Well yesterday I got into a (somewhat heated) debate over my last post, Southwest and the “Tail(s) of Two Hotties.” Granted it was with a friend, actually one of my best friends, who is just as opinionated as I am, so go figure. But I have a lot of respect for him, he raised some good points, and I would like to re-post them here. Note: I did ask him to sign up for the site but he’s rather busy as the founder of a big company and so I understand as he just doesn’t have any time except for that required of an occasional visit now and then. For the sake of anonymity, I’ll just refer to him as LKKIII.

My friend’s main points:

• Southwest should not be telling it’s customers how to dress
• Hottie #1 is not looking for 15 minutes of fame
• Southwest should put it’s customers first, not it’s employees
• My friend’s quote: “I wouldn’t have thought you’d have a problem with skimpy dressed women on airplanes, I was surprised”

I’m going to address my friend’s points now.

Southwest should not be telling it’s customers how to dress
I agree, but I guess I just didn’t do a good enough job of saying that in the post- My main focus was on the 15 minutes of fame element, the part I still disagree with as far as everything is concerned.

Hottie #1 is not looking for 15 minutes of fame
My friend said that Hottie #1 is being offered money and invites to appear on national TV, as opposed to pursuing it. Well I suppose that’s true. But isn’t Hottie #2? I can’t imagine she isn’t… So where has she been?

Southwest should put it’s customers first, not it’s employees
Ah…. Okay well I understand that’s a staple of modern business today, and I’m not going to argue with someone of my friend’s statue and position in the business world over it. I’m not saying that’s wrong either.

But exactly not doing that is one of the things that has made Southwest “work.” What I mean by that is this: In an industry where employee morale seems to determine to a large extent an airline’s ultimate success or failure, Southwest has demonstrated that by empowering their employees and making them feel important, they then become owners and therefore show a higher sense of concern for the company’s overall well being by default. Southwest president Colleen Barrett recently stated “We are in the customer-service business; we happen to offer air transportation. We consider our employees to be our number one customer, our passengers our second and our shareholders our third. If we give great customer service to our employees as leaders, they will in turn provide it to their customers, who are the passengers. And the rewards will be there for our shareholders.” I believe that any company is only as good as it’s employees.

My friend’s quote: “I wouldn’t have thought you’d have a problem with skimpy dressed women on airplanes, I was surprised”
I don’t. In fact the last thing I typed was: “Maybe Southwest will see all this as a wake up call and finally revert to it’s old (and much more preferred - Author) flight attendant uniforms…? Fingers crossed”

And with that I leave you with this: Go to Southwest’s website and take advantage of their new “Skimpy Fares” sale!

And to my friend, thank you for your interesting viewpoints and I hope to one day see you join up here.

~Capt’n Chris

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