Southwest Airlines Community

Believe it or not, I've got "writer's block." Certainly not as it pertains to "Nuts About Southwest," of course–I can always find something to share with you guys–nor does it pertain to my work. Trust me, the Schedule Planning Department is hummin' these days, and the only difficulty I'm having in writing up studies and reports is trying to find at least a little humor to "punch up" the otherwise bone-dry (but interesting!) content. The problem is that I have the most important speaking engagement in my life coming up. I'm the Best Man in the wedding of my son, Officer Owen, and I am struggling MIGHTILY to write the Best Man's toast. And yes, I'm writing the toast, in advance, treating it as a speech. I do not trust my brain to fully deliver instructions to my mouth before my mouth decides to start speaking on such an important occasion. Don't get me wrong, I usually enjoy speaking extemporaneously, but sometimes words just start flowing before my grey matter has finished delivering instructions, particularly when I'm stressed, emotional, or trying to multi-task. Take the incident a few years ago, when I was carrying an armload of food into the breakroom that my Department shares with the Revenue Management group. Unbeknownst to me the R.M. folks were having a staff meeting in there, so as I struggled through the door, my arms laden with food containers, 28 startled heads turned my way. I swear, in my head, I remember starting to say "Don't mind me!" and for some reason half way through I switched to "Don't let me bother you!" Unfortunately, what I actually said was a cheery and booming "Don't bother me!" Or, for a more recent example, yesterday I was discussing details of the upcoming nuptials, and the question that I intended to ask was "how many invitations are you sending out for the wedding?" In true form, what actually came out of my mouth was, "how many invitations are you sending out for the funeral?" To make matters worse, I was talking to my future daughter-in-law at the time. So for the wedding–the toast should be scripted. That's not the problem. The blockage is over what the script will say. I hardly think I'll be holding myself up as a paragon of wedded bliss, as the Officer's mom and I have been divorced for many years now. But there are things I can, and do, want to tell the newlyweds–things I feel intensely and deeply about. Principles that have guided me for years...like the binding power of love. The healing power of laughter. The destructive power of anger. And the redemptive power of forgiveness. Or, maybe, I should simply toast their future and offer some guidelines for success, many of which my Mom and Dad taught me. Obvious things, like figure out what you like to do, and then find a way to make a living doing it. I certainly have done it–16 years and counting at the best airline in the world!–and I hope they can find similar fulfillment. Or maybe a tip you can only learn from experience, such as never, ever cook a steak more than medium-rare (the Gods weep at brown, dry meat). Or perhaps just some simple "user instructions" for a marriage–like "IF YOU HAVE TO LIFT A LID, PUT IT DOWN WHEN YOU'RE DONE." (This applies both in the bathroom and in the kitchen) I don't know…maybe I will just speak, extemporaneously, from the heart. Maybe I've said all I need to say over the past 23 years, as has the Officer's mom, and as have the parents of the future Mrs. Officer Owen. Maybe a simple "health, wealth, and happiness" toast will be best. Hopefully, we parental types will have many years to offer gentle reinforcement of previous lessons...and those same future years to learn new lessons, together. Six weeks to go until the wedding--and yes, now I think I know what I'm going to say. And if you have any advice for my toast, or for the kids....please post them as replies. I'll make sure they get them. What a cool, and unexpected, wedding gift that will be! ... View more

At the distinct risk of turning the Southwest Airlines blog in to a BILL-log (three blog posts from me in two weeks is bordering on overkill, I realize!)...there is news to share!  Southwest is returning to San Francisco International Airport early this fall!  This news was announced last night (February 😎 by our CEO, Gary Kelly, at the Message to The Field in Oakland.  We've been working on this for a while now, and we just couldn't be more excited to bring Canyon Blue back to the west side of the Bay.  Why go back to an airport we discontinued?   Easy answer.  Things change, and Southwest responds to changes!  If you need proof of that, look at Denver, another city Southwest served, then discontinued--then started again, in response to changing conditions.  In Denver's case, it was dramatically improved costs at the new airport, in combination with explosive growth in the local market.  In SFO's case, costs again play a central role--the good people that run San Francisco International have done a great job in mitigating costs and keeping them low, and everyone knows costs are a key focus at Southwest.  But it's not just about the costs this time--other good things have happened to make us reconsider serving SFO.  Operationally, the airport is in significantly better shape than it was in 2001, which means we'll be able to run a much "cleaner" and more ontime operation than we did then.  