paul mcallister wrote:Would I be correct in thinking South Western are the Ryanair of the US ?
Or something similar ? Contempt for their customers and their staff?
No, not really. Their flight crews can be some of the funniest and most entertaining of any airline. Their CSR staff are professional, and I've never run into one that was overtly hostile. That being said, everyone has a bad day. The senior leadership and management have severely let them down in this event. The airline received somewhere north of 7 billion dollars in pandemic relief funds, evidently very little went to upgrading their IT infrastructure. One thing I don't agree with and would stand up and say something about even if I was one of those stranded, is getting in the face of the gate agents and screaming obscenities and threats at them, it's certainly not their fault. I'd be honor bound to tell the offender to lighten up or shut up. Probably end up in airport jail.
That's the heart of the problem right there. As of today, flight attendants and pilots are posting screen shots of holding times of 4 and 5 hours or more trying to get ahold of scheduling to just find out where they should go or be. The hotel desk is allegedly in the same boat leading to crews sleeping on the concourse if there isn't a crew lounge available.
ShyFlyer wrote:*Their NGs had autothrottles and VNAV disabled because those features weren't present on the -300 & -500s (because of the -200). WN is also the reason the NG cockpit displays had an option to replicate an EFIS-style set up.
I believe it was the pilot's union that finally forced WNs hand and got those features implemented.
That's true. As late as 1999 they were still reporting on/off on/in times via the local ops frequencies which were then entered into the system computer.
ANCFlyer wrote:
Even AS with a crapshoot that was (maybe still is SEA) didn't have this kind of crap.
Yeah they did. Friends daughter and boyfriend were due to leave GEG on Thursday morning. Plane went tech due to frozen plumbing caused by low temps of the brewing storm. Evidently nobody was given OT or there was no overnight person and the aircart died sometime during the night so the plane lost heat. Finally into SEA at noon, they had missed the direct flight to CLE so there's a day lost. Topping things, somebody must have told the ground crew in GEG that the flight was actually cancelled because all the bags had been downloaded there. The next day Friday, the direct flight to CLE was cancelled. Can't really blame that all on Alaska, SETAC was having a lot of problems, as was PDX, PAE, and BFI in keeping the FICONS above "poor" due to ice on the runways. Still no luggage from GEG. Saturday, ditto, flight canceled no reason given. Sunday, ditto, flight canceled no alternative routing available due no seats available. Monday they rented a car and drove back to GEG, picked up their luggage at the airport (those had apparently never left GEG), and went home. According to them, SEA was a zoo, they were made several promises on rebooking, all fell through.
halls120 wrote:It's simple - Southwest's point to point network is far more affected by bad weather than the hub and spoke system used by most of the competition. Add to this is their refusal to interline with other airlines.
Not so sure about that. The point to point system isn't necessarily that bad. It can be from a MX standpoint but from a scheduling standpoint it should not present that big a problem and may even help in IROPS. If a focus city or hub goes down for whatever reason an aircraft can be rerouted from a B point if the C leg is cancelled and sent wherever you want it to be. Fewer planes get trapped or significantly delayed due to the hub or focus city having a real problem.
Southwest's problem seems to have stemmed from trying to run 100% of their flight schedule when it became readily apparent that this was a massive storm that was going to affect the entire country, not just a few select airports. Once things started to back up, the network management was simply not quick enough, or wasn't authorized, to start whacking flights to keep things under control. Once their outdated IT systems hit their capacity limits, there was nothing left to do but watch them crash. To be sure, all of the major airlines faced the same problems but it's apparent they learned from previous scheduling IT meltdowns over the years and reacted more quickly and that their IT systems are more modern, robust, and resilient. Furthermore, according to the pilot's union rep, Southwest management was repeatedly warned by several of the work groups that they were running on a razor's edge, and it was only a matter of time before a major storm, or some other similar disruption would cause just this type of event for the company. Seems they were more forward thinking than senior management.
It'll be interesting to see how the public reacts to Southwest's failure. Simple apologies aren't going to get it. If I had been a customer, I'd be looking for reimbursement of any hotel, food, and rental car costs, as well as some generic relief for incidentals.
From an investor standpoint, I can't see their stock not taking a hit, at least in the short term.
From a regulatory standpoint, this is a congressman's dream, getting an airline CEO on the hotseat for a good old-fashioned grilling. Let's not forget our Transportation Secretary, he's going to get his pound of flesh out of this as well. Between this and the infrastructure bill, if this guy has a single brain cell, he's buying all the power and storing up all the favors he can for 2024.
As of late today Southwest has said they plan to scale back their flying schedule to 1/3rd of normal for the next few days to try and get back to some sense of normalcy but that it was looking as if next week would be the earliest they could resume normal operations. If they are smart they will look at a smaller flying schedule going forward to give themselves some breathing room when things go bad. At least until they upgrade their scheduling software for crews, and aircraft. They also need to come up with a better decision-making tree on when to start cancelling flights.
Lastly, just a couple of things, I wonder if there is any possibility that there was a pilot on his retirment flight, that got stuck on his outbound leg, only to turn 65 while stuck, and then be unable to return home in the left seat? Also, where's the meme' of Southwest's CEO staring a computer screen says, "Need to get away?"
What's the point of an open door policy if inside the open door sits a closed mind?
