comment: >
  
  I worked in travel in the 1990's, when Southwest really began expanding from a regional airline to a national
  airline, moving into markets across the country that had been reserved for the bigger airlines in the past. Working in the Midwest with Chicago being the biggest hub, I recall my first experiences explaining the "new" airline to potential travelers. I recall the days of Southwest posting whole page size ads in USA Today, at that time a major source of news for a lot of people when the internet was in the beginning stages. There were commercials on tv too, and people were intrigued by the super cheap prices for the same
  Routes that cost several times more on the bigger airlines.
  Everyone was super enthused to hear about "$59" tickets, until us travel agents had to explain the fine print to clients. Southwest operated out of Midway field, not O'Hare, which was a longer drive for those traveling to Chicago to go somewhere else. There were no "connecting" flights to smaller airports....if you wanted a cheap flight to Vegas you had to get to Chicago first. There were no options for a shorter flight from a smaller airport with a connection in Chicago like the bigger airlines like United offered. 
  Then you had to explain to clients that there were no assigned seats, they'd have to wait in a line and find a seat once they boarded. And unlike the major airlines that were still offering full meals on flights that operated over meal times, on Southwest you had to bring on food or purchase it in addition to your ticket. It's hard to fathom now, but these were all novel ideas to the flying public back in the day. People still thought of flying as an experience in itself... the airlines competed to make your flight comfortable and enjoyable for the traveler. The idea was that passengers wouldn't mind paying more  for  a flight, as long as they knew they'd get the seat of their choice, free checked on luggage, decent meals and leg room. 
  But then major airlines proved to be wrong. I clearly remember clients saying "it's ok I don't mind driving 4 hours to Midway if I can get those super cheap tickets." And "I don't mind standing in  a line to get a seat." And "No problem bringing on food. We'll just pack ahead". 
  The traveling public decided that they liked the Southwest model better, that if they could fly for so much cheaper that they could do more traveling, which for the average person was a big deal. Corporations too began to catch on. If they had business travelers who were flying back and forth often to a specific destination, if it was offered by Southwest why not save some money and have your business traveler take Southwest? Less frills but saving money, it became a motto for Corporate America to follow. 
  After a while the major airlines took notice too. Instead of waiting for Southwest to fail. As many thought in the beginning that they would, the airlines decided to adopt some of Southwest's policies for their own to save money and improve their bottom line. No longer would passengers get to check in luggage without paying for it. If they wanted more leg room let them pay extra for that too. Same for meals, and seat assignments. Flying became more "Ala carte" and less of a glamorous experience, all because of Southwest.
  The people had spoken with their pocketbooks, and Southwest seemed to have a winning formula.
  The "meltdown " that's happening today on a Southwest I blame at least partly on the fact that people were more concerned about saving money than  paying extra to have a better flight experience. The consequences of all this is the airline apparently didn't want to spend a lot of money to upgrade  their systems. It's not the general public's fault that they believed airlines could be run differently and still succeed. Apparently they can as long as no big natural disasters happen.
  Whatever the root cause of the  utter chaos that's happening at Southwest today. Let's hope they finally get realization that Cheaper isn't always better.
  I don't blame the people who work at Southwest either. They must be living a nightmare too being blamed for bad corporate decisions.
  I think it's time the airline industry in general was held accountable. CEO's shouldn't be raking in millions because of "cost cutting measures" that improved the bottom line. Sure profits may be up, but at what cost?
  Maybe all of us as the flying public need to demand better, and also accept we may to have to pay a little more for a better flying experience. At the very least we should all be able to expect that the flight that's promised will travel when they say they will. And if for some reason that flight can't take off, that it will be rescheduled within a reasonable amount of time, not days later. And also if the airline we plan on flying on can't deliver, that they will have the capability of issuing refunds and getting us rebooked on another airline to get us where we need to go.
  This whole meltdown is unacceptable!
context: This is insane. I hear Southwest’s having phone issues nationwide. What gives? >
  
  Same thing that always happens a corporation put profits over people.
  Southwest has been running a lean operation on the personnel side for over a decade and lately very aggressive scheduling of their pilots. This was pretty much inevitable, because it is not if a weather event like this would happen but when.
  Because of delays at the effected airports pilots were timing out on their hours causing problems at unaffected airports. Particularly Las Vegas. >
  
  But we should deregulate because muh free markets >
  
  I don’t disagree with regulation, but in theory, the free market would work here. Southwest gets extremely bad press and pisses of tens of thousands of their own proven customers, those people stop flying SW, forcing them to improve their systems to be competitive again. >
  
  This is equivalent to saying: "if enough babies die of tainted formula, parents will stop buying it!" 
  That may be true, but maybe it would be nice to not have to live through a mountain of totally preventable suffering just to generate a market signal? >
  
