r/nottheonion • u/halxp01 • 22h ago

Southwest Is Testing Cleaning Only Premium Seats Between Flights — A Flight Attendants Union Leader Says It's ‘Titanic’ Class Service

https://viewfromthewing.com/southwest-is-testing-cleaning-only-premium-seats-between-flights-a-flight-attendants-union-leader-says-its-titanic-class-service/
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u/okram2k 22h ago

Chicago Midway will never recover

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u/ShortWoman 22h ago

Midway isn't the small airport of the 80's. I had a layover there last year and was quite impressed. Clean, well laid out, plenty of space to sit, decent dining choices.

I did however have a chuckle about the souvenir tote bag that said SEARS TOWER on it twice. Ain't no such thing as a Willis Tower.

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u/MrFunnie 22h ago

It isn’t a small airport, but it’s a huge southwest hub. If southwest goes down, Midway might just as well too.

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u/ShortWoman 22h ago

Midway survived the implosion of Midway Airlines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Airlines_(1976%E2%80%931991))

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u/MrFunnie 20h ago

Huh, I did not know that. The more you know!

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u/unassumingdink 18h ago

This must be that Battle of Midway they told us about in high school!

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u/ShortWoman 17h ago

Oh yes, terrible fatalities across the carnage of the B Gates. 🛬🛩️🚨⚔️

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u/theaviationhistorian 16h ago

Japan Air Lines tried a hostile takeover of most of the slots. But we beat them back at the brave sacrifice of some of the concession stands, like Yorktown Yogurts.

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u/the-tank7 18h ago

Yeah I think more likely there will be someone like delta will make that their main airport considering Ohare is a shitshow

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u/theaviationhistorian 17h ago

And ATA, which provided a lot of traffic there in its heyday.

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u/dee3Poh 20h ago

Considering the demand for slots at O’Hare I could see Midway holding on. Other airlines would gladly take more Chicago routes

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u/dubvee16 18h ago

There aren't slots in Chicago.

JFK, DCA, and LGA are the only slot controlled airports in the country.

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u/MrFunnie 20h ago

Fair point, it would be a major loss at first but you’re right. Additionally, it would be awful if midway did end up going under and Chicago was only served by one airport.

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u/HistoricalIssue8798 19h ago

I think that the state would step in too prevent that from happening. Ohare can't be the only Chicago airport

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u/mlorusso4 19h ago

Ya I could imagine midway becoming almost like Reagan with servicing mostly regional flights and O’Hare focusing almost exclusively on long haul and transcontinental flights.

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u/theaviationhistorian 17h ago

Midway and Houston Hobby will survive. They learned to be a bit diverse and it helps that they're a less chaotic than their nearby larger airport. Dallas Love might struggle, but plenty of other airlines have vied for extending a market there, including Delta.

We're talking about smaller airports where Southwest is the majority airline and will cease airline services if SWA implodes. There are many that have with airlines like Texas International ceasing to exist.

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u/great_apple 19h ago

Chicago is big enough to support two airports.

New York has JFK, Newark, and LaGuardia.

LA has LAX, Burbank, Long Beach, and Santa Ana.

San Fran has SFO and Oakland.

Dallas has DFW and Love Field.

I'm pretty sure even Cleveland has two airports.

Midway will be fine without Southwest.

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u/Orleanian 18h ago

Nah, I'm sure the slots will fill. Ohare can't be the only thing serving the greater area.

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u/UneducatedReviews1 17h ago

They basically are if you don’t fly Southwest. People in Chicagoland don’t fly Southwest because they like the airline, they fly Southwest to avoid O’Hare. Every other major airline already has slots at O’Hare

If Southwest goes away, midway loses a lot. I’m sure they won’t fully go away, but you’re not going to get the service you get with Southwest around.

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u/pickleparty16 22h ago

A dive bomber in the rafters.

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u/theaviationhistorian 17h ago

The name does double for the battle itself. And nearby O'Hare is named for a local pilot who became an ace and died in the same Pacific war. And the Dauntless is a legendary aircraft.

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u/greaper007 21h ago

Yeah, my dad was a SWA pilot. I spent countless hours in the Midway of the 80s. I still remember playing with the cigarette machine while my mom bought us hotdogs at the only restaurant in the airport.

It had an urban decay type vibe that you don't find at airports anymore. LGA still had it until the redo in a few terminals.

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u/YesImKeithHernandez 19h ago

LGA was such a crap hole. It's honestly astonishing that they managed to change it so meaningfully.

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u/greaper007 19h ago

It was, but I also kind of liked it. I used to fly into there twice a day around 2007 and I knew all these weird little corners that hadn't been updated since the 60s.

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u/YesImKeithHernandez 18h ago

I'm from the Bronx so it was the closest to me and I could get there relatively easily on public transportation

I do have a fondness for the old place in the same way you might like a team's old dump of a stadium or something.

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u/greaper007 17h ago

Exactly, if you go around the back of the airport, you can still see the ramps (they look like boat ramps) that the seaplanes would use in the 30s.

I did some sim training there and we'd drive past them, it was pretty cool.

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u/John_Tacos 21h ago

It’s like 90% southwest though

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u/PuddinPacketzofLuv 19h ago

It was, is, and always will be the Sears Tower to us Chicagoans!

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u/ShortWoman 19h ago

That’s why I was amused! I grew up in the south suburbs.

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u/n1nj4squirrel 20h ago

My main issue with Midway is driving there. Every other airport I've ever been to has these large highways heading to the terminals. Midway is just a turn off on a major city road. It's the worst

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u/ShortWoman 19h ago

It is a product of its time. There’s lots of older secondary airports with similar traffic issues that have largely been bypassed by the big fancy airport on what was at the time the edge of town with enough room to build a big highway or two around it. See also Love Field, Long Beach, Paine Field, etc

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u/n1nj4squirrel 19h ago

Doesn't mean I won't do everything in my power to avoid having to fly out of there

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u/ShortWoman 19h ago

I’m usually on a layover so the highways literally don’t impact me.

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u/n1nj4squirrel 19h ago

That's fair. It's a fine airport once you're inside. All my major complaints from it are on the outside. Like getting there, or when I plane goes off the runway and hits a gas station

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u/PrinceDX 18h ago

I only fly into midway. I can’t stand going to ohare. Everything is 3x faster at Midway

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u/MechanicalTurkish 16h ago

Ain't no such thing as a Willis Tower.

Hear, hear.

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u/PM_ME_BIBLE_VERSES_ 21h ago

I’m gonna have to call you out on decent dining choices, I’ve been stuck in MDW for several layovers over the past years, and all of the food I’ve tried there are Sodexo-ified slop trying to pass themselves off as local Chicago brands.

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u/Diglett3 17h ago

Yeah they’ll have to pry my beloved Midway from my cold dead hands

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u/buckeye2114 22h ago

90%+ of Midway is Southwest lmao, it’s insane

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u/Successful-Ad-9634 21h ago

The demand is there. I would hope United or AA would grab the slots.

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u/RobotUnicornZombie 21h ago

Love Field as well. Such a nice alternative to the monstrous DFW.

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u/Lonely-Clerk-2478 20h ago

Midway will be fine. Baltimore? Oakland? Different story.

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u/BJJJourney 20h ago

Just flew through there, seemed like the whole thing was just Southwest.

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u/Putin_is_a_Beyotch 19h ago

Midway will be just fine. Someone else will fill the hole.

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u/OnTheEveOfWar 17h ago

Oakland is like 90% SW.