We really appreciate the support Southwest gives to FlyerTalk members. We try to give back by whining constructively.
You see, for the most part we like airlines. In this forum most of us like Southwest. We want the airline to be successful and grow to serve more and more of our destinations. That is why, although we complain about devaluation of Rapid Rewards or other selfish concerns, we tend to become the most agitated when the airline makes what we see as self-destructive changes. That feedback is how we provide value to the airline, provided that the airline is willing to listen and act. Since I'm feeling verbose today I'll give a free sample:
Over four decades, Southwest built a solid reputation for value-priced high-quality coach class transportation. During the last several years Southwest has to some extent spent down that reputation. That must not continue. Southwest needs to remain the preferred choice for value-conscious customers. Letting another airline offer a better price now and then is not a problem. Letting another airline offer a higher-quality coach product is a huge problem, an unforced error.
For legacy airlines, socking the customer with a $150 change fee on a $200 ticket is an unforced error. That customer will take pains to move his business to Southwest. If enough of this happens it might offset higher fares or a lower quality coach product on Southwest, but that doesn't mean that Southwest would not have had a higher market share without devaluing its offering.
Air transportation is a commodity business. Unless you want to be RyanAir, maintaining and strengthening brand identity is the path to success.
Southwest is the Costco or airlines, offering value-priced quality. Costco would surely wither and die if it switched to Kmart merchandise. That could happen to Southwest if it does not maintain the quality portion of its brand identity.