Southwest new look and livery

[The Golden One]

[GFB]

Shouldn't the heart icon be flipped so that the lines run, you know, southwest?

[LMU]

And shouldn't the lines also flip so it's not implying "OMG, we're going down!"?

[cajunaggie08]

[Beckhamcantbendmiami]

I can not stress how much a downgrade this is. The plane design and the heart with wings logo was perfect for Southwest, and this is honestly really ugly.

But whatever. Like a plane design matters, it's still a extremely :censored:ty experience to go on one anyhow. Maybe they should fix that instead.

[kewp80]

Are they the new airline for Colombia or Ecuador? Massive downgrade IMO.

[TVIXX]

Swing and a miss

[Cosmic]

I like the new heart; I'm "meh" on the paint job.

[Top Shelf]

And in case you were wondering about how they'll handle the specialty planes:

[AndrewPF]

FlyFacebook

[DelayedPenalty]

FlyFacebook

That's all I can see with the white lowercase lettering on the blue backdrop.

[JPDesign]

Really? I don't get a Facebook vibe at all.

Vastly different blues, and a very different typeface. Facebook's typeface is much more square-ish than Southwest's.

I think this is a really great refresh. The plane design is much more recognizable and the heart mark is better than the image of the plane they had been using. I would've like to maybe see more of a throwback to the heart-wings logo, but this works for them.

[BrandMooreArt]

although i can appreciate the "without a heart its only a machine" direction i still think a heart is a cheesy icon for an airline's primary logo. but theres nothing about it that doesn't "work". the whole package does what it should and is different enough to separate them from competitors while similar enough (the word mark) to look like an airline.

if it were me i wouldnt paint the planes so heavily (cost and weight), i dont think there's any advantage to having a livery that screams "THIS IS US". the identity only needs to get you from the purchase point (say, cheaptickets.com) to the terminal. but, the livery is easy to like. from an entertainment point, its a cool look. i really love the California version.

[pianoknight]

I can not stress how much a downgrade this is. The plane design and the heart with wings logo was perfect for Southwest, and this is honestly really ugly.

But whatever. Like a plane design matters, it's still a extremely :censored:ty experience to go on one anyhow. Maybe they should fix that instead.

This guy nails it. Southwest is largely decent, however, which is as healthy a compliment I can award to an airline.

When boring and dependable is considered elite, you must be in the airline industry.

[pcgd]

I just never understand the hate for Southwest. I've never had a bad experience. I've had dozens on UniteDeltAmerican.

Yes there are no assigned seats, but you can get priority boarding for $10. Plus with no baggage fees you are still saving. Double plus, because there are no baggage fees you don't have yahoos putting Fiat sized bags in the overhead. It's also always a 737 so it's not a flying cigar like most the flights I have to take.

Let's put it this way, I fly about once a month for work at at some time or another I've said "I'm never flying ______ again!" about pretty much every airline except Southwest. UniteDeltAmerican have had pointless cancellations or epically awful customer service time and time again.

It's not a great experience and I'd be right there saying they suck, if all the other airlines didn't suck so much worse.

[wonderbread]

I use to call Delta, Dont Ever Leave The Airport because every time I had to fly with them they got delayed or canceled. I haven't flown on them in about 10 years or probably more.

[Cosmic]

Yes there are no assigned seats, but you can get priority boarding for $10. Plus with no baggage fees you are still saving. Double plus, because there are no baggage fees you don't have yahoos putting Fiat sized bags in the overhead. It's also always a 737 so it's not a flying cigar like most the flights I have to take.

This is a huge plus for me, living near a mid-size airport. Flying most anywhere on other airlines, it's a little 50-seat plane run by a shady commuter airline that might crash in cold weather (see Continental 3407) to get to a "real" airport. It's nice flying with the big airline all the time, instead of being handed off to a little guy that no one's really paying attention to. Flying on Southwest, on the other hand, has direct flights to more places by the nature of their system, and I always get a nice-sized 737.

