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> the actual story here is that Southwest has had a complete operational failure and is simply incapable of determining where their crews are, what flights they are eligible for, and associating them with flights on the schedule.

This is amazing. Southwest was famous for its operational efficiency and quality. Companies eagerly learned from them. I wonder what has changed.

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Nothing necessarily changed. Efficiency can become fragility, and quality is rarely measured in a way that includes rare events—partly by definition, and partly because we tend to ignore externalities and unlikely scenarios when we make evaluations.

it's definitely epic. I know this is anecdotal but a friend of mine and pilot for Southwest had to pay for his own hotel room after he captained a flight a couple of days ago. SW apparently thought he was in another state (and it wasn't a neighboring one) even though he just flew the flight that they scheduled him on. Not long (hours) after that he was told to drive to the nearest Southwest physical location and check in. Rumor is that all Southwest pilots were told that a physical presence was required to verify location.

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