Ah, Southwest Airlines. When it comes to what airlines have made the MOST changes over the past few months, nevermind UNPOPULAR changes, the award easily goes to you.
Back in late January, assigned seating officially came to the airline with three separate sections of seats — Extra Legroom, Preferred, and Standard. Now, you can still book a ticket and not select a seat if you don’t really care where you’re seated, but that might change if this new announcement is true. The airline is now allegedly testing pulling back on cleaning certain seats…and those seats are the cheapest.
According to the New York Post, the Transport Workers Union Local 556 represents Southwest Airlines flight attendants, and the safety chair for the union, Chris Click, recently received a memo regarding “the experiment they’re doing with cleaners coming on board and cleaning the airplane.” What experiment could that be, you ask? Well, Click went on to create a video (which has now been deleted), speculating that the experiment is prioritizing higher-class passengers when it comes to cleaning the seats.
Yes, that means that the rumor is that, in order to save time and get the plane in the air faster, flight attendants will only clean the higher-priced seats, not second-class seats and tray tables. In response to this rumor, many travelers were outraged, taking to social media to voice their frustrations. However, a Southwest representative contradicted the Click’s memo, saying that their flight attendants “tidy every aircraft between every flight today,” but continued on to say that the “extended leg room seats are toward the front of the plane, so they see more foot traffic than the seats in the back.” Yes, the extended leg room seats are indeed some of the most expensive seats on board. They finished their quote by saying, “We will continue to make sure our aircraft are ready for every Customer, regardless of where their seats are on the plane.”
This news comes just a few days after serious criticism of Southwest’s new seating policy. If this proves to be true, it seems that while flight attendants will still tidy up the whole cabin by picking up trash, it seems no one will be responsible for sanitizing second-class cabin seats and tray tables. If that is truly the case, we suggest bringing wipes with you on your next flight to ensure you can clean your seats (in general, we suggest bringing that along on basically any trip to be safe!).
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We’ll be sure to keep you updated on all the latest information we hear about this potential change, so stay tuned to AllEars!
Southwest Airlines Announces Major Wi-Fi CHANGE
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How do you feel about this potential change? Tell us in the comments!
To clarify, Southwest flight attendants NEVER cleaned the tray tables and yes, you should always use wipes before using them on ANY airline. Also, yes, they are doing an extra cleaning of the ELR seats in SOME cities, but it is just a little carpet vacuum they do.