Originally Posted by
diver858
How do WN road warriors continue to put up with such incompetence? WN had a similar Holiday meltdown, originating in MDW (in 2018?). The pitchforks came out, WN responded with some discounts, aggressive marketing about free bags and snacks, A-List and companion pass promotions, all was quickly forgiven. For anyone who travels for a living, I cannot understand how anyone would choose a carrier that does not have interline agreements with other carriers - full stop.
One would expect disgruntled passengers to be low hanging fruit for other carriers - skimming the higher value frequent flyer cream, leaving WN to drown a sea of low information casual travelers who still believe they are getting a deal.
One big difference: like the rest of corporate America, carriers worldwide, there is still a significant labor shortage; how long will WN staff put up with disgruntled passengers when the grass is clearly greener at the competition.
Historically the meltdowns have not been this significant. It seems like every meltdown is more intense. This is not the same Southwest of 10 years ago, it is not as reliable as it used to be. Something has changed. Yes they have more destinations than ever but it seems like they are stretched too thin. Bigger is not always better.
I do not think road warriors are going to tolerate this out of Southwest forever. The problem is for many people Southwest is the airline with the most direct flights to the most destinations from wherever they are based. When someone is based at an airport where Southwest has 50%+ marketshare, there is little other option really. When your options are one of 4-5 direct Southwest flights to XYZ destination or one daily Delta/AA/Alaska flight to that destination with a layover at the wrong time of day, what are you going to do...? This is the scenario many Southwest loyalists face. The option is to roll with Southwest, or just not fly at all. Or move to a place with better coverage of other airlines, I guess, would also be an option.
I also think at this point Southwest probably needs to make interline agreements with other carriers. As Southwest is no longer able to adequately reschedule folks within Southwest on the same day, which was one of the previous excuses for their cheapness on not doing interline agreements, (as demonstrated by past and current meltdowns), and also the new (not so new anymore) ticketing system aligns with other airlines, now it is time to interline. The problem is the sheer volume of Southwest passengers would overwhelm the other carriers; they do not have capacity to absorb this huge mass of displaced customers. So interline would help some customers but many many would still be impacted negatively.