Originally Posted by
smmrfld
Ground ops has little or no customer contact, so your perceived degradation of service isn't a factor - and your perspective as a WN employee colors your view. If this move will allow WN fares to return to competitiveness, which is now often lacking, it's a smart action.
Ground operations is very much customer contact. An operations agent is the one who is at the podium boarding every flight, making gate announcements, and giving individual attention to special needs boarding passengers. But putting that aside, what goes on behind the scenes and under the wing absolutely plays a role in the customer experience. Believe me when I tell you Southwest employees routinely go out of their way to make things happen that other airlines and certainly contractors would never even bother with. Check into your flight 15 minutes prior to departure somewhere else and see if your bag makes it onto the plane. Come in on a late inbound and see if your connecting flight is holding for YOU anywhere else. The overall workload that we take on and the pace that we do it at is unmatched in the airline industry, but we're happy to do it because we're well taken care of. See if a $9 an hour employee is going to give a flying fart about YOU when he's on flight number 4 for the day. Maybe he'll drive that miss sorted bag across the ramp to meet it's next flight in 2 minutes,.. or maybe he wont. See if that agent at the gate has a smile on his or her face when he/she is worried about problems at home because she has no health insurance.
As an employee, my perspective on things is that of someone who KNOWS. It's not a matter of a colored view. I know what we do, and I know the difference. I've worked at other airlines, and along side other airline employees. I see the contractor people and I see what level of work ethic they have. With all due respect, what do you know? How much time have you spent with airline operations at Southwest?