Originally Posted by
winston vickers
I love WN but he's right, folks are willing to pay for a little extra and WN could bring in more revenue. The mindset of if it worked for Herb and Colleen, it'll work for me is dead. WN is no longer the disrupter and needs to innovate as they've done for decades. Not sure if Elliott Management is the answer but something has to change.
So "innovating" is copying what the legacy carriers AA, Delta, United do with regards to seat assignments, charging fees for specific seats, charging fees for checked bags, less distance between seats...
That is not "innovating." That is "copying."
Will it bring in more revenue to "copy" the other carriers and establish more ways to extract additional fees out of customers? Probably.
"Innovating" is maintaining the Southwest model to bring in more revenue on the current model. Things like Early Bird Check In, for example. Like it or not that was "innovating" and brought in more revenue. Other airlines couldn't copy it because it only fits with the Southwest model.
Anything that happens to Southwest's current model will be negative to the consumer. Prices will increase. Fees and hassles will increase. The bigger airlines would love to see Southwest operate more like they do...
What I'd like to see is Southwest to get its efficiency and reliability of the past back. That is where I think Southwest has veered off course. And that obviously impacts profits. I do agree that something has to change but copying the legacy US carrier model isn't the answer.