spineangel

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.

I did not see where you have asked him for a link to his statement.... Is he exempt somehow from your new rule you have put in place on Flyertalk?

Wingrider

Ditto SJC ->BUR/LAX

6P&E

There are aspects of WN that one can take issue with and we know what these are; however, in general a sour attitude is not often a part of the WN experience. IMHO

DontCallMeShirley

anti-contributing.

jamesteroh

I agree usually the FA's are friendly and seem to love their job. But they can also do it without all the jokes. I was on a Delta flight last night and had the BEST FA I have EVER had. She not only did a predeparture beverage service, she did refills and remembered I was drinking coke zero and even offered me a second refill. When we were in the air, I think she was on her feet the entire flight and made sure drink glasses were continually filled and passed the snack basket twice and this was on an embreaer short EWR/DTW flight (I would love to have her on a mainline long distance flight). She addressed everyone by name when she did the first drink service and said it was great to have us on board and every time she came to our seat she said Mr xxx wouuld you like more coke zero, etc. I was addressed at least 4 times by name from her that flight and as we were departing she said to every passenger in F, Mr xxx, thank you for flying with us today, it was my pleasure serving you today. While we were landing she was chatting with me (I was in seat 1c). I also couldn't stow my ipad and headphones for takeoff since there was no seat in front of me and she offered to stow them and the second we could use electronics she jumped out of the jump seat and handed it to me. Now that is the kind of service I love. I realize it would be impossible for WN to provide that kind of service since there is one cabin and open seating, but I will take that kind of service over WN's corny jokes anyday and Delta got an email this morning complimenting her service.

suranyi

There are only six routes WN flies from BUR: OAK, SJC, SMF, LAS, PHX, and DEN (which they just started flying). They fly nonstop from OAK to LAS, PHX and DEN with reasonable frequency, and nobody would fly from OAK to SJC or SMF by way of BUR. (They probably wouldn't fly at all.)

There just isn 't a lot of cities you can get to with BUR as the intermediate stop, that make a lot of sense.

In any case, I fly this route a lot, and I don't see a lot of people staying on the plane in BUR.

I mean, contrast that with your example of AS at SEA, which is a big hub for them. They have flights to many cities from SEA.

Orwaid

Hey DontCallMeShirley -

I do not quite understand what your post has to do with anything being discussed on this thread. No one is comparing anything on a WN flight (or anywhere else, for that matter) to the men and women of our Armed Forces whom I have the ultimate respect for. And double for those that have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

And homeboy4 - the solution to this is really simple, as put forth by luvfa earlier. First, the FA should take a good look around and know your audience and be sensitive to the time of day. And second, if a FA feels that they want to try out some new (or old) material, start with one and see how it goes. If it is met with stony silence, then maybe they should give it a rest until the next leg of their trip.

But if they don't know their audience and use inappropriate "blue" humor, or continue with the incessant drivel, especially at times when most people would just like a quiet cabin, then they are not doing themselves, WN or their passengers any favors.

Orwaid

suranyi -

Maybe look at the BUR-OAK-XXX leg? And therefore, XXX-OAK-BUR?

pinniped

Nobody's talking about opinions. You've stated a fact - one that I think would be incredibly easy to disprove using a 10-Q or other airline-specific public filings. If business travelers are indeed abandoning WN in droves, then they aren't going to be able to hide it for long.

Believe me, I wish it was true because it would inevitably cause fares to drop in the short term. (In the longer term, they'd presumably take aircraft offline to help yields.) And as I've posted on other threads, I'm surprised that AA and DL haven't been aggressively marketing their FFP's in the wake of the RR devaluation to try to steal some share of market.

I didn't even notice the post in question until now. (Frankly, I think that particular poster is fishing for pelagics from a slow-moving boat. ) I think he's taken a well-known industry practice that Fortune 500 firms tend to negotiate travel contracts with the largest global alliance carriers and assumed the inverse: that a small business owner would choose a non-legacy. I suspect small business owners simply look for the greatest total value, factoring in both their time and money, and that isn't necessarily going to be Southwest.

Big firms typically want to negotiate one or two deals and have maximum coverage. If they hit UA and AA, they have about 30 total carriers and probably close to 1000 total destinations in scope. (My biggest Fortune 500 clients have usually had a *A carrier contract and usually then at least one of Skyteam or Oneworld.) That doesn't by itself mean that a small businessman (presumably with a smaller list of destinations) wouldn't want to fly a legacy if it represented the best schedule and value.

MHTbased

At least he got you to listen to the announcement. If you don't like it, tune it out the way we all do with the other monotone announcements by other FA's.

To Southwest FA's reading this, thank you for your enthusiasm at bringing us safely to our destination.

Orwaid

MHTbased, I am certainly not bitter.

I always listen to the safety announcements. It is important to always know where the nearest emergency exit is, among other things.

And, as long as we are on the topic of safety, don't you think that by having some mindless joke after almost every sentence, people don't listen attentively? To suggest that I should proactively "tune out" the safety announcement suggests to me that WN needs to find other ways to keep people alert and listening.

Maybe something like "Laides and Gentlemen, I need your attentiuon for the next couple of minutes as we review the safety features on this aircraft". Then go through it ... and when he/she finishes (he in my case), if she wants to drop a joke or two in, fine. THAT I can safely tune out.

And I appreciate the inflight service too. Just don't be over the top on the jokes on the intercom from the time the door closes until it opens again.

Eemraldskies

Is the horse dead yet?

Orwaid

Hi Emeraldskies -

Judging by the # of views, apparently not.

6P&E

Neigh.... I fear.

pinniped

Once you've proven that the horse is dead, it's time to form a committee to evaluate the pros and cons of dismounting.