I will not be cancelling my Southwest Priority Credit card. I want to wait and see how this all plays out first. I have had this card for quite sometime and at this point I am hopeful that Elliott will move on sooner rather than later. I also was planning a trip across Country and carefully looked into all of the Airlines that served the market. Southwest had by far the lowest fare. Service in this market is not great to begin with but I did check and still choose Southwest. Sad to see so many drastic changes.
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If you use your SWA credit card to purchase a ticket you get one bag free. I’ve been a fan of Southwest for years, but I think this move (among others) will make them just another airline,. Gone are the days of Herb Kelleher, whose philosophy was employees first, customers second and shareholders last. IT worked well for over 40 years. But many long time employees I know have told me that Southwest has been changing and they are losing some of their “esprit” Here’s a talk he gave on that.
I worked for Southwest Airlines for over 21 years. Much of that time was under Herb Kelleher and he was the best ever, no question. Then came Gary Kelly with an elitist philosophy who went completely against the things that Herb taught him. Things went downhill from there because instead of all Customers being equal, we now had Customers battling to see who could go first. They look down on Customers in the B and C group and say if you are handicapped you should sit at the rear of the plane and let them get off first because they are more important. Sad and I am certain Herb and Colleen would be crying at what he did to the Airline they so loved.
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How can we, as card holders & customers, contact SW to let them know how we feel?
I knew a lot of folks who worked for Southwest in the general offices. One of them worked for Herb. Do they still have the execs help load baggage the Wednesday before thanksgiving? This was back when Herb was still there and the thing that struck me was that when my friends and I had lunch at HQ, they would look over to the terminal and say “if it weren’t for those people over there I wouldn’t have a job”. It’s interesting that 40+ years they have been profitable and have never had layoffs. This year they had their first ever. In the name of shareholder value. 2025 marks the end of the culture at Southwest.
Herb was very hands on and made it a point to personally visit as many Stations and other facilities and offices as possible. He was an extraordinary people person and remembered everyone’s name. Gary Kelly set the stage for Elliott to swoop in. He made promises he never kept to the Employees, such as improved technology, as well as to Customers who he promised better and more reliable internet on all the aircraft. Southwest is not and neer has been in danger of Bankruptcy. And it is notable that Elliott did not make an appearance until after the death of Colleen Barrett.
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My suggestion would be to write a personal note addressed to Bob Jordan. Although at this point I do not think he is really in charge as all of these changes appear to be direct demands from Elliott. From what I have read through researching them though, I do not feel as though they care at all about the Customers, only the Stockholders. If they drive it into the ground, the Stockholders still get something.
Herb would have heard and they would have avoided the reservations system meltdown because he would have listened to those who told him it needed attention. I met Colleen at a speech she was giving in KC. In the course of the I conversation she shook her head and said companies would pay thousands to have someone tell them about the golden rule. They were a very unique company