SWA is techno challenged

[laker4284]

SWA is technology challenged in all aspects of the airline business.

In flight entertainment
Reservations
Flight Deck operations
Multiple aircraft types
International operations
Maintenance tracking concerning AD compliance


SWA does not charge bag fees because its reservations system is not capable of the transaction.

One of those initiatives is getting a new reservations system, something long over due and something most of its LCC peers have already accomplished. Its current system, which is being tweaked to accommodate some of the needs of ancillary revenue and Southwest's acquisition of AirTran, has been unable to accommodate code sharing and many industry standard ancillary revenue products.

SWA is also unable to accommodate code sharing revenue.

And SWA is unable to provide business customers which are the highest yielding passengers the basics such as wifi and inflight entertainment.

SWA also has been a laggard concerning flight deck operations. LNAV/VNAV, auto throttles, auto lands, and auto brakes.

SWA operates a single aircraft fleet because it does not have the infrastructure to operate a second or third type.

Uh...

They also, with the exception of a quarter every now and then, ALWAYS make money. And...

They have never furloughed.

Hard to complain (or point fingers) at that.

 

[luckytohaveajob]

SWA has no DB or Dc plan and everybody focuses on the pay rates.

SWA is not the darling of the industry.

 

[luckytohaveajob]

This thread is about TECHNOLOGY you Flintstone pilots.

Put your feet out for brakes you Corn dogs.

Technology is the topic here not economics.

 

[luckytohaveajob]

Oh and I almost forgot.

How many flat bed seats are on a SWA plane in First Class? Just what I thought.

A passenger paying the hefty price of a first- or business-class ticket on a long-haul flight is likely to sink into 36-in.-pitch seats, sip fine wines from crystal goblets and eat gourmet meals with real silverware. The seat opens into a flat bed replete with designer sheets.

But economy class is the section where airlines have traditionally . . . well, economized. Once upon a time in the early '90s, passengers were likely to find seats modeled after sardine cans.

 

[luckytohaveajob]

Low-fare carrier JetBlue Airways was the frontrunner in installing video screens in every seatback and offering DirecTV services

Jet Blue even beats SWA.

 

[luckytohaveajob]

Technology improves aircraft reliability and saves lives. Boeing's Connexion system has many benefits SWA will never be able to capitalize on.

With the emphasis on passengers, Connexion's benefit for airlines often gets lost, notes Smith. Carriers can use the bandwidth to move important data, such as aircraft health-monitoring, from the airplane in real time. This would enable airlines to use predictive instead of reactive maintenance. In addition, airlines such as Lufthansa are looking at applications such as telemedicine, to reduce the number of costly diversions related to inflight health emergencies.

 

[luckytohaveajob]

BINGO! Standards. Crap or premium.

A spotlight on standards

The rise of participating consumer review content will throw a large spotlight on product and service standard differences between airlines. Airlines that treat passengers with indifference will find it much harder to retain existing passengers and to attract new ones.

 

[luckytohaveajob]

Airlines delivering a sub-standard product and treating passengers with indifference will eventually go out of business.

 

[CA1900]

Airlines delivering a sub-standard product and treating passengers with indifference will eventually go out of business.

And yet, inexplicably, US Airways is still in business. Strange.

 

[GoodTimes]

Lucky,

You almost ran the whole page. Try again. I bet you can do it!

 

[SWA Bubba]

This thread is about TECHNOLOGY you Flintstone pilots.

Put your feet out for brakes you Corn dogs.

Technology is the topic here not economics.

Dear Luckytohaveajob,

I guess I'm disregarding my own advice, because here I am responding (sigh). I was sure you were just flame baiting, but now it appears that you may actually believe the crap you're spouting, as incredible as that sounds. So, first, I have to say that you have, without a doubt, the most appropriate moniker in all the history of Flight Info. As stupid (or trying to be more charitable, uninformed) as you clearly are, you are indeed lucky to have a job in this industry. One can only hope that you are not in any position of responsibility where you may accidentally hurt yourself or others around you. Perhaps a skycap or a ticket-taker.

As far as your actual patently false assertions, FlyingItalian already debunked them one at a time. Can you not read, either? However, here's a few more tidbits for you:
- Southwest has one of the newest fleets in the world. We're buying dozens of new 737NGs every year and retiring our oldest planes. Newer fleet than United/Continental.
- Every one of our airplanes (even the -300s) are CAT III certified. Is that true for every United/Continental plane?
- Like Italian pointed out, we have every one of the "flight deck technology" items you claimed we didn't, except autoland. I dunno; maybe we have better pilots than you. We're even spearheading the industry in RNP approaches, trying to drag the rest of you industry laggards kicking and screaming into the 21st century. You know, so that ATC can sequence all airplanes more efficiently, and we all save money on gas. Would you United/Continental guys please hurry up?

You then went on to talk about your "superior" technology and how it saves lives. Southwest carries the most passengers in the United States, including the most take-offs and landings (where accidents normally happen). Care to compare United and/or Continental's safety records against Southwests? No?

And then, after insisting this thread was entirely about technology, you somehow morphed it into a service contest. Talking about lie-flat seat/beds and first class amenities. That's a different business model entirely, and not any kind of comparison. The high-paying first class passengers certainly bring in some money for you, but if you're gonna' talk about numbers, you've got to add them up. Hundreds of coach passengers for every first class passenger certainly trumps that argument.

AND, if you want to talk about service for coach passengers (which brings in the majority of your revenue too, even if you don't want to admit it), we'll go there. Southwest's coach seats (all of 'em) have a seat pitch of 34" (distance between the back of one seat to the next). Most other airlines' coach seats have a pitch of 32", with a few going as high as 33". I'd have to guess not quite as comfortable as Southwest's.

Then (I'm assuming you couldn't help youself), you uttered the single stupidest rant of all:

Airlines delivering a sub-standard product and treating passengers with indifference will eventually go out of business.


Good point. Let's talk about treating passengers and the quality of the product. I'd guess you'd measure how well the passengers were treated by looking at the number of customer service complaints. Geez... who always leads that metric (and by a wide margin, for that matter)? Surprise! It's Southwest and Airtran. On the other hand, United and Continental? Hmmm... Not so much. But hey, sometimes you actually score in ahead of USAir. That ought to count for something.

Bubba

 

[Double Shot]

ask lucky if he is having fun shoveling snow up there in the northeast. Im guessing hes bored or hes avoiding his wife taunting the rest of us.

 

[Quimby]

Lucky is an angry elf.

 

[GuppyWN]

Quimby gets it!

Gup

 

[luckytohaveajob]

SWA thinks a big airplane is a Guppy -800. Man if you guys get the -900 you can start using the "HEAVY" in your call signs, NOT!