I love SWA. I have since I first studied their business model since formation in 1971 and have always been impressed with their bizarre out of the box approaches to doing business. I love, love, love the seating and have always been a proponent of this approach to getting people to organize themselves such that schedules are more easily managed. I fly it whenever I can, even though to do so means I have to drive 90 minutes south of MKE to get to MDW.
However, it seems the frat party has evolved into a Fortune 500 company approach.
My wife and I just tried to get on the 8:45 am light from Nashville to Chicago with our 10am boarding passes. Even though SWA didn't have enough passengers to begin the C group (i.e., it was 1/3 empty), they would have required me to pay an upcharge of $68 per ticket for my wife and I.
Just after I made my request, a pair of non rev passengers walked up and got on.
Now the key question - why is it that non rev passengers get special treatment, while I (with 38 flights in the past 12 months) do not? A 1/3 empty plane flies over an hour earlier than my totally full plane with a pair of non rev passengers receiving special treatment.
Nice.
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