Watch Southwest Airlines Get the Saturday Night Live Treatment
by Daniel McCarthyWhile Southwest Airlines is still trying to move on from its December meltdown, pop culture is not done talking about it yet, as evidenced by a skit in last weekend’s Saturday Night Live (SNL).
The SNL cast, along with host Michael B. Jordan, spoofed Southwest’s reaction to December’s meltdown that saw roughly half of its schedule, and 16,700 flights, canceled from Dec. 21, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2022, the peak of the holiday travel period.
The skit, which aired this past Saturday, sees the cast and Jordan portray Southwest employees talking about the “new and improved” experience on the airline.
For instance, while a lot of travelers exhausted themselves trying to track down lost bags during that period, the SNL Southwest crew is happy to tell all customers that luggage is not sorted by color, so make sure that if you’re headed to Dallas, you bring red bags with you, because the blue ones are headed to Charlotte.
While it mainly deals with ironic changes that the airline is going to make in light of the December meltdown, it also spoofs some of the key features of the low-cost-carrier segment, including no lounge access (Southwest will instead save you a seat at the airport Starbucks).
It’s worth noting that even with that meltdown, Southwest was ranked 5th in data analytics company Cirium’s 2022 On-Time Performance Review. The carrier had an on-time percentage of 74.06% across 1,336,888 flights in 2022, more than any other carrier in the top 10.
