Southwest Airlines Has Become America’s Most ‘Uptight’ Airline—Flight Attendants And Passengers Say Management Killed the Fun
Southwest Airlines doesn’t just assign – and charge for – seats now, they enforce assigned seating more strictly than other airlines. Customers and flight attendants report:
- When there are plenty of empty rows, passengers can’t spread out and leave their assigned seats.
- When passengers are in the aisle and middle, neither can occupy the unassigned aisle.
- They can’t even move back from paid extra legroom seats to an empty row in regular coach.
- And gate agents aren’t supposed to change seat assignments within 30 minutes of departure.
At Delta, by contrast, the official policy is that you can move to empty seats as long as those seats are in the same cabin. No self-upgrading, but spreading out is fine (subject to following flight attendant instructions).
But it’s not just assigned seating that’s the problem. This policy is part and parcel of “the new ‘uptight’ airline.”
“Southwest used to be a fun, different flying experience.”
“how in the world Southwest got more restrictive and more uptight than the airlines that they have been making fun of all these years.”
“it’s not the changes themselves that are the issues, it’s the almost 180 turn from a customer focused “have an enjoyable time” experience”
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan dismisses concerns that they’ve become just like every other airline now that they expire travel credits, charge for bags and seats, and offer an extra legroom product (that’s less premium than other airlines, without AC power or seat back entertainment let alone first class or meals).
He says that it’s their people that remain their differentiator, “our people and their heart for serving our customers” is “the greatest competitive advantage that Southwest has.”
- Of course before these changes, the way he described it was “empowering our people to deliver unrivaled hospitality.”
- Now, they are “the only airline yelling at passengers to stay in their seats” according to passengers. The airline has, essentially, told flight attendants to be inhospitable.
And why would the playful fun culture survive Covid which saw 20% turnover in staff and the 2022 meltdown, where so many employees didn’t even remember a better time at the company?
Why would it survive a complete upending of the airline’s business model? And the departure of top executives like Ryan Green, Tammy Romo and Jonathan Clarkson?
Why would it survive layoffs that CEO Jordan announced during the airline’s Q4 earnings call that he was proud of? From his prepared remarks listing accomplishments during the quarter:
Outperformed our $370 million cost reduction target for 2025, including the first layoff of non-contract and management employees.
In Q&A during that call on cost savings he offered,
We did our first corporate layoff, which was tough. But what I can tell you is nothing broke. The company, if anything, is moving faster. ..our corporate overhead will be down, headcount will be down again this year.
Here’s what the culture Herb Kelleher built used to look like. It’s taken decades to destroy.
Here’s a flight attendant truly loving her job and offering her announcements in a rap. Her colleague gives a bit of side eye but eventually gets into it too, stomping a foot and clapping at the end:
Rapping @SouthwestAir flight attendant 🔥🔥🔥😍😍😍 pic.twitter.com/737srEEDV8
— Mike Ellis (@TheMikeEllis) August 5, 2023
There’s a long history of Southwest Airlines flight attendants rapping their announcements. None is more famous than David Holmes.
The biggest change isn’t the end of what Southwest used to call ‘transfarency’ or the devaluation of Rapid Rewards points. It’s management making flight attendants seat police, and it’s moves that have taken the fun out of working at the airline. There are still great cabin crew out there! But, despite Bob Jordan’s protestations, the culture of Southwest Airlines is not what it used to be. This more than anything else is what they took from us.
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