Something big happening at Southwest...

ZapBrannigan said:
Still is. They wedged into the contract that new deliveries will come with the factory retractable sunscreens, but even when that starts it’s going to just be a tiny fraction of the hundreds of airplanes.
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It’s insane that something like that had to be negotiated. Sounds like a UPS thing TBH. As far as the sunshades being beat to hell, due to some individuals we can’t have nice things. People will unlatch them and let them slam back into the rolled position on the 767 :rolleyes:. I seen one last week that looked like someone took a bite out of the top portion. Maybe it was better than our catering 🤷‍♂️.

Are they going to put the suction cup sunshades on the older birds? Those are a game changer IMO. It was nice when we got them at 9E. They’re nice here especially leaving the west coast on those mornings flights.
 
phill1174 said:
Are they going to put the suction cup sunshades on the older birds? Those are a game changer IMO. It was nice when we got them at 9E. They’re nice here especially leaving the west coast on those mornings flights.
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Its like old school 737 snap-in green tint shades kept in the side storage bins
 
Today major cuts to the Frontline work force at airports in most departments. WN revealed they're scaling way back at SJC, which they've run with an iron fist since AA closed their (second) hub there in 2005. SJC built terminal B with the plan that it would eventually be doubled as terminal C when expansion warranted. Southwest rapidly wanted to expand there post-COVID so the airport got some trailers and made a bunch of ghetto ass ground boarding gates out of them and WN hired like crazy until OAK/SJC were close in staff numbers. They were still hiring a few weeks ago, now layoffs and I guess SJC won't go ahead with expansion as WN plans to move flights to SMF and just make that what OAK...was. If Alaska doesn't swoop in on every last SJC-SoCal and PacNW route WN does from SJC, it's a wasted opportunity. UA might as well restart LAX-SJC as well.
 
ChasenSFO said:
Today major cuts to the Frontline work force at airports in most departments. WN revealed they're scaling way back at SJC, which they've run with an iron fist since AA closed their (second) hub there in 2005. SJC built terminal B with the plan that it would eventually be doubled as terminal C when expansion warranted. Southwest rapidly wanted to expand there post-COVID so the airport got some trailers and made a bunch of ghetto ass ground boarding gates out of them and WN hired like crazy until OAK/SJC were close in staff numbers. They were still hiring a few weeks ago, now layoffs and I guess SJC won't go ahead with expansion as WN plans to move flights to SMF and just make that what OAK...was. If Alaska doesn't swoop in on every last SJC-SoCal and PacNW route WN does from SJC, it's a wasted opportunity. UA might as well restart LAX-SJC as well.
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I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of cuts in California, especially SoCal.
 
It isn’t just SJC, they are cutting staff at several stations. Thing is though the flying really isn’t getting cut back that much. So it makes me wonder how overstaffed have they been.

Make no mistake either the overstaffing has been great for us, I don’t remember the last time I had to wait for a gate, marshalers or bags.

Also leaving the MCP set to 69s is hilarious, there used to be and some still do set everything to zero. To mess with the OCD types I’d leave it at 001, 002, 003…

To me it feels like what’s left of the old guard are just hanging on for dear life while the new overlords shake every dime they can out of this place. They announced that they are accelerating the stock buyback plan at the JP Morgan conference, something like 1.5 billion by the end of the year. For reference at the start of this year SWA was cash positive by 2 billion, meaning they could pay off all debt and still have that much left over. I doubt they will be able to say that come next January.
 
I guess another way to look at it is that they hired for growth and that hasn't happened and now the people they hired are getting the shaft.

Either way it is awful, and probably going to lead us back to the old days of operational suck.
 
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?

apnews.com

Final boarding call for free bags at Southwest as airline abandons a cherished perk

It’s the last day to book a flight on Southwest Airlines without being hit with a fee to check bags after the airline abandoned a decades-long luggage policy.
apnews.com apnews.com
 
I presume this is case of Southwest leadership thinking they can somehow successfully squeeze-out that a fart they probably shouldn’t trust.

IMO they really should be doing this change with “both hands;” meaning they are definitely taking-away free checked bags with one, but nobody really cares because they are also, I dunno, announcing free sodas in the gate area for the next six months for anyone that flashes a rapid rewards card or w/e with the other hand.
 
Wardogg said:
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?

apnews.com

Final boarding call for free bags at Southwest as airline abandons a cherished perk

It’s the last day to book a flight on Southwest Airlines without being hit with a fee to check bags after the airline abandoned a decades-long luggage policy.
apnews.com apnews.com
Click to expand...
Smooth brain MBA math
 
Wardogg said:
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?

apnews.com

Final boarding call for free bags at Southwest as airline abandons a cherished perk

It’s the last day to book a flight on Southwest Airlines without being hit with a fee to check bags after the airline abandoned a decades-long luggage policy.
apnews.com apnews.com
Click to expand...
They got rid of the guy that said that last fall, now it's bag fees, basic economy, and premium coach seats.

Remember that the new BOD from Eliott is driving the ship now.
 
arkflyr said:
They got rid of the guy that said that last fall, now it's bag fees, basic economy, and premium coach seats.

Remember that the new BOD from Eliott is driving the ship now.
Click to expand...

Also, that loss was in the short term. They are assuming that a lot of that $1.8 billion of lost revenue will come back on a longer time horizon once they get over their disappointment and pay bag fees at the other carrier they bailed to.
 
A Reddit post from 8 months ago (never go on Reddit) indicated they are getting new seats.

Premium seats have more leg room, with the total number of seats on the aircraft remaining unchanged. Non-premium seats lose an inch (to 31"), which this video reports as more than AA and UA economy.


View: https://youtu.be/eC_Zyz84fe8

They appear to also add a middle-premium for standard seating towards the front of the airplane. Maybe five rows at the front have extra room, plus three rows at the wing exits.
 
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.
 
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