Posted on 01/02/2023 3:08:01 PM PST by gitmo
Was the Southwest debacle "the perfect storm"? No, it was not.
While you're still stuck at some crowded airport -- perhaps one where the police are telling you that you're trespassing -- the apologies have begun.
Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan finally, after more than two days of chaos, offered a heartfelt video of apology.
I'm sorry. I meant an utterly robotic video of an apology written, it appeared, by a lawyer.
On the heels of wide-scale disruptions, we're working diligently to Safely recover our operation & accommodate displaced Customers & Crews. We know this is unacceptable & sincerely apologize. If your travel was impacted, explore self-service options here: https://t.co/B6L8HR9Yqc pic.twitter.com/mLWndYMned— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) December 28, 2022
Of course, as the apologies rained down in an unconvincing squall, apologists emerged too. Perhaps half a million customers had their journeys ruined but this was the "perfect storm," they declared.
Oh yes. So very perfect. Poor unlucky Southwest Airlines.
The weather was so, so much fiercer than the airline had imagined. Who could have conceived places like Chicago and Denver could get so cold in December? Who could have imagined, indeed, that some employees might not want to work in such cold, or might fall sick while doing so?
And who could have imagined that the airline's management might have responded with, oh, harsh words to those employees and demands that they bring a doctor's note?
It's not as if other airlines weren't affected. Wait, but Southwest canceled 2,293 flights on Dec. 26, while American Airlines canceled 12?
Yikes, @SouthwestAir! This is clearly a meltdown. Maybe it is time for @USDOT @SecretaryPete to require all U.S. airlines to have interline agreements to rebook on other airlines during irregular operations? pic.twitter.com/BWiojrkPz3— Ross Feinstein (@RossFeinstein) December 26, 2022
Software? What Software?
But then there was the software.
The airline has software systems from the 1990s. Southwest had to try and contact their pilots and crew last week by phone because there was no app or other more advanced technological means available to discover where they were. Some crew say they couldn't get through for 10 hours.
Please let's not say no one could see this supposed perfect storm coming.
When he became Southwest CEO, Robert Jordan freely confessed the airline's systems were antiquated.
May I offer you just one of his prescient observations?: "When you're in irregular operations (such as cancelations and delays caused by weather or other factors), I've got aircraft out of place and customers out of place, and this aircraft needs to end up in that maintenance base. There are probably tools that we can use to more quickly notice problems and provide solutions."
You see, dear Southwest customer? The airline's CEO told you this could happen last January. As did Southwest's pilots.
I confess, however, I never contemplated flying Southwest during any sort of busy or weather-threatened period. I learned, you see, about Southwest's abject attitude toward technology a few years ago.
Technology At Its Worst.
It's just a small story in many ways, but I can't help thinking it says a lot about the airline's attitude to tech in general.
Five years ago, I was at LAX on the way back from a meeting. I was flying Southwest and thought it wise to sign up for email alerts.
A simple technology, this. You'd think.
The airline lets you know of any changes to your flight so that you can happily manage your time.
Southwest did, indeed, email me to say my flight was delayed by an hour and 15 minutes. It was OK. LA to San Francisco is but a short flight. This delay would allow me to have dinner at LAX without feeling rushed.
Oh, but then another email. The previous departure time, 9:50pm, was now 11:15pm.
Fine, fine. Please just get me home. But at 8:47pm, another email. Departure would now be 10:50pm.
Hosanna, thought I. So I went to a bar for dinner, where the man next to me had also availed himself of Southwest's email alerts. How convenient they were. How efficient.
At 10pm, my new friend and I wafted back to the gate. Where the gate agent seemed to have several unhappy customers in his ears.
You've got there already, haven't you?
The plane left without us.
When we asked why, we got no real response. When we asked for compensation, the gate agents weren't interested. They said we should have stayed at the gate and listened for announcements. We explained that we had the email alert system. The gate agent explained that he couldn't care less.
Put Another Analog On The Fire, Dear.
That was the day I became just a little less interested in flying Southwest.
That's when I realized that Southwest was fundamentally an analog airline. Why invest in technology when you can make loads of money doing things the old way?
Indeed, Southwest has only just now thought it a good idea to put power outlets on at least some of its planes.
Too often with airlines, we learn the hard way. We hope the worst isn't going to happen, but very bad things happen far too often.
