It’s a brave new blogging world and when Southwest Airlines introduced its new boarding policy, complete with “A” list priority boarding for those who choose to pay more, the “Nuts About Southwest” blog went nuts with comments from mostly unhappy customers.
Comments such as: “Now you’ve done it! Turned America’s most successful and my favorite airline into just another private club for the expense account-blessed businessman. Not since Coke tried to change its formula years ago has a major corporation made such a marketing blunder.”
“But with the old Southwest, everyone was equal. No matter who you are or how much money you made, you could be the first damn person on the plane! We LUVed Southwest because it stood against all that we hated about legacy carriers. We thought this was a committed, LUVing relationship, between passenger and airline. Today we were dumped for the next new thing. This will be a tough breakup, one I hoped would never come. It’s been a good 36 years. RIP Southwest. We’re gonna miss you!”
“By the way, with the introduction of tiers of privilege on SWA I hope we don’t start to see the crappy behavior found on other airlines, with the Premiere 1K Platinum guy loudly arguing with the Executive World Services Iridium guy for that last first-class upgrade.”
“The new system will encourage other creative evasions such as the pre-boarding stick (cane) and other feigned disabilities. Southwest already has a reputation as the greatest healer outside Lourdes, with disabled passengers magically able to sprint off the plane after it lands.”
“So if you pay extra for an A boarding pass and you have 50 through passengers then your A purchase was a complete waste of money because you are still sitting in the back of the plane. Lovely….”
“Herb, HELP! They know not what they do. … Whatever airline has the cheapest fare, is now on my list. If I don’t count, neither do you.”
“SWA, you took a once great thing and totally destroyed it. Way to go.”
The posts weren’t all negative: “Southwest needs to make some money somewhere in order to keep its discount fares from skyrocketing. If this helps Southwest make that money from someone other than me, I’m 100 percent behind the change.”
“All of you who are bitterly complaining about innovation and change need to remember that you’re talking to a company that exists because it WAS innovative and different in 1971, and by definition, has ALWAYS been innovative ever since. We should not take for granted that what worked in the 1980s and the 1990s is going to keep working forever. Let’s give Southwest not only the freedom to move about the country but to innovate and grow as they need to!”
