Originally Posted by
kh105000
Southwest could have ordered another plane
Considering Boeing is backed up with 737 orders until around August 2008, that could take a while.
Originally Posted by
kh105000
dropped the Amarillo passengers off last and ate the extra fuel cost, which would have caused the least inconvenience to the original people that had purchased direct tickets; yet another example of an airline doing what's best for them and not the passengers.
This plan likely would have inconvenienced a huge number of people. That plane (and crew) headed somewhere after Houston and probably somewhere after that city and so on and so on. The 2 extra segments (HOU-AMA, AMA-HOU) would've cost a lot of money for Southwest, both in fuel and crew, who eventually would have to replaced down the line because of the extra flying time resulting in exceeding FAA maximums.
IMO, they did do the option that would inconvenience the fewest number of people. They did what was best for the airline and for the greatest number of passengers.