BART now goes directly into the airport, which means West Bay residents and visitors can get right into the heart of the City by the Bay in just "one seat."  We now have the ability to grow at SFO, whereas before we no way to expand beyond our 14 daily flights.  And, the Bay Area's population just continues to grow by leaps and bounds--all of which makes our return to the busiest airport in the region a no-brainer. What does this do to our service at Oakland and San Jose?  Three word answer:  makes them stronger.  By serving the Bay Area more completely, we make Southwest more convenient to Customers flying to or from the area.  As California's largest intrastate carrier, offering more options for the traveling public just makes our entire Bay Area franchise even more viable.  Now this is nothing new--Southwest has always persued a "serve the region" strategy in population-dense areas where airports aren't restricted.  Just look at Southern California--we serve four airports just in the Los Angeles area alone.  In the DC area we're now in both BWI and Dulles.  And in South Florida we're in both Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood and West Palm Beach. I can't tell you where we'll be flying from SFO just yet, but trust me, you're going to like this.  We're BACK, West Bay!  And a quick trivia question:  Am I the only person on this planet that remembers the T.V. series. "San Francisco International Airport" from the '70s, starring Lloyd Bridges?  Heck, they're remaking everything these days--maybe there could be a reality T.V. show based on Southwest Airlines and our awesome Employees working at a major international airport! On second thought...never mind about the T.V. show.  Been there, done that. Happy Valentines Day, everyone! As Bill mentions, we do sometimes announce news at a Message To The Field.  For more information on the Messages, read James's post immediately below and Shelley's post about the preparations for the Message season. ... View more

DING! You are now free to make reservations on Southwest Airlines for travel through August 24, 2007! Thanks everyone for your...ummm...."patience" while we've finalized the Summer 2007 schedule. This has, in all honesty, been quite an eye-opening experience for us in Schedule Planning. While our goal has always been to maintain between 120 and 180 days of bookable inventory, as I explained in my last post, we have on numerous occasions dropped down into the 90's (the last time being for the Summer 2005 schedule) and, frankly, we've never gotten a lot of negative feedback about it. Of course, that was pre-blog! So, because we have heard the opinions of our Customers (man, oh MAN have we heard you!) on this subject, going forward we are going to much more strictly maintain a minimum of 120 days of inventory. I think you'll be happy to know that the blog thread and your replies have spurred a couple of other improvements as well. We're working with our colleagues in Reservations and at southwest.com to find better, more effective ways to communicate the date we anticipate releasing new booking inventory. Of course, and I will warn you right now, these will be planned dates--and they will shift around a bit--but we're learning that even information that may change can be better than no information at all. So, standby for communication improvements! And finally--now that the Summer schedule's out for sale, I'm going to get back to my job, but I want to take the opportunity to thank the folks that actually wrote the Summer, Memorial Day, and July 4th schedules. So--Desiree, Bob, Dan, Matt, trainer superior Kerry Marie, and even you, Friedman--GOOD JOB!!!!!! Happy booking, everyone! ... View more

Schedule Planning Department members are used to being asked questions.  Usually, it's "What's the next new city?"  or "When are we going to add nonstop service from X to Y?"  Of course, we can't give direct answers, as we have to protect the confidentiality of our growth plans.  In fact, we've learned to tap dance our way around those types of questions better than the cast of 42 nd Street.   However, one question we do get asked repeatedly is why Southwest doesn't allow Customers to make reservations further in advance.  I can easily (and happily) de-mystify that one!  It really boils down to one, very simple reason:  we don't like to confirm a reservation to a Customer, and then have to change their schedule.    As all of us know, the farther you look out into the future, the harder it is to make accurate predictions.  TV Weathermen have trouble telling us what it's going to be like outside tomorrow much less ten or eleven months from now.  Because the airline industry is as chaotic as the weather and in a constant state of flux, we can only predict with a high degree of certainty what our Corporate, and our Customers', schedule needs will be up to roughly six months in advance.  Therefore, we publish our schedule and allow bookings only up to about 180 days in advance--six months of inventory, if you will.  After we publish, we let the clock tick down, day by day, until we have about 120 days worth of inventory left to sell, at which point we publish another "block" of schedules and push the inventory back up to about 180 days.  On rare occasion (and we're in one now) the inventory can drop as low as 90 days, and on even rarer occasions we'll have more than 180 days available--but the general goal is to keep between 120 to 180 days of inventory for sale.  