Please, though, Southwest customers know that the airline is truly, truly sorry and has always been committed to upgrading its technology.
But not as committed as it's been to making sure its executives and shareholders make lots of lucre.
When the airlines got their government bailouts, they were forbidden from share buybacks or from offering dividends until September this year.
Then came December 2022. Which airline do you think was the first to announce a dividend?
Yes, you're right. It was the airline that just loves its customers.
The one that loves its shareholders just a little bit more.
I consider myself a proud member of the Luddite Club, but getting email alerts correct is so primitive it is hard to believe they could mess it up...
I wonder how long before Southwest declares Bankruptcy and is absorbed by another Airline?
I use the app and it actually works well.
There is something else going on here. I’m thinking deliberate sabotage or hacked and ransomware.
The hospital I worked at 3 years ago was attacked and we couldn’t order meds, register patients, order radiology and because of safeguards place in the pharmacy and operating room, with no connection there was NO WAY to over ride the blocks.
Lasted about 3 days... either Universal Health Services paid off someone or figured out how to reboot the system. f’ing mess.
This is what happens when bean counters run a company.
Bookmark
Can we still order plane tickets through dial-up BBS?
Does SouthWest have a DIE department?
What is a DEI department?
Every corporation has a DEI department!
A diversity, equity and inclusion committee is a task force of diverse staff members, who are responsible for helping bring about the cultural, and possibly ethical, changes necessary for your business.
A more diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce can, according to SHRM, “increase the overall bottom line” of your business.
“when bean counters run a company”
An airline is easy to fix—just make the senior executives fly using coach for that airline wherever they have to go....
Gee, Southwest Airlines’ fares were cheap because they were cheap.
Everybody always wants everything both ways.
If you don’t want a cheap flight, fly United.
This was the theme of Ayn Rand’s writing—the much maligned competent people would go on strike and let the idiots run things—and civilization would collapse.
I always hated Southwest—but they kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger to the point where they were the only way to get to certain locations during certain time periods.
I guess it’s fun for writers to dunk on a company that has experienced a major screwup, but my experience with Southwest is by far the best of any airline.
Easy to change bookings, plenty of flights to the destinations I need to go to, and it’s very refreshing to have complete transparency in the fares. Other airlines are always touting a “discount” fair, then you have to pay for a checked bag, sometimes even a carryon, pay for a reserved seat, a premium seat etc. etc. etc.
With Southwest, the price is the price, plus tax. And you can check two bags as part of the basic ticket price. They’ll get through this and get back on track, IMHO.
I don’t remember these issues so prominently displayed in the late 60s / early 70s.
The airlines had only old tech mainfraimes but seemed to be able to weather the storms.
“I consider myself a proud member of the Luddite Club, but getting email alerts correct is so primitive it is hard to believe they could mess it up...”
SW failed its mission but I discount a five year old tale by an anti-SW dude.
Back in the 190’s American Express had some big issue. I remember an article about Warren Buffett being at Ross’ Steakhouse and he asked one of the hostesses if customers had stopped using their AE cards. He ended up buying stock & made millions.
Let's say that Atlanta was the hub. If you were flying from New York to Chicago, you would typically fly to Atlanta and catch another plane going to Chicago.
The beauty of this system was that if there were any kind of airplane malfunctions, it was fairly easy to switch aircraft in Atlanta and still get people to their final destination in a timely manner.
This was because Atlanta (the hub), had a decent amount of aircraft in reserve.
Nowadays, with airline business models switching to "point to point" because everybody wants nonstop and nobody likes layovers where they can sit at an airport bar and have a couple of $10 double vodkas while they await their connecting flight, we have a much slimmer margin of error.
I work as a tech guy for vendors selling IT gear, and reside in Dallas.
It is well known that SWA is 20 years behind the times in their IT infrastructure and code (AT LEAST).
They have non-IT professionals making the deployment/purchase decisions.
Recipe for disaster.....literally. My insight = some hacker owned them at the worst possible time.
BTW, if you don’t have a modern multi-million dollar storage deployment that can instantly roll back to before the hacker encrypted their DB, then you are having unprotected IT transactions.
Heard this same comment from SW employee over the holiday.
Accounting saying don't spend money on IT it doesn't go to the bottom line.
Well the bottom line is gonna be bombed out.
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