The Southwest Airlines Community has a special place in my heart. As an adult, I've enjoyed helping and willing the good of others. I'm committed to doing that and this traveler-to-traveler forum has allowed me to do so.
When Southwest Airlines published that breaking headline a few weeks ago titled "Exciting Changes Ahead for the Southwest Airlines Community," there was probably some form of anticipation of what is to come as soon as one first saw the big bold headline plastered affront the image of a SW 737-700 jet engine. That 3-5 second period of wonder of what was behind those "Exciting Changes": Were there going to be some overdue IT overhauls to the forums? Were Southwest staff going to watch over the board and respond to customer service-related requests more directly? Or better integration between the community user account and one's Rapid Rewards Account?
None of the above wishful thoughts came true.
When one clicked through and began reading, the last sentence of the third paragraph had the verdict that was like having kale for lunch with no dressing. Here it is: "The Help Center aims to provide a single source of truth for our Customers, and with this new resource available, we have decided to decommission our Discussion Forum."
As a frequent poster (they say I reached "AVIATOR C") who has posted over 730 times and got the green checkmark just under 100 times at the time of this post, I was not too "excited" once I got the news. The stock photo of the man in the blue shirt pictured above expressed and represented my "It cannot be!" moment.
As I said, this message board has been my go-to place to share my SW stories and answer questions of my fellow travelers or referring them to customer service. But after a few weeks of thinking about this rather dry announcement, I felt that I needed to stand up to it, not by reacting through venting on this board or toward Southwest Staff (that gets us nowhere), but by responding with backbone leadership. I had to accept the kale.
Some of us might be wondering, "What kind of a 'leader' made this decision to scrap this popular message board?" I'm not going to get into any speculation on this; I've already voiced my thoughts and opinion on a separate thread a few weeks ago knowing that dry kale is certainly not the best of tasting of foods, but it needed to be consumed because of its nutrients. I believe this decision had to be done for the good of the airline. I was the third to reply in conjunction with posting a few follow-up's:
https://community.southwest.com/t5/Blog/Exciting-Changes-Ahead-for-the-Southwest-Airlines-Community/...
But one thing that we do have as travelers is the ability for us to lead and to build up community. And my final few contributions to this message board before postings cease will focus on this theme:
A Time to Lead,
A Time to Take Courage,
A Time to Persevere.
Today, I will share with you a story of the first leg of the theme.
The Southwest Airlines Community: A Time to Lead
Very few major corporations have hosted their own internal discussion boards to "share stories, exchange knowledge, learn, and find inspiration" (Community User Guidelines, then-Community Moderator Ashley Mainz).
Southwest Airlines was one of those few companies. They took the leadership to introduce this successful customer-to-customer discussion forum. As mentioned, I've always enjoyed assisting others with their questions based on my experiences while sharing my personal flight and destination stories to others. And those were the reasons why I created the SoCalFlyer97 profile and participated regularly.
The Southwest Airlines Community did what it described in my opinion: It built up community.
Just by looking at my user name, it's obvious where I live.
SoCal's a huge, fast-paced metropolis. It is not one of those places where everybody in the neighborhood knows each other. Just look at SoCal's massive airport list that Southwest Airlines serves: LAX and SAN being the big name airports, then BUR, LGB, SNA, ONT, and PSP as the convenience locations. It's hard to build up community in a mega-urban environment; it's generally the smaller rural towns that have the biggest community.
I've been to some of these towns. People know each other. Quoting from the old TV shows Cheers, "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name." And the Southwest Airlines Community managed to do that with the Southwest Airlines Community Champions making it possible.
https://community.southwest.com/t5/Southwest-Community-Champions/ct-p/community-champions
Carlye Thornton, the forum's staff moderator described the Champions beautifully in the fourth paragraph of the news release, "They have committed countless hours to providing helpful solutions and fostering meaningful conversations in this Customer-to-Customer discussion space all because they love Southwest and what we stand for. We are so thankful for their contributions over the years and celebrate their deep dedication to helping other travelers."
