Updated: Nov 1, 7:32am PT.
For the record, I really do like Southwest Airlines (SWA). I’ve flown them dozens of times but not hundreds, like I’ve flown the other major carriers because I cherish assigned seating, confirmed seats with extra legroom and first class upgrades. Flying SWA is just too much of a risk for getting a bad seat (if you don’t check-in or show up to the airport in time). But I’ve always loved the carrier’s fun attitude (the flight attendants are often hilarious), the two free checked bags and no change fees.
However, it seems the airline has lost its way recently. It began two weeks ago and I wrote a post, Why You Shouldn’t Book Southwest or American Airlines This Holiday Season, addressing it. The post was about how Southwest canceled over a thousand flights and blamed the weather while no other airline nor the FAA said weather was a factor. Weather only played a small part in the problem when Jacksonville airport shut down for a short period. And yes, Southwest is a point-to-point airline so even a little hiccup could cause serious problems. Combine that with the fact that the airline aggressively tries to serve too many flights and cities, which also set them back. But no doubt, the main reason were staffing issues including some pilots calling in sick in retaliation for the federal vaccine mandate.
Even though the airline and their pilots union vehemently denied that was the cause, I know for a fact this definitely played a small part as I have pilot friends who are in a closed Facebook Group with other pilots who said that was the case. FYI: There’s also a push for unvaccinated pilots to stick together and call in sick November 8-11 but that’s a whole other story.
Now, the latest hiccup for Southwest is that one of their pilots on a Houston to Albuquerque flight Friday morning signed off his greeting over the public address system with the phrase, “Let’s go, Brandon.” There was an AP reporter on the flight and she said there were audible gasps from some passengers.
After reading multiple stories about this, I had to do some research since I didn’t know the meaning behind “Let’s go, Brandon.” Well it turns out, “Let’s go, Brandon” stands for “F—- Joe Biden.” According to the Associated Press: “It started at an Oct. 2 NASCAR race at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Brandon Brown, a 28-year-old driver, had won his first Xfinity Series and was being interviewed by an NBC Sports reporter. The crowd behind him was chanting something at first difficult to make out. The reporter suggested they were chanting “Let’s go, Brandon” to cheer the driver. But it became increasingly clear they were saying: “F—- Joe Biden.” NASCAR and NBC have since taken steps to limit “ambient crowd noise” during interviews, but it was too late — the phrase already had taken off.”
“Let’s go, Brandon” is definitely way better than actually saying “F—- Joe Biden” which I’ve seen on t-shirts and flags flying from houses (including one of my eccentric relatives) but I don’t care who is named. I would be offended if it read “F—- Donald Trump” and I really dislike the man.
But when pilots start pulling this nonsense and there are no repercussions, it’s not going to end well. Until Southwest (and American Airlines) deal with their pilots and the vaccine mandate, travel over the holidays isn’t going to be very merry. UPDATED: Southwest Investigating Pilot’s Anti-Biden Insult During Flight
Oh, and did I mention that, according to FlightAware.com, so far today (9:11am ET), Southwest has canceled 185 flights and American has canceled 670? To put that in perspective, United has canceled 10 flights and delayed 39 Delta 3. See screenshot below.
Yesterday (Oct 30): Southwest canceled 87 flights and delayed 745. American canceled 543 and delayed 432? To put that in perspective, United has canceled 18 flights and Delta Air Lines canceled 2, See screenshot below.
FYI: I will also probably still book LAX-JFK flights on AA since I have top tier elite status with them so getting free upgrades and knowing these flights are least likely to cancel outweigh the risks.
Why are you even going into political commentary about this Brandon stuff? I started to read your article about SW and AA then you stray into this crap. I always liked you Johnny and also liked your guest appearances on TWIT but now you have turned into Johnny the jerk. Stay on subject when you pick a topic you idiot. You ruined your followers enjoyment when reading your articles and also your reputation. Way to go Johnny jerk !
No one talks about herd immunity anymore. We have it. The mandates are only there to hide the real issues. The millions waking across the borders, the Americans left in Afghanistan, the prices of everything going up because of a terrible administration. China and Russia dominating the world stage. The disaster curriculum that’s being taught in schools, I can go on and on. So why not do something so outrageous that it will take the focus off of that? So when they tell people to put something in your body that no one can tell you what the long term affects are, and some people don’t want to at this time. They rather wait a while, don’t mind being tested weekly, well they say, ABSOLUTELY NOT. don’t worry about future health issues. It’s like when the say ” you have to sign the bill to know what’s in it” its stupid! So now, they are allowing the firefighters, police, nurses, doctors and others, who in the hight of the Pandemic were at work, saving lives for an agenda. I too work for an airline. We flew during the hight of the Pandemic. But we will not let this administration dictate what to put in our bodies. Its only the beginning. These mandates are the beginning of the loss of freedom in this country. Ones they get this,, it will never stop.. So let’s see what happens when traveling for Thanksgiving and Christmas is canceled! Then that will also dominate the headlines hiding the real issues we face
Haha. I love reading the comments from all the hillbilly pea-brain Trump supporters who are probably the only group to most likely fly on these fourth tier crappy airlines. As usual, they vote against their own interests. They have lousy jobs, make minimum wage and hate others who have more than them. They go through life angry and sad and think by yelling Brandon they’re striking back. L.MAO.
Biden is proactively trying to destroy America. Or should I say, whoever is behind Joe Biden running his puppet mouth is trying to destroy America. Probably Obama and his cronies.
Let’s Go Brandon!
You are reporter and you had no idea what “Lets go Brandon” means? I call BS on that 100%. You state how people shouldn’t fly Southwest or American but you say you are still going to fly American because you had eflite status that sounds you should be a politician. This country is in a freefall over the last 8 months and all i can say is “vamos Brandon”.
The problem with Mr Trump is quite simple. It doesn’t take a psychiatrist to realize he not only has extremely serious mental health problems but is obviously unpresidential and unpatriotic. It is extremely dangerous for our wonderful country to have him in the White House.
Johnny.
30 year retiree from AA.
Stop crying. These are humans flexing what little power they have over Government tyranny.
I applaud them and shame on you
Absolutely
Let’s Go Brandon!
They’ve been hacked. That’s all I’ll say.
Cheers.
Love is BLM, Antifa, burning down police precincts and defunding the police. Love is leaving American citizens in Afghanistan to be beheaded by the Taliban, treating our first responders as dirty because they will not take mRNA gene altering therapy when they saved your ass for 18 months of pandemic. Love is accepting all illegal alien rapists and murderers through free-flowing borders and not requiring them to vaccinate, but making it impossible for U.S. citizens to make a livelihood without a “vaccination”. It is conservatives that hate others right? Wait for it…..total and complete economic collapse headed your way. No food on the shelves. Gas at $7 a gallon. Commodity inflation and taxes costing your family $500 more a month. This is true liberal love. Accept it, don’t fight it. We all need to be more accepting of eachother right? This will be your last snowflake utopian thought as an illegal alien is murdering your entire family and taking everything you have without a second thought. Maybe the angry orange man and his wall were not such a bad idea. LET’S GO BRANDON!!
Relax snowflake
Let’s go brandon!!
#fjb
I see the problem, based on these comments. It is OK to use code words that basically are obscene Now I know why so many people can’t go five seconds without using the F word. I hope you all feel good about yourselves.