Last night’s Saturday Night Live had a skit that aviation geeks may enjoy…
Southwest’s “upgraded airline experience”
On Saturday, January 28, 2023, SNL spoofed Southwest Airlines in a roughly two minute clip. This follows the carrier’s meltdown over the holidays, which stranded over a million travelers, and caused Southwest to lose $800(ish) million.
Heidi Gardner and Devon Walker play the roles of Southwest employees, who are introducing a “new, upgraded airline experience.” Among other things, here’s what that consists of:
- The entire communications system will be upgraded to 2008 Dell computers, replacing the 2002 ThinkPad laptops “with the little red nipple in the middle”
- There will be no more missing baggage at baggage claim, because all luggage will be sorted by color, making it the passengers’ responsibility to not lose bags; red bags go to Dallas, while blue bags go to Charlotte
- Southwest is introducing a new “Premiere Lounge,” located inside an active Starbucks, where they just hold down two to three tables
- Southwest’s air traffic control network will be modernized; there will be no more pen and paper, but rather the old IBM ThinkPad laptops will now be used, so pilots will no longer find out where they’re going 15 minutes before departure
- Inflight staff will be “upgraded” strictly to people who used to work at Waffle House, and “these big b!tches don’t play”
- The segment ends by saying that some of the fault of the meltdown lies with customers, because “you bought a Southwest ticket, you obviously don’t respect yourself, so why should we?”
This is… kind of funny?
View from the Wing writes about this SNL segment, and think it’s “really funny.” Personally I’m more in the “it’s a little bit funny” camp, though admittedly humor is highly subjective.
As is common with these kinds of skits, the humor is kind of targeted at the lowest common denominator. I tend to think the best kind of humor is when it’s actually true. So I thought the mention of the computer upgrade was hilarious, since it does kind of reflect the outdated technology being used in the airline industry.
Meanwhile I wasn’t as amused by red and blue bag comments, or even by suggesting that people don’t respect themselves for flying Southwest. As much as I’m not a Southwest flyer, Southwest is the most full service airline in the United States, with two free checked bags, no charges for carry-ons, no basic economy, free changes on all tickets with vouchers that don’t expire, etc.
I don’t know why it’s the case, but it’s funny to me how Southwest generally gets bunched in with carriers like Allegiant and Spirit when it comes to the services they offer (of course those carriers also add a lot of value to the market, but should come with more of a “buyer beware” warning).
Bottom line
Southwest Airlines was spoofed by SNL this weekend, in a skit that outlined an “upgraded” Southwest experience. I always enjoy mainstream comedy coverage of airlines. This was funny, though there have been some SNL airline skits that I’ve enjoyed more in the past.
What do you make of this Southwest Airlines SNL clip?
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