I have a reading suggestion for the folks at Southwest who came up with this new RR plan: "The Southwest Airlines Way" by Jodi Hoffer Gittell (2003). Perhaps someone over there at Love Field remembers the innovative company that it was written about. We read parts of it in my MBA program--in an attempt to train new managers on ways to think differently. Apparently there is a need for that down in Dallas at SWA HQ. I have flown Southwest since there was a terminal 1 in Phoenix and they rolled the stairs to the plane to board. Rubber stamps were used for RR credits. I attended 3 of 4 years of evening Law School flying SWA between SNA and OAK weekly and I've have a companion pass, A-List membership and some light flying years in between. I currently (until March 2011 it seems) drive 100 miles out of my way from NJ to PHL, JUST to take SWA, in large part because of the easy simple RR program. I have to say, if you are trying to gain customers and be a different kind of airline (and you were the ONLY profitable one even with the current program) you are doing yourselves a disservice. There is stlll time to wake up and call this a bad dream. Remember Bobby from Dallas, your hometown? Just make it all go away.....
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