It's that kind of leadership which builds up a small-town community, even within a huge corporate apparatus like Southwest Airlines. The same can be said with building up community in a large urban area like SoCal.
But my message is not about leaders who are in high places, such as the executive staff and certainly not the investor. My message is not about those with wealth or power. My message is about those whose voice has the most weight and influence to lead and build up a true community: That is us, the traveler.
I think that as a leader, I have a challenge to take a backbone response and continue to build up that community, wherever it may be. Our Community Champions greatly exemplified this. Yes, the Southwest Airlines Community's days are numbered but all things in this life will perish. There's some community units in this world that last decades or even centuries; there's some that last for a few years like this forum. Still others only for a brief moment, like that constructive conversation I had with my fellow traveler while waiting at PHX's Gate D4, or one with my Uber driver who I may never see again.
During my two years of frequent travel aboard Southwest, I've have managed to build up tremendous community. I've met dozens of great people at the airport, on Southwest flights, and abroad. Some I have exchanged contacts but most I will never see again while here on this earth. But to be clear, building up that community isn't easy.
I do live in reality...Annoyances and frustrations such as crowded terminals, unplanned travel disruptions, questionable policies, disorder at the gate, lack of help from reps, and even foul weather can try to get in the way of this community building.
But the leadership that drives this community building has never and never will die. No economic disaster, no investor influences, no weather, no breakdowns, no bad policy can stop this drive to lead. I just need to respond to it.
Tomorrow, I will describe a few times where I was faced with these obstacles in the next part of the series, "A Time to Take Courage" and how I responded them.
Enjoy your Thursday.
The Southwest Airlines Community: A Time to Take Courage
During my two years of frequently flying aboard on Southwest Airlines, I have had some great encounters during my travels. I've met lots of folks while waiting at the gate, on the plane, and at my destinations. Some I've exchanged pictures and shared contacts. Building up community during my trips is a virtue that requires leadership in my opinion, especially within noisy and individualistic urban environments such as SoCal. As I mentioned yesterday, the leadership that drives community building can never be taken away, even if online forums like the Southwest Airlines Community must part ways which takes effect this Monday, September 16th.
But sometimes, the realities of life come up during travel. And some of those realities can involve some very unpleasant surprises that can instill fear, panic, and even anxiety.
I want to share with you two cases. The first occurred last September at San Diego for a morning flight to Vegas. Here's a map of SAN's concourse layout for the Southwest Terminal 1:
Southwest utilizes the gates at both the west and east wings. As you can tell, the two concourses have no post-TSA airside connector. My flight was due to depart from Gate 13, located on the western side.
About 12 minutes away from boarding time, I did a routine check to confirm that I was at the correct gate, went to the drinking fountain to do a refill on my water bottles in preparation for the flight, and then two minutes later, an agent gets on the mic and announces the flight is reassigned to Gate 5, located on the east side.
I and just about everybody else on that flight wasn't too happy about having to go through TSA again about 547 seconds prior to scheduled boarding. Let alone having to discard all liquid beverages either refilled or purchased at the restaurants. We were all a bit ticked.
Unfortunately, I let that fear and anger blind me from what I normally do when I travel: Take a leadership role and build up community regardless of the circumstance; in this case of trouble, failing to even look around to see if any of my fellow travelers needed help getting through the terminal. To make matters worse, when I posted the original trip report to this forum, I never mentioned this.
Usually during trouble, some defining Greater-Good moments in life can occur. Friendships, heroes, and even lifelong relationships could form out of the bad. In this case, it was a selfish moment for me. Those who are familiar with the history of the Titanic probably know the heroes and those who seriously did wrong. Both groups had no clue of what was to come before the iceberg was struck. History documents that the wireless operators of both the Titanic and the SS Californian ships made grave mistakes. Jack Phillips of the Titanic was so busy with his telegram work that when Californian wireless operator Cyril Furmstone Evans informed Phillips of the impeding disaster, his response was foolish and had deadly consequences. Blinded by his overwhelming work, Phillips basically said, "Shut up!". In response, Evans shut off his communications machine, thus missing the emergency distress signal and a key opportunity to save passengers before the Titanic sank. Let's not forget Mr. Ismay's cowardly acts.
