Something big happening at Southwest...

I don't see this going well at all. Southwest more than ANY other airline relies on what makes them different to bring in cash. I cashed in all my Southwest points I've hoarded for a long time to take my girlfriend SFO-LAS-SAN/LAX-PHX-SFO over 2 weeks over my bday. 6 segments for 2 people so 12 total and I still actually have enough for a $29/39 sale round-trip. As a long time proponent of Southwest, I now have zero reason to pick them over Spirit, Allegiant or Frontier. Avelo is actually better than them now I'd honestly say. I'm actually dreading the flights knowing she'll have a bag and that they took away legroom and all that. They also keep trimming the schedule like crazy changing my flight times 2 months out. My LAX-PHX alone has changed 4 times and 2 of them were going back to the original time. From the customers darling to just another crappy airline.

After this trip I don't plan to fly them anymore unless they're the only or best way home. If I'm buying tickets I'd rather do a legacy than a fake psudeo-legacy.
 
New seats are down the road, for now it’s just a reconfiguration of the current cabin. 800/MAX8s are still 175 seats just some of the forward rows get extra legroom and the rest go to 31 inches. The 700s lose a row and go back to 137 seats.

They aren’t putting anything back there to tell if you’re in reconfigured cabin or not, road warriors will figure it out right away though.

They started converting the airplanes this month and are doing several a night in various mx bases, so as the year goes on chances will improve that you will catch one in the wild. They will have them all done for the start of ‘26 and that’s when assigned seating begins.

All subject to change at the whims of the new hedge fund overlords.
Would be great if aircraft were slightly wider for us broad shoulder folks.
 
It has been a long time since I've flown on a LCC (more shut-in than upgrayyed).

My recollection is that gate-checking bags has never incurred a cost, which seems like the least-efficient solution for "we like money for luggage" and "we like boarding to take less than 90 minutes."

Does anyone regularly charge for gate-checking bags?
 
It has been a long time since I've flown on a LCC (more shut-in than upgrayyed).

My recollection is that gate-checking bags has never incurred a cost, which seems like the least-efficient solution for "we like money for luggage" and "we like boarding to take less than 90 minutes."

Does anyone regularly charge for gate-checking bags?
F9 / NK?
 
Just think, someday Southwest cabins will have drink carts and a piece of cheesecloth hung up that is meant to keep Billy Bob away from the forward crapping room.

Will there be pretenda-wealthies, with maxed-out credit cards, up front, scowling at me as I walk through their "good air" as they board Group 15? :)

I always want to say "Girl! I saw you at Dollar General with coupons going full-Karen because they wouldn't double them, now you're all bougie?" :)
 
I hate math. A lot. But even I can see this math ain’t mathing.

“The airline estimated in September that charging bag fees would bring in about $1.5 billion a year but cost the airline $1.8 billion in lost business from customers who chose to fly Southwest because of its generous baggage allowance.”

Lolwut? So why are they doing it? I hope this is just journalists being ignorant and not really knowing what’s going on. As usual. Right?

Does the math ever math with investment management companies? I wouldn’t be surprised to see them passing dollars to pick up penny’s. Hopefully Elliot doesn’t • it up. Either way a lot of folks will have a hard time finding a reason fly SWA especially if they have a connection. They could fly DL who has marketed themselves well over the past decade or any other airline. I’d imagine their frequency between certain cities will be their saving grace.
 
Will there be pretenda-wealthies, with maxed-out credit cards, up front, scowling at me as I walk through their "good air" as they board Group 15? :)

I always want to say "Girl! I saw you at Dollar General with coupons going full-Karen because they wouldn't double them, now you're all bougie?" :)

Don’t mock the DG. You will summon demons.
 
Doesn't take much for a really quality destination to feel dark times (same could hold true for Fedex I suppose). I imagine that shouldn't be lost on any of us. Though it is as if it is the same forcing function, dating back to CAL and TX Intl Airlines and Lorenzo (and probably before that). Like has been said, finance bros and their • • games
 
Doesn't take much for a really quality destination to feel dark times (same could hold true for Fedex I suppose). I imagine that shouldn't be lost on any of us. Though it is as if it is the same forcing function, dating back to CAL and TX Intl Airlines and Lorenzo (and probably before that). Like has been said, finance bros and their • • games
I wouldn't necessarily call what we're going through "dark times"...more like standard contract negotiations. But, unfortunately, a small minority of our pilot group, with unlimited access to the internet, has never had to endure contract negotiations or industry downturns, nor did they do their research on who they were applying to work for and thus this is "the worst place to work ever in the history of anything in the world and everything sucks and I hate everything."

Also, unfortunately, they were able to run candidates and secure the most votes and that's who controls our union now.
 
I wouldn't necessarily call what we're going through "dark times"...more like standard contract negotiations. But, unfortunately, a small minority of our pilot group, with unlimited access to the internet, has never had to endure contract negotiations or industry downturns, nor did they do their research on who they were applying to work for and thus this is "the worst place to work ever in the history of anything in the world and everything sucks and I hate everything."

Also, unfortunately, they were able to run candidates and secure the most votes and that's who controls our union now.

Well I am glad to hear it isn’t “dark times”. I have some friends who are probably overly pessimistic and excitable.
 
Will there be pretenda-wealthies, with maxed-out credit cards, up front, scowling at me as I walk through their "good air" as they board Group 15? :)

I always want to say "Girl! I saw you at Dollar General with coupons going full-Karen because they wouldn't double them, now you're all bougie?" :)
Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT complain about thousandaires buying premium tickets. instead, write them thank you notes.
 
Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT complain about thousandaires buying premium tickets. instead, write them thank you notes.

Potty break recently, had a first class passenger passive aggressively try to demonstrate their dominance i guess, by standing up while I’m chatting for a minute with the FA, and try to go to the forward lav. This occasionally happens. They get shut down but then look grumpy. And then i just say “i can take a hint” and go back to the cockpit. Maybe they are afraid that the pilot is out of the cockpit. Maybe they think they are proving something. In the end, they allow me to be well paid for my time, and it really doesn’t matter. Old guy needs to pee for all i care. I’ll be back to clubbing baby seals in a fighter jet next week anyway, something he will never get to do in his life.
 
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