Southwest Airlines Community

Actually, the full name for IAH is George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Airport codes are difficult to change. SUX (Souix City) is trying to change their code. You can get it changed if you have high placed idiots, er, politicians on your side. For example, BWI used to be BAL. Against regulations that say airport identifiers can only be changed for safety reasons and not for marketing reasons, it was changed to BWI. ... View more

Some of the codes actually do make sense if you know the name of the airport: SDF: Louisville (Standiford Field) RSW: Fort Meyeres (Southwest Florida International) BDL: Hartford (Bradley International) MCO: Orlando (Use to be called McCoy Air Force Base (or Field, I forget which)) SNA: Orange County (Santa Ana) LAX: Los Angeles (they just added the "X" to the old two letter code. (in the 1930's and earlier, the codes were only 2 letters)) Not all airports have 3 letter codes. Many of the general aviation airports have 3 or 4 character codes such as 3A1 or 41TX. For a list of all airport codes, see the FAA's publication "Location Identifiers" available at http://www.faa.gov/ATpubs/ ... View more

Bill: "Do you know how to make a small fortune in the industry? Start with a large one!" is the mantra of the airline industry - unless, of course, you have the codes SWA or WN attached to your flight numbers. My airline would have ultra-luxury service - only chocolate covered peanuts would be served -and wouldn't compete with other airlines because I'd be flying from what are now general aviation airports. ... View more

I've taken the liberty of posting the blog at forum on FlightAware (http://discussions.flightaware.com/viewtopic.php?p=12811#12811 is the URL for the posting). I have talked (typed?) myself blue trying to convince people there and on other forums that Southwest doesn't do hubs. Bill, you have the job I would love to have. I am fascinated by the scheduling process of airlines. I've studied everything I can get my hands on about scheduling. I have also been collecting airline timetables for over 35 years now. Sadly, it's nearly impossible to get any current ones in the printed format I also have several OAGs (Official Airline Guides) from the 40's and 50's that are absolutely fascinating to read. I have also made up airline schedules for my own airlines - now if only I could get a few million dollars to start 'em up! ... View more

Norm: Your idea would cost more than all-reserved seating! To paraphrase a campaign of SWA: SET SEATING FREE! ... View more

Boo! Hiss! NO! NO! NO! No reserved seating. There's a big difference between plastic boarding cards and electronic ones. They basically do the same thing. Reserved seating will destroy the one of the things I like about Southwest, namely, the open seating. When I would say "everyone is doing it" as a kid, I remember my mom would say "if everyone is jumping off a bridge, would you do it, too?" Don't become like the other airlines by offering reserved seating like the other airlines. The system works; don't fix it! ... View more

Open seating is great. To scramble the boarding groups is, quite frankly, a stupid and unfair idea. If I log on to get my boarding 24 hours ahead of time, I don't expect to get a B or C boarding pass. The idea of boarding group classes is also stupid and is also expensive. I have logged on two or three minutes after the 24 hours period has began and gotten a higher number than I expected. That's no problem. All I care is that the group is "A." If I'm at a place where I cannot access the Internet, I'm not going to get upset and think it is unfair that I'm unable to get the coveted "A" group. In most cases, people flying on Southwest are flying for only a couple of hours. With Southwest's seating pitch, no seat is really bad. ... View more

I may be totally wrong on this but I think it's due to the price of peanuts. Unless it's changed, peanuts are highly subsidized, thus lowering the cost to consumers. (Never mind the fact the consumer is paying twice - once for the subsidy through taxes and once for the actual purchase). ... View more

J Richard Blissit: The FAA is not the successor to the the NAA. The NAA is a private organization (http://www.naa.aero/?CFID=1425418&CFTOKEN=33755820). The FAA took over some of the responsiblities of the CAA and CAB (http://www.faa.gov/about/history/brief_history/). Not all aircraft were registered NC. Extracted below is the data from the link in my posting above (http://www8.landings.com/cgi-bin/get_file?prefix_p.html): N United States of America (USA) [x]1 - [x]99999, [x]1A - [x]9999Z, Y ? - [x]1AA - [x]999ZZ, (x = category = C/L/R/S/X) (letters "I" and "O" are not used, so they can't be confused with the digits "1" and "0"), the '-' (dash) as separator is normally not used, but can be sometimes seen applied before or after the category prefix, which itself was normally displayed up to the mid-1950s, while today only (some) oldtimer (are allowed to) show such a prefix, the categories are: C = Commercial L = Limited R = Restricted S = Standard (?) X = eXperimental ... View more

"N" in no way stands for North America. I tend to believe the theory posted by Speed. Mexico uses not only XA but also XB and XC. It appears that XA is used for commercial aircraft (e.g. Aeromexico) while XB and XC are used for private and state-owned aircraft. The rules for registration numbers for the USA and Germany are at http://www.landings.com/evird.acgi?pass*83105517!mtd*40!ref*www.landings.com/_landings/pages/search/!pg*reg_rules.html. All known current and historical prefixes can be found at http://www8.landings.com/cgi-bin/get_file?prefix_p.html. If you want to look up a registration for a USA registered aircraft, just enter the N number into Google. At the top of the page, you'll be asked if you want to look up the registration of that aircraft. ... View more

Brian, There are some named flights but I don't think they are named in the way that the trains in the pre-Amtrak days named their runs. For example, there was, as far as I know, only one 20th Century Limit. However, the airlines would have several flights that have the same name. An example is Braniff's "El Dorado" flights. I'll have to take a look at my OAGs and timetables from the 40s, 50s, and 60s when I get home tonight to do some more research. ... View more

A correction to Pan Am's flights 1 and 2. Neither of these were truly round-the-world flights. Flight 1started in LAX and ended in JFK after going via the Pacific, Asia, and Europe. Flight 2 was just the opposite. For many years, Pan Am was not allowed domestic routes (i.e. within the 48 mainland states; they did have flights between the mainland and Hawaii/Alaska). The flight names mentioned by Sean are not really the names of the flights but the service provided. For example, Western had flights named Hunter's Breakfast (so something similar). These were not the name of the flights but the type of service that could be expected aboard the flights. ... View more

I was on a flight where pretzels were served on a flight instead of peanuts. I read the package. Guess what? The pretzels were made in a factory that contained peanuts and the pretzels may have peanut residue. On most jetliners, if I recall correctly, the circulation is from the side of the aircraft to the center. There's no need to punish all of the passengers in order to protect one. Just make it a peanut-free zone for the set of three seats the pax is in plus the one beind and in front. Sorry if that sounds cruel but it's the way I feel. I'm tired of a small - very small - minority dictating what the majority should do. This is not just the subject of peanut allergies but everything else where the minority imposes their will on the majority. ... View more

Granted some people (a VERY SMALL minority, less than 1% if I recall correctly) have an allergy to peanuts. Why should the whole plane be denied peanuts because of 1 person? Why not just forbid peanuts in the rows around that passenger? The air is recirculated often on aircraft. That should clear out the smell of the peanuts. ... View more

Schedule planning is the field I've always found fascinating in the airline industry. I've been collecting airline timetables since I was 12 (37 years!). Unfortunately, they are no longer as readily available. What I also like are routing sheets for individual aircraft. Over the years I was able to get a few from United, Hughes AirWest, and ATA. It's fascinating to see how many different cities an individual aircraft will go to during the course of a week. ... View more

Boycott Southwest? Why not just stop breathing. If it wasn't for Southwest - and Wal-Mart in the retail industry - prices consumers paid would be higher. ... View more