What is Southwest airlines Nuts ?

Just as an aside...

I was Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA, the giant smile on the radome)
employee #521. Best college job a kid could have, four years with an
airline. Sold my car, used my savings bonds, bought all the stock I could
get my hands on at the employee sale the day before the stock went public.
Bought my first airplane AND house with the profits from that little deal.
(And that, boys and girls, is why RST Engineering's first product was called
the RST-521.)

Some years later at a banquet I happened to be sitting next to the Southwest
VP-Ops. We got to chatting and I found out that he had bagged a set of the
business documents when PSA went belly-up and sold out to US Air, who
promptly trashed the purchase. Seems that Southwest was built on the PSA
model, right down to the decision to have ONE airplane type in the fleet and
know that airplane inside and out.

Sure, PSA made a ton of money by putting butts in chairs; that's what paid
the kerosene bills. Sure, we packed the old Electras and 3-holers as tight
as we could, but we had fun doing it. We had stews (no, dammit, in the '60s
they were STEWARDESSES, not flight attendants) who would play guitar and
lead the whole danged airplane singing from SanFran to SanDiego, we had a
couple who were caricature artists, some who took on all comers in chess,
anything to have FUN flying.

Southwest still reminds me a lot of those days. If you don't like
cattle-call airlines, there are a lot of old stodgy companies still doing it
the old way. Reno Air (now gone), Southwest, a handful of other little
startups are doing it the way I think it should be done.

Jim





"Blueskies" wrote in message
m...

Southwest leads the pack for good reason. I have not had a good experience
on any of the 'majors' for a very long time

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


C J Campbell wrote:

I wonder if business travelers should bother with the airlines at all
anymore.

And "conference calls" will not do the job in many cases. We would've lost
a 50
mil contract if I couldn't have been face to face with the subject matter
experts on one occasion (our competition *was* face to face with them).

C-Calls are limited but with web-conferencing like WebEx the gap closes
meaningfully. No question that WebEx probably displaced 10-15% of my last
employer's travel budget. This is one of those "inflection point" issues.
Once people start assuming their competitors aren't getting on a plane they
won't get on one either. There will always be things that demand the
in-person presence but that list will shrink by 5% or so per year. A 35%
drop in business travel over the next five years is not out of the question
and would make 9/11 a footnote to the collapse of the airline industry.

-cwk.

"C Kingsbury" wrote in message
ink.net...

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


C J Campbell wrote:

I wonder if business travelers should bother with the airlines at all
anymore.

And "conference calls" will not do the job in many cases. We would've
lost
a 50
mil contract if I couldn't have been face to face with the subject
matter
experts on one occasion (our competition *was* face to face with them).

C-Calls are limited but with web-conferencing like WebEx the gap closes
meaningfully. No question that WebEx probably displaced 10-15% of my last
employer's travel budget. This is one of those "inflection point" issues.
Once people start assuming their competitors aren't getting on a plane
they
won't get on one either. There will always be things that demand the
in-person presence but that list will shrink by 5% or so per year. A 35%
drop in business travel over the next five years is not out of the
question
and would make 9/11 a footnote to the collapse of the airline industry.

-cwk.


That loss in business travel is more than enough to put one or two majors
out of business. They have only themselves to blame due to the fact they
ripped and continue to rip off the business traveler which for years has
paid top dollar for a seat.

On 27 Dec 2004 18:20:33 -0800, "569" wrote:

That airline is pure hell. I used to travel 250,000 miles a year for
business, all domestic. I refused and still refuse to fly them. It's
no better then the Greyhound bus.

I have flown them several times. They are good at what they do, and I
try not to have any illusions about flying with them. I call them
"Cattlewest".

"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
m...


That loss in business travel is more than enough to put one or two majors
out of business. They have only themselves to blame due to the fact they
ripped and continue to rip off the business traveler which for years has
paid top dollar for a seat.

