The nation’s largest domestic carrier has a completely new identity, mission, and process, but some customers are in a LUV cult and can’t see a way out.
New Identity, Same Blue Planes
Over the last few years, Elliott Management, an activist investor group has aggressively commandeered the most unique airline in the United States and molded it into an also-ran. This site (and many others like it) has covered ad nauseum, the changes Elliott pursued and hot the carrier once known for no assigned seats, cattle call boarding, cheap and frequent non-stops, and friendly service has gravitated toward fees, hierarchy, and squeezing every last dollar for profit. Elliott was successful in its mission but left the carrier aligned with every competitor instead of uniquely outside the fray. Earnings are down though the carrier remains profitable, and the company that delivered 38 years of every quarter profitable is no more.
Surly Service, Customer Relation Issues
On our outbound flight, we encountered outright surly service. It was borderline combative at times. An older passenger’s seat had been moved or she was confused but handling the woman was indelicate by several flight attendants. Almost the entire FA staff was unhelpful, curt, and disappointing. It was as if the staff had gotten the memo that the carrier was becoming in every way a traditional flag carrier and that included customer service, treating passengers closer to livestock that needed to be herded rather than clients to be treated with care. In a case of irony, the airline quit “cattle call” boarding, only to treat passengers like actual cattle.
Product Concerns
There were two lines at Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport. One is for baggage drop, the other for priority. Despite a failure for our baggage tag to print, this did not apparently allow us to check our one bag (included with a Southwest credit card) from the Priority counter, we were walked to the standard line. Other airlines allow top end cardholders and status members to use the priority line and we didn’t qualify even with a checked luggage kiosk issue, but other airlines also have a sign that indicates who is and isn’t permitted in priority and at least at the Las Vegas station, Southwest didn’t. The standard line was fine, nothing to whine about, nothing to compliment, service provided by the agent left us wondering if we were welcome on the airline.
Gary Leff often comments about the lack of in-seat power, and while the USB-C and USB-A ports on my last two flights with the carrier were fine, longer segments with high-paying last minute business ticket buyers require power for laptops that the USB-C can’t deliver (even for devices that charge this way.)
T-Mobile sponsors free wifi for Rapid Rewards members (free to join, not restricted to just one device connected per account) but it’s painfully slow. This is not a matter of opinion, speeds are less than unsatisfactory, it’s nearly unusable outside of loaded media and social or messaging apps. Many business travelers around me on both flights visibly struggled to connect. On both one-hour flights separated by six days, the wifi had to be reset in flight and many flyers like me after it was reconnected just shut their laptops in frustration. Starlink can’t come fast enough.
For what it’s worth, a read lavatory door didn’t work properly either. It didn’t get tagged as inoperable or delay departures until it could be repaired, but using the bathroom without lights on and one hand keeping the door closed was not ideal.
Yet Customers Continue To Fly Southwest
The most confusing part to this writer is that the customer base for Southwest continues to fly the carrier without any perceived deviation. The argument in favor of Southwest by flyers for years was that the airline was the cheapest. That faded with Spirit, Frontier, and others including mainline carriers operating Basic Economy.
Then it was that the airline might not be the cheapest, but it still included free checked luggage, drinks, and a unique boarding style that allowed passengers – early to board passengers – to pick their own seat. That’s dead and gone.
Service was always friendly and fun with the safety briefing sometimes rapped over the PA by a flight attendant. The uniforms were informal, it was approachable.
This site has covered how Elliott turned Southwest from a unique, consistent performer into just another airline. But Southwest customers failed to notice. Maybe everyone onboard was like me, prioritizing a non-stop flight over a connection rather than choosing Southwest because they preferred it. But I don’t think so. It seems many are so entrenched in the cult of LUV that these changes, many of which Southwest customers used to defend flying Southwest over other carriers, have now ignored entirely. It was incredible how Southwest
As it turns out, and to the delight of many of our readership, this blogger was wrong that Elliott’s changes would bury the carrier. For 2026, the carrier is only down 3.3% in net passengers but is up on revenue and net profit in the last two years despite Boeing MAX-7 delivery issues, and severance for 1,700+ employees. Customers that fell in LUV with the carrier never left (or at least haven’t yet) despite becoming like every other carrier and more expensive.
Does that make it a cult? A little bit, yes. The carrier can do no wrong to hard-won clients. If it was true that travelers chose Southwest despite its limitations on the basis of uniqueness before, and now after the changes, continue to fly Southwest despite being in essence a more limited version of Delta, United, and American Airlines (lounges, first class, and long haul international flights – the former two are coming.)
I don’t understand it, and unless the route and price are the best option for me, you won’t find me onboard, but Elliott Management saw what I didn’t. The cult following of Southwest wasn’t in the service, product, price, nor kitsch, and they were right to assume customers wouldn’t leave if they shedded services and raised costs.
What do you think?
The “cult” mentality won’t last long as Greedwest/Southworst continues to use deceptive e-mail advertising of cheap fares, ever esculating ticket prices and more money grabbing rules and methods which are further eroding the real value that this airline offered. I can bet that the “numbers” they post are also manipulated to post a rosy picture that is not true. The next 2 years the true effect of what these beancounters have done to a once great airline will become clear.
I flew Southwest three weeks ago, and the funniest thing I saw was how long it took to board the flight. Half the passengers still seemed to think they could choose their own seats like yesteryear, The FA’s kept making announcements about your seat being printed on your boarding pass, and that rows ran numerically from 1 at the front of the plane to 23 in the rear. And still passengers didn’t understand. The FA’s were getting annoyed, and at one point had to apologize for a snarly remark. We departed almost 20 minutes late due to boarding confusion. Otherwise it was an fine flight, service OK, and they had seat availability when the other majors were still trying to recover from a weather disaster in NY/PA/DC. It’s not my go to airline, but I fly it when it makes sense.