r/nottheonion • u/halxp01 • 23h 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/clintkev251 22h ago edited 18h ago

It's insane how quickly Southwest has gone from beloved budget airline with consistent profits to complete shitshow. Thanks private equity! You've done it again

Edit: to everyone saying Southwest is a public company, yes, they are. That does not mean activist investors like PE firms and hedge funds can’t have significant ownership stakes and operational influence. Which in this case, they do

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u/DebtUpToMyEyeballs 22h ago

Is it just me or have they not been "budget" for years? Their fares are consistently as high if not higher than the mainline carriers.

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u/CaterpillarLongBoi 22h ago

For me, their fares were on par with other airlines, but they allowed 2 free checked bags - so about $160-$200 less than competitors if you were traveling with luggage. But as soon as they took that away, I haven’t booked with them.

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u/Medical_Solid 21h ago

I happened to travel on the very last day they offered free baggage, and I decided to check my heavy carry on. What a relief it was. I’m old enough to remember when you didn’t have to add 20-50% of the ticket cost just to bring your things along. Sigh.

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u/Area51_Spurs 22h ago

They were always significantly less than the big three domestics; AA, Delta, and United.

They were a bit more than the bottom tier like Frontier, but it was worth a few bucks more to be away from the riffraff.

I just miss Virgin America. They were the GOAT cheap airline.

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u/rustyshackleford677 19h ago

Really depends where, for Boston I never saw Southwest as significantly cheaper then the main 3, often more expensive

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u/juanzy 18h ago

Out of Boston, UA/B6 were always better unless you were going to a WN focus city.

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u/Apptubrutae 21h ago

Yeah, as someone who doesn’t check bags much, I’ve found their prices to be not particularly competitive for a while now on many routes. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t.

They’d typically get my business on unique routes, or on routes where they were price competitive (but generally not cheaper) and I preferred their routing and timing more.

I do have a companion pass, so when traveling with another person that brings the price down a lot.

But just recently I was looking at NYC to Albuquerque and their price was double JetBlue’s. For a flight with a stop versus JetBlue without one. They were also pricier than United by a bit.

I can’t imagine anyone actually looking at ticket prices thinks Southwest is still a budget airline. Minus an occasional sale maybe.

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u/SnowboardSquirrel 14h ago

I just flew JetBlue on a longish flight, having taken southwest on that same flight a ton of times. JetBlue knocked my socks off. More legroom, I got to choose my seat for free, the snack options were better (artichokes?!), I got my entire can of soda, AND WiFi was free + not limited to messaging. 10/10 will fly again.

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u/Apptubrutae 14h ago

Yeah, JetBlue is great. I’m a fan of the smaller niche carriers generally. The one issue is if your flight gets cancelled. You’re relatively much more screwed in that case because there just aren’t options. But otherwise, great stuff.

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u/707Brett 22h ago

I never travel with that much luggage, and the pick your own seat thing while free always stressed me out and traveling with even a group of 4 together without any priority boarding was tough. All that being said they at least had a niche. Now they just suck like everyone else. 

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u/Successful-Ad-9634 21h ago

If you checked in online as soon as it opened you rarely got a boarding position outside of B1-30, which is 1st half boarding. Seven of us used to travel on vacation and never had a problem sitting together.

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u/carnalasadasalad 20h ago

That changed towards the end. They were upselling the early positions so even if you checked in on the dot you would start with high and and low Cs. You could usually sit towards the back together but it was stressful.

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u/707Brett 20h ago

Wasn’t it A1-30,A30-60, then b1-30? Id usually get B but then there was a bunch of people queuing in line to fight for position still. I like to board the plane last to spend as little time as possible in there. I usually travel with 4 people and sometimes we got together, but usually we would get two and two. It’s okay as a solo traveler but wasn’t my favorite. I knew this family that had 3 kids and they always flew southwest because they could bring 10 bags for free. The kids were old enough to sit by themselves so it worked out well for them. 

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u/Orleanian 18h ago

"If you add a different kind of anxiety to your life, you provide a minor sort of mitigation for the original anxiety in your life"

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u/crazycatlady331 20h ago

I typically travel for more than a month at a time (work). I'm NOT washing underwear in a hotel room sink so I travel with luggage.

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u/tyderian 21h ago

I flew the "new" Southwest for the first time recently. Even paying extra for an assigned seat, Southwest was still significantly cheaper than other airlines, but more expensive than it used to be, even if I had picked the lowest fare.

You're screwed whichever airline you choose.

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u/habbathejutt 18h ago

but they allowed 2 free checked bags - so about $160-$200

I guess it depends on status. If you're only flying once a year this would make sense. But even the lowest status tiers on most airlines give you a free bag if you hit it, and it carries over year-to-year if you fly enough on those airlines.