But there were the heroes. Upon receiving the distress call, Captain Arthur Henry Rostron of the RMS Carpathia interrupted his scheduled voyage, rerouted and prepared his ship for passengers. That was the ship that took Titanic's 705 survivors.
I knew that Southwest was going to have to hold the plane at Gate 5 until everybody was able to get over to the other side, but I allowed the negative stress to have me instead rush out of the concourse in a panic, back to the east concourse TSA checkpoint. I had PreCheck through Global Entry which meant a quick rescreening, but I still had to wait until everybody else got through which took about 15 minutes thanks to a short standard screening line.
Although certainly nowhere near the level of the Titanic, the panic response lacked leadership. I've missed some key opportunities to look and see if any of my fellow passengers needed help transitioning through. SAN's layout is unusual; I know where its gates are; however, visitors may not. I’ve helped visitors navigate their way through the airport in the past. I completely missed that opportunity with my fellow passengers for this trip, possibly losing a potential lifelong community or even personal friendship.
The flight did depart 15 minutes late but if the story did in fact take a different turn to be newsworthy, history would probably not document me as a hero.
It is hard to show leadership in distressful times in the midst of fear and worry. That's where Courage comes into play, and that is the theme of today's post.
Those who visit this forum regularly can recall the dozens upon dozens of troubled stories posted on the community boards. Big annoyances such as last-second flight cancellations that required not only a rebooking but an unplanned, unbudgeted overnight accommodation, a SW Vacations or SW Hotels booking for a hotel property that in reality turns out to be at a closed hotel resulting in an expensive last-minute Plan-B reservation or finding damaged or missing luggage or stolen property at baggage claim.
Let's not forget about those stories of stolen Rapid Rewards points. It's very easy to allow the fear and anguish of these negative experiences to destroy the overall greater good of a trip. It's never easy to control these angry moments. To be clear, my SAN-LAS trip wasn't completely ruined; there was a positive comeback later. But my response in the terminal could have had some courage during the panic.
Deciding to proactively take that little ounce of courage can make a difference because that leaves no room for the feelings of fear for me. I'll be in a better position to say "No" to all those selfish negative emotions.
I had another pretty serious travel disruption happen to me last summer--not involving Southwest, but aboard SoCal public transit.
Earlier this summer, I was waiting for a commuter train at a station in Lancaster CA headed to Los Angeles Union Station. It was a hot Saturday afternoon. Didn't have my car. Outside temperature in excess of 100 degrees. The waiting area was not an air-conditioned gate with padded-leather seats, but a blistering hot concrete platform with a few hard metal benches. Not a whole lot of people knowing each other. I was a total stranger. It was hot. People were eager to get into that air-conditioned train.
The train pulls up on time for a 2:11pm departure. We boarded. Refreshed from the heat, I go over to the train's drinking fountain to fill up my water bottles. Somebody behind me also needed to fill up his jug. I simply said, "How's it going?". We had a nice 45 second conversation. He was a security guard headed to work near BUR Airport. He then went back to his seat. Train starts moving and then one minute into the ride...bump! Engine unexpectedly shuts down.
After 30 minutes of trying to troubleshoot the issue and restarting the locomotive, the crew decided to slowly move the train back into the station, everybody disembarks back onto the hot platform, and the train departure is cancelled. Next train due out of Lancaster four hours later, not until 6:11pm that evening. Keep in mind, this is no airport terminal. Usually if one is faced with a late flight cancellation, they go to the nearest gate rep for help and will usually wait out the extra time in the terminal or at the nearby hotel. But for this train trip, there was no air-conditioned seating in the waiting area, no in-station restaurants, not even a customer service desk; however, to be fair, there were about three restaurants within walking distance across the street.
At that point, the whole train platform was in a near panic. There was a bunch of "what at I'm going to do?" type of conversations. There was a bunch of anger. A lot of complaining toward the train crew. Mostly everybody wondering what they're going to do. It would have been easy for me to join in the fray. I could have faltered again like I did at SAN. But that time, I remembered it was not a time to lay blame or get angry. It was time to show courage...and believe me, I had to improvise a new travel plan too.