I think it's mostly a snob thing to rail on Southwest... those people are much happier paying $30 to check a bag, I guess.

[tBBP]

That "snob" thing can kinda go both ways, though. Just like the PC vs Mac, Apple vs Android, Ford vs. Chevy vs Dodge, potatoes vs Stove Top type beefs, there's too many people who choose sides and bash the other based on little more than blind devotion. Airlines really ain't all that different, and if I was to draw a parallel, I'd say that Southwest is the Apple of the airline industry-the fun, stylish, vibrant and if you want to call it such, "hip" people/products. (I worked in the business long enough to garner an informed opinion.) All that said, yeah...the "big guys" are getting ridiculous with all the a la carte charges they keep tacking on (although Ryanair pretty much crafted their whole business model around that concept). That plus the way the legacy liners keep merging together, combining assets yet still raising airfare (mostly related to fuel, but other factors as well) really isn't helping anything. And long ago passenger comfort features like, oh, say seat pitch (Dennis) went out the window a while ago in the name of packing as many bodies into a fuselage as possible as a means of lowering CASM. (Southwest is just as guilty of this part as any legacy liner). That said, years and years of hedging fuel costs and other things has helped Southwest, along with things like holding fast to free checked baggage (for now), and still presenting a light, friendly atmosphere at the gates and onboard the aircraft.

Anyway, to the point of this thread, for the most part I like their refresh. I know the heart cuts to the core of their brand identity ("We LUV our employees!", they're even listed on the NYSE as LUV, and they're based out of Dallas Love Field), so it makes sense to simplify behind the heart icon. I like that they cut down on the amount of colors too--looks like a new deeper canyon blue color, plus the vibrant red and "gold", with some silver (?) trim, without the extra orange or bronze-ish color. I wish they'd have found a more distinctive font, but what they have works (and at least it's not Helvetia anymore). I also like that the divisions in the heart kinda evoke "taking off to the west", which also kinda ties into the name (setting aside the inherent irony of company named "Southwest" being based in north east Texas and all). All in all its one of the better identity revamps I've seen in the business over the years.

(I won't call it a rebrand though, a/ because long ago I got beyond sick and tired of seeing that word thrown around so much and b/ it's the same company in a different wrapper to me, which ain't necessarily a bad thing.)

[BBTV]

I'm also one that's had good and bad experiences with every airline except Southwest. They've only been good experiences, and there's been a lot of them.

Lufsthansa is the only other airline I can say that about, but my sample size is considerably smaller. I'll be collecting more data in the weeks to come. Also flying AirBaltic and Air Serbia for the first time. Air Baltic planes have a cool look with their "volt" trim.

Also... the Facebook remark is right on. That's the very first thing that popped in to my head upon seeing the new plane.

[bosrs1]

I'm also one that's had good and bad experiences with every airline except Southwest. They've only been good experiences, and there's been a lot of them.

Lufsthansa is the only other airline I can say that about, but my sample size is considerably smaller. I'll be collecting more data in the weeks to come. Also flying AirBaltic and Air Serbia for the first time. Air Baltic planes have a cool look with their "volt" trim.

Also... the Facebook remark is right on. That's the very first thing that popped in to my head upon seeing the new plane.

I hadn't made the Facebook connection, but now that people have mentioned it I can't get it out of my head. Thanks for that...

And I too will say I've not had many bad experiences with Southwest. Only time they ever lost a bag of mine was the TSA's fault, not theirs which I can't say for any other airline who've all lost one of my bags at one time or another and it was always their fault (I've still never got back the bag American sent to Chicago for no apparent reason as I've never been to Chicago). And as long as they keep bag fees away while charging comparable prices and offering me a free drink and peanuts they'll keep my business. They've basically been the same airline since the first time I flew them nearly 20 years ago. The other airlines have gone from being superior to being inferior leaving Southwest the best by virtually standing still. That said I'm only referring to domestics. I've heard great things about several of the overseas airlines like BA and Lufthansa.