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Comment by WalterBright | Hacker News Reader

The article complains about automation replacing workers. This complaint goes back to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, but automation has enabled us to sit in warm houses and watch Netflix all day rather than spending every day picking bugs off of our crops.

The other thing it complains about is cutting costs. Well, Southwest has the cheapest air fares. You don't get top flight customer service when you buy the cheap seats. Customers have shown that they prefer lower prices to better service. They voted with their dollars.

McDonald's has replaced their cashiers with a kiosk. There's still a cashier there, but most of the customers (including me) prefer the kiosk because (at least in my case) it's faster.

The other day I went to a full service restaurant with a friend. Two burgers and a couple drinks went for $130. The restaurant was mostly empty, with more staff than customers. I don't think they're going to last.

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On the other hand I went to a nice restaurant the other night that wanted me to use an automated app to order, I found it somewhat offensive.

There are times I actually enjoy not looking at any type of screen and having a nice meal is one of those times.

I hate it too. And in the same sentence, they will talk about “human connection”, “local”, “organic”.

My family has been flying SW almost exclusively for 10 years and this Christmas was the first problem we’ve encountered.

Something definitely changed with the new CEO because the usually happy workers were much less so. For instance, they used to have somewhat unique and entertaining scripts for the flight education before takeoff, but for the past few years they stick to the boring version the other airlines deliver.

Maybe there’s something else going on, and my observation is wrong, and it’s all a combination of shitty managers and outdated software

There was a Reddit post two days back from a SWA pilot that covers some of that - https://www.reddit.com/r/SouthwestAirlines/comments/zxg6op/t...

The summary is that Herb Kelleher (CEO until 2004) was operations-focused, he was replaced by Gary Kelly who had a finance background and appointed as COO someone with a similar background. Kelly retired early 2022 and was replaced by Bob Jordan, getting back to an operations focused leader. Alas, the operational neglect of Kelly's tenure wasn't quickly overcome.

I didn't think what happened with Southwest could get so bad but my last flight with them was in 2021. Post-early COVID, it was pretty obvious every airline was struggling with reduced and/or ill staff. I flew from the East Coast with a 1 hr layover in Las Vegas that turned into multiple hours, at night, with everything outside of the gambling areas closed down. Kids crying for food, all that. Finally, the staff for the flight from Vegas to LA showed up. They had to call them in and specially ask them to take this last flight of ours. I've also sat next to a Southwest pilot on a flight transferring to another city.

They haven't had "cheap" fares for a while nor have their staff had the quirky friendliness I had seen on flights when I started flying with them some 15 years ago.

The US domestic airline industry a patient that's always on life-support and pretty much upheld by government bailouts and bankruptcies at this point. I've probably mentioned it here before but the first chapter of David Dayen's "Monopolized" covers some of the sources of the issues going on there. It's a bad mix for something that has become important infrastructure, especially since we have no redundancy on the ground with something like rail traffic.

>>McDonald's has replaced their cashiers with a kiosk

I cant wait until they open one of their fully automated places near me. I will be the first one through that line

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