The Southwest Airline Meltdown

JohnInCarolina

Foghorn said:

How different is this from the Blue Bell ice cream or Chipotle contamination issues?

I actually don't remember anybody swearing off of Blue Bell.  Everybody just wanted to see it back in the stores so they could buy some more.  And Chipotle didn't go bankrupt...

Probably not all that different.  The only real question to me is what could force SW to upgrade their systems.  If this doesn’t result in that, I’m not sure what would. 

Legume

I think it probably depends if you are someone that got sick from Chipotle or Blue Bell or someone that just had to avoid it while they cleaned up the problems.  Neither got hundreds of thousands of their customers sick.

But I do agree that customers will be back.  If this was a chronic issue, people would walk, but if it's mainly a one time, catastrophic meltdown that they can say they've fixed, people will accept that.

JohnInCarolina

Legume said:

I think it probably depends if you are someone that got sick from Chipotle or Blue Bell or someone that just had to avoid it while they cleaned up the problems.  Neither got hundreds of thousands of their customers sick.

But I do agree that customers will be back.  If this was a chronic issue, people would walk, but if it's mainly a one time, catastrophic meltdown that they can say they've fixed, people will accept that.

Based on what I’ve seen, the system failures are fairly common for an airline of their size: 




There’s a long history on SW and their IT issues, their antiquated system, etc.  It’s just that a meltdown like this doesn’t normally happen over Christmas.  

Legume

Agree - it's certainly not the first, but it's also not limited to southwest by any means, it was just massive for them this time.  Other airlines have had system issues - AA does regularly.  The holiday compounded the pain, but it also meant a lot of people were flying that probably don't fly all that often, don't fly for work, etc. It's easy to swear off a brand you don't use much or rely on.  Southwest stock has taken a hit as you would expect, but not that bad considering the disruption. It doesn't look like people are expecting it to fail, just some short term pain.

JohnInCarolina

Legume said:

Agree - it's certainly not the first, but it's also not limited to southwest by any means, it was just massive for them this time.  Other airlines have had system issues - AA does regularly.  The holiday compounded the pain, but it also meant a lot of people were flying that probably don't fly all that often, don't fly for work, etc. It's easy to swear off a brand you don't use much or rely on.  Southwest stock has taken a hit as you would expect, but not that bad considering the disruption. It doesn't look like people are expecting it to fail, just some short term pain.

Except there are real differences here between SW and the other airlines when it comes to these kinds of things.  From the article I linked in the OP:

Gulfcoastguy

Thankfully my niece took Delta back to Europe. 

JohnInCarolina

Gulfcoastguy said:

Thankfully my niece took Delta back to Europe. 

Does Southwest even fly to Europe?  I didn't think that it did.  

Gulfcoastguy

JohnInCarolina said:

Gulfcoastguy said:

Thankfully my niece took Delta back to Europe. 

Does Southwest even fly to Europe?  I didn't think that it did.  

I am sure that she had to make at least one transfer at an East Coast hub thus using a minimum of 2 planes.

dmchicago

Thank you, Southwest ❤️

Botch

dmchicago said:

Thank you, Southwest ❤️

Um, so what is that?
- stolen items from the Coach (Edit: SW is All Coach) snack-cart?
- tossed items from the dumpster behind SW HQ?
- Good Will offerings from SW for your lost luggage?
 
Inquiring Minds want to know.    

dmchicago

You’re gonna have to read up thread. 

caliking

dmchicago said:

Thank you, Southwest ❤️

If you're that stocked up on her freaky deaky ones, you better hold on for the ride

dmchicago

  

The Cen-Tex Smoker

dmchicago said:

Thank you, Southwest ❤️

I see you went with a half-order this time. 

dmchicago

I had double that, but I "tipped" the FA's and Pilots.

To make up for the rough week they had.