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Mo's avatar

"And look: lots of people like having assigned seats. That’s fine! There are a million other airlines that do it just like that! Go fly on one of them! Southwest does things differently. "

I'm pretty sure that's exactly why Southwest made these changes, people were taking them up on that offer.

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Robin's avatar

My husband has refused to fly SW because he can't get an assigned seat. So they will likely pick up new potential customers. I never cared and loved them for everything else and this makes me worry about other changes.

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Color Me Skeptical's avatar

Exactly. Southwest is engaging in what is called a “competitive response.”

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NGT's avatar
Jul 27Edited

Well, they are responding to the threat of an activist investor with the theory is that this will generate more profit. Maybe it will and maybe it will be good for the company in the long run, but sometimes these activists aren't a healthy part of the capitalist ecosystem - just parasites who hollow out great companies to the detriment of consumers, workers, and communities.

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Color Me Skeptical's avatar

“…sometimes these activists aren't a healthy part of the capitalist ecosystem - just parasites who hollow out great companies to the detriment of consumers, workers, and communities.”

In our late stage Capitalism I would say it is most of the time that the activists are parasites.

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