i genuinely have no idea what's best for southwest, financially, but i am reminded of the immortal words of Costco founder Jim Sinegal: "If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out." - ThreadSky

annmlipton.bsky.social • 43 days ago

i genuinely have no idea what's best for southwest, financially, but i am reminded of the immortal words of Costco founder Jim Sinegal: "If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out."

Reposted from More Perfect Union

Southwest Airlines will end its free checked bags policy for the first time in its 54-year history.

Starting May 28th you'll have to pay to check your bag.

www.cbsnews.com/news/southwe...

Comments

stillbevens.bsky.social•43 days ago

The article makes it sound like one fucking guy (activist investor) is forcing them to light their brand on fire for line go up

annmlipton.bsky.social•43 days ago

yeah it's an activist. but i really couldn't tell you whether the long term brand damage is worse than the short term revenue improvement

pteauxkneigh.bsky.social•42 days ago

Activist investor is a private equity firm, not a single person.

sampenaiii.bsky.social•43 days ago

b-su.bsky.social•43 days ago

Ooooooh this is the one thing that might do it for me. I’ve literally flown only Southwest my whole life. Refused any other airline even if it was cheaper. The open seats and the free checked bags were why.

dwaynefuhlhage.bsky.social•43 days ago

Southwest used to be my go to airline since Kansas City was one of the first hubs. First they devalued points. Direct flights to major cities are hard to come by. I'm tall and have to beg my employer for legroom upgrades. Now luggage fees.

35 year frequent business flier, signing off

lukemeister.bsky.social•43 days ago

That was the only point of taking Southwest!

wienerking.bsky.social•43 days ago

If you build your company's identity around a service/price then you better have a brilliant plan to reinvent that identity.

Subway learned that lesson and is praying a $5 foot long cookie will salvage things.

beth-in-wisconsin.bsky.social•43 days ago

I am too dumb to figure it out. Raise *the price* of the hot dog?

annmlipton.bsky.social•43 days ago

yeah, costco has a hotdog and soda combo for $1.50 and the price hasn't risen in 40 years

beth-in-wisconsin.bsky.social•43 days ago

Thank you!

cmraman.geek.org•43 days ago

They have changed the hot dogs (waaaay back when they were Vienna Beef, now they’re Kirkland) and reduced the number of available condiments, but by damn, it’s still $1.50. (It’s $1.75 locally because there is a city tax on disposable cups, of 25 cents.)

shieldmaiden7.bsky.social•43 days ago

Southwest and its economy, "no assigned seating" makes it the WAL-MART of airlines. I'll fly another airline, where I know where my seat will be, if I'm going to get hit with an extra $150 for bags.

reach4love.bsky.social•43 days ago

I love the unassigned seating. I will miss the SWA of the past

shieldmaiden7.bsky.social•43 days ago

It stresses me out, so now I can just fly another airline.

shieldmaiden7.bsky.social•43 days ago

I had a flight to Vegas and the bag fees were more than the ticket.

styledgirl.bsky.social•43 days ago

An airline that’s had 47 years of profitability (unmatched by any other domestic carrier) does NOT need to stiff loyal customers in order to squeeze out more shareholder value…this is the exact opposite of what SW claims to stand for.

danalmont.bsky.social•43 days ago

I can fly Frontier from NY to Orlando for $38 round trip and if I use my Frontier credit card I get free checked bags. Their planes are basically buses in the sky but that’s cheaper than a bus from NYC to Albany. And Orlando is nicer than Albany.

znancy.bsky.social•43 days ago

It's not safe to fly these days, anyway0

thomasfuchs.at•43 days ago

It's a bit like if Apple would switch their computers to come with Windows by default because they think it will make them a little more profit

lajolla44.bsky.social•43 days ago

Jim Sinegal is a saint
♥️

theresistanceco.bsky.social•43 days ago

Hey Southwest, GET FUCKED!

ginloula.bsky.social•43 days ago

Very disappointed

gavinneedham.bsky.social•43 days ago

A vulture capital group is trying to take over southwest, by force if necessary. They’ve already installed board members and fired HQ staff. They will gut everything that makes SWA what it is until a single plane won’t take off.

b-su.bsky.social•43 days ago

Not sure if “vulture” capital was an autocorrect mistake, but if so it would be one of the most accidentally correct autocorrect mistakes.

gavinneedham.bsky.social•43 days ago

Venture capitalists fund start ups. Vulture capitalists attack “dying” or struggling companies. Like what happened to red lobster and a million other companies.

gavinneedham.bsky.social•43 days ago

Have you never heard of vulture capitalism?

b-su.bsky.social•43 days ago

Nope, today I learned!
More flavors of awful private equity takeovers, yay /s

jeffreypschultz.bsky.social•43 days ago

Herb Kelleher would have a few similar words for Southwest. It started with getting rid of peanuts. Soon, they'll be no different from any other carrier. Goodbye brand value.

