Southwest Airlines Community

Wow - it has already been six months? Hard to believe how time flies. If you are soliciting feature requests, I would love to have a "View posts since last visit" option. And thanks to all at SWA who make this blog possible and for letting us, your adoring public, have a venue to communicate. ... View more

Guys, Kim's losing it. I think we need to take away his keyboard for a few days, let him get over the headiness of the beginning of the end of the Wright amendment. ... View more

Kim - you have to type all the way to the "o"? You're slacking off. ... View more

1 - It looks like part of the door passengers enter through. If I was walking off the plane, it would be up to my left - if you look in the background, it appears to be the roof of a jet way. 2 - Too easy, baby changing table. But I like Dave's answer better 3 - Two screw heads with a lot of grease. Is this really a "common thing" that passengers are likely to see? If so, I think it is part of the overhead bin latch or hinge assembly. ... View more

Does anybody here have any clue to what David is talking about? Dallas in the dark ages, pushing tax revenue to North Dallas cities? ... View more

You'll think I'm silly, but I just keep going to the reservations page and clicking on DAL as my start city. Then I start grinning when I see the list of choices that is two (or more) times as big as it was yesterday. ... View more

That behind the scenes stuff about scheduling is pretty interesting. I'm guessing it means more flights and the biggest planes to the "bounce" cities. I can't wait to just browse the schedules online. ... View more

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! ... View more

Ah Gary, that sounds like a politician answering :-) I've read all of the comments on this blog, the USA Today blog, and many comments elsewhere. Here on BlogSouthwest, it appears about 90% (myself included) are opposed to assigned seating. Other blogs seem to be about 50/50. BUT - let's divide the comments into four groups: Regular SWA flyers who do want assigned seating - a very, very small group. Regular SWA flyers who do not want assigned seating - a very large group. Non Regulars who want assigned seating - these non-customers are the vast majority of the people in favor of assigned seating. Non Regulars who do want assigned seating - almost non existent. So - in summation, we have learned two things: Your existing and loyal customer base is highly in favor of keeping open seating. (Hmmm - "Cattle Call" and leather seats, is there a relationship?) People who are loyal to other airlines are mostly in favor of assigned seating. BTW, even if SWA moves to assigned seating, I will still remain a loyal and fanatical customer. The people of SWA are the reason, not the seating assignment or the boarding process or the existence of pillows and blankets or any of the myriad of other issues that get discussed - it is the people who smile. ... View more

It looks like assigned seating WON'T happen! From The Baltimore Sun: " 'Some boarding methods were a little faster, most were a little slower,' said Southwest's Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly" http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.southwest06oct06,0,4320948.story http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2006/10/swa.html#comments ... View more

If you really want to scare everybody in attendance, go as Gerard Arpey. ... View more

I want to buy the first ticket, on the first flight ,from Love field to any city outside of the "zone" in 2014. If you want a huge publicity coup, put the first day's tickets on sale now for $20.14 each way. Special commemorative hard copy tickets (now), a special charter-member-first-day-flyer award (then), a commemorative collectable luggage tag (now - what a cool thing to show off for the next 8 years), a very special looking SWA Visa card (now), special T-shirts and cabin blankets (then) - who knows, the list is endless. But I still want to be the first person to buy a Southwest ticket (actually, I need two - I want my wonderful wife along) on the first SWA flight from Love Field to anywhere outside of the Wright amendment states. ... View more

Congratulations to Colleen, Herb, Gary and the entire traveling public. ... View more

@ Kim Seale: Kim - do you live on this blog? Where do you find the time to post all the things you post? I've just been away for a week (ELP LAS, SWA, of course) and I cannot count the number of posts you've made since I was here last, much less have time to read everything. I'm just skimming, there's no way I can keep up with you. ... View more

Well, it's been over two months since the assigned seating test started in San Diego. What's the verdict? How did it go? ... View more

Kim - I've had more than my share of early arrivals on SWA. Yeah, the bloggers here do write better entries - we care and we like 'our' airline; there is a pride of - not ownership - but a pride of belonging. I don't think any other airline has fostered that feeling like SWA. I remember when Delta announced they were removing pillows and blankets from their planes. I thought, "not one person is going to get on a plane and say 'Oh good - finally - no more pillows' " when they boarded. As for the $3 or $5 box-of-food, come on - you've got 75Â ... View more

Interesting timing for this blog post. A USA Today article, posted just this morning, talks about an airline that is considering charging a fee for checking in at the airport - http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2006/09/airline_conside.html Wow - Ever since this blog started I thought Kim Seale was a Southwest employee, I never realized Kim was a regular passenger just like me. ... View more