Outside of that six-month timeframe, we're free to make whatever schedule changes we need to in order to remain competitive, maintain operational excellence, and give our Customers the Freedom to Fly all over America.   If we were to allow bookings as much as a year in advance--in effect, before our plans were solid--we would have to make changes to many, if not most, of those longrange reservations.  Nobody likes that outcome.  For one thing, it's expensive to spend the time and resources to notify Customers whose itineraries have changed.  Second, and worse yet, depending on what we changed in the schedule, we couldn't always rebook changed reservations onto replacement itineraries at similar times.   Not that we haven't thought about this issue, many times, at great length.  We've repeatedly examined the benefit of extending the booking "window," and each time we've found that in general, very, very few Customers would take advantage of booking flights ten or eleven months from today.  So by allowing bookings further in advance than we now do, we'd be setting up a potentially very disruptive chain of events that really would not provide a significant benefit for either our Customers or our Company.   We think our existing policy strikes a great balance between offering Customers the ability to confirm their travels far enough ahead of time to suit most of their needs, and allowing Southwest to keep our costs low and our flexibility high to respond to changes in the marketplace.  So remember the "120/180 rule" for future bookings on Southwest.  We will usually make up to 180 days of inventory available for sale, then allow that booking window to tick down to 120 days-then "recharge" the booking window by putting another 60 days or so of salable inventory out there, taking the total days available back up to around 180.  But if you keep this general rule in mind, it'll provide a good yardstick to see where Southwest stands in with respect to the booking window.   Hopefully this will help "de-mystify" planning future travel on Southwest.  Keep the questions, and the comments, coming!  And feel free to ask me or anyone in the Schedule Planning Department what the next new markets are going to be.  We can't tell you....but we do a mean soft-shoe.   ... View more

Well, that didn't take long, did it?  We're not even a full week into the new year, and I'm already at it again.  For years, I have been the mascot of the "if your head wasn't nailed to your neck you'd forget it" club.  I've forgotten items from coast to coast, border to border, and on at least three other continents.  Some I've gotten back (like my passport, which I dropped while being stupid in Hyde Park in London when I was a high school senior); some I haven't (like my camera, which I left in the seatback pocket of an aircraft of another airline--and which, unfortunately, was full of the undeveloped pictures I had taken of a friend's wedding). The good news (yes, there is some!) about being as forgetful as I can be is that I've had the chance to see, and to experience, generosity from complete strangers.  Unfortunately, I've also seen, and experienced, the "it sucks to be you!" attitude of many the customer-contact staff at other airlines, retail establishments, restaurants, and parks and recreation services when they encounter victims of self-inflicted forgetfulness.  Their indifference, and how it feels to receive it, has made me a firm believer in "paying it forward"--the practice of repaying a random act of kindness that I've received by showing another, equally hapless stranger the same dignity, compassion, and generosity that I've been shown many times. So this morning, in the typical mad rush of the second business day of a new year, I forgot my billfold, complete with cash and credit cards, on my nightstand at home.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that until I had already gotten a rather generous serving of scrambled eggs and hash browns and had worked my way up to the cashier at The Landing, the cafeteria here at our Headquarters campus.  When I realized what I had done, of course, I froze in utter embarrassment, barely hearing the words "I think I forgot my billfold" come out of my mouth.  Without so much as a pause, the person in line behind me said "here!  Put his on my bill."  I turned around and saw another Southwest Employee, albeit one that I've never seen in the building before, standing with a big smile on her face--and a $20 bill in her hand.  "Just pay me when you have the chance," she said, as she printed her name and office extension on the receipt.  One more minor crisis averted, and another wonderful display of generosity (not to mention extreme and notable SOUTHWEST SPIRIT!)--and, for me, another affirmation that being a Servant Leader is simply another way to pay it forward.  Today, my Servant Leader and "breakfast savior" was MIT Administrative Specialist Tara (and yes, I have already paid her back!).   THANK YOU, Tara!  I'll be looking to return the favor by lending a hand just as soon as I see the need--if not to you, then to someone else up in The Landing, or at the airport, or at the supermarket, or wherever it's needed. Hopefully, that day, I'll have remembered my billfold.  Happy New Year, everyone!   ... View more