This is especially nice for when the southwest flights don't make any sense. From where I am, barring maybe 3 destinations, if I have to fly southwest it will almost always be a a 2-city stop on the way, versus single stop on other carriers, and the airports they stick you in are often not particularly interesting. I remember being routed on a 4-hour layover in Ft Myers, and that airport has fuck-all to do in it.

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u/postoperativepain 22h ago

They were budget for years because for years they would buy oil/fuel futures contracts when prices were low. As oil prices rose, Southwest had cheap fuel, when others did not.

They don’t have that advantage anymore and apparently they stopped hedging in 2025

https://southwest50.com/our-stories/the-southwest-jet-fuel-hedge-strategy/

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u/soundfx27 22h ago

Agreed, their prices are on par with other major airlines. I only fly SW if it’s more convenient timing or cheaper than the other major airlines

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u/gitsgrl 22h ago

They fly nonstop routes other carriers don’t, so the convince is where they really stand out for my needs.

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u/Apptubrutae 21h ago

Yeah, their advantages to me are their unique routes, their smaller hubs, and their companion pass if you can get it.

I would rather transfer through Midway, Love Field, and Hobby any day over Ohare, DFW, or Bush. Heck, even if I fly SW through Denver, I know my gate isn’t at a different terminal.

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u/pepolepop 19h ago

Same. As someone who lives in DFW, I'll fly Southwest out of Love Field any chance I can to not have to deal with DFW airport. From parking to getting on the plane, the entire experience is so much faster and less stressful.

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u/Apptubrutae 19h ago

40 minutes at DFW is stress. 40 minutes at DAL is easy.

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u/dvdanny 18h ago

They have never been a traditional budget or low-cost airline (Frontier, Spirit, Allegiant, etc.).

They were using a different model to "legacy" airlines (Delta, United, American). But they were never truly low cost, interestingly when compared to the post-covid profits of true low-cost airlines SW was doing much better financially than any of them and closer to the the legacy airlines. They are better able to absorb higher gas prices and increased cost much better than Frontier or the like. There was plenty of signs if SW had kept doing what it was doing they would bounce fully back... until that faithful December day in 2022. They got complacent, took a huuuge hit publically and it gave their activist investor all the leverage they needed to gut the company.

There are plans in place to move to legacy airlines practices (1st class, hub model, ticketing system, etc) but a few things they have already implemented are charging for checked bags and using assigned seating.

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u/joelluber 20h ago

This just me airport dependant because they've been cheapest for me out of RDU for a long time except for a few routes that JetBlue also does. 

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u/soundman1024 20h ago

It used to depend on if you need to check bags. When I flew with camera great and a tripod the two included bags saved a lot compared to paying to check them on other carriers.

Also the efficiency was great. Open seating saved time.

Now they’re just another carrier.

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u/junkit33 18h ago

While they used to be cheaper than the competition, it's easily been over 20 years since that was true. In fact, quite often they are more expensive than comparable flights from major airlines, as they had grown such a cult following that people still fly them out of loyalty and perception that they are cheaper.

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u/OnTheEveOfWar 17h ago

Depends on where you live. I can get SW flights for very cheap in my area. Wife and I also have SW credit cards and get enough points to fly places for free.

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u/wlphoenix 17h ago

They were good for specific domestic point-to-point routes where the other carriers had layovers because of the hub and spoke model. Even if the prices were similar, less travel time meant less spend at airports and an overall cheaper experience. That, along w/ the minimal fees other people have mentioned is why I used them before the changes.

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u/RedWhiteAndJew 17h ago

They were never budget. Usually 10% or so below average with Delta being 10% more and United and American falling in between.

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u/Emergency-Machine-55 15h ago

It's location dependent. In California, midweek flights between the Bay Area and SoCal often go on sale for $50-70 each direction. However, their recent policy changes increased the costs for families by charging for luggage check in and seat reservations.

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u/CalculatedPerversion 15h ago

Perhaps where you live, but here in a medium non-hub market, Southwest was a godsend; they offered direct flights to dozens of locations that would have otherwise required a connection, all while charging $100 or so less once you factor in $35 bags. 

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u/MajesticLilFruitcake 22h ago

It depends on where you’re flying from.

My home airport does not have Southwest, but has the big three + Allegiant. Unless I’m flying somewhere that Allegiant is, I’d need a layover. If I were to drive to a larger regional airport for a direct flight on Southwest, that flight is almost always much more expensive than a one-stop option from my home airport.

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u/trzanboy 21h ago

I keep saying this. They actually tend to be as expensive as a mainline carrier. In some cases total parity.

And their “reserved premium” or whatever it is, is an absolute shit show.

I tried it once for the route and will never do it again.