Hello Community Southwest:
Here's a Photo Trip Report (PDX-SJC-SAN) from Thursday, June 22. I traveled via ground from SoCal up to the Beaver State earlier in the week and returned home in the air via the LUV Airline with a daylong stopover in SJC.
Question: PDX had an informative monitor at the gate alerting waiting passengers that the PDX flight bound to SJC was full with the opportunity for C-Group to check their carry-on bag for free. It also cycled through and showed the initials of those on the standby list with their standby status along with an advert for Upgraded Boarding.
I have not seen this type of monitor at other airports that I frequent. This is separate from the two smaller monitors seen in the front of the boarding group lines. It looks like this belongs to Southwest as its mounting pole matches the metallic poles used for Southwest's boarding number group signs. The copy certainly appears to match Southwest's marketing style and it would be great to see it systemwide. Has anybody seen the "Full Flight" and Standby List status screens at any other airport other than PDX?
More Pics:
PDX Main Terminal Construction Process - Downstairs Baggage Claim/Arrivals
Upstairs Ticketing/Check-in PDX Construction Progress
Lot's of folks already up at 5:14 in the morning in line to check baggage. No lines at the kiosks and the Bag Drop line was moving along quickly:
Great job PDX with the large Way-finder signs at the TSA Checkpoint. Easy to locate which line to go through. No waiting in the Priority Express lane; just three folks ahead of me in the PreCheck lane.
The Bird - Tennessee One 737-800
Flying above Hayden Island and the Interstate Bridge, directly over the Oregon/Washington state border
Mount Shasta from 35,000 feet
The 737-700 headed from SJC to SAN
Plane spotting from 37,000 feet over the Temblor Range area of the Coastal Range facing the Central Valley. Anybody know the flight details of the bird below? Appeared to be a 737-700 headed somewhere from northern California toward LAX or SBA (Photo Timestamp: 6/22/23, 4:36pm, 23mins after takeoff; Flight 3595 SJC-SAN).
The Getty and Downtown LA from 37k'
Ground Transport for only $5 from SAN via San Diego MTS 992 downtown/airport connector and Rapid Express lines along the I-15 Express Lanes
Enjoy!
@bec102896 wrote:
Thanks for sharing your trip!
with the boards that tell you how full the flight is/standby passengers those you will usually see in larger SW markets (STL, MCO, MDW, DAL) just to name a few. I do find it funny that an airport could have one of those and it says full flight then passengers get on and ask is the flight full 😂
I'll keep an eye out for this innovative wayfinding monitor system at other airports. I think it may be showing up to one my local airports soon where Southwest dominates the market, like SJC, OAK, LAS and possibly SAN.
To my observation and upon doing some further research on this, it appears that Southwest worked with a consultant known as Continuum back in 2017 on updating their wayfinding monitors. It looks like this was first tested at DAL back then with 300,000 travelers that resulted in a 4.77/5 average favorability rating and 96% of passengers reporting that the new system made it easier to navigate the airport. Also during the trial, Southwest noticed a reduced number of repetitive questions frequently asked to CSA's--specifically, questions about connecting flights, flight capacity, and how full the flight will be.
As mentioned, I think this may eventually be rolled out systemwide given the highly favorable response at DAL and the fact that it's in use at PDX given that Alaska Airlines (not Southwest) dominates the PDX area market (i.e.: PDX is Alaska's hub).
One Footnote: When I planned this trip and researched the airfares, even though Alaska did have a lower total cost and direct non-stop flights from PDX to SAN, flying Southwest and having a daylong stopover at the Silicon Valley was absolutely worth it for my travel needs. The trip was booked back in April during one of Southwest's $59 sales and I found that the value of Alaska's advertised "Saver" fare found on their website and third party booking portals doesn't even come close to the flexibility offered with Southwest's WGA+ fare combined with Upgraded Boarding.
@SoCalFlyer97 wrote:
Plane spotting from 37,000 feet over the Temblor Range area of the Coastal Range facing the Central Valley. Anybody know the flight details of the bird below? Appeared to be a 737-700 headed somewhere from northern California toward LAX or SBA (Photo Timestamp: 6/22/23, 4:36pm, 23mins after takeoff; Flight 3595 SJC-SAN).
Our friends at Flightradar24 confirmed that the Southwest Boeing 737-700 that I spotted from my window seat over the Temblor Range mountains which crossed 4,000' beneath my flight route was SW Flight 458 that departed from OAK at 4:05p and was headed to LAX, cruising at 33,000'.
