Wi-Fi worse than Ever many years and counting

[DancingDavidE]

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@JasonCampbell wrote:

The WiFi is free for me. As a 15+ year A-list Preferred I get free wife every year.  I get paid $300 an hour to be working. I'm on Southwest Airline flights anywhere from 8 to 20 hours a week for 48 to 50 weeks of the year. Even if I'm generous and say SWA wifi is reliable 50% of that time, I am losing min 200 hours of billable time a year, or $60,000 in income.  

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I've been able to work around this by planning around the flight times for things I can do without the internet on my computer, but if your workflow doesn't allow that to happen then it will definitely be a challenge.

Try to fly only Max and 800 aircraft, that might help somewhat with the newer equipment.

Anyway, they know, they are working on it, and hopefully you can manage in the meantime but it could be years before the whole fleet is retrofit.

For me:

the lack of change fees, baggage fees, and somewhat lower fares is > internet access

[dfwskier]

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@JasonCampbell wrote:

The WiFi is free for me. As a 15+ year A-list Preferred I get free wife every year.  I get paid $300 an hour to be working. I'm on Southwest Airline flights anywhere from 8 to 20 hours a week for 48 to 50 weeks of the year. Even if I'm generous and say SWA wifi is reliable 50% of that time, I am losing min 200 hours of billable time a year, or $60,000 in income.  

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Sounds to me like you should use some of that $60,000 to fly someone else -- with higher ticket prices and seat selection fees.

[floridaguy]

This individual has the right to choose any airlines.  To suggest that the person fly another is not making a meaningful contribution as I'm sure the person already knows that.

The only SURVIVING FACT is that Southwest needs to clean up the wifi issue right after they finish swimming through the aftermath of the Holiday DISASTER which will likely eat away at their pocketbook for some time.

[TheMiddleSeat]

@floridaguy not providing any "meaningful contribution" does not seem to stop you from posting. 

--TheMiddleSeat

[floridaguy]

People have the right to come to this forum and express their views without their thoughts or position being minimalized by frequent contributors.

I like to see varied levels of perspective.  However, if you wake up each day and believe that everything that Southwest does is correct, innovative and cutting-edge, you will not have any appreciation for those that cite failure in the brand.

After the Holiday DISASTER, I believe that Southwest is standing hat-in-hand dolling out apologies, cash and trying to smooth this over.

[dfwskier]

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@JasonCampbell wrote:

Ha! How are you a " Top Contributor" for SWA and you have no clue as to what the Wright Amendant is and what it did?

You are pretty funny.Actually I am very familiar with the Wright Amendment

 You see I have lived in Dallas since 1978, and having been flying SW since then. I was wearing "Set Love Free" clothing to both DFW and DAL before the amendment sun setted.

  This wasn't just one city, it was hundreds across the US.  

You overstate the impact of Wright's impact on the country. Fact: in November 2014 SW didn't serve "hundreds" of cities from Love Field. It served 31 cities. As a matter of fact, Southwest did not serve over 100 cities nationwide until 2015

Any attempt to paint the 2014 Wright demise as having anything to do with Southwest "not giving a crap  about A List Preferred business travelers" is patently ridiculous.

Southwest is running a business. If it can earn more profit by "   filling that void with traveling families that need a discount ticket t fly two or three times a year."

Well, as a stockholder, I am all for it. And aside from the Covid years, and the December meltdown, Southwest has done a better job of managing the airline to profitability than EVERY other airline in America

[floridaguy]

We've covered the subject of their finances before.  It is all relative.

Their net worth is not the legend that everyone thinks and their past performances have been acceptable, but not the legend that everyone thinks.

If I had been working for 41 years, I would expect to have more than a year's salary in the bank.

[TheMiddleSeat]

@floridaguy still waiting for something more than a spew of word salad

--TheMiddleSeat

[jksobonya]

In case anyone missed it, Southwest announced last year that WiFi is one of the many things being upgraded on planes. Another is charging ports built into the seats. Another is more overhead bin space. 

https://community.southwest.com/t5/Blog/Transforming-the-Customer-Experience/ba-p/141946

It takes time to roll everything out, and newer aircraft will get the changes. I doubt older planes (like the 700s and maybe even 800s) will get upgraded WiFi but time will tell. 

Fun fact: WiFi (the word) has no meaning at all 😄 Seriously, look it up!

--Jessica

[PettyIntrigues]

I’ve always strangely found the WiFi spottier on the 800s than the 700s—whether that’s just anecdotal or has something behind it, no idea.

i feel pretty respected/understood as a frequent business traveler by SWA (although I am not a BIG IMPORTANT GUY—I only fly about four to ten hours a week and make significantly less than $300 an hour); it’s why the status exists and why the family boarding got pushed back years ago.

I’d like to know who has the really good, consistent, strong WiFi. In my experience, they most all aren’t impressive, domestic nor international.

i’ve  occasionally been annoyed by the WiFi but I’ve been able to get emails out no issue, usually tap into my organization’s system, and occasionally attend a Zoom (sorry, I know that’s a no-no). When I am working up there, at worst I do it offline and connect-send/save at the end. I most usually take the time to rest though—maybe like the WiFi, you could (should) work less?