  C'mon now, the argument is literally that "planes are not medicine"!
  I do however think it is absurd to suggest that Southwest killing itself by stranding everybody is the economy working well, there is surely a way to discourage that sort of idiocy with regulation. >
  
  It's hyperbolic to be sure, but it's a difference of scale, not of kind. >
  
  It’s the same at LaGuardia. 
  Source: My family and I were scheduled to fly out of LGA on Southwest today. After our flight was cancelled, we ended up bailing on Southwest altogether and just booking a United flight out of Newark for Friday. It was that our taking the first available Southwest flight on New Year’s. Woof. >
  
  Are you going elsewhere or trying to get home? >
  
  Anywhere is better than LaGuardia. >
  
  I had the worst bagel of my life there. >
  
  Southwest was telling people in Bozeman airport yesterday their flight to Denver was cancelled and next available flight was the 30th. 2/3 SW flights to Denver yesterday afternoon was cancelled. Desk was telling passengers to call or use the app. Both were down. Passengers were waiting in a couple hour line to get answers/help. >
  
  When a company makes that much money and doesn't invest in its own systems, that tells me the leadership doesn't give a single solitary fuck about anything except the short term profit. >
  
  Funny how cannibalizing yourself doesn't lead to infinite growth. >
  
  I noticed they removed all the drink carts and make the attendants carry all the drink on small plastic serving dishes. It takes twice as long to get a drink now. Probably just to save a couple cents on fuel a flight >
  
  Southwest has done this since their inception. It’s not new. In some ways it makes sense as it means there isn’t a heavy cart in the aisle so people can still get up and go to the bathroom during drink service. >
  
  Well I mean they haven’t. They always had drink carts up until a few years ago. >
  
  At least in my experience taking them, nor in this southwest community post from 2008, so it sounds like it may have been they tried drink carts then moved back to how they used to handle drinks service. >
  
  "You are now free to move about the country"  
  Just not in a Southwest plane.  My friend was stranded in Rhode Island (after it taking 23 hours to get there via Southwest) and after being told a return flight would not be possible until 12/30, she rented a car and drove 13 hours to Chicago.  :/ >
  
  Impressed it only took 13 hours.  Debating doing a similar trip as tomorrow's flight cancelled for us. >
  
  I'm guessing it was more like 15, but she didn't factor the time change in.  I wasn't about to correct her.  I could feel the steam through the phone.  lol.  Not a happy camper. >
  
  Do you guys in the US just drive 15 hours straight? I drove 15 hours once in Europe and it was the most awful experience ever, felt like shit the next day. >
  
  15 hours is long, but not crazy for a trip. >
  
  14 hours in Europe is Madrid to Paris. That’s half of Europe in the time I’d take me to go from Chicago to Denver >
  
  Thanks Southwest, for making my girlfriend's mom stay with us an extra week. >
  
  The real tragedy here. >
  
  She keeps talking about Commiefornia and making up stories about winning arguments against people who got the COVID vaccine. >
  
  This is what you say, and for the rest of this let's assume your girlfriend's mother is Karen.
  "Karen. I love your daughter. I've had a blast having you here. I'm really sorry about the flight situation, but if you continue on with this commie California and covid stories you're going to have to find a hotel. So let's try to make the best of the rest of this week and avoid a few topics. Would you like some orange juice?" >
  
  He doesn’t have orange juice >
  
  A glass of strong cold piss will suffice. >
  
  This is like the second time in the past couple of years Southwest has completely melted down due to poor weather. Poor weather can't be controlled but other airlines are able to spin up normal operations quickly after the weather clears and they're quickly getting people rebooked and to their destination. 
  I read an insider's take that it's due to a poorly ran and rather old scheduling system. Pilots, ramp agents, attendants and other crew are told to call a 1-800 number for scheduling when a change happens and speak to a human but they're just not staffed for a massive issue. 
  I'm sure a lot of gate agents are calling in sick now to avoid being yelled at and spit on for 12 hours straight and I don't blame them. >
  
  I was in Denver for that last one, it was surreal. Every gate counter had a line straight up a half a mile long. Each customer needed like 15 minutes to just have 'pretend' rebooking help. I got a sense of what was going on, walked to United, bought a ticket at the gate, lost $500, and SW offered nothing in compensation. I would have been stuck in a Denver hotel for 3-4 days had I not dropped the money. >
  
  I often fly between Denver and LA, and I started going with United after that debacle.  I’ve noticed that Southwest has gotten more expensive than United too, which is bullshit considering it’s supposed to be more affordable. >
  
  I’m curious. Does that include checked baggage? Because the 2 free checked bags per person is what won my family over a few years back, but it’s been a few years since I’ve flown >
  
  It doesn’t.  I rarely check bags when I fly, so it’s a non factor for me. >
  
  As sad as I am that I didn't get to spend Christmas with my family, I am so very thankful our first flight was cancelled before we left home and we didn't get stuck at an airport with my 5 year old and 2 year old. >
  