So many great brands/companies have been ruined this way.

nathanalderman.bsky.social•43 days ago

I once met Jim Sinegal. He was an avuncular, grandfatherly type, gentle of manner. Seemed like a genuinely good human. This quote says a lot about his understanding of the importance of that $1.50 hot dog.

reach4love.bsky.social•43 days ago

Bought out by Monsters. Employee owned no more

dis-associate.bsky.social•43 days ago

And coincidentally southwest was just added to the Elliot management hedge fund’s portfolio, where 5/15 board members are from and have been pushing for SW to charge for checked bags.

Venture capital ruins another business, again

dylansocal.bsky.social•43 days ago

they'll implement and it will likely hurt core business making them vulnerable for a sale to one of the other airline giants thus eliminating more competition and lower prices for consumers. It almost feels like out of a playbook.

noospheric.bsky.social•43 days ago

Southwest is giving people no reason to choose them over other airlines anymore.

incompetusrex.bsky.social•43 days ago

It seems like a very poorly timed decision. The Trump Administration is driving us towards a recession and there are some real concerns about the safety of air travel, all of which will probably result in decreased demand and increased competition among airlines.

annmlipton.bsky.social•43 days ago

yes and no. speaking as someone who overwhelmingly travels for business and not for personal, the baggage policy has literally no effect on my decisionmaking - it's all reimbursed.

annmlipton.bsky.social•43 days ago

i can see the argument that since the overwhelming majority of flying is business, and business travel is governed by general policies - they do care about price - but they aren't nickle-and-dimed by baggage fees - the baggage fees increase revenue w/o decreasing customers

stuartbuck.bsky.social•43 days ago

My idea: They should charge to carry bags on board, but checked bags should be free.

Reason: Carrying bags on board takes more time at both TSA screening and at boarding the airplane. Business travelers are more likely to pay to carry bags on board as well!

stuartbuck.bsky.social•43 days ago

We need to incentivize recreational travelers to check all of their bags rather than trying to cram everything overhead (including their small bags).

stuartbuck.bsky.social•43 days ago

PS, Ann: Are you going to the reunion in April? I'm going as are a lot of folks. Trying to rouse up support!

annmlipton.bsky.social•43 days ago

also, if you're leisure and you're searching for the best deal on kayak or whatever, it's possible that baggage fees aren't part of the calculus, so it makes more sense to compete on base fee. like, part of this may be about pricing algos

heyitsroman.bsky.social•43 days ago

Southwest actually isn’t available on the comparison sites, I don’t think. Or at least they didn’t used to be, when I was trying to pick flights. I actually became almost exclusively Southwest because I knew my all in cost up front and it was easy. Oh well.

deathswap1.bsky.social•43 days ago

This is the problem with airline industry (at least the casual leisure). Everyone hunts for the lowest possible price without much care for service or amenities.

annmlipton.bsky.social•43 days ago

yeah wasn't there a proposal to require disclosure of the real price with all amenities? and it was .. killed, something? bc that's the issue, airlines can functionally raise fees w/o real disclosure of total cost

hornheat.bsky.social•43 days ago

Boo!

spacegizmo.bsky.social•43 days ago

Reminder. The Biden admin worked hard for consumers in general and making sure airlines couldn't screw us over. Nobody cared though.

dvjamieson.bsky.social•43 days ago

Should charge for carry-on bags.

cousyscozie.bsky.social•43 days ago

Bingo. Carry on is more hassle for crew and fliers alike and people will pay for it. Make checked bags free.

freethinker65.bsky.social•43 days ago

Starting May 28th I will be using alternate to SWA websites first to check for airfares. I had always checked SWA low fare finder grid first, knowing that there was no additional baggage fee to be tacked onto the price.

heyitsroman.bsky.social•43 days ago

Guess I flew my last flight on Southwest this fall…

surprisedface.bsky.social•42 days ago

"We're doing this to reward our loyal customers" who ride with you why, exactly? Because it's not the quality of your airline, my dude!

menzer.bsky.social•43 days ago

Midwest Airlines got rid of the warm cookies, and look where they are now 😂

bruscott1.bsky.social•43 days ago

I've been a southwest customer for decades. This ends for me.

notamused72.bsky.social•42 days ago

Jim was a good guy. I’ve met him.

henryfung.bsky.social•43 days ago

Well, Herb is dead, so...

austingalante.bsky.social•42 days ago

Booo

sintexas.bsky.social•43 days ago

This is actually core to the “give them the pickle” principal that OG SWA leader Colleen Barrett drilled into company culture. It’s the pirate buyers - the private equity firm - who are forcing all these things

kccab.bsky.social•43 days ago

Truly stupid decision. SWA has become unpleasant snd expensive— only the bag policy made it wothwhile.

