{"id":15685,"date":"2009-09-02T13:05:56","date_gmt":"2009-09-02T19:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=15685"},"modified":"2009-09-02T13:06:03","modified_gmt":"2009-09-02T19:06:03","slug":"southwest-airlines-is-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/09\/02\/southwest-airlines-is-evil.html","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Airlines is Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/div>\n

Okay, that’s too harsh. But it’s kind of sad to see them moving from an egalitarian “all passengers are equal — check in early, get on early” philosophy to ever-creeping fee transactions that, essentially, let people pay to be queue-jumpers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

DALLAS, Sept. 2 \/PRNewswire-FirstCall\/ — Don’t race. We’ll save your place! Southwest is proud to announce its newest product, EarlyBird Check-in, which gives Customers the option to score an early boarding position by adding an additional $10 to the price of a one-way fare. The low-cost service automatically reserves a boarding position for Customers prior to general check-in, allowing EarlyBird Customers to begin boarding the plane after Southwest’s Business Select and Rapid Rewards A-List Customers.<\/p>\n

[…] “With EarlyBird Check-in, you no longer need to watch the clock or set your alarm to be one of the first Customers to check in for a Southwest flight. EarlyBird Customers can relax, and let us do the work for them,” said Kevin Krone, Southwest’s Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Distribution. An early boarding position provides Customers with the opportunity for a better seat selection and earlier access to overhead bin space, giving Customers the option to enhance their travel experience while creating incremental revenue opportunities for Southwest.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I.e., “we make money by creating more tiers of service.” Not that this is any different from what other airlines have done for years, and, as noted, “Business Select” customers already have the privilege. But Southwest still had a different feel to it, a lack of class and money distinctions between passengers. This marks further erosion of same.<\/p>\n

I hereby flip Southwest the EarlyBird.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, that’s too harsh. But it’s kind of sad to see them moving from an egalitarian “all passengers are equal — check in early, get on early” philosophy to ever-creeping fee transactions that, essentially, let people pay to be queue-jumpers. DALLAS, Sept. 2 \/PRNewswire-FirstCall\/ — Don’t race. We’ll save your place! Southwest is proud to … Continue reading “Southwest Airlines is Evil”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25012,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/01\/more-southwest-early-bird-check-in-madness.html","url_meta":{"origin":15685,"position":0},"title":"More Southwest Early Bird Check-In Madness","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 1-Jan-12 12:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, maybe not madness, but ... After the pre-holiday episode, we were attentive to the Early Boarding that should have been working for our \u00a0flight home. \u00a0Our flight's at 10:55a, but we didn't want to take any chances of forgetting in the New Years Day rush. 10:53: Fire up the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/southwest-airlines-300x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":51354,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/03\/seeking-better-boarding-for-planes.html","url_meta":{"origin":15685,"position":1},"title":"Seeking better boarding for planes","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 3-Jun-15 2:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Two interesting approaches here from two different airlines:Delta is experimenting with having employees pre-load your carry-on, getting it put in a bin over your ticketed seat. It's an interesting idea, and certainly getting that stuff on and up and in is one of the tasks that really slows boarding, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24557,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/16\/not-so-early-bird-southwest-airlines-email-receipts-suck.html","url_meta":{"origin":15685,"position":2},"title":"Not-so-Early Bird — Southwest Airline’s email receipts suck","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-Dec-11 12:07am","format":false,"excerpt":"So we purchased our tickets back in September with Southwest for flying back to California for the holidays. \u00a0Southwest changed in the last year or so from a purely \"first check-in, first on\" with ticket queues, to the ability to buy \"Early Bird\" seating for an extra $10 -- the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/cattle-car.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/cattle-car.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/cattle-car.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/cattle-car.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/cattle-car.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/cattle-car.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":133401,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/05\/the-southwest-queue-user-interface.html","url_meta":{"origin":15685,"position":3},"title":"The Southwest Queue User Interface","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 5-May-17 10:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"Is it just me, or does anyone else get confused (or see other people confused) by the boarding queue pylons Southwest Airlines uses? Wouldn't it be simpler to simply have this sign say something like... < 41 | 40 >... or even just... 40?The stacked ranges, the bottom range not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2017%2B-%2B1imgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18113,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/11\/tweets-from-2010-08-11.html","url_meta":{"origin":15685,"position":4},"title":"Tweets from 2010-08-11","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Aug-10 3:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"After sifting through all my Comic-Con swag, I can say, without a doubt, that I have restocked my years-diminished bookmark collection. # Welcome to Denver International Airport, where the time is Way Too Frelling Early in the Morning. # Really out of the carry-on business travel habit. Packed 3oz bottles,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22419,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/30\/allllll-a-board.html","url_meta":{"origin":15685,"position":5},"title":"Allllll a-BOARD!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 30-Aug-11 3:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Regular as clockwork, some time during each summer's travel season we get some new scientifically proven article about airplane boarding that demonstrates: However we're doing it right now, we're doing it wrong. Physicists and mathematicians don't do a lot of air travel. The current article making the rounds is described\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/boarding-schemes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/boarding-schemes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/boarding-schemes.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/boarding-schemes.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}