<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by SuperSlug:
Point is (getting sort of back on-topic), those very measures that you (and I) despise about flying Southwest are part of their business model. We may not buy into it, and that's fine. But plenty of others do--and it's that very model, and, of course, the management and employees that implement it, that has put them in the (relatively) good financial position they're in now, compared to the other airlines.
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Yes, their business model works just fine. But you know what? That's because they're the sixth largest airline in the country and they don't provide the same amount of services as do the big boys.
Their model works fine for their size, but ramp it up to the size of AMR and it won't.
Thus, saying the Southwest model is the way to go is inaccurate.