Not directed at Glenn but just for balance ...

Just like life, the airline industry is a crap shoot.

Timing and luck is everything and you won't know how you did until it is over or nearly over.

UAL was my first choice so I am lucky. I put American off ... just couldn't get in the right mood to put fecal matter in the plastic cup. Never applied to DAL ... knew I wouldn't fit in. Others were second tier choices and there were third tier as well.

Had I gone to American I would have done pretty much the same as UAL. Had I applied and gone to DAL I would not have done as well and would experienced a furlough. Other choices would not have gone as well. At the time SWA wasn't even a consideration.

I have been lucky. Not smart in making the best choice, just lucky.

YMMV

I quit SWA-no regrets, I love it here, despite being on the bottom.
Yeah, we have our PR "Challenges" but the people are generally pretty great, we have an awesome network and I think we are on a good path to the future.
There are a lot of contractual items that we have that Southwest does not, but they have a great trip trade system (ours is just ok)

You will make a ton of money there and work with great people.
You will make a ton of money here and work with great people.
Throw some spaghetti on the wall and flip a coin, because it really doesn't matter.

Thanks for the reminder ... Yes, I love it here ... It's been a lot of fun.

http://i.imgur.com/gQdDOoG.jpg

Certainly is rough carrying all that baggage.

Not to worry.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...se-money-again

Yeah ... American and Doug have that going for them ... Which is nice.

As far as other airlines furloughing, past performance does guarantee future results.

Hypothetically, if Mike Van deVen was the SWA CEO/President I think he would be more likely to furlough than Oscar Munoz.
(No doubt that Scooter would do it in a heartbeat)
There are so many factors that you can’t just blindly say because they didn’t do it before they’re not going to do it again… People forget the Southwest tried to furlough, but their union prevented it.
Delta never furloughed until they furloughed.

One thing to remember: Herb is not there anymore.

Nope. It's all good "talk" until the corporation is threatened. Then all bets are off. This applies to any company, no matter how nice they were in the past.

Last downturn SWA was fortunate enough to have significant fuel hedges in place which saved the day when fuel spiked and decimated the rest of the industry. Note that SWA had not unilaterally predicted a fuel spike, they were just trying to flatten their expenses for predictable earnings forecasting.

While its better to be lucky than good, had those fuel hedges not been in place the carnage would have been significant and unlike virtually anything SWA had faced in the past.

Summer classes this year at United. That long wait might be much shorter than expected...