Orwaid

InkUnderNails, remember that I can't use your suggestion during the safety briefing, which is when the FA was doing his Rodney Dangerfield impression

InkUnderNails

I put mine in as soon as I sit down in my window seat and they stay in, usually, until we coast to a fast roll upon landing. No one has ever said a thing. The only exception is when I sit in an exit row and I leave them out then until takeoff.

pinworm

With WN, you often get BOTH.

pinniped

Link? (Or are you just making stuff up?)


I'll take even a simple link showing that Southwest load factors are slipping vs. the competition and perhaps one reputable analyst suggesting that it's "heavy business travelers" abandoning LUV, thus stressing their yields, revenues, margins, etc.

You don't even have to find a scientific link to the jokes - we'll just assume that flight attendant humor drives the majority of business decisions in this country.

Believe me - I'd love to see such a link because then I'd spin it to suit myself and blame RR2.0.

spineangel

No Link... Just statements I get when on other carriers I fly and ask my seat mates their opinions on SW. This gathering of my info stated, is based on about 3-5 flights per week. SW load factors may not be slipping, just SHIFTING from the heavy business traveler to the senior folks and vacation travelers. That is who SW caters to now, NOT the business traveler....

jamesteroh

But WN is trying to cater to the business traveller with RR2.0, not the kettles and seniors. I think they are going to find the RR2.0 is going to be similar to the mistake coke made with new coke.

emeraldtx

Ummmm.... no. RR 2.0 is horrible for "senior folks and vacation travelers". Occasional travelers do not benefit under 2.0; business travelers who have companies willing to pony up BS and/or utilizing last-minute fares are beneficiaries of the changes. The casual wanna-get-away user lost the most in the change.

toomanybooks

Except for those who never managed to get an Award before the credits started rolling off. They got absolutely NOTHING from 1.0.

Now they can at least get a one-way to somewhere inexpensive pretty fast, especially if they pick up the WN Visa and put a bit of spend on.

suranyi

I really think it depends on the route. I can't believe they fly 12 times a day from OAK to BUR just for leisure travelers. On weekdays there's got to be a lot of business travelers on those flights.

Orwaid

mdurette - I am sorry you had to listen to the salacious comments over the intercom. I don't know what is worse, listening to incessant lame jokes at the crack of dawn or listening to drivel better suited for a warmup act at a Las Vegas strip club.

toomanybooks and emeraldtx, You both are right regarding who "wins" with RR2.0. I have taken 2RTs since 2.0 started, both on WGA fares, along with a couple of car rentals/hotels tossed in. Under the old system, I would have 6/16 credits towards 2 OWs anywhere; under the new system, I am about 1/2 way to a OW 1 hour flight (assuming I get it on sale 2weeks+ in advance).

Had I flown BS fares (at 4x the cost), I would have almost enough for a OW anywhere by now.

The problem as I see it, is that if a majority of business people flying WN are small businesses, then they will want to watch their spending on T+E and hence choose WGA fares; business flyers that are not spending their own $$ would rather get a 1st class upgrade and credits towards an international C class ticket (free or upgraded) for a vacation and hence choose legacy carriers when possible. The New Coke analogy sounds loikea good one.

And also, when flying a legacy carrier, they won't have to listen to lame jokes, NC17 commentary or repetitive competitor bashing over the intercom.

FlyerX

Yes. Totally harmless. And yet... for some reason, this sort of thing REALLY gets under my skin. It's the tone of "I am smarter than you, I'm in a position of power over you, hahaha, gotcha!" attitude of laughing at passengers at their expense for absolutely no reason that's really really really really annoying. I can't explain why it makes me so mad.

Orwaid

Suranyi, if you look closely at the WN schedule, I suspect that the 12 flights from OAK-BUR are in fact 1-stops from OAK to a lot of different cities with BUR as the intermediate stop. Buy doing this, they DO in fact cater primamrily to leisure travelers, with 1-stop through service to a lot of different cities, while at the same time keeping a few seats on each OAK-BUR shuttle flight for last-minute business travelers.

AS does this a lot on their ANC-SEA service. They are really 1-stop planes from ANC-DEN,ORD,DFW,MIA,EWR,BOS ... etc.

homeboy4

What should WN do if half its customers like the humor and half hate it? They see both sides and the logic of both. Assuming something can't be A and not-A at the same time, what should they do? (Reducing the amount of A is still A -- in some folks eyes.)

We are faced with this a lot these days where the stakes are larger. (I don't want to list any lest this thread be banished to Omni Politics.)

pinniped

So we'd see this in the form of reduced yields, because WN would be unable to sell full-fare and BS seats and would therefore have to allocate more inventory to its lowest WGA fares simply to fill the planes with senior citizens and vacationers to keep loads flat.

Do you have a link to that?

spineangel

Do you have any links to your opinions? If that is a new requirement to post on Flyertalk, I never saw this new rule.