expert7700

Halfway through tonight's 3hr flight Southwest flight, the FA announced over the PA:

As you see us in the aisle doing drink service, if you're flying more with us in the future and want to ask for refills or a full can, you may want to stop in the airport shops and buy one in the terminal. It's best to buy in airport shop, there is also a can shortage etc.

twitch76

Srsly?!?

Do you think it was a rogue FA? A joke? An FA who came to the end of their rope and is cracking under the pressure?

Or were they really telegraphing a potential change to policy/practice?

expert7700

She absolutely was not joking, on the PA she said we helped you out today but don't expect that all the time on flights moving forward.

It was a flight from a hub city to hub city, so definitely not a local/double provisioning thing. I'm reasonably sure she was speaking out of line with public corporate messaging. Maybe she owns Hudson News stock?

Passengers around us were unhappy by the perceived service downgrade by the end of the announcement.

as we deplaned the couple behind us called their family who was picking them up and said how rude the airline & flight attendant was with that announcement!

LegalTender

The FA had to believe her rant would inspire little or no compliance. Recklessly calculated to nag and needle corporate. Graceless and inept.

isaacchambers

Seriously....meanwhile others like AS are now at full F and Y class service....even expanded AS Y class service preorders.....

Southwest is in serious trouble these days.

Allan38103

I’m throwing the BS flag on this one.

expert7700

I am mentioning it to WN PR today at their newest station opening in SYR.
If customer service thinks we lied they are free to contact any passenger on the flight.

If the FA we had announces this on her own on 3-5 flights a day that is alot of people (and a mix of first time flyers) who can get the wrong first impression of WN.
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NoStressHere

I think it was a random FA not realizing what they were saying.

If you do report it with the actual flight number and maybe even a description of the FA, they can track it down.

If this was a new normal, there would be more posts about it.

WSTC

The shipping crisis and attendant product shortages are real. My local Target has been limiting toilet paper and paper towels to one per trip since late August. The shelves are almost always completely empty. Amazon canceled the toilet paper component of my monthly Subscribe & Save order this week. My local Sonic was out of straws for three and a half weeks. Seriously. My local indie coffee shop has been down to only one size of take-away cups since middle of October and is expecting to remain as such for the "foreseeable future." My five-state regional chain supermarket now has rotating product black-outs. Coke products one week, Campbell's soup the next. Given an airline's incredibly complex provisioning system, I don't find her comment surprising at all. Now, there is no doubt that it is not company policy to convey this to pax, but maybe she just took it into her own hands to do so. I assume that she thought it was "only fair" to warn pax so they wouldn't be surprised of possible/expected shortages.

ALARISstl

I keep hearing this but I was at Sam’s and Costco this weekend and everything seemed fully stocked with no limits on TP or anything else. Cost on everything though is through the roof.

joshua362

FWIW one of my 2 local Costco's (NY) are out of TP completely and the other has a limit of 1. Which I do not understand cause when you get the 'rona, the last thing you want to do is eat for 2 weeks hence no need for TP...

Mr. Vker

We just arrived for a week in Williamsburg. Shopping at Harris Teeter-many empty shelves and prices crazy. I am sure that will creep to our area, just hasn't yet.