Photo credit to Craig Sunter – Thanx 2 Million ;-)) on flickr
Mates, we love you, but you got this one wrong.
A story running yesterday on The Telegraph‘s website, reporting on the grounding of 128 Southwest Airlines 737s, attempted to serve its readers some British context with their PG Tips by asserting (in the subhead and three times in the body of the story) that Southwest Airlines is “often described as the US equivalent of Ryanair.” About this assertion, we will whinge with the ever-reliable comment section – and together ask, “exactly who is it that describes Southwest Airlines as ‘the US equivalent of Ryanair’?” No one, right?
The article states:
“The low-cost US carrier, whose business model was said to have inspired the Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary, was investigated by US authorities…”
Yes, both are categorically “low-cost” carriers, but off paper, the reality shows two airline products almost completely at odds with one another, specifically in a few key areas:
Checked bag fees
- Ryanair: The fares are often unbelievably low, but should often literally not be believed thanks to some out-of-control nickel-and-diming – and that starts with checked bag fees. Each piece of luggage you dare check will cost you £15-£45 (also the same figures in Euros, which is weird), with a maximum weight of 15-20 kg (roughly 33-55 lbs). Every kg you run over your allotted mass will cost you an extra £10 (or €10; again, why are these interchangeable?).
- Southwest: Famously does not charge for your first two checked bags, each of which you can stuff with up to 50 lbs. If you pack too many pairs of shoes or turtlenecks, or whatever else it is you pack, into an oversized bag, you’ll be Southwest dinged with a $75 charge.
Change fees
- Ryanair: Again, the nickel-and-diming is not very popular, and Ryanair’s change fees – £30-£60 (or Euros) online and £45-£90 (or Euros) in person, plus the fare difference – can be infuriating. Of course, most airlines also charge such a fee, but…
- Southwest: No change fees. Yes, you have to pay the fare difference if there is one, but that’s just how math works. The key point here is that Southwest lets you change flight after flight, to infinity and beyond, without it stepping in to take more money from you.
Frequent-flier program
- Ryanair: Nope! Ryanair’s frequent-flier program is non-existent (though, to be honest, in a way that’s more honorable than having an increasingly worthless and incredibly frustrating award program. Cough, cough, Delta).
- Southwest: True to the name it trades as on the NYSE – LUV – Southwest returns love to frequent flyers with its apparently award-winning Rapid Rewards program (even after its recent devaluation, it’s still pretty rewarding).
Customer service
- Ryanair: Famously charges per minute to talk to its customer service department, so while you’re already frustrated sitting on hold, you can ask yourself, “Should I continue to rack up a bill when I know I will receive no help anyway, or should I just cut my losses?” Of course, you can also try using Ryanair’s live web chat, which, when we checked, looked like this:
- Southwest: The airline that literally wears its heart on the bellies of its new livery also has market-leading customer service, even saying, “Customer Service is #1 for us. We like to think of ourselves as a Customer Service company that happens to fly airplanes.” Enough said.
Position on charging flyers for bathroom use in-flight
- Ryanair: CEO Michael O’Leary, a man unapologetically, amusingly, militantly committed to cutting costs, gave this idea public and serious consideration in 2010. He also pondered removing a bathroom altogether. And that’s just two on a list of brainstorms shared unabashedly in the name of the bottom line. See this list here.
- Southwest: Against, at least publicly. Thank you for your humanizing silence, CEO Gary Kelly.
Position on charging a fat tax
- Ryanair: First of all, “fat tax” is pulled directly from the mouth of a Ryanair spokesman. The context? The airline was considering implementing one, and so it polled flyers on its website in a hunt for justification. As can be interpreted from the spokesman’s language, it apparently found that justification, but later decided collecting the tax would complicate boarding procedure.
- Southwest: The loving airline includes a concerned page dedicated to “customers of size,” which delicately preaches that that those of size should not feel obligated to pay for an extra seat, and that a flight attendant will help them negotiate a more comfortable experience should they seek it.
Southwest’s is a model worth emulating. And to be fair to The Telegraph, Ryanair’s O’Leary has noticed, going so far as to actually call his airline “the Southwest of Europe, referring to the market void the two airlines have comparably filled as affordable short-haul options. CNN Money, too, reported that a 1991 visit with Southwest executives inspired today’s Ryanair, supporting The Telegraph‘s more flattering assertion.
And so, the record shows that the connection itself was excusable, even reasonable. The phrasing – as a direct yet detached comparison – was not. We’ll keep reading you, The Telegraph, but we believe that the impetus for in-flight bathroom fees draws an important line in the airline sand. We’re on the LUV side. We hope you understand.
