urbanSTL

^There are good reasons to dislike Southwest even if you never fly first class. First, before I offend the fans, I will say Southwest has great customer service and there's a lot to recommend them. But there are also things the legacy carriers offer that Southwest simply does not. In no particular order:

Choosing your own seat.
Boarding procedures that don't oblige you to stand in line for long periods of time
Better food and beverage service
Large and globally useful loyalty networks.
More comfortable aircraft and seats. (Providing, of course, you're willing to pay a bit more for them.)

And that's hardly an exclusive list. Southwest is doubtless fine for some people and some needs, but I very much doubt I will ever fly Southwest again, as they simply don't offer the service I want. And I fly economy. But they don't to to Asia. They don't go to Europe. I really like choosing my seat in advance. And I really hate 3+3 single aisles when it comes down to it. (Though I haven't found A320s quite so uncomfortable as 737s, oddly. But . . . I was always able to pick my window seat, which makes a big difference. And I can stand in line next to my wife when we're flying together and we can guarantee we'll be able to sit together.)

So yes, we really need better service from another carrier. (American seems like the likeliest candidate, but Delta would do nicely. And at the moment . . . I'd be quite all right with that. They really do seem to be a decent airline.)

Now how to pry American out of the C concourse and put Delta over there . . .

<feverdream>
(I wonder if American and an Admiral's club could fit comfortably in the A concourse if it were cleared and the entire A concourse were translated into C more or less in reflection of where they are now. That would do a wonderful job of giving Delta their club. You'd have to move the smaller carriers further down the line, or into D. But . . . that could work.)
</feverdream>

^All fine reasons to not want to fly Southwest. My only counter is that if you pay for early bird when you book your ticket you pretty much will get any type of seat you want. I almost always do and I never pay for it. You have to pay extra for choosing your seat on legacies so it is basically (not exactly) the same thing. 

I personally which legacy's would change to the Southwest boarding style (but keep assigned seats) but that is just my preference. 

I don't like 3x3 either but then that means you get smaller planes and that gives people another reason to complain that they are RJs, which I personally am fine with.But I do like that Southwest's -800s have 32 inches of legroom which is more than almost all legacy mainline planes. But they do lack the option to upgrade to more legroom. 

sc4mayor wrote: ^ Well said and I would agree.  I also agree with Gone Corporate regarding international service for a global business like ADM, but for much of the companies based in St. Louis I think better domestic accommodations would go a long way.

The constant complaint at my office is lack of international flights. I'm at Emerson. 

I travel quite a bit for work (incl to Europe and Asia) and my corporate travel agency does not work with Southwest

I travel for work to Europe and Asia on a regular basis. As others have said, Southwest is unavailable for those routes, and given how airline loyalty statuses work I'm better off dealing with layovers for domestic flights than splitting my domestic and international travel across two airlines.

symphonicpoet wrote: ^There are good reasons to dislike Southwest even if you never fly first class. First, before I offend the fans, I will say Southwest has great customer service and there's a lot to recommend them. But there are also things the legacy carriers offer that Southwest simply does not. In no particular order:

Choosing your own seat.
Boarding procedures that don't oblige you to stand in line for long periods of time
Better food and beverage service
Large and globally useful loyalty networks.
More comfortable aircraft and seats. (Providing, of course, you're willing to pay a bit more for them.)

And if you have elite status, the Big 3 airlines now have Main Cabin Extra / Comfort + / Economy Plus which elites can get for free or at very reduced cost.  These sections provide 3-4" extra legroom, are located at the front of the cabin and provide a free alcoholic beverage -- basically what I call First Class Lite on flights that are 2 hours or less.

STL to Munich/Frankfurt could do very well. 

^Awesome! Give me all the small potatoes. One of them will go radioactive at some point and explode 

The whole Roundup lawsuit debacle is not good for the region in the long-run. Analysts are starting to worry about the sustainability of Bayer itself.

How Bayer-Monsanto Became One of the Worst Corporate Deals—In 12 Charts
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-bayer- ... _lead_pos5

Now, would Roundup have killed Monsanto? 

sc4mayor wrote: ^ I don't subscribe to the Wall Street Journal so if anyone has a summary that would be appreciated.

I really can't see this Roundup thing crashing Bayer, they're a lot bigger than Roundup.  They just sold their Animal Health division for $7.6 billion too.  Sentimental juries may be awarding big verdicts, but those same verdicts are getting substantially reduced.  My guess in the long run is Bayer will eventually work out some sort of settlement deal for all these claims.

That doesn't change the fact that Bayer most certainly bit off more than they could chew when purchasing Monsanto, but I'd probably say there is a minimal chance it actually kills Bayer.

Intro of the article, I don't want to copy paste everything for copyright reasons:

"BERLIN— Bayer AG fought hard to take over Monsanto Co. Today, the $63 billion gambit ranks as one of the worst corporate deals in recent memory—and is threatening the 156-year-old company’s future.
Ten days after Werner Baumann became chief executive of Bayer in May 2016, he made a bid for Monsanto that was designed to turn the inventor of aspirin into the world’s biggest crop-science business.
Within weeks of the acquisition closing in June 2018, Bayer lost a lawsuit alleging Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide causes cancer. Another two defeats followed, landing Bayer with damage payments of more than $190 million. More cases are coming: A total of 18,400 plaintiffs have filed suits.
Bayer is appealing and says Roundup is safe. But its shares have dropped roughly 30% since the deal closed, making it one of the worst corporate deals by lost share value so far, in the ballpark of AOL’s combination with Time Warner and Bank of America ’s acquisition of Countrywide. Its market capitalization is now close to what the company paid for Monsanto alone, meaning the value of one entire company has almost entirely evaporated.
Shareholders withdrew confidence in Mr. Baumann at the last general meeting, a first in postwar Germany."

Further in:

"Bayer has defended the deal and proclaimed the safety of Roundup. It announced a restructuring late last year in a bid to boost profits, selling various assets and cutting 10% of its workforce. People familiar with the company said the moves were geared to boost investor confidence. Mr. Baumann said the plan was independent of the Roundup legal woes. The share price continued to fall.

At the company’s general meeting in April, shareholders withdrew confidence in Mr. Baumann in the first ever no-confidence vote in a CEO of a company listed on Germany’s main stock exchange. Mr. Wenning said at the time he deeply regretted the vote but stressed that the board stood behind Mr. Baumann. Bayer later hired an additional legal adviser and boosted oversight of its legal issues, bowing to pressure from investors.

With three verdicts issued against Bayer so far, analysts’ estimates of its total Roundup liability vary between €5 billion and €25 billion ($5.5 billion and $27.7 billion).

Third-quarter results released in July showed unexpected weakness in the crop-science business, which includes Monsanto, due to extreme weather.

With Bayer succeeding in getting two more trial verdicts substantially reduced and investors pinning their hopes on a fast settlement, shares have come up from June’s seven-year low. They’re currently down around 50% from their high of April 2015, when Bayer was the most valuable German company."