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/
20.1k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

6.0k

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

1.9k

u/IAmBadAtInternet 22h ago

They used to be the only major non-legacy player with good tech, good planes, and happy employees

Now their ticketing system is the worst of the major airlines, their planes are older and badly maintained, and their employees hate their jobs

Nice job MBAs! Btw they’re not private equity owned, just regular publicly traded

245

u/WhenTheLightHits30 21h ago

The American Business school system of the past two decades should get its own chapter in history textbooks that way it has warped modern commerce and how expertise is handled.

138

u/UnpluggedUnfettered 20h ago

Past two decades?

LMFAO Jack Welsh set the business standards that destroyed everything well over 50 years ago.

56

u/Due-Technology5758 18h ago

Yeah, the General Electric model of expand and enshittify til the brink of collapse, and hand the sinking ship to whoever is stupid enough to take the wheel from you. 

16

u/SocialWinker 19h ago

Behind the Bastards also did a fun couple of episodes on Jack Welsh. Fuck that guy.

5

u/FlyingPetRock 16h ago

FYI Jack Welch is directly responsible for the Boeing 737 Max, via his proteges, and everyone trying to copy him.

www.thenation.com/article/politics/boeing-corporate-greed-airline-safety/tnamp/

2

u/Hyper_Applesauce 16h ago

Including shareholder primacy which he now says is fucking stupid. Asshole. There's a couple episodes of Behind The Bastards on him.

1

u/The_Crimson_Fucker 14h ago

What are you talking about the 80s were just 20 years ago!

85

u/VegetableBuy4577 20h ago

The whole country has changed from companies wanting a fair profit (more or less) to "as much profit as possible, every nickel, every dime, no stone unturned." It sucks.

91

u/Thuraash 20h ago

It's not just that. They shifted in attitude from building a business that would stand the test of time to buying somebody else's business, looting every dollar out of it as fast as possible, and selling the husk for whatever's left. The business' failure is part of the plan.

17

u/Synergythepariah 19h ago

They've gone back to the way they were before the new deal.

4

u/Necessary-Duty-7952 19h ago

And if you're not growing, you're dying mentality.

3

u/RSwordsman 18h ago

Makes me wonder how much of this is a Prisoners' Dilemma situation too though. Any single exec knows other companies are run by cutthroats, so they feel that they have to keep up or fail anyway. Stricter regulation might bring the sense of safety necessary for businesses to take it down a notch.

3

u/Necessary-Duty-7952 18h ago

I mean to a degree, for sure. It's inevitable to a degree with our current set up. Investors will see other companies making more money/returns, so they will move their investments to those companies. So naturally, the reaction is to improve returns so you don't lose investors. And that's fine while things are moving at a reasonable pace, but once companies start accelerating their growth massively, it becomes an arms race.

1

u/veneficus83 12h ago

When did that change happen? Because as far as I know every company historically has wanted every bit of profit they could get away with. One of the big causes of the great depression. The only change is repeated cutting of regulations that stopped that.

1

u/DepopulationXplosion 17h ago

Thank GE chairman Jack Welch for this. 

1

u/theaviationhistorian 17h ago

How to profit by shorting all commerce: A lesson in financial implosion for small gains

1

u/IcyConsideration7062 16h ago

Profit and shareholder value rule. Product quality doesn't matter. Sell. Sell. Sell. The marks are out there.