Planes, Trains, and a Dončić. Oh My!

by Adreana Hamilton

At a time when American citizens are afraid of planes falling out of the sky and increasing egg prices, the last thing they expected was for Southwest Airlines to step away from their 54-year-long tradition of offering free checked bags. 

What was their reasoning behind the change?  

Money. The company is looking to increase its profits even more following a 15% job cut last summer. The company stated they lose out on about $1.8 billion by offering free baggage.  

Is this a bad PR move for Southwest?  

Southwest finally addressed the elephant in the room days after the news broke of the bag policy update by posting a “humorous” meme followed by a short declaration of who gets free checked baggage and an attempt to reassure the public that their hospitality hasn’t changed.  

“It’s not like we traded Luka.”  

In some scenarios this approach resonates well with the public, but upon reading the comments, their customers didn’t find it funny and doubled down on their disdain for the new bag policy changes. One highly supported comment reads: 

“‘Free checked bags and open seating isn’t apart of our DNA’ ironic because that's what yall were founded on lol. ‘We need to be more profitable’ says the company who profited 435 million last year alone.” 

By taking this approach, the company subjected themselves to more scrutiny from the public. Hopefully they take customer concerns more seriously in the future.  

Who’s benefiting from Southwest’s bad press?  

Many people have taken the opportunity to promote Delta Airlines amid this PR crisis, though the company themselves have not released any comments about the situation. 

As the saying goes, a wise man once said nothing.  

Amtrak posted a humorous thread amid the situation that reads, “guess we’re the only ones doing free baggage now.” 

Some found it clever, some pointed out how expensive they are, and some reminded them of the DEI stance they took not too long ago.  

What could companies do to not receive a negative response? It seems companies are walking on eggshells in our current political and economic environment.  

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