  Oh bless you. You dodged a bullet there. >
  
  Their system for managing planes and staff is the most fragile system I've ever heard of. >
  
  over in r/SouthwestAirlines their employees are saying it was an I.T. system built 25 years ago for an airline with an order of magnitude fewer flights.
  It reminds me of my experiences dealing with arrogant execs and trying to explain why we need to maintain and upgrade systems that don't seem to be having any trouble.  At least what I deal with only affects a few dozen people when there is a problem.
  It sure seems like in the USA we have a Corporate class who are not capable of building anything but capable of arrogantly destroying everything.  And it is a class because the people involved in this will feel no repercussions at all.  I am sure some golden parasites are going to open... >
  
  The fact that there isn't automated online scheduling system that handles all the logistics and informs pilots and staff via an online portal is mind boggling. I heard reports that you have to call a 1800 number and someone writes your shit down on a notepad then calls someone else with a notepad in front of them. Once the 20 people that handle the 1800 calls are met with thousands of requests, this apparently happens. >
  
  I'm sure this has been proposed numerous times by Product Management in their tech org and the company leadership refuses to invest in it because they are an 'airline company not a software company.' See this shit all the time in banking, healthcare, you name it. >
  
  So glad we gave them millions in tax dollars only for them to spend it on stock buybacks. >
  
  Haul them in front of congress and fine them into oblivion. We need stronger consumer protection laws and regulations on companies like this which are integral to infrastructure, requiring them to update their infrastructure and not run skeleton crews, looking at your rail system. >
  
  100% - this should be illegal and people should be punished for it. The company has been skirting by with minimal investments in tech infrastructure and staffing to maximize profits for their shareholders and this is the result. Jail the executives. >
  
  I’m sitting in St. Louis right now. Was supposed to be in New Orleans on Saturday… got delayed in St. Louis airport for 6 hours before they canceled flight. No luggage, no flights home. 3 kids under 10 with us. It could be a lot worse since we are all together, but it has not been a fun time. Found a mini van to rent to drive back to NC, very ready to be home. >
  
  I have flown exclusively on Delta for the past 30 years if they fly to where I'm going.
  Is it usually more expensive? Yes.
  Can I count on 1 finger the issues I've had with Delta? Yes. >
  
  I could say this about American Airlines until this past year. >
  
  The meltdown of Southwest, 2022. Don't want to pay cs agents or flight crew, so they just scheduled flights then cancelled them. >
  
  No, that's not what happened. >
  
  Southwest at dia is insane rn. Massive lines for God knows what. >
  
  All of those millions of dollars they spend on advertising themselves as a cheerful, righteous underdog airline, just thrown out the window if they get sitmatized as an airline that you can't count on during busy holiday periods. >
  
  My roommate's dad was supposed to fly in on Christmas Eve but his flight got cancelled because they didn't have enough flight personnel. >
  
  I’ve usually chosen Southwest purely on the basis that I can cancel a flight and get a full credit. Between that and bags, it’s been my go-to. But mostly the free flight changes >
  
  Southwest ceo needs to resign. This is a national embarrassment >
  
  So Southwest is literally going to collapse, right? This is a pretty huge problem. >
  
  And this is why I only fly Delta in the US. Last remaining airline with a shred of professionalism left. >
  
  To be fair, Delta cancelled my husband’s flight yesterday, and it took over 5 hours in a queue to even text with customer service. He wound up rebooking on United. Southwest is handling this worse for sure, but Delta isn’t perfect. >
  
  
  but Delta isn’t perfect
  
  Never said they were, if anything I insinuated the opposite. >
  
  My bad. Not all the way awake yet. >
  
  If I cancel what company should I try to get on ? Delta or Alaska? >
  
  Either is good, I personally fly Delta for everything, but my brother works at Alaska. Do whatever is available and isn't a total price gouge. >
  
  SW flights in Phoenix were canceled for us. We rented a car and drove 12 hrs back home to UT. Hopefully they reimburse us. >
  
  No NEW bookings.  
  While most will be canceled as well, this doesn't mean no flights through the end of the year. >
  
  Not just no new bookings; per the article, people with cancelled flights are being told that they won’t be able to rebooked until after 12/31. (“New bookings” don’t include rebookings) >
  
  If only they could use some of that meltdown on their frozen planes... LOL! >
  
  you would think with AI they'd be able to instantaneously predict which routes to keep, which to drop, so to position all their planes & human resources in a way that minimizes disruption to states that are largely unaffected by weather conditions. Their customers in SoCal have to be livid because it's literally 65 to 75 degrees outside... tshirt & shorts weather. >
  
  You think they are investing in AI? Gotta ride that bottom line and maximize profits