Okay.  I'm a Foodie.  I hereby finally admit it--food plays an inordinately large role in my life. Of course, my family and friends have a huge place in the "world of Bill," as does Southwest Airlines.  But in my heart--Bill is a Foodie. There!  That feels better.  I've said it.  I've come out of the pantry.  I would rather cook than take a vacation; would rather watch the Food Network than Lost, Desperate Housewives, or Grey's Anatomy; and if asked to pick any four people, past or present, to be hypothetical dinner guests, Paula Deen ("the Butter Queen" and my culinary sister) and Rachel Ray (perky doesn't even start to describe her!) would definitely be at the table, in addition to my deceased dad, and a player to be named later.  But although I've admitted it, don't think I have any intentions of changing.  My family, friends, and Coworkers don't want me to!  You see, when my son, the "Incredible Eating Machine," moved out onto his own, I never stopped cooking in batallion-sized batches--and I've been feeding family and friends the output ever since.  Whether it's Banana Caramel Pie, Baked Potato Casserole, or my own special Scalloped Shrimp and Scallops (redundantly wonderful!), I go ahead and cook for an army, eat a portion or two, and then give the rest away.  That way, I derive the enjoyment of the cooking, the eating, and the giving.  Thankfully, my friends and family are receptive to leftovers--although many have had to buy clothes in larger sizes.  True, this might not seem like rational behavior...but who said we Foodies are rational? Believe it or not, being a Southwest Employee has allowed me to stretch my culinary wings more than almost anything short of enrolling at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America--not the spy agency).  I've flipped more burgers than a lifetime short-order cook for fellow Southwest Employees, but the kitchen events I love most are helping to cook dinners at Ronald McDonald Houses, which are Southwest's official Corporate Charity.  We always try to create a "family reunion" atmosphere at those dinners to comfort and support folks who need a little LUVing--and in my family, that means LARGE quantities and LOTS of side dishes.  And trust me....we deliver! These days, my Department grills steaks and chicken breasts as the entrée at our annual dinners for the Dallas Ronald McDonald House residents, but I'll never forget one time many years ago when I very nearly burned down that very house.  Wanting to make a really big impact on everyone, I tried to cook dozens of elegant but exceptionally fatty Cornish Game Hens on cookie sheets with very low sides, which allowed the melting poultry fat to gush directly down onto the oven burners.  That night, I single handedly redefined the meaning of the term "second-hand smoke."  There was no damage, and we aired the place out quickly, but the very least, I succeeded--boy, did I make an impact! As we move into the Holiday Season, please cook for yourself, your family, and for your friends and your Coworkers.  Show them how much you appreciate them by showing some LUV to their stomachs!  Even better, fly Southwest somewhere so you can cook with someone you care about...or fly them to your kitchen to cook with you.  Have a happy, healthy, prosperous, and delicious Holiday Season! ... View more

I love that old David Bowie song.  I always have--although until the advent of internet lyric searches, I was WAY off on the lyrics.  I mean, I'm the same guy that thought that "The Pina Colada Song" was "The Bean Enchilada Song" (I never could figure out what bean enchiladas had to do with getting caught in the rain!).  I'm still kidded about that one. Change can be good, or it can be not-so-good...but sometimes it can be great, and we have a GREAT change coming your way, effective March 11 of next year!   (For the press release, please go here.)  We've used our new schedule optimizer (the "Garage-O-Mizer" that I covered in a recent blog post) to help us implement the large-scale schedule change needed to take maximum advantage of our new ability to more efficiently connect Dallas with the rest of our ocean-to-ocean network (also the subject of a recent blog post, "The Wright Stuff"). For the new schedule, the optimizer--based on our input--evaluated quite literally millions of possible schedule moves that would connect Dallas more fully on a onestop, same plane basis with more of America.  The results are as startling as they are wonderful. The number of onestop, same plane itineraries between Dallas and cities outside the Wright Amendment perimeter will increase to almost 100 every business day.   By next March, you'll be able to "jump the fence" of the Wright Amendment to 15 destinations without ever getting out of your comfortable, leather seat.   Add in our convenient connecting service, and our Dallas Customers will have the "Freedom to Fly" to 61 Southwest airports from sea to shining sea. There are a number of other awesome surprises built into our new March schedule.  We're adding two more flights between Dallas and St. Louis, as well as our first-ever nonstops between Dallas and Birmingham (which also allow us to offer roundtrip onestop, direct service between Dallas and Nashville).  Brand-new nonstop service between Reno and San Diego, between Cleveland and Orlando, and between Baltimore and Pittsburgh is also coming.  