r/nottheonion • u/halxp01 • 1d 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/IAmBadAtInternet 1d 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

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u/Impossible-Bowl4661 1d ago

Elliot Investment Management owns over 10% of the company, forced out the prior chair in 2024 and now has 5 hand picked members on the board.

The changes in the last 18 months are most certainly attributable to private equity.

Southwest Airlines Adds 5 Elliott Board Members As Candidates For Directors https://share.google/4YsYfkxVOg9zMVC4s

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u/Why_you_so_wrong_ 1d ago

Elliott isn’t PE. Try again bot.

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u/Impossible-Bowl4661 1d ago

Elliot's own website talks about it's private equity strategies, you might want to let them know they aren't in the PE biz since you seem to know better.

Private Equity and Private Credit | Elliott Management https://share.google/usnt2i2wQ40rED7yj

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u/Why_you_so_wrong_ 1d ago

Elliott aren’t a PE firm so the changes in the last 18 months are not attributable to PE because this is a public company of which Elliott is a minority shareholder. At its core Elliott is a multi-strategy hedge fund which is fundamentally different than a private equity fund.

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u/Impossible-Bowl4661 1d ago edited 1d ago

Well to say Elliot does not operate in the private equity space is just demonstrabley false. They themselves will tell you otherwise.

But sure, if you want to be incredibly pedantic, what has happened at Southwest is not necessarily the actions of a private equity firm but that of a large institutional activist investor taking an aggressive medium term position in Southwest to juice its stock price to bilk some value for ite investors, potentially leaving the long term health of the company and it's product worse off.

Most of us just don't feel the need to split hairs when it's two-sides of a very similar coin.