My "No" to giving into the temptation into fear and rant was for me to go over to a quiet shaded area away from the noise to catch a breath and get my mind focused and in gear for my next move. Think of a football team needing to take a critical timeout on the sideline to regroup and plan out their game winning play. When I went to the sideline, it took me about 10 minutes to clear my mind and focus on what I needed to do. Keep in mind I and several others were outside in the high desert with no car.
At that point, with my mind clear, I soon remembered that the commuter railroad Metrolink had a policy that compensates travelers with an Uber voucher code for a free ride up to a $50 max fare in the event of a major at-fault travel disruption resulting in an excessive delay. I logged into Metrolink's website and confirmed the train cancellation was officially announced and there was an active Uber voucher code for the Lancaster station. My trip however was all the way into downtown LA...I could have booked the Uber to go all the way. But I knew that there were others who were on that train. Thus, I booked it to travel halfway down the train route where a 4:13p short-turn departure would originate at Via Princessa.
Remember the security guard I mentioned earlier? I located the guard and asked him, "I got an Uber ride to Via Princessa and there's a 4:13pm train departure. Want a ride?" He accepted (and was also relieved that he wasn't going to lose 3 hours’ worth of wages). Also located two other passengers going down that way and they accepted. At that point, I realized I probably could have booked the UberXL option so that three additional folks can travel so that six can fit but I assumed that others would have utilized the Uber option as well.
By the time the Uber showed up, one of the other passengers that originally accepted the invite backed out as he received confirmation that somebody else was going to accommodate his needs. But the three of us rode together to the Via Princessa station and got there in time to catch the 4:13pm departure which did not break down this time. The strange thing was I did not see any other Ubers pull up to Via Princessa from Lancaster; we were the only group.
The three of us ended up sitting together in the same car and spent the whole hourlong ride sharing our stories. This small community get-together would not have happened had the original train operated as usual. The encounter would have been impossible without the courage that overran the fear and anger from the train cancellation.
I felt that I responded better in this situation. It took courage to invite three total strangers into my Uber ride. But once we reached our destinations, we built that community, exchanged pictures and contacts. One of them inspires to be a comedy actor; I hope to see him at show in Cali one day for some good laughs.
This was the interior of the train car that we sat in: Metrolink Train Car #194A
I believe that's community building. I believe it took courage to make that train community possible.
Online forums and websites come and go through time. But just like leadership, the virtue of courage never dies. I believe it lasts forever and it drives out fear. I just need to respond to it. I failed to respond to it at SAN during the gate change. I believe I did better in Lancaster when my train was cancelled.
Tomorrow, I will be sharing my final piece of this three-part series: A Time to Persevere.
This will be an important post, probably the most important one that I will publish to this forum. If you look at my profile page, you'll see that I've been posting regularly since February of 2023, about a year and a half. I've shared a bunch of stories and happenings on this board. But tomorrow's posting will likely be the most important.
I've posted nearly 750 times, given people a bunch of information. Our Champions and moderators have spent a tremendous amount of screen time reading my posts. But tomorrow's message I believe will be the most important because it will include my preparation and plans for the September 16th forum closure. You've all spent about 18 months reading my content, but I believe the rest of our lives is what true community is all about. I believe the true Southwest Airlines Community is about what we do out in the field. I think @Artanis described it beautifully in a comment, "I've learned a lot of things here. However, the time comes to get off the computer, go out and meet pretty girl."
I can't really vouch for the "pretty girl" remark, but the user is right in my opinion as far is getting off the machines. The online community building here I believe gets us ready to do greater things abroad and I believe what is true community is what happens outside of our computers and mobile devices. I believe this community message board has helped me build up some great moments and stories during my travels.
I have been a two-year traveler aboard Southwest and my flights that I take now have been great and exciting for me just as they were since I first took them in August 2022 because I take seriously the importance of community building.
