I have seen a drastic drop in customer service over the last two months. I witnessed it from the passenger side after a busy weekend of pass travel. Each time, the gate agents told us this is the "United Way" and just roll their eyes. Shut the door with 15 minutes to go no matter what passengers are checked in and running down the concourse from a late inbound. I, as captain, had to stand in the jetway/terminal door as an agent tried to shut it saying "its the United way now with customer service!". An older man was hurrying down the concourse and couldnt keep up with the family. Their inbound was late and the family ran ahead to get to our flight. I told them I wouldnt leave without their dad. The agent was calling on the radio, "captain says he will take the delay". It was still over 5 minutes before departure time and the rest were boarded.

All they care about is getting the door shut now. The quotes are "There is always another flight". When asked about the last flight of the night they say there is another flight in the morning.

It is sad to see the rapid decompression of the airline that had good ontime an good customer service. On multiple occasions after the merger, passengers would come up to me and say how sad they were because of their experiences on both airlines and didnt want service to fail.

Well it has. Just like when bean counters get in charge of airlines. Pretzels go away because the other guy doesnt give pretzels. This is lost and that. Pretty soon its a low-class Southwest cattle car without the stupid jokes. Sad to watch.

This is how things were done before Gordon got here. He specifically was quoted as saying that if you shut the door on enough people, you wont have people to fly on time anywhere. They stopped the BS policy. Especially when we dont have enough available seats to help people on the next flights and it rolls downhill. I also assume that it doesnt count in involuntary boardings when passengers are denied on connecting flights even when it is the airline's fault for getting them to the hub late.