As one who can only look out the side windows, I must say that landing in San Diego is the best as far as looking out the window. When sitting on the right side the view of Balboa Park is stunning and as we pass over interstate five it feels like we are about ten feet above the freeway. San Diego is my absolute favorite approach by far. Do I remember correctly that once upon a time San Diego wanted to raise that parking garage, and SWA was instrumental in having the project declined? ... View more

So Brian - how can us mere passengers get to tour this wonderful building? ... View more

Slightly off subject, but related - Why is Southwest sometimes referred to as WN? ... View more

Jack Ozee wins - hands down. That one's good. ... View more

"Row zero? There is no row zero." ... View more

Just FYI, on the USA Today blog, somebody named Chris and somebody named Carl blame SWA for the legacy carrier's problems, and they think that SWA employees earn less than other airlines' employees. http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2006/06/its_official_so.html#comment-18938268 I set them straight and Dave backed me up. ... View more

@Lisa A - I'm glad you guys and gals got a chuckle out of SetSeatingFree.com, but so far it is a very lonely bulletin board. ... View more

I couldn't help myself - I saw Dave's posting above (11th reply) and I just had to start a website called SetSeatingFree.com. I cannot believe what a hot topic this has become. So grab your Kool Aid and go to http://www.setseatingfree.com/ I need to set up a forum and website for my company by August 15, so this will be good practice. ... View more

Kim's post above is the best - made me laugh - hard! Methinks Gary hath just firmly grabbed the third rail!! Thanks for the giggle Kim! ... View more

Wow - this is obviously a hot-button item for many. You've gotten 13 responses in just three hours, I think that is a record (so far) for this blog. The best choice would be for ME to have an assigned seat, and everybody else gets open boarding But since that probably won't happen . . . Don't forget, SWA is more than just airplanes, and great people, and great prices (BTW, right now ELP to LAS costs more on SWA than ORD to LAS on AA), and SetLoveFree - SWA is also about being just a little quirky. Keep the quirk of open seating, it sets you just that much further apart than those other guys. Southwest isn't just an airline for us passengers, it's a culture! And if you clicked on the link in Gary Kelly's post, it takes you to a USA Today article. Be sure to read the very last paragraph - SWA is #6, headed towards #5, and already carries more domestic passengers than any other U.S. carrier. ... View more

If Colleen and Herb are happy, I'm happy. Congratulations to you guys from far west Texas. And one clarification please - one can book and buy a ticket from DAL to PHX (or LAX, or PDX) provided that plane stops in El Paso or Albuquerque? Or any other city in Texas and the surrounding states? Then it will be another eight years before you can go non-stop from DAL to PHX? ... View more

@ Brian Lusk - It speaks volumes about the SWA culture that the well thought out replies from just 37 or so responses here would be shared with top leadership. I've got a few more thoughts: It is no secret that SWA is looking into assigned seating - http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2006-05-18-swa-seats_x.htm If/when you go that route, may I suggest six boarding groups? A1 and A2, B1 and B2, C1 and C2. Assign A1 to the people with window seats in the back half of the plane, and A2 to window seats in the front half of the plane. B1 and B2 would go to people with middle seats in the back and front respectively. And of course, C1 and C2 go to the aisle seat holders. I think that the boarding groups would voluntarily sort themselves between the "1" and "2" subsets within the lettered boarding group - maybe with a little encouragement from the gate people :-) This would, I hope, make filling the plane much faster. I don't know how this would play with my suggestions above about assigning boarding groups 12 hours in advance, giving Rapid Reward members "A" passes, then priority to people traveling together, then prioritizing by date of ticket purchase. But - IF you go to assigned seating, please come up with a better system that the one everybody else uses. And for heavens sake, do something about carry on luggage since it is highly likely that a very heavy SWA traveler (business traveler, light on luggage, needs to get through the airport quickly and buys at the last minute) will end up with a C boarding pass and all the A and B people have already taken up the bin space. See another thread on this blog - http://www.blogsouthwest.com/2006/05/02/carryon-toy-sorter/#comment-297 - that Jim guy over there has two great posts. ... View more

There have been a number of suggestions here for assigning the boarding group at the time the ticket is purchased. I often fly on short notice, so I wouldn't want to see this system implemented. What would be great is if SWA would auto-assign the boarding pass letters maybe 12 hours before flight using RR status, followed by time of purchase: Check our Rapid Rewards status, the more we fly, the higher we are in the list. The second sort could be who purchased their tickets earlier. Maybe a sort between those two so that families traveling together would get a higher letter. I do miss the plastic boarding passes - I think SWA should find some in storage somewhere and auction them on eBay - maybe the proceeds could go to the Ronald McDonald House. ... View more