Tag Archives for southwest airlines.
On Tuesday a Southwest Airlines passenger was queuing to board. He and his wife had two of the very best boarding positions – A2 and A3. The person with A4 became hostile.
Southwest hasn’t been a low fare airline in a long time and they are no longer a low cost airline. New federal rules will make Southwest look cheaper at the same price. That’s an underrated ace in the airline’s hole and a reason they’ll want their fares to show wherever people search for airfare. There’s no more need to hide the comparison, when people see only price.
Southwest Airlines has a lot of aircraft on order from Boeing. But they said some very strange things on their earnings call. They’re bringing on planes, but aren’t going to grow their flying at a rate faster than GDP.
In fact, they say growth in their flying is expected to come from taking their current planes and keeping them in the air more – redeyes, and faster turn times on the ground – not from Boeing deliveries. That has to mean they’ll be cancelling or deferring deliveries. They just haven’t announced it yet.
Southwest Airlines announced plans for redeye flights, premium seats, and assigned seating but left a lot of questions unanswered.
They don’t know all the answers yet! But during the carrier’s second quarter investor call on Thursday they provided more information and filled in several gaps, as well as shared other useful tidbits, that flyers need to know about these changes and the airline’s business.
They need to take care not to lose the value proposition that does still distinguish them, and for which the market continues to value their business at a higher multiple than competitors, even as they work to provide a product that more people want to buy and to pay more for. But they also need to address their inability to sell small town and long haul flights through partners in order to continue to grow.
They’re expected to offer extra legroom seats at the front of the cabin, in what’s being referred to as Love Cabin. These seats would be assigned. Southwest could offer blocked middle seats for sale in Love Cabin, along the lines of Frontier, where the airline sells a seat block to both the aisle and middle seat passenger as an option. And they’re preparing to increase fleet utilization – cheaper additional flying using current aircraft – by offering redeye flights for the first time. New union contracts now provide for redeye operations, and the airline no longer has to turn their systems off and on in a reset each night which required operations to halt.
Through August 22, Southwest Airlines is offering to sell elite status. They will sell you the qualifying points you need to earn elite benefits through December 31, 2025.
The FAA has launched a safety audit of Southwest Airlines. This comes after the airline came within feet of the water while still miles from Tampa less than a month after another of the airline’s 737s descended to just over 500 feet while still 9 miles out from the Oklahoma City airport.
Southwest Airlines is being sued for “failure to protect a minor” from an inflight sex assault. There are terrible passengers out there, who do terrible things.
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 came within 150 feet of the water while still 3 miles out from Tampa airport. Flight 425 from Columbus diverted to Fort Lauderdale.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
