comment: >
  
  Did Elon buy Southwest? /s
context: Shoutout to one or several low-level analysts and engineers at SW who have surely been sounding the alarm for years that their antiquated software was a ticking bomb then proposed a solution and were promptly ignored because it would be hard. >
  
  
  The company prioritized short-term gains and lining shareholder pockets over long-term stability, resilience and robustness. A few unfortunate but predictable things happened at once and the whole house of cards collapsed.
  
  Southwest will probably buy them out with a sizable payout tied to NDAs.  Effectively silencing them so SW can continue, business as usual, and plead ignorance until it happens again.  Massive computer upgrades doesn't help profitability in the short term, and that's all most pubic CEOs care about.  They are only worried about their own bonuses, not the mess the next CEO has to clean up. >
  
  I would assume that an NDA is part of joining pretty much any major company at this point as well as a non-compete: not that anyone is too interested in SW’s trade secrets right now unless they want to know the secret of how to create a massive PR shitshow that people will talk about for years. >
  
  I’ll save the inquiry the trouble. The company prioritized short-term gains and lining shareholder pockets over long-term stability, resilience and robustness. A few unfortunate but predictable things happened at once and the whole house of cards collapsed.
  In a more fair world, all those execs would be forced to return their bonuses to pay for everyone’s hotel rooms and other expenses. Not gonna hold my breath. >
  
  This is nothing that Southwest can't fix on the cheap with a public relations campaign: "Gee, we're sorry that our employees messed up.  We're doubling down on our efforts to increase their efficiency and output so this doesn't happen again, because we love you."  No need to upset the shareholders with expensive investments in improving the out of date scheduling technology. >
  
  I wonder how many billions that airline got in the last 5 years to invest in infrastructure? >
  
  I live in Minnesota and usually fly Southwest because they essentially own one of the two terminals at MSP airport, so you can go from parking through security and to your gate in like 15 minutes total. 
  But heard this wild stat this morning - of the 34 Southwest flights to/from MSP yesterday, 31 of those were cancelled. It’s wild. >
  
  I remember a few months back when they fined several smaller carriers for dragging their feet on issuing refunds for cancellations. The big airlines escaped any sanctions. >
  
  Maybe we should nationalize the industries we bail out, and remove the profit incentive from critical industry that taxpayers payed for like ... travel. >
  
  Funny when you buy a ticket at Southwest they debit your card immediately - but when you have your flight cancelled and they refund the card you used it doesn’t appear with the same speed. Source: Me - so far over 24 hours and still no credit >
  
  To be fair, that's on the bank/credit card company and how it goes with any refund made from any company onto your card. >
  
  They'll just "donate" to someone's re-election fund and the "inquiry" will either go away, or they'll get barely a slap on the wrist.
  I'm not holding my breath for anything meaningful to come of this. >
  
  "Regulatory theater." Nothing will come of that but some headlines for a few politicians. 
  I'm a veteran of 4 dead airlines. I've seen this act before. >
  
  It's about time. And can we please think about breaking up "big airlines"? I am old enough to remember when there was actual competition and we had a choice of airlines to fly. Now it's just a few and they charge insane amounts of money to fly and frankly, flying STINKS. (I am looking at YOU, UNITED... and your torture seats). >
  
  I feel like the "inquiry" will go something like this:
  Congress: So, what's going on over there?
  Southwest: We don't have enough money.
  Congress: Okay, here you go! >
  
  "and we're totally going to put this money towards upgrading our equipment and computer systems"
  <upper mgmt. and shareholders then get all the said money in the form of bonuses and dividends> >
  
  Man I’d love to sit in on the troubleshooting sessions with their IT analysts and architects on this one.  Guaranteed that these guys were screaming to management over the past year on changes that were needed, but we’re ignored due to cost of upgrading.   Oops.