I’ll go elsewhere.

alexbrandenburg.bsky.social•43 days ago

It was the WHOLE reason I flew southwest, even after being caught in the Xmas nightmare a few years ago.

zcorbain.bsky.social•43 days ago

Soon, they will charge for safety. 100% guarantee. If they crash, total refund.
Also considered a payout to your family.

occamshavecream.bsky.social•43 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/occamshavecream.bsky.social/post/3lk4ifhgrks2k

ejmiller707.bsky.social•43 days ago

This has "new" Coke written all over it. I bet the backlash will be extensive and they'll back down. Then again, I saw a private equity firm bought a huge stake in Southwest, so they could be tanking them.

pteauxkneigh.bsky.social•42 days ago

Not exactly. This is being driven from a different role. PE isn't taking a risk that might/not help the brand, they're just pumping stock price for an exit. They don't care what happens to the brand.

jenniferpetitt.bsky.social•43 days ago

I’m wondering if they just got a big freight shipping contract.

kaspergutman.bsky.social•43 days ago

Herb Kelleher, Southwest's Founder, would be saying a few explitives I'm sure if he were still with us

renaml.bsky.social•43 days ago

Agreed

kmporemski.bsky.social•43 days ago

Oh this is BULLSHIT. First the seating policy, and now this. Why would I take Southwest now? They're just like everybody else.

lisamcgalliard.bsky.social•43 days ago

👋🏼

roberts-rants.bsky.social•43 days ago

Southwest was the only consistently profitable airline when they had the lowest ticket prices, charged no fees, had great on-time performance, and did the little things well. The more they morph into a standard airline that takes longer to get to your destination, the worse they do financially. 🤔

shieldmaiden7.bsky.social•43 days ago

I didn't mind lining up like cattle when there were no fees. Do they think people travel without bags? I hate being ripped off like that.

goatsarah.org•43 days ago

Ryanair took what they did and perfected it and became arguably the most successful airline in the world.

From what I hear, it sounds like Southwest strayed from the path.

roberts-rants.bsky.social•43 days ago

As a once-loyal Southwest customer, I think so.

goatsarah.org•43 days ago

I’m a currently loyal Ryanair customer. I unironically low key love them for the service they provide. Just no bullshit.

joelevard.com•43 days ago

I think online ticketing tools have eroded brand loyalty as people shop for the lowest price (or maybe that's just me)

hairydan.bsky.social•43 days ago

That, and for people only flying 2-3 times a year, there is no benefit to being loyal to an airline

kmagnacca.bsky.social•43 days ago

The thing is, Southwest isn’t listed on most of those tools. You have to look them up on their own website, which you do before looking at the others PRECISELY BECAUSE they have free checked bags. So now there’s no reason to look.

styledgirl.bsky.social•43 days ago

That hasn’t been true for a few years now - they show up on Google flights, etc.

roberts-rants.bsky.social•43 days ago

That would have been a great thing for the old Southwest, which charged the lowest prices.

dasdoak.bsky.social•43 days ago

The crazy thing is that they're doing this in spite of being basically the *only* airline whose stock hasn't taken a major hit in the last month with the Trump Crash Plane situation.

dasdoak.bsky.social•43 days ago

Seriously, everyone else is eating shit right now:

https://bsky.app/profile/dasdoak.bsky.social/post/3ljyshwi5ak25

kmcollado.bsky.social•43 days ago

Who wants to travel by plane?

swedener.bsky.social•43 days ago

this quote tells you all you need to know.
southwest is going after rich folk - soon they'll put business class on the flights - charge 4x as much and make up any loses - they hope - with soaking rich folk.

Disney has been doing the same thing for abt 10 years. squeeze out the poors, soak the rich

wholetree.bsky.social•43 days ago

When you answer to shareholders instead of stakeholders.

myurbanlife.bsky.social•43 days ago

I guess I’ll stop flying SW. I actually loved it and the free bags and no reserved seats but I çan fly with anyone now so I will.

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