First, the "business traveler" typically fly's on one or two days
notice...that's why they spend more.

Second, alternatives have been available for years...and only very SLOWLY do
businesses adopt them.

Hell, years ago the bitch was the delays and rigid schedules of the
airlines. Many people used GA and charter, but I guess most businesses just
continued to gripe, just like they do about bad employees, foreign
competitors, regulation (that they often asked for), etc., etc.,...


--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO

"Ditch" wrote in message
...
The vast majority of corporate level flying is now done by middle level
managers.

Well...I guess. My mother-in-law is a vice pres (one of many) at the
largest
bank in the country....they stick her on airline flights left and right.
It used to be that she flew in G-IV, but that ended about 7 years ago. The
only
people that see the inside of a corp. jet are the CEO and his cronies.

Outrageous misuse of a valuable business tool.

wrote in message
oups.com...

I'm not surprised at the number of airlines that are in or facing
bankruptcy these days. Their product has changed from something that
was a convenient way to generate business in remote locations, to
something that is dreaded and considered a last resort.

That is really what it comes down to, isn't it?

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
news

"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
m...


That loss in business travel is more than enough to put one or two
majors
out of business. They have only themselves to blame due to the fact
they
ripped and continue to rip off the business traveler which for years has
paid top dollar for a seat.

First, the "business traveler" typically fly's on one or two days
notice...that's why they spend more.

That makes absolutely no sense. The airlines have used it as an excuse to
rip off the business travler for years.

Second, alternatives have been available for years...and only very SLOWLY
do
businesses adopt them.

Yep. Most businesses have drastically cut airline travel and now airlines
can't make money even with every seat filled.

Hell, years ago the bitch was the delays and rigid schedules of the
airlines. Many people used GA and charter, but I guess most businesses
just
continued to gripe, just like they do about bad employees, foreign
competitors, regulation (that they often asked for), etc., etc.,...
--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO

United Stews just voted in favor of a strike and are pushing for chaos
strikes. If it happens it will probably be the end of United.

"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
.. .

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
news

First, the "business traveler" typically fly's on one or two days
notice...that's why they spend more.

That makes absolutely no sense. The airlines have used it as an excuse to
rip off the business travler for years.

If everyone waited until the last 24-48 hours to book a reservation (due to
no cost difference) , imagine the chaos that would result. Hotels do it,
concerts do it. Why do you think that is?


Second, alternatives have been available for years...and only very
SLOWLY
do
businesses adopt them.

Yep. Most businesses have drastically cut airline travel and now airlines
can't make money even with every seat filled.

True...and their costs keep going up, up, up, while competition (short
sighted) is pushing prices down, down, down.

People want Neiman-Marcus quality for a Wal-mart price.


Hell, years ago the bitch was the delays and rigid schedules of the
airlines. Many people used GA and charter, but I guess most businesses
just
continued to gripe, just like they do about bad employees, foreign
competitors, regulation (that they often asked for), etc., etc.,...
--

United Stews just voted in favor of a strike and are pushing for chaos
strikes. If it happens it will probably be the end of United.

United was a pretty good airline many years ago...before the union got
ownership.

United's union is a laugh riot!!


--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO

Matt Barrow wrote:


That makes absolutely no sense. The airlines have used it as an excuse to
rip off the business travler for years.


If everyone waited until the last 24-48 hours to book a reservation (due to
no cost difference) , imagine the chaos that would result.

Baloney. The cost should be cheaper the closer you get to takeoff.
Basic economic theory, supply and demand. You book early to nail down a
spot.


Hotels do it,
concerts do it. Why do you think that is?

You can walk in to any half empty hotel at 10 pm and get a better rate
than the guy who booked his in advance.




People want Neiman-Marcus quality for a Wal-mart price.

People simply want to be taken to where they want to go when the airline
says they'll go.


United was a pretty good airline many years ago...before the union got
ownership.

United's union is a laugh riot!!

Yep, priced themselves right out of business.