scale is critical in this industry and while those billions in revenues sounds healthy, airlines often earn zero profits on such revenues.  The dollars are large, the profits are tiny, at least until very recently.

If you stop the mergers now, you have two giants and three other airlines that would have to be labled as “at risk” over the next decade.  While you allowed that to sort out, the two giants would only become . . . more giant.  And the bigger they grow, the more influence they have on airports and route infrastructure.

So, if you feel the combination of US Airways and American Airlines is anti-competitive and anti-consumer, then you *must* be ready to “break up” Delta and United Airlines.  They don’t have the potential to be dominant.  They already are dominant.  So much so that they dwarf every other airline in the industry.

More on these subjects tomorrow.

Filed under: Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax
No Comments »

Southwest Airlines is becoming bracketed by two very different parts of the US airline industry.  On one side, they have the SuperLegacy airlines who have all gone through bankruptcy (at least once) and each of these SuperLegacy airlines not only have workrules that approximate more closely to what Southwest has, so do the overall salaries.

Even employees of these SuperLegacy airlines seem to be seeing their morale improve slowly and steadily and more closely approximate that of Southwest.

Very soon, we’ll have The Big 4 in the airline industry.  Delta Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines.

In the middle, we have 2 airlines who are doing very lackluster business in jetBlue and Virgin America airlines.

Down at the bottom, Southwest is again bracketed by Ultra Low Cost Carriers.  These are, today, Spirit Airlines and Allegiant Air with Frontier Airlines coming online presently.  These carriers are the scavengers of the industry but have some tendencies to bring a Southwest Effect with them in some markets.

They are flying most routes infrequently but . . . that’s changing.  Spirit Airlines has found the industry landscape in the Dallas / Fort Worth area very inviting fare-wise and has started more and more regular flights on “dominated” routes.

Southwest is perceived as a “Low Cost Carrier” when . . . it really isn’t.  Not anymore.  The service level of Southwest is at or above that of the other SuperLegacy economy offerings today.  But people expect a lower price from Southwest because of that perception.

And they don’t get it very often.

Southwest is the low price option in the last 3 weeks leading up to a departure quite often.  Prior to that, they are often the overwhelmingly expensive option.

They are more full service than the full service airlines in that they offer free checked baggage and modern aircraft and a smile upon boarding.

But where do they go?  If they transform themselves into Just Another Airline, the other airlines will compete against them with an advantage. They have more differentiated service levels and more usable frequent flier programs and fleets that are being renewed as we speak.

If they try to be Really Low Cost Airline, the Ultra Low Cost Carriers will outbid them for passengers who are buying on price alone.

Southwest has the recipe for success in this area but it does not seem to recognize it.  By being Southwest instead of Just Another Airline or a Really Low Cost Airline, they beat both sides handily.  But that combination of being a people business acting in the interest of serving people and their needs seems to be getting in the way of leadership at Southwest succeeding.

Or, rather, making names for themselves.

Southwest has finally become a teenager and what’s worse, it doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up.  I expect this airline to grow rockier with time.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
1 Comment »

Delta Airlines has announced an hourly shuttle between Los Angeles and San Francisco with 14 hourly flights per day using the Embraer E-175 aircraft with 76 seats from partner Compass Airlines.

United Airlines owns that route presently and Southwest is exceptionally strong on that route as well.  Both airlines are popular with businessmen and Delta is proposing to step on the toes of both airlines with its own shuttle.

Calling it a shuttle is good marketing. It makes it sound like something that is easier, more friendly to the business traveler.

Will they succeed?  Lots have tried to do such things in that market and failed.  Delta is big enough and strong enough and settled enough to buy the business.  It’s clear that Delta does not respect its competitors in this area and that puts both United and Southwest in a tough spot.

War got declared and now both of those airlines have to respond or likely lose significant market share and, most importantly, significant revenue.   The truth is that 5 years ago, I would have predicted success at defending the market by both incumbents.  Today, I’m not sure United has the focus to go to work to defend itself and I’m not sure that Southwest has the fire in its belly to defend itself.  Southwest is getting complacent.

Only time will tell but it should be interesting to watch.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
1 Comment »

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.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
No Comments »

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.

Filed under: Trivia by ajax
No Comments »

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.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
No Comments »

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.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
2 Comments »

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.

Filed under: Airline Service, Travel Hints by ajax
No Comments »

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.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
No Comments »

It pays to shop around and it pays to question whether or not a Low Cost Carrier really is low cost.

Just for fun, I looked around for flights from the DFW area to Portland, Oregon and I used Labor Day weekend as my target as it was a weekend where we should see some restrictions and fairly high travel.  In other words, I wanted to make it a popular time to travel that would see realistic fares.

I checked out Spirit Airlines and found a roundtrip all-in fare of $320 and that didn’t seem all that great to me given what we know about their many fees.  Next, I checked out my favorite airline, Southwest Airlines, and found a very high fare available for just over $500.

Yes, over $500 to fly Southwest to Portland, Oregon from Dallas and it was a connecting flight.  This is way too much.

Like Goldilocks, I found the bed that was just comfortable enough:  United Airlines with an all-in fare of just $367.00.  It, too, was connecting (through San Francisco) but not with an terrible flight time involved.

Yes, I would pay a fee to check a bag on United but that fee would be less than Spirit’s typically and I would get to fly on a vastly more comfortable aircraft.

United’s 31″ of seat pitch vs Spirit’s 29″ of seat pitch.  It makes a huge difference.