That has been my takeaway of this forum and tomorrow I'll share in detail of how I plan to do this after the September 16th shutdown.
Enjoy the rest of your Friday.
The Southwest Airlines Community: A Time to Persevere
Going through change is not easy but the passage of time simply dictates that change has to happen. I believe perseverance is the remedy which enables one to pass through difficult periods of change and thrive.
In about 48 hours from the time of this post, Southwest IT will power down the Southwest Airlines Community discussion board for retirement for a new chapter, a new beginning. It's a difficult change for many of us but a change that is needed in this hyper-technological era in our nation's history.
During the 19th century, who would imagine one being able to travel from DCA to LAX in a single day, let alone a few hours? How about up and down Cali, roundtrip within a single day? Or sending that photo to loved ones in an instant halfway across the world?
Back then, it was all about the horse-drawn wagons, railroads and the steamboats in the canals that took days or even weeks to get across the USA. In the early 1900's, the ocean liners. And to take photography back then...
In the future, let's say 200 years from now (we'll likely all be long gone by then), the commercial airline industry as we know it may be obsolete--or perhaps those future 737-MAX999's or whatever they will be could zip people from MCO all the way to HNL in less than an hour with no turbulence and no fasten seatbelt sign...and no runways or taxiing required. Who knows? But this world goes through changes with the passage of time.
In my last two posts, I've shared on the virtues of leadership and courage that brings about authentic community. Time has no power to destroy these virtues. The role of the community is vital. Factor in today's theme: Perseverance.
I believe that perseverance in leadership and courage can lead to a perpetual community. That means if I take the leadership to build community during my Southwest Airlines trips, and I respond in courage to those unplanned circumstances during my travels and not allow those things to bog me down, I believe that can lead to a true Southwest Airlines Community that lives well beyond the next 48 hours!
Let me share with you my final story on this discussion forum.
Back in 2023, I learned that the Hard Rock Hotel was going to retheme the Mirage Resort in Las Vegas. I have a bunch of childhood memories there. I took a Saturday day trip that April from SAN-LAS via Southwest with a plan to go visit the Mirage. This was long before the new owners announced the retheming and closure timelines that commenced a few months ago, but I wanted to make sure I passed through before they started to retheme the place in case they decided to so sooner. I originally thought Mirage's revamps were going to commence way sooner in 2023.
Thus, I took the trip. The flight out of SAN was delayed about 50 minutes due to late aircraft swap and got me to LAS almost an hour behind schedule, but the trip was still a go. Checked my schedule...Still had time to get to the Mirage for a good two-hour visit. I took a little dose of Courage that I mentioned yesterday, brushed off the light frustration from the delay, and moved on.
After I got off the bus from the airport to the stop at Flamingo and LV Boulevard, I began to make my walk over to the hotel. From there, the whole trip took an unplanned change.
On the way, I encountered a stranger sitting on the pedestrian bridge. I'm going to keep his name private (and the picture to the right is a public domain stock pic, not the guy I met), but I'll refer to him as Sam. At first glance, he looked like almost every other homeless person there. But I stopped to listen to his story. He was looking for help and had a sincere desire to turn away from an addiction. I asked him if he had lunch yet. He said, "No" but was hungry.
I offered to take Sam to a nearby restaurant. I'm going keep the location private too, but it was near the area. It was a full-service sit-down restaurant. We get seated and the waiter shows up. To maintain his privacy, I'll refer to him as Billy. As I was talking with Sam to get to know him better, Billy arrives to introduce the menu and take our order, and his tattoo on his lower arms had an inspirational message which was exactly what Sam needed to see…Hint: The tattoo has to do with today’s theme.
During the conversation I listened to Sam's story without judgement. Billy wasn't busy; he sat down and listened in. I told them both the purpose of why I was in Vegas with my willingness to defer the Mirage visit to another date so that Sam can receive the needed undivided attention and the community support that he needed. We were at the restaurant for nearly two hours listening to each other’s stories with Billy coming back frequently to chat. They were both delighted to hear that I flew from Cali to LAS for the day, all for this unplanned encounter with a stranger. When it was time to go, I exchanged pictures and contacts with both Billy and Sam.
