Southwest Airlines Community

Brian, Great, and I concur with the others--it's one of your best, if not *the* best... ;) I happened to be off that morning, and caught the view of UAL175 hitting the second tower on TV. To say that I was stunned was the understatement of the year 2001. I was in between houses at the time, and was staying at a hotel on the NE side of DFW. Once "ATC Zero" was implemented nationwide, it was a surreal experience being so close to the nation's 3rd busiest airport, and observing that NOTHING was flying. It was almost as it the clock had been turned back to 1903, before the Wright Brothers made their first flight. I still think about the events of that day, and what it meant then, and also now. I still get moist-eyed whenever I see a fire truck on a run, which has a large American flag flying on the back end. All those fire fighters, police, EMS, and other first-responders lost... Many bumper stickers say "God Bless America", and while it's true (He has), maybe a better bumper sticker is "God Bless The World", in the hopes that Peace can be attained everywhere... Thanks again for a GREAT posting... ... View more

Was that the Ryman that was flooded? ... View more

>>>heres a flash back before SWA left MHT Huh? Since when? ... View more

>>>Try to bury it with pretty pictures and pretty stories of airplanes - Dear Cathy ZeeM, It's called "moving on with life" and you should try it, rather than hijacking someone else's blog post on a different topic... ... View more

I just watched this evening's "Entertainment Tonight", and i have to tell you, it's all I can do to keep my recently consumed dinner down. ET led-off their program with several minutes of the latest KS BS, featuring KS continuing to spin this as some kind of public referendum on how poorly society treats larger people. I get it, really, since I'm overweight myself, but what truly disgusts me (in addition to the genuinely cruel treatment larger folks are forced to endure at the hands of the insensitive) is KS's hijacking the issue to serve his own desires and motives. Hey Kev, if you can manage to con the seemingly oblivious media into milking the "controversy" for just one more day (Thursday), it'll be Friday and your movie will be opening. What great timing, gee, almost like it was planned or something... ... View more

>>>.Kevin Smith is not the opportunist you have all alleged. Check out his YouTube videos about this issue. He addresses all of your criticisms. Oh, is that the one where he's NOT cursing a blue streak, and is calmly denying he did it for the publicity? The one where, as "proof" he points out this latest YouTube video has a banner highlighting the needs of the folks in Haiti? It's the most disingenuous bovine fecal material I've seen in a long time---inferring that by his merely putting up a "Help Haiti" banner in this LATEST video translates to not having ulterior motive to promote his movie in the original curse-fest that he first posted after the weekend event. AFAIC, none of this anything to do with his eating habits, or his weight. He knew the rationale for buying two seats, and had previously complied with it, no doubt getting later refunds if the flights weren't full. He didn't get booted because he was "fat", but because he was cleared as a standby to a single seat, and only discovered once onboard that he'd bought two seats on his scheduled flight. That was the goof, NOT that anyone called him "fat" and booted him off with malice aforethought. >>>I have to wonder if there is a correlation between people who are obese and the negative posts contained herein. I have to wonder if there's a correlation between some of "I'll never fly Southwest again" comments and IP addresses traceable to some of Southwest's competitors or their employees... I certainly don't think all of them are, just some, and I wonder how many. I'd love to be a fly on the wall at Southwest's data center. I'm not the kind of person predisposed to conspiracy theories, just acknowledging that there those out there who are not above resorting to dirty tricks--kind of like KS did when he scammed that TV reporter... ... View more

I saw this on another blog (FlyerTalk) , and if this doesn't cut to the real heart of the matter, I don't know what does. I can't believe how many media outlets were suckered into making a "nothing" story into a "national" story that ended up directing people to his Twitter page that just so happened to promote his upcoming movie. -------------------------------------------------------- Quote: Originally Posted by Ken hAAmer Here's him talking about protesting one of his own movies, and the news coverage that ensued: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UDoIBgiUAQ (Take note of his self-description at about 6:30.) -------------------------------------------------------- Thanks. It's quite amusing. As you note, he admits being a "press whore". More to the point, he describes in detail how he enjoyed playing the media for suckers with a fabricated story. -------------------------------------------------------- ... View more

