Southwest Airlines may take a new step towards destruction of what’s left of their brand as a passenger-friendly business, according to Enilria, banning customers on their cheapest tickets from using their overhead bins.
According to the report, Southwest Airlines “is studying flipping over to the United camp” and not allowing customers who buy basic economy fares to bring carry-on bags onboard their aircraft.
- This would mean more bag fee revenue, because customers would have to check their rollaboards
- And it would speed up boarding, like the days of bags fly free when customers brought fewer bags into the cabin. Stowing the bags takes time. Searching for scarce bin space takes time. And dealing with gate checking bags due to not enough bin space takes time (and if they have to gate check basic economy passenger bags, at least they’d get a penalty fee for doing so).
This would make the basic economy experience on Southwest worse than basic economy on Delta and American, both of whom allow passengers to bring a bag that requires use of the overhead bin, in addition to a personal item that fits under the seat.
United’s basic economy fare today is the worst, but apparently they do not believe they lose business because of the restriction. Many of the people buying these fares are infrequent and low information flyers, and it’s likely many aren’t aware of the rule (though it isn’t hidden) or assume that on average airline policies are similar so they wouldn’t do better elsewhere even though booking basic economy on American or Delta at a similar price is a much better deal, both for convenience and paying one less bag fee.
American, of course, will give back some of that customer advantage starting next month by charging basic economy passengers $5 more for a checked bag than they charge other customers ($55 vs $50).
Southwest Airlines used to heavily market ‘transfarency’, the idea that the price of their ticket was the price to travel. They are no longer transfarent, and would be betting that their customers are low information customers who wouldn’t know better than to seek a better deal elsewhere.
Hopefully they do not truly see themselves in a race to the bottom that they’re committed to winning.
…hit me harder, daddy. *facepalm*
Wow, the management at SWA are dumber than I thought.
So now they want to be know as the most overpriced, poorest schedule and junk fee king? They will fail quickly unless they are also adapting $29 airfares like Ryanair.
Only 230k miles left to burn
@paul — Wowza! You hoarded them suckers, didn’tcha? 230K! Woof… (bring back the honey-roasted peanuts!)
Will Southwest Airlines charge basic economy passengers a fee to store their medically exempt, passenger-baggage CPAP machines or Continuous Flow Portable Oxygen Concentrators in the overhead?
Last week, I took my first flight on the “new”, but absolutely not improved Southwest. It will also be my last flight. I have used almost all of my Rapid Rewards points, and the points remaining are not worth much after their latest devaluation.
I flew Southwest exclusively for the past twenty years, even driving an extra two hours to fly from an airport they serviced. They were low cost, with great customer service and an awesome loyalty program. Over the past few years, they are no longer low cost, their customer service rivals that of the Internal Revenue Service, and their Rapid Rewards points are but a small step above junk bonds. “Transfarency” and open seating were the last things that made them stand out from other carriers. Both are gone.
I ask Mr. Jordan and Elliott Capital one question: Why should I fly Southwest again, driving two hours out of the way, when I can fly out of an airport that is a 5$ Uber ride from my house, with an airline that is less costly, even though they charge for checked baggage and seat assignments?
Elliott Capital and Mr Jordan: Southwest is no Delta. Keep up your race to be average and you’ll be not another Delta, but another Eastern or Pan Am.
Southwest was a company with a lot of customer trust. Today, almost all that trust is broken.
Do you mean to say low information=lo IQ passengers?
@John T Burkholder — Ahh, the new right-wing buzzword: Low-IQ. As if any of you all are actually intelligent or not.
It’s been wild to see your Dear Leader referring to those he disagrees as ‘low-IQ’… like, doesn’t make it true or false, just shows his/your own insecurity and weakness. Try expressing yourself better. Or… just call everyone names. Please, call me names. Make it spicy.
@1990: High IQ people are the easiest to brainwash, because they can invent complicated reasons to believe almost anything. Prominent radicals on both sides tend to be very intelligent. Not low IQ at all.
My god I hope and pray they do this.. as a 26 year former loyal Swa ONLY frequent flyer, I cannot wait to seevthiscatrocious arrogant airline burn itself to the ground them furthering their own grave to bury themselves in. Please SWA start this new policy TODAY!
The linked article is rank speculation by the author, without even an anonymous source. Gary should not have raised the profile of this garbage. It’s not even slightly believable.
If Gary posts that a source within Southwest told me a change is coming, then I’ll believe it.