[ww520]

Ah so bean counting treated IT as a cost center and cut CapEx to the bone. Running things with no reserved capacity, crew wise and system wise, is just asking for a catastrophic fall off the cliff style shutdown.

Edit: a simple queue theory can explain why no reserved capacity leads to system breakdown.

[mattbrewsbytes]

Yup. For me they had brand prominence because of various customer friendly things like bags fly free, sit where you want, etc. It will take a mountain of good reports from other people over a significant period of time for me to want to fly with them.

[jen20]

This is the first time I’ve ever seen the plane-boarding hunger games of sit-where-you-like referred to as a customer-friendly thing.

[ethbr0]

People either love it or hate it.

Personally, having flown with them for business for 5 or so years, I generally preferred it to assigned seating.

[kube-system]

Yes, I like it when flying alone. On other airlines you get to choose where your seat is at. On Southwest you get to choose who you sit beside.

[Icathian]

I'll add another data point of strongly preferring it. Check in early so you can board early so you can get a good seat. I'm fairly punctual and this system rewards me for that without needing to open my wallet, so I'm a fan.

That said I agree with the grandparent comment about avoiding them for the foreseeable future based on this fiasco. Hopefully they get it together at some point.

[n8cpdx]

Absolutely love it, choice of window or aisle seat is guaranteed if you’re not obsessed with being the very first person off the plane. Also in practice Southwest’s system is the fastest way to board.

[jeffwask]

They were also among the cheapest flights available now they are among the most expensive and their little extra's don't cover the difference.

[foobarian]

The question is, will they still come out ahead even accounting for the catastrophic shutdown? Maybe once a year is fine

[ww520]

Another question is should the executive bonus be crawled back for the rising stock by the cost cutting which leads to catastrophic shutdown due to deferred maintenance.