A reminder about Courage: Had I allowed my 50-minute delay out of SAN to anger me this time, I would have most likely had a foggy mind by the time I made my way to the Mirage and would have likely walked past Billy on that bridge and missed that key double-friendship encounter above Las Vegas Boulevard.
And that April 2023 trip led to my first Trip Report to be posted to the forums:
https://community.southwest.com/t5/Inflight-Experience/Photo-Trip-Report-SAN-LAS/m-p/157623
Fast forward to August of that year.
Sam sends me an Instagram private message that he had relocated to Salt Lake City, was off the streets, and was getting help. Yes! 😊
Right around the same time, I had another trip to LAS planned with an overnight stay at the Silver Sevens hotel. I departed out of ONT. Remember Super Storm Hillary that passed through Cali? That trip was almost nearly scrapped due to the foul weather but my flight was due after the storm left with a short delay. I was on one of the first few flights after Southwest restarted service following Hillary. The purpose of that trip was to reunite with Billy. Maintaining that constant contact was vital.
Here's the original Trip Report for that one:
Billy has since relocated to Florida and he and I remain in contact. I stay in contact with Sam via Instagram. And I have a framed picture of us three from that April meetup lunch in my bedroom. I call that Saturday trip to Vegas a “Miracle in Paradise” because I believe that miracles do happen.
The community that was built between the three of us didn't end when my trip was finished. Nor did it terminate when Billy left his restaurant job in Vegas for the Sunshine State. It continues. This is just one example of a perpetual Southwest Airlines Community that no IT staffing resource issue can ever touch.
Community Southwest: The same can happen to all of us as Southwest Airlines transitions out from this discussion board.
I've already mentioned that I've established an online presence elsewhere on the net and everybody is welcome to follow me. Some of you have already responded and are willing to stay connected here on the net. Great 😊!
- For starters, I post regular reviews on TripAdvisor. Look for SoCalFlyer97 over there.
- You can also follow me directly on Twitter/X. My hashtag is the same: SoCalFlyer97, a newly created verified account. Whenever I post something anywhere, you'll be the first to know. And yes, I include the SW hashtag to ensure Southwest staff can also read my commentary. I'm already recognizing that some of my fellow SW community members added me on their Twitter accounts. Great 😊!
- I'm also on FlyerTalk; they have a great community there too. I recently posted a random open-ended question to introduce my presence: "Funniest Moments with Southwest Flight Attendants"
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/southwest-airlines-rapid-rewards/2172016-funniest-moments-southwest-...
At the time of this writing, 14 responded to that thread and has generated some good discussion. Great stuff! Another example of Southwest Airlines community living on! - I'll be doing the very same things on Reddit's Southwest page real soon. My profile is--you guessed it--SoCalFlyer97
- And lastly, every one of my past trip reports on this message board are now saved and archived on the Wayback Machine. This includes my hotel reports as well as this three-part series you're reading now. They are now filed there--images and all. I will be organizing the new permanent links in the coming days. Follow me on Twitter/X for info.
I will basically still be doing what I've been doing for the last 18 months on this discussion board but via these other portals. But I believe the true Southwest Airlines Community is not necessarily at these online discussion boards nor at community.southwest.com although this place has served as a tremendous means for this community, but I believe true community is lived away from the devices and out in the field. And perseverance in leadership and courage will make a long living Southwest Airlines Community possible well beyond September 16th, 2024.
SW Community: Now is the time. It is up to you! You can let this Southwest Airlines Community experience fade into a mere memory after 9/16, or you can take advantage of the virtues and opportunities I have shared with you to make this flight community a permanent part of your Southwest Airlines travel experiences and beyond. The work of the Southwest Airlines Community is not ending on Monday; it is just beginning, and it can continue for your whole life as it will be for me.
Are you ready to persevere in leadership and courage, and form that true community? The choice is yours. The time is now.
May the Southwest Airlines Community forever live in you!
This is SoCalFlyer97 signing off.
