Hot Commodity

Friday was my last day as a summer intern at Brilliont. The nine weeks I was here absolutely flew by, and I learned more and had more fun than I had thought possible. I’ll get into this more in a later post though, because right now it just makes me sad to be done… don’t worry though, I’ll still be blogging! But speaking of flying, I caught a flight back home to Jacksonville from Philly on Saturday and made an interesting observation about Southwest…

I “LUV” Southwest Airlines because they “LUV” the Philadelphia to Jacksonville and Jacksonville to Philadelphia routes. This works out perfectly since I go to school in Philly (Penn) and live in Jax. And because of their awesome deals on Ding! I probably spend as much on flights during the entire year as some of my friends spend to fly home on Thanksgiving. Southwest is a unique company in several ways, and one of the few remaining airlines that allows you to check in 2 bags for free. What’s more wonderful is the fact that they still hand out free drinks and snacks even if it’s a short local flight! My favorite part, however, used to be the fact that there was no assigned seating. No annoying air hostesses trying to direct you to your seat even though you know that 12D probably is right behind 11D, no stupid boarding pass forcing you to squeeze in between two screaming children, no hassle of trying to find someone to switch seats with because the rest of your family is on the other end of the plane. The system was first come first serve, which worked in favor of both the customers and the airlines because it rewarded and encouraged passengers to get to the gate just a little early.

Now, however, it seems Southwest has gotten so caught up in the “open seating” idea that they have forgotten some basics. Like the old method, the newest boarding method assigns each person a letter (A, B, C) representing their boarding group. Unlike the old method, however, the new method also assigns each person a number that represents their exact position within their boarding group. This means that even if someone with the letter/number combination A34 has been at the gate (or worse, in line) for 20 minutes, a person with the letter/number combination A33 can mosey on over and slip in front whenever he/she feels like it. This process not only eliminates any incentive to arrive early (or even on time), but also breeds irritation among passengers that are often already on edge after a packing, travel, or stress filled day. Not that I like getting to the airport early, but I do hate when a flight departs late because passengers are running late. And admit it, if you’ve been at the gate for 20 minutes now and someone walks up at the last minute and cuts in front of you just because their ticket has a lower number than yours, you’d be annoyed too. Southwest claims it is more efficient and innovative (whatever that means these days), but most people just seemed annoyed or confused, and I’d say the boarding process was a lot more chaotic and took much longer than in the past.

While there is no direct connection (pun intended), this reminds me of companies that make electronic gadgets and devices so complex that while they have wonderful technological capabilities, users just find them overwhelming. This isn’t exactly the same thing, but it’s along the same lines. A focus on “innovation” is critical, but a quick reality check with regards to human nature, customers, and simply whether or not the decision/method is achieving its end goal is kind of important too, and I think Southwest has missed the boat (or perhaps flight) on this one.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 9:22 am and is filed under Company Zeroes and Heroes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.