

Did Southwest just throw us under the plane? Sneaky fine-print changes explained - jaf12duke
http://blog.flightcaster.com/did-southwest-just-throw-us-under-the-plane-s

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tptacek
Short summary: SWA believes it's not obligated to comp you meals and a hotel
if a flight is cancelled because the airport itself screws up.

Meh. Have you ever had a flight cancelled because of lack of gate
availability? I haven't.

I get better customer service from SWA than from any other airline. This
article is preoccupied with the notion that Delta or United is going to use
SWA's change as cover for even worse changes to their contract. Uh, ok? Delta
and United also don't offer almost completely transparent pricing, either. I
trust SWA enough not to freak out about changes like this, and even without
fine-print changes, I don't trust Delta _in the least_.

~~~
riffer
I've had plenty of flights cancelled due to bad weather, which most people
would probably say is due to lack of runway landing slots. However if planes
cannot get off the ground at my destination, they aren't freeing up gates for
incoming flights. So yes, I probably have had flights cancelled due to lack of
gate availability.

On the second point, the airline industry is notorious for cases where the
whole industry quickly follows the changes initially tested by a single
airline. That's an important part of the process through which we end up with
air fuel surcharges and checked baggage fees. My point is that it's pretty
fair to assume based on this subtle change in the fine print at one airline,
that in a couple of years being stranded due to bad flying weather is going to
be a substantially worse experience than it already is.

~~~
tptacek
My point is that airlines that provide bad customer service today are going to
continue to provide bad customer service tomorrow, because if you can build a
culture that countenances bad service in a commodity service-based industry,
you will never be able to do service right. See: retail banking.

The corollary to my point is as follows: it is silly to blame SWA --- which
provides exceptional customer service for an airline --- for problems at (say)
Delta. The problem is that Delta is genetically incapable of providing good
customer service, not that SWA is tweaking their contracts.

------
mustpax
I'm really loving these blog posts from Flightcaster about the internal
mechanics of the airline industry. Engineering pr0n at its best.

The work of getting paying passengers to the boarding gate makes our modern
flying machines look simple in comparison. That's saying something!

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Aaronontheweb
Southwest is still head and shoulders above everyone else, although I had one
flight a few years ago were the crew was so rude to the passengers that I
thought I'd accidentally boarded a U.S. Airways flight. Thankfully that's been
an infrequency rather than a regularity like it is with other airways.

~~~
tptacek
I have the impression that if I complained about an SWA employee to SWA, it
would matter. On the other hand, complaining about a Delta employee seems like
an utter waste of time.

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scotch_drinker
Maybe I attribute too much cleverness to Southwest's motives but taking the
post's points 1 and 2, could it be possible that Southwest is doing this to
gain a further competitive advantage in the marketplace? As in, if it's true
that this will eventually be replicated by other airlines and it's also true
that this will seep into policy, if SWA can keep it out of their policy, their
customer service will look at least slightly better than their competitors
over time.

Normally, I'd think this was a huge stretch but SWA has always been well run
and managed. They have excellent customer friendly policies and they market
them well. It doesn't seem that crazy to think that the smart people at SWA
are taking a small PR gamble now in hopes of a big customer service win later.

------
sgman
Talk about a tempest in a teapot.