So, the Low Cost Carrier wasn’t, the Ultra Low Cost Carrier wasn’t and the legacy airline was the best fit.

Lesson learned?

Filed under: Travel Hints by ajax
No Comments »

Memphis has heard the bad news.  Delta has said that due to continuing financial losses on routes from that city, it is “de-hubbing” the city.  The process will start after Labor Day and Delta says it will keep a large presence in the city.

Memphis sees this as bad, I see it as good.  Having hub status was prestige but I’m not sure it was real value.  In fact, air fares from Memphis were kind of high and while the service frequencies were nice, they probably weren’t necessary if Delta couldn’t earn a solid profit there.

They’ve got Southwest moving in and I think they’ll be surprised to see how Southwest might “luv” Memphis.  This is an opportunity to put a lot of point to point connections through Memphis that may serve its purposes far better in the long run.  And businesses won’t mind having a significant airline presence that offers useful routes and value oriented prices.

I look for Southwest Airlines to turn this into real opportunity for itself as it can build point to point flights to and from Memphis that will provide real profits and which will fit very well into Southwest’s existing destinations.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
No Comments »

Southwest, as a function of owning Airtran, has tasted the allure of fees and saw its revenues increase 6x most recently in earning more than $176million in fees for 2012.  Most of that was from bag fees collected by Airtran.

A very small portion was Southwest related (they do charge for bags, just not the first few bags).

I think we now know what the temptation is.  Someone at Southwest did the math on their customers and realized that number could climb 6x more if they adopted it system wide.

The question asked is “Yes, but at what cost?”

It’s hard to say with Southwest.  Their extremely loyal customer base might be far more likely to punish Southwest than some other airlines’ customers would.

I think we’ll see more dialog about the chance of fees at Southwest and we may even see Southwest adjust itself somewhat in the landscape of fees.  Frankly, I think you could make an argument at Southwest that introducing modest baggage fees for 2 or more checked bags.  It aligns Southwest against its competitors better while still delivering exeptional value to almost all who fly them.

Filed under: Airline Fees by ajax
No Comments »

Southwest Airlines will initiate service to Richmond (VA), Memphis (TN) and Pensacola (FL) on November 3 and these are the last 3 stations Southwest needs to initiate service to Airtran only stations.

All three of these cities are good for airlines and they certainly were good for Airtran but I do sense something here that I think will get ignored by the new leadership team at Southwest.

Success at these cities will not depend entirely on business travelers.  It won’t be possible to make these cities continued successes without paying attention to those who brung ya to this dance.

That would be the non-business traveler.  Actually, it’s the “not corporate” travelers who make or break airlines in those cities.  The entrepreneurs who don’t think it funny to pay exorbitant business fares to make their trips.  These entrepreneurs will either get the ticket they need at the price they need to pay for they won’t go.  They look an awful lot like leisure travelers but they aren’t quite.  They’re not buying the SWA “Wanna Get Away” fares but they’re also not tolerant of paying any fare necessary.

They are shoppers and they discriminate and they do not possess loyalty to an airline because of a points program.

And ignoring these consumers at these kinds of stations will result in once successful Airtran stations becoming failures under the Southwest model of “We’re not the cheapest anymore!”

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
No Comments »

In a Forbes online story, Southwest Airlines Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Krone finally tried to answer the question many of us have been wondering:

What’s up with the generic TV commercials?

Apparently it is about being Southwest Airlines but not the old Southwest Airlines but, actually, connected to the old Southwest Airlines while remembering that they’re different now but, in fact, they aren’t because they’re still being a disruptor even if they aren’t trying to win leisure passengers but, rather business passengers now despite that being their business model 40 years ago.

Yeah, I’m confused too.

I have seen this over and over and over again:  Change for change’s sake.

Southwest isn’t trying to win.  It’s newly minted Vice President Whiz Bangs are trying to find a way to make a name for themselves instead of being stewards in running one of the most successful airlines in aviation history.

Since when is Southwest not interested in that incremental passenger called the leisure traveler?  It’s those incremental passengers that often earn the profit on a flight.

Filed under: Airline News, Airline Service, Frequent Flier by ajax
No Comments »

100 points if you know the title reference.

Southwest Airlines is making incremental progress towards going international with steps like instituting flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico and rebuilding Houston Hobby Airport into an international gateway.

Some think that San Juan is international travel.  Not so much.  It’s a US Territory but, hey, it’s in the Caribbean and many of its residents speak Spanish.

Southwest will embark on travel to Caribbean and Mexican destinations over the next 2 years as it replaces Airtran flights with its own.  To add density to those destinations, Southwest is eyeing other destinations in Central and South America that are within range of its 737-800 ETOPS aircraft and which could be served well from Houston, TX.

It’s got some things to do before that happens.  First, it needs to build that international terminal fast.  Second, it needs to build an international reservations system and it’s got Amadeus working on that part.  Sabre is working with SWA on its domestic system and while many think that Amadeus might take over SWA, I do not.

The bottleneck isn’t going to be that terminal, however.  It will be the IT systems . . . again.  Southwest still hasn’t gotten things kicked into a gear with a Big Boy reservations system that will permit it to interface with other airlines or travel systems.

More importantly, it’s time SWA rework its own website which certainly met the needs of its travelers in 1999 but it really does not now.  It’s time to build a travel site that shows the opportunities for travelers instead of being a place that continues to look “temporary” when it comes to booking a flight.

Filed under: Airline Service, Airports, Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax
No Comments »