A total of 22 markets all around our network will receive new or added service, bringing us to nearly 3,300 Southwest nonstop flights every business day-more than any other single airline in the world. As with any of our optimized schedules, this effort has taken a great deal of time and energy but I think it's well worth it--quite literally, a labor of LUV.  The March 2007 schedule not only offers new service and increased connectivity, but is a significantly more efficient and productive schedule.  Efficiency and productivity are two of the cornerstones of low costs, and here at Southwest we're all about keeping costs low so we can keep fares low-and SPIRITS high! I hope you enjoy the "ch-ch-ch-ch-changes" we're bringing you next March.  Of course, I also hope you get to enjoy our low fares, excellent Customer Service, and smiling faces between now and then!  As I said--change can be great--and we're making an already great network better.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! ... View more

Somewhere, something has "frozen over." Today, for the first time in our 35-year history, Southwest Airlines began selling revenue tickets between Dallas' Love Field and Los Angeles; between Dallas and Chicago; between Dallas and La$ Vega$; between Dallas and Orlando, and between Dallas and Phoenix, plus 20 other cities spread all across our nationwide network.  In all, Southwest now gives travelers the Freedom to Fly between Dallas and 43 cities from sea to shining sea-always, of course, with low fares and Positively Outrageous Service!  Many of you (particularly those of you who live here in the Metroplex area, as well as all 32,000 of us in the Southwest Airlines Family) know about the highly public and heated struggle to get the outdated and anti-competitive Wright Amendment repealed.  To those of you who joined in the battle, a hearty THANK YOU.  We couldn't have done it without EVERYONE'S support! However, there was a great deal of preparation that was done, very much in the background, over the past 12 to 18 months to get ready for today.  For example, many of the systems that are used to essentially run our airline had been "hard coded" to prevent the display or sale of itineraries that violated the Wright Amendment-after all, it was a federal law, and many of us don't look very good in black-and-white stripes.  In order to fix this, many of our operational departments-with the invaluable help of our incredible Technology group-spent long hours changing and testing our systems to enable them to handle this historic change. The good folks in our Revenue Management and Pricing group have been busily getting fares ready to publish in the new Dallas markets so that Customers could purchase tickets as soon as the ink was dry on the legislation.  You'll be happy to know that, despite what other airlines have charged the traveling public to fly to or from Dallas, on Southwest our highest one-way fare between Big D and any of the 43 destinations we're serving from Dallas will be $319, plus taxes and passenger facility charges.  No longer do last-minute travelers between Dallas and the East or West Coasts have to mortgage their homes for same-day travel! Here in the Schedule Planning Department, we've been in our usual "stealth mode" preparing for the phased-out demise of the Wright Amendment.  For about a year now, at each of the five major schedule changes that we process and publish each year we've been changing the schedule, a little bit here and a little bit there, to make sure that when the law was modified Southwest Airlines would be well-positioned to make as much of our network accessible to Dallas as possible.  We've also been slowly, and quietly, adding service between Dallas and existing service points such as Albuquerque, St. Louis, and New Orleans so that when we "flipped the switch" on these new itineraries, they would be as quick and convenient for our Customers as possible.  As a result, I'm very pleased to report that, for each of the new markets we've just opened up to and from Dallas, our Customers will have to stop no more than once!  And even better, many of those new itineraries don't even require that you get off the plane.  For example-want to fly from Phoenix to Dallas?  We've now got six flights each business day on which you'll stop once on the way, but never have to leave your seat until you reach Big D.  In addition, we've also got four convenient one-stop connections in the market, giving you a total of ten daily ways to LUV your way from the Valley of the Sun to the Metroplex.  And we're not done yet.  Even though the compromise won't allow us to add any new nonstop destinations from Dallas until 2014, Schedule Planning will continue to "tweak" the schedule making Dallas more and more convenient to the rest of the nation.  So as of Thursday (October 19)--air travel to and from Dallas just got a whole lot easier.  With the 94 new travel options that went on sale today for travel on October 19 and beyond, Dallas Love Field is now just one stop away from 43 destinations in America!  And one quick stop can be a good thing.  After all, one stop means you get an extra coke, one more bag of peanuts, (both at no charge!) and just that many more smiles from the friendliest Flight Crews in the sky!  Thanks for your support....thanks for your hard work....and thanks for the VICTORY!   ... View more