Did Southwest just throw us under the plane? Sneaky fine-print changes explained | Hacker News Reader

Did Southwest just throw us under the plane? Sneaky fine-print changes explained

blog.flightcaster.com

27 pointsjaf12duke9 comments

Short summary: SWA believes it's not obligated to comp you meals and a hotel if a flight is cancelled because the airport itself screws up.

Meh. Have you ever had a flight cancelled because of lack of gate availability? I haven't.

I get better customer service from SWA than from any other airline. This article is preoccupied with the notion that Delta or United is going to use SWA's change as cover for even worse changes to their contract. Uh, ok? Delta and United also don't offer almost completely transparent pricing, either. I trust SWA enough not to freak out about changes like this, and even without fine-print changes, I don't trust Delta in the least.

I've had plenty of flights cancelled due to bad weather, which most people would probably say is due to lack of runway landing slots. However if planes cannot get off the ground at my destination, they aren't freeing up gates for incoming flights. So yes, I probably have had flights cancelled due to lack of gate availability.

On the second point, the airline industry is notorious for cases where the whole industry quickly follows the changes initially tested by a single airline. That's an important part of the process through which we end up with air fuel surcharges and checked baggage fees. My point is that it's pretty fair to assume based on this subtle change in the fine print at one airline, that in a couple of years being stranded due to bad flying weather is going to be a substantially worse experience than it already is.

My point is that airlines that provide bad customer service today are going to continue to provide bad customer service tomorrow, because if you can build a culture that countenances bad service in a commodity service-based industry, you will never be able to do service right. See: retail banking.

The corollary to my point is as follows: it is silly to blame SWA --- which provides exceptional customer service for an airline --- for problems at (say) Delta. The problem is that Delta is genetically incapable of providing good customer service, not that SWA is tweaking their contracts.

Yes, but afaik no airline will give you meals and hotels when flights are cancelled due to weather.

I'm really loving these blog posts from Flightcaster about the internal mechanics of the airline industry. Engineering pr0n at its best.

The work of getting paying passengers to the boarding gate makes our modern flying machines look simple in comparison. That's saying something!

Southwest is still head and shoulders above everyone else, although I had one flight a few years ago were the crew was so rude to the passengers that I thought I'd accidentally boarded a U.S. Airways flight. Thankfully that's been an infrequency rather than a regularity like it is with other airways.

I have the impression that if I complained about an SWA employee to SWA, it would matter. On the other hand, complaining about a Delta employee seems like an utter waste of time.

Maybe I attribute too much cleverness to Southwest's motives but taking the post's points 1 and 2, could it be possible that Southwest is doing this to gain a further competitive advantage in the marketplace? As in, if it's true that this will eventually be replicated by other airlines and it's also true that this will seep into policy, if SWA can keep it out of their policy, their customer service will look at least slightly better than their competitors over time.

Normally, I'd think this was a huge stretch but SWA has always been well run and managed. They have excellent customer friendly policies and they market them well. It doesn't seem that crazy to think that the smart people at SWA are taking a small PR gamble now in hopes of a big customer service win later.

Talk about a tempest in a teapot.

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