Southwest Airlines, after over 50 years of offering free checked bags, will start charging for this service from May 28. This decision led to a nearly 9% increase in Southwest’s stock price this week, while competitors like Delta, United, and American saw declines of over 11%. The airline expects these changes to boost its bottom line by hundreds of millions of dollars. Southwest’s market share stands at approximately 73% at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, over 83% at San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, and 89% at Long Beach, California. The airline anticipates a potential increase in carry-on luggage due to the new fees, prompting preparations like installing larger overhead bins in its Boeing 737-800s and Max aircraft. Despite the backlash from thousands of customers, Southwest is confident in managing the operational impact of these changes.
Just_J
@Just_JsWay
·
Mar 11 #SouthwestAirlines clearly doesn’t get the ONLY thing that made them an option despite the frequent cancellations, long DOMESTIC layovers, minimal direct flights , and disorganized chaos were the FREE BAGS, free flight changes, and Free In-flight WiFi.. they cancelled it all
Brother to the Night
@trez_Legit
·
Mar 11 .
@SouthwesAir
just changed the main incentive that kept their loyal flyers. By doing this, their literally saying “we don’t need you anymore” and it’s crazy to see in real time
$UPRSTR SNAK€
@Superstar_Snake
·
Mar 11 Southwest got rid of free bags,lowers rapid reward points, and their flight credits expire now. They really said fuck our loyal customers. SMH
Benjamin Watson
@bwatsizzle
·
Mar 11 @SouthwestAir
is in for a ride. Everything they did to make them different as an Airline is being tossed. No free checked bags for most tickets. Flight credits are now set to expire (they were all proud to announce they don’t, like a year ago). And open seating leaving this year.
Farmer in the Del
@craig_misewicz
·
Mar 11 Just saw the latest press release. No more “Bags Fly Free”. That was a huge competitive advantage.Short-term margin gains never outweigh customer loss long-term. What were you thinking?
@SouthwestAir
– you’re just another airline now.
Like Walking In Circles
@likewalkingin
·
Mar 11 For real, though.I don’t think I’ve ever seen a business just nuke the entire points and incentives scheme in one morning like Southwest just did.free bags
open seating
changeable flights
6 month lifespan on flight credits
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
