Southwest Airlines Reviews

Pros

Well what can i say? Nice company to work for. Good financial stability - the company won't be going under anytime soon. Good job perks

Cons

Rude customers - but whatever airline you works for you are going to get those few who find it necessary to make a big deal out of everything!!

Pros

Good environment, very positive culture.
Employees brag about how long they've worked there, rather be ashamed.
Ample opportunity for advancement if motivated/inclined
good benefits
union positions in a "right to work" state ensures good treatment of employees.

Cons

mandatory overtime, feeling lost in the crowd. starting pay is fairly low, but after time becomes much better than other similar positions.

Advice to Senior Management

find more ways to keep existing employees motivated, several employees view their sick leave as entitlement to take off when they aren't sick. The culture is very friendly, but sometimes seems stagnant regarding performance. Also realize that the employees are human, 60+ hour work weeks are rough on a person, as they are on a budget. Better staffing forcasting/hiring practices could be a win-win for the company and the employees.

Pros

The best and only benefit was the free flights. This only applies if your single and you don't mind riding 3rd which I did not mind at all.If you are trying to fly with your family you better have a plan B,C,and a car rental on stand by.

Cons

At Nashville there was not enough open carts for the offload drivers, and where taken by others all the time.I got off my tug after my flight to get my next flight info. which took all of 4 minutes only to see my sup. given my carts away as my next flight was already on the ground. 87 transfer bags were put on a old narrow cart making it very unsafe, unstable, and had to be for the most part completely offloaded, reloaded at each transfer gate with no help at all. Management did make and waste the time in writing me up because some bags missed there connection.What a joke it was. Great job on there part for placing the blame on someone else. Don't make the same mistake I did and tell them you have medical issues and your a diabetic covered under the FMLA laws that are supposed to protect you. They will use that information to terminate you as well.

Advice to Senior Management

After 8.5 years at Southwest I realize that SWA had given me a great chance,only to have POOR, Vindictive, Hateful management take it all away.I don't care what the cost is I personally will never fly, or recommend SWA to anyone at any time Ever. I ones was so proud to be a part of SWA,now I'm ashamed . There is no LUV anymore.

Pros

Great company, professional work ethics yet relaxing environment and caring supervisor. Truly lives up to the motto of Warrior's Spirit, Servant Heart and Fun-Luving Attitude.

Cons

WIth the airline growing, floor space are getting limited.

Pros

I continue to be amazed at how much I enjoy working here. Like everyone else we have our ups and downs but the ups far outweigh the downs. It's hard to leave the family week after week to fly around the country but the people I work with here makes it all worth it when you have to go to work. Southwest is a family in itself and I am happy to contribute to continue to make this a great place to work. I watch fellow employees take the bull by the horns to resolve problems and truly go out of their way to make people happy. Southwest has lived by the golden rule in their dealings with me and it makes it easy to go out of your way to provide the best customer service when you feel like you are part of the company that treats people right and not just an employee.

Cons

The aviation industry has always been filled with uncertainty and as such Southwest is not immune to the forces affecting every airline. With that being said I have to put my trust in the leadership of the company to make the right choices and if the right people are not put in the right jobs our culture could slowly disappear. So the Con would be that the future of the company depends on our leadership and our employees to maintain our culture and as of today I believe it is happening but it remains to be seen if we can continue to pull it off year after year. I know I will try my hardest to keep the culture alive, but will all those around me not... "lose that luving feeling?"

Advice to Senior Management

Go all out and do whatever it takes to make the AirTran transition a smooth one. I know how Southwest treated me when I was new here and I hope the AirTran folks will feel the LUV because all of our futures depend on it. We can be an unstoppable power house if this goes well and I can't wait to see and be a part of Southwest five (or 25) years from now.

Pros

Promotions
Great hours
Free flight benefits
Lots of overtime

Cons

Hard hiring process
On call for short notice

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more to your employees

Pros

Co-workers, definitely the co-workers. Just a bunch of great people. Good supervisors, too. And overall, a good place to work.

Cons

Working on holidays is often difficult and stressful. People are cranky, they want to get home for Christmas, it's just rough.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work! Keep open dialogue with employees, maintain the spirit of fun at Southwest and keep on flying.

Pros

Flight benifits
Health insurance
ot
company treated there employees great
give up work days to other employees and not get punished for it

Loved working there, I just wish they had part time so i could of stayed. I had to get another job because pay was so low i couldnt afford to survive. I could of given up my days to other employees but since they were so short and ot was so available you had to pay someone to take your days. Its not like that now they wre begging people for there scheds

Cons

starting pay was really low
had to get days off
when i worked there they were really busy and short handed so mandatory ot even if you didnt want it
didnt have pt because they were so busy and short

Pros

I had a great experience with Southwest Airlines the company really likes its employees and shows in the company spirit. The benefits, flight passes were very very good!! for the most part the co workers I had were great to work with, and have fun along with a good group of employees. The opportunity to move around the system to other airports and cities is really exciting and the company does like to allow you to make such moves.

Cons

There however is some downsides I experienced, the management doesn't communicate well with the employees, and hides a lot of information that is useful to the employees until the last minute, and then like to play the "blame game" with the employees. There is also a lot of "setting up to fail" that the company does to employees. Not a lot of help with management assisting employees wanting to promote, unless you part of the "In" team.

Pros

It's really all about the people. Lot's of employers say that but SWA lives it every day. They treat you the way you want to be treated and they expect the same in return. This trickles down to every person in the company and is passed on to all of our great customers. SWA is a way of life and not just an employer.

Cons

Unfortunately, I'm in a specific management chain that isn't great in terms of feedback, I haven't had a mid-year review in nearly 3 years and there is never any feedback about doing a good job. There isn't any negative feedback either but it would be nice to have your work recognized once in a while instead of just taken for granted.

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure that the management objectives and style of senior leaders makes it down to ALL the trenches. Sometimes it seems like IT is left out because we don't fly, schedule, maintain, board, bag handle or customer interface even though ALL of these efforts now rely heavily on IT. In spite of that, I've worked and consulted in nearly 100 Fortune 500 shops and SWA is still the best place I've every worked.