Originally Posted by
guflyer
One thing that I noticed today is Southwest having flight attendants trying to pitch credit cards for a special in-flight offer. I remember seeing ads for cards in the past (such as when they had a magazine), but have never seen it pitched in this manner on Southwest before (as I have on American and United). Is this a new thing? Is this an Elliott-inspired change?
I was also curious about the switch from plastic to paper cups. I was not sure whether it is a cost saving measure or if it is for enviornmental reasons.
Originally Posted by
kennycrudup
I'm almost certain (as it's been my experience with other companies) that the paper cups are cheaper, but touted as an "environmental" issue.
I agree, though if the cups are paper, or bamboo as another poster says, then they're biodegradable and recyclable, so it brings a genuine environmental benefit, even if it's motivated solely by cost-cutting.
Originally Posted by
guflyer
Yes, they are using the paper cups for all drinks. I agree that I would prefer it if they just gave complete cans. On a lot of other airlines, when I ask for the drink with no ice, they just give me the full can (often unopened), but on Southwest they always seem to use a cup and now they use paper cups instead of plastic ones.
Originally Posted by
storewanderer
Okay I'll go with it.
Assume each 12oz can of soda costs Southwest 50cents. 0.041667 per ounce.
Cup size gets made 1oz smaller.
Assume Southwest flies 4,000 flights per day.
Assume 90% of the flights have a beverage service. = 3,600 flights with beverage service.
Assume the average plane has 150 seats. Assume the average plane has 80% occupancy = 120 occupied seats. Assume 60% of occupied seats take a cold soda. = 72 seats taking soda per flight.
So they cut 1oz out from the cup size.
3,600 flights * 72 seats * 0.0416667 cost savings = $10,800 cost savings per day from cutting soda portion by 1 ounce. Or savings of $3,942,032 million per year.
Every little bit helps I guess.
I was going to point this out, but without the numbers. You illustrated the point much more effectively than I could. $3.9 million is nothing to sneeze at.
Originally Posted by
cbn42
r/theydidthemath .... oh wait, this isn't Reddit
I doubt it costs them anywhere near 50 cents a can. They probably get a huge discount due to the volume they buy. They might also play Coke/Pepsi against each other like Costco does.
Also, since the cans are 12 oz and the cups are smaller, any leftovers after serving the whole plane will be wasted. Most of the extra ounces saved per glass will end up down the drain, unless enough people on the flight order the same drink to reduce the number of cans consumed by one full can.
I think you're looking at it from the wrong perspective.
Using storewanderer's numbers above, each flight is saving an average of 72oz of soda (the equivalent of six whole cans) by reducing the cup size. However, you're never going to have more than a handful of partial cans leftover at the end of the flight - one Coke, one Diet Coke, one ginger ale, etc. All of those added together will not wipe out the 72oz savings; they'd all have something like 4oz or 8oz leftover, so even if you have five leftover open cans per flight, each with 8oz, that's only 40oz wasted, and 32oz saved.
And the leftover/waste issue existed before the cup size was reduced, so really, it's a net savings no matter how you look at it.