The truth is somewhere in the middle. SWA is not a true point-to-point carrier, nor is it a hub & spoke (obviously). We have what are called Mega Stations. Insert Dr. Evil finger quotes here.

We have some point-to-point flying but also much of our flying passes through our roughly dozen or so Mega Stations. A lot of those pax are what’s called “throughs”. They don’t deplane but rather stay onboard as they pass through said Mega Station.

A great example is DEN. It’s friggin’ HUGE! Don’t tell me that’s not a major “hub” for us. The difference is that crews and planes pass through there from City F to City K rather than the crews and planes doing persistent out and backs like the legacies do.

I get what you’re saying, and it’s true. But almost hubs are not hubs, as you said yourself. You can’t just put a hard brake in DEN to recover your resources and start again, the planes need to flow OUT of DEN, then traverse points to recover before finally returning, when you can start recovering.

So yes, somewhere in the middle, but that doesn’t truly help a full system reset like a hub would in this scenario.

You're joking, right??

Please don’t mistake my post for making excuses for SWA or their management. It’s a complete $h!t operation and that was readily apparent to those of us that joined the airline through the shotgun wedding over a decade ago, but god forbid you called it out back then. Well, finally the line swine have seen the light.

Me? I could care less. Give me the work rules to make these meltdowns exceedingly lucrative. It’s just really disheartening to watch the pax suffer as bad as they have. They don’t have the option of jumpseating home offline like we do.

Brother, if I mistake a No Waivers No Favors flag bearer for a management apologist it’s definitely time for my pasture.

Except it 100% does though.

With a hub you simply cancel a turn and the airplane is back on schedule. If a focus city in a point to point system goes down, you can't just overfly that city with paying passengers onboard. Let's say the aircraft routing is LAS-DEN-STL. Are you going to overfly DEN and land in STL with LAS-DEN passengers?

SWA could switch to a hub system built around their existing focus cities and triangle pairings, but they would lose a ton of aircraft utilization. Which is exactly why they don't do it.

Hub and spoke or not, when your airline has literally lost operational control, it’s going to meltdown in a severe way. I don’t think you’re appreciating the severity of what has happened regarding crews & crew-scheduling.

Imo the most worrying thing out of the whole deal is that SWA was turning thousands of passengers loose, far from home, with nothing but an IOU. For most people in our profession it’s no big deal, whip out the Hilton Amex and enjoy the points; but there are plenty of people who simply can’t float 5 days of hotel and food on a credit card 1,000 miles from home with a vague promise of future reimbursement.

Based on how they’re treated on a *good* operational day in the airline industry I shudder to think what was happening to the very old, confused, wheelchair bound, UM’s, etc.

They need to get slapped hard for this. You cannot leave people without food or shelter for a week due to operational incompetence.

Buses, or UPS Ground?