01-07-2011
11:03 PM
6 Loves
Anon 10:03, I'd read all through their informative website before I posted and I've read through it again today after cooling down, and my previous assessment stands. Southwest is making a catastrophic mistake, and I say this as not only a flier but as a stock holder. SWA is alienating the same people that have kept them afloat all these years to pursue people who by my reckoning, aren't buying what they're selling either (business travelers).
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01-07-2011
10:53 PM
2 Loves
"alot of buzz,"... is that PR speak for, "everyone is pissed and we've no idea how to actually respond to the massive screw up our company just committed?" I've got the solution for you, get Gary Kelly to come out admit you guys made a catostrophic mistake and announce you will not be changing your Rapid Rewards. Anything less is just a pathetic half measure. Face it, your core customers are by and large peeved at you and it's time for you to make it right, or get ready to be the next airline to fall into the red in coming quarters.
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01-06-2011
10:47 PM
6 Loves
Agree with anon. This change is one of the worst things Southwest could have done. You took the award winning program that helped build your brand loyalty and you destroyed it in an afternoon. SWA obviously did no market research and did not consider their core frequent fliers and indeed fans who tend to be short to medium range fliers. You've added between 50% and 100% to the amount of flights these fliers will need to earn rewards and in so doing so have diminished your rapid rewards program and indeed your usefulness as an airline. Not to mention you've angered a large portion of your previously loyal clientel, the kind of loyal clientel that has kept your airline so profitable the last 10 years while everyone else has foundered. Why on Earth did you try to fix something that wasn't broken and no one apparently had a problem with? My only conclusion must be that you figured you could make more money this way and in the process you've become nothing but a legacy airline where a second bag most fliers don't need flies free... After a lifetime of loyalty I and many others now have no reason to consider SWA first when we fly.
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Brian, looked at newrapidrewards and you're right about it being simpler than people give it credit for. However the new system is STILL more needlessly complex than the old system, and ends up being a rip off for your core customers who take shorter trips planned in advance like myself and so many others who are dissatisfied and angry with this change. Face it, SWA has made a VERY big mistake with this change on the level of New Coke or the GAP re-branding and should respond to the overwhelming criticism the same way those companies did, but changing back ASAP and acknowledging you made a mistake. Because it is painfully obvious given the overwhelming negative response that you did not consult or consider your core loyal clientele which have kept SWA in the black all these years while everyone else floundered...
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Terrible move Southwest. You took the best loyalty program in the country and converted it into nothing but a run of the mill program with benefit over any of your competitors. And for me personally you've doubled the amount of flights I'll need to take to earn the reward I've been using for years and in doing so have not only made Rapid Rewards useless to me, but the credit card associated with it as well. I've stuck with you as you fares have risen compared to your competitors, as your DING fares started traveling to random locations I don't go to, as you started instituting pay to board first policies, but this one is the straw that breaks this camel's back. After years of being a loyal customer and even an evangelist, you've now lost any allure and are just another legacy carrier... congratulations.
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