Hahaha. Are you running for SWAPA MC perchance?

 

True - but all of them are nowhere near the level of innovation delivered by other enterprise business solutions.

I’d argue that most of them are not a great economic success but more of a “hobby job” done out of necessity - and typical catering to a few anchor customers only.

the market is simply to small with too much regulatory fragmentation to attract some real investors / developers.

 

So you’ve participated in RFI, RFP, and/or technical implementation of these systems and have specific knowledge of their direct programmatic complexities and capabilities? Can you provide examples of how any of the listed options would have NOT resulted in an improved recovery over the current solution?

 

I can offer one example—the epic fail of the Crew Buddy replacement. Here we had a SWA pilot that developed a 100% user friendly interface at a reasonable subscription rate. It had pretty much all the extras needed (including destination weather, hotel info etc.). Company was rumored to be in purchase talks and then backed out. They allegedly stole some tech (wasn’t copyrighted so whatever) and came out with a poor functioning app that is totally a sub-par product probably the summer project for an IT intern.

This is the mentality.

What about the weather meltdown from about a year ago where we couldn’t get a release because an Amazon cloud feature failed? Really?! We have no FAA weather backup?

Seriously? As a corporate pilot I had way more resources to get a flight out by myself.

 

Any of the mentioned solutions would probably be better than the current process from what I understand it is (I am not at SWA)

My point was that aviation IT solutions are notoriously legacy oriented while also requiring tons of customization (meaning big $$$$). I can only assume that this is a contributing factor that SWA did not implement anything yet. But I suppose that will change.

 

Holy Christ... you don't and may you never know what you're talking about.

This level of ignorance can only be cured by speaking with people who fled communism. You clearly have NO idea what communism is, let alone living under it. Whack and I do because we both lived under it.

For Pete's sakes... please, PLEASE pick up a book and talk to someone who's lived under both systems. Or.... are you perhaps one of those who thinks "it'll be different here"?

 

I never like it when people rubberneck past an accident on the freeway, but here I am… in the southwest forum! I will say I have the southwest credit card and you’re my first choice on my patterns that have a commercial ticket.

I see some comments by pilots thinking about options at other airlines, and I thought I would tread into these risky waters! I was at Northwest and I experienced a strike, 2 IT melt downs, bankruptcy, etc. There was a snow storm in Detroit dumping a lot of snow and the airport was totally overloaded. Dispatch just kept sending the planes. People stranded on the aircraft for 9 hours les to new laws and a class action lawsuit costing $7 million in the year 2000.

in any case, I thought I’d sharp shoot the system… so I went to the cargo side after 10 years with Northwest. Then came age 65 retirement, parking 3 man planes, global financial crisis… so the 5 year upgrade at cargo turned into 12 years. Had I stayed at Northwest… quicker upgrades and more seniority at Delta. I’d retire in the top 100 I think.

I have completely enjoyed my career. I have liked aspects of every carrier I’ve worked for, but it’s torture when you’re not given the tools to do your job or you’re not treated like a valuable assest. Pilots are nothing but a cost item, and we’re treated more like a horse hitched to a carriage. Unbridled capitalism has left little value to intangibles such as happy employees and investing in an item that doesn’t justify itself immediately. Wall Street runs things… sorry for the tangent…

sooooo… I guess what I wanted to share is that the magic eight ball works as well as anything in the airline industry. You won’t know until the end of your career if you made the right choices. When you make your choices, don’t look back. Nobody want to hear “I could have been a Captain at xyz.” As bad as you feel today, you will feel a lot different in a year. All airlines have happy employees when planes are coming, upgrades are happening, and there is a raise. We feel horrible when there are planes parked, furloughed, and bankruptcies. Good luck with your choices. There really are no wrong choices. I think this will force Southwest to upgrade systems to something like the 1990s! I enjoy riding on you guys, so hold the course… and BTW… if you want to feel better, I don’t recommend reading twitter comments or reading statements by your CEO.

I bought a Southwest ticket for my 15 year old son from SLC coming back from skiing with a friend. It’s not until 3 days, so I hope you guys get it together!

 

This comment led me to daydream about what a meltdown at Spirit would look like ha ha ha ha

 

This is a fair take on why SWA management failed to implement a solution that could have prevented this, but not an example of the available solutions lacking the automation capability to not lose thousands of pilots. In fairness, what you identify is far more important, the root of the issue if you will.

 

actually I think the SW situation had to do with its size, and still using old IT. Spirit, Frontier, etc may not be big enough (yet) to suffer this. SW has ???? 750 airplanes