South by Southwest….Airlines That is

southwest-flight-attendants.jpg

It’s Media Day at Southwest Airlines.

For a blow by blow account of the festivities, you can check out Terry Maxon’s blog. He’s posting like a mad man. As usual.

Not surprisingly, the most interesting presentation for me this morning came from Southwest’s SVP of Marketing and Revenue Management, Dave Ridley.

Some of you may remember that Dave tried to retire in 2006, but that didn’t last long.

I have to thank Dave for acknowledging my efforts in getting the airline to change the name of their fare classes. You may recall that last year I said, right off the bat, that the airline’s decision to show customers three fare classes, with the first two dubbed “Business Select,” and “Business” was a mistake.

After four months of me harping on the subject, Southwest listened. And they changed the name of the fare class “Business” to “Anytime” fares.

Dave, your acknowledgment of our suggestion was most welcome. Glad I could help.

My latest rant has been whether or not the airline’s decision to dig in its heels on the “No Fees” marketing strategy will eventually come back to haunt them.

A couple of notes from comments we’ve heard so far from the folks at Southwest.

One, if not enough customers get “mad enough” nor are “smart enough” to make the choice for “no fees” rather than paying for all those pesky fees, Southwest would consider changing course.

So it’s up to the customers. If enough of them switch, and the airline’s revenues reflect that fact — I think the message is that the airline will continue with its current campaign.

If not — the airline has been pretty clear that it will consider shifting gears.

Now — there is the matter of wi-fi. Yes, the airline is going to start experimenting with its Row 44 product before the end of the year. Will it be free? Ah….no. But the airline has not decided how it is going to price the product. But it sounds like it is going to be a sliding scale, based on the length of flight. As Dave said, “After all, if you’re talking about Dallas-Austin, you’re not going to have more than 20 minutes or so in the air when you can use it.”

More later.