How Social Listening Reveals Brand Risks in 2025

Southwest Airlines has long been known for its customer-friendly policies, but its decision to scrap free checked bags sent its famously loyal customers into an uproar. This was a highly controversial decision for the airline - they had a longstanding tradition of being the only remaining US airline that allowed free checked bags, and it was a major perk (and reason) for people to fly Southwest. The backlash against the airline was so intense that Southwest landed in Infegy’s top 10 ranking of major brands at risk.

At Infegy, we have a soft spot for Southwest. As a Kansas City-based company, we’ve watched it serve our home airport for decades. That’s why it’s disappointing to revisit our very popular, January 2023 insight brief, Southwest Airlines Christmas Crisis. In that report, we analyzed how outdated scheduling software—compounded by severe winter storms—left tens of thousands of passengers stranded during the 2022 holiday season.

Now, another crisis looms. Read on to see how this latest controversy is shaping Southwest’s reputation, how it fits into broader airline industry struggles in 2025, and how we used Infegy Starscape to track the fallout in real time.

We’ve Written About Southwest Before

In January 2023, we analyzed Southwest Airlines’ Christmas crisis, where severe winter storms and outdated scheduling software led to mass cancellations, stranding thousands of travelers. While other airlines recovered quickly, Southwest’s unique point-to-point model and infrastructure failures caused days of chaos.

Consumer sentiment plummeted, with Southwest receiving the lowest positivity scores among major U.S. airlines within Infegy’s Social Dataset. Lost baggage became a dominant conversation, with viral images from Kansas City International Airport (our hometown) showing piles of unclaimed luggage. The crisis also hit hardest in California, a key market for Southwest, highlighting its importance to regional travel.

Figure 1: Southwest Airlines Post Volume (November 2022 through March 2025); Infegy Social Dataset

Figure 2: Southwest Airlines Sentiment (November 2022 through March 2025); Infegy Social Dataset

CEO Bob Jordan took much of the blame, with social media sentiment around him overwhelmingly negative. Hashtags like #SouthwestStoleChristmas reflected public frustration, though sentiment improved slightly as the airline worked to reimburse customers and recover lost bags.

How We Identified Southwest Was In Brand Crisis

With another major controversy unfolding, we’re once again tracking Southwest’s reputation in real-time using Infegy Starscape. Infegy’s Brand Risk Dashboard detected the crisis early, as Southwest climbed into the top 10 Brands at Risk, signaling rising consumer frustration.

Figure 3: Infegy’s Brand Risk Dashboard (March 14, 2025) showing Southwest’s increasing risk score; Infegy Social Dataset.

As seen in Figures 1 and 2, the 2022 crisis generated massive post volume. So far, the 2025 controversy hasn’t triggered the same spike. However, post volume is just one piece of crisis monitoring. Over-indexing on it can make your analysis too reactive, missing crises that are growing but haven’t yet peaked.

Using Infegy’s API, Infegy’s Brands at Risk ranking tracks top global brands using an algorithm that weighs sentiment shifts, negative themes, and key crisis indicators. By monitoring trend data, we saw Southwest’s negative sentiment surge, with rising mentions of anger, disgust, and customer churn.

Beyond the policy change itself, Infegy’s analysis revealed a deeper concern: customers felt Southwest was abandoning its long-standing customer-friendly identity. The backlash wasn’t just about cost—it was about trust.

Focusing on Southwest Specific Challenges

Now that we've demonstrated how social listening can highlight brand crises, let’s dive into the specific metrics that reveal how consumers are reacting to Southwest’s highly unpopular decision to remove free checked bags.

Negative Emotion Spike

Negative emotions—fear, hate, disgust, and sadness—are key indicators within Infegy’s Brand Risk Dashboard. Figure 4 categorizes Infegy’s ten emotions into three groups and tracks their distribution over the past three weeks, using weekly intervals to minimize noise.

As detected by our Brand Risk algorithm, negative emotions have surged dramatically, with the likelihood of a Southwest-related post being negative increasing by over 100%.

Figure 4: Negative, Positive, and Neutral Emotions Pertaining to Southwest Airlines (December 16, 2024 through March 10, 2025, weekly aggregated data); Infegy Social Dataset.

Highly Negative Word Cloud

While trend analysis and emotion tracking help identify shifts in consumer sentiment, topic and linguistic analysis provide a granular view of how people are discussing the brand. Figure 5 highlights the most frequently used words in Southwest-related conversations, revealing overwhelmingly negative sentiment. Words like “destroying,” “greed,” and “garbage” dominate, indicating a growing backlash.

Given this intensity, we expect further increases in post volume as the controversy unfolds.

Figure 5: Top Topics Pertaining to Southwest Airlines (Week of March 10, 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.

Southwest Airlines Fitting Into Larger Airline Industry Concerns

When managing brand crises, it’s essential to consider industry-wide trends. Infegy Starscape goes beyond traditional brand monitoring by providing a holistic view of the U.S. airline industry, helping brands understand broader consumer sentiment, risks, and narratives.

Southwest’s challenges reflect a turbulent start to 2025 for the airline industry. While major incidents like American Airlines’ midair collision and Delta’s Toronto crash dominated headlines, industry-wide concerns—rising safety issues, customer service frustrations, and shifting passenger expectations—shaped public sentiment.

Figure 6: Infegy AI Summary of Major Concerns Around US Airline Industry (Week of January through March 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.

For Southwest, the key issue has been maintaining its customer-friendly reputation amid policy changes. While it avoided major safety crises, the removal of free checked bags sparked frustration, with consumers viewing it as a departure from the brand’s core identity. Despite this, Southwest’s sentiment remained significantly higher than American Airlines, suggesting that while customers were unhappy with specific policies, they still saw Southwest more favorably than airlines facing serious operational failures.

How Your Enterprise Social Listening Process Can Help Your Brand

Southwest’s decision to remove free checked bags has triggered significant backlash, reinforcing the importance of proactive brand monitoring and reputation management. While the airline avoided the crises that plagued American and Delta, its policy shift sparked concerns about eroding customer trust—an issue that can have long-term consequences.

Infegy Starscape’s analysis underscores the need for brands to track emerging sentiment shifts before they escalate into full-blown crises. By monitoring key indicators like negative emotions, customer churn, and industry-wide trends, brands can identify risks early and take corrective action.

For airlines and other consumer-facing businesses, this case highlights a critical lesson: operational changes should be weighed not just against cost savings, but also against their impact on brand loyalty. Understanding consumer sentiment in real time allows brands to adjust strategies, mitigate risks, and maintain trust—even in the face of difficult decisions.