Southwest just lucked out. It was simple for them to remove them from the planes during swine flu, and easy to justify keeping them off. Few would complain since the public is sympathetic for the reasoning behind the initial removal.

If they had tested pulling pillows/blankets 3 weeks before swine flu, they'd have had to justify it to everyone, and it'd be transparent that it was a cost saving measure.

If an infrequent passenger asks for a pillow/blanket, someone seated next to them or a flight attendant will say they disappeared during the swine flu epidemic. Even a year from now, employees and customers will not see it as a cost saving measure but as Southwest minimizing the spread of illness.

FTers know that Southwest claims they rotated pillows/blankets for clean ones each morning, but they did get reused and more infectious as the days went on. I don't know if anyone of us has seen a pillow/blanket provisioning truck at each airport, so every day might have been an overstatement....