I doubt few people will read this amid the mob scene that appears to be going on within this blog, but I have a confession to make---and it's that at age 55, I'm not the same size as I was when I was 20---and as a result, I no longer fit the volume size of an average airline seat. There are those (and plenty of them can be seen here on this blog, as well as others) that would make the snap, default judgement that I'm at my current girth as a direct result of scarfing a few dozen Twinkies per day, but whether its from from that or less obvious and private causes like medical and other related issues, it's really immaterial to the "debate" that's raging. Before my personal expansion, I wouldn't have appreciated a large seatmate violating the territorial airspace and personal space of my own airline seat. Now that I'm one of those larger folks myself, I not only fully respect the right of a potential seatmate to enjoy the seat space that they paid for, but I also respect Southwest's (or any airline's) right to ensure that they get it. It's basic Golden Rule stuff folks; have we managed to forget all that? All these opinions relating to why large passengers are large is just cruel commentary from insensitive folks who don't have anything better to do with their time than to judge folks, and doing so based on their own predjudices. It's a really sad commentary on some in our society. It can be tough for some folks to concede that they've become larger in size to the point that they now need two seats, and given Kevin Smith's having reserved two seats on his many previous SWA flights, that fact tends to blow his contention that he was removed from the flight and discriminated against for being fat. I think, to anyone with more than 2-3 functioning brain cells, he was removed because someone goofed by allowing him to board the earlier flight that only had a single open seat, versus the two he'd reserved on his scheduled flight. Someone else caught the error, and he was removed---it's as simple of that, yet we now have this molehill that's been turned into a mountain. Why is that? Has anyone noticed that when one goes to Smith's Twitter page, it's covered with advertisements for a movie he has coming out in a few days? Is it any wonder that, in addition to the gazillion Twitter hits he's had, he's now also "volunteering" to appear on "Oprah" and "The Daily Show" to "settle" all the controversy? Good grief, this "story" has been picked up my various national media outlets. As I said earlier, my having now become the size where I now need two seats, I'm not insensitive to how cruel and judgemental some folks can be, but Smith's motives and actions appear to be nothing more than a guerilla marketing campaign to draw attention to and otherwise promote his upcoming movie. To the extent that that's indeed the case, as I suspect it is, how ironic it is that he's insensitively "using" the very people he's purporting to "stand up for". His new move is called "Cop Out", and the additional irony is that Smith is doing just that himself.... ... View more

Almost 400 comments have been posted as I write this, and it boggles my mind that most posters can't fathom what's really going on here. Southwest doesn't "hate" fat people, nor do any of the other airlines that have similar, if not identical policies concerning passengers of size. Mr. Smith knew the policies, and had previously flown on many Southwest flights having purchased two seats, after which he no doubt sought and received refunds for the second seat. Let me repeat the obvious--Smith KNEW the rules and how the process worked. Fast forward to his flight this past weekend. He has a reservation (his usual 2 seats) for his flight, but opts to go on an earlier flight as a standby. There's one empty seat (not two) left and the Southwest agent apparently goofs and let's him aboard. The captain catches the agent's error, and asks him to deplane. WAAH! They're picking on me because they say I'm fat! WAAH! If Smith had wanted to make the agent's goof "the issue" that would have been one thing (and the correct thing), but his framing the issue as he has ignores the reality that he KNOWS the policy and has complied with it on previous flights. So, why all the ruckus and tweeting that Southwest is evil incarnate? Gee, does the fact that Smith has a major movie opening on Feb. 26th (less than a week away) factor into this? How many articles on this weekend's brouhaha happened to mention his upcoming movie? What a disingenuous way to get some free publicity, not to mention being a sad commentary on how tweeting can be used as an electronic lynch mob and a disincentive for people using their own brains. ... View more

SonicEscapd, Sure, there's a comment on it, and it's right there in the very DMN story that you linked, but you already "knew" that, right? Please go hijack a thread somewhere else... ... View more

There have only been a couple of gazillion posts in various internet blogs re: the WN/F9 deal in recent days, but "Dedicated SWA employee in SAT at SRC", I have to tell you that yours has been the best of the bunch, as well as most reflective of how I feel the vast majority of both WN and F9 folks view things. Nicely done! ... View more

Time for a pop quiz! How many Frontier folks are going to be offered positions at Southwest? A. All 5,000 of them.. B. None of them.. C. 2,500.. C. 3,792.. D. 3,793.. How can *anyone* purport to know (with certainty at this stage of the process) exactly what the true answer to the question is? However great Frontier #1 was and Frontier #2 is, things in the industry have changed, and all the continued hyper-emotionalized posts/rants are just swinging after the bell. SWA folks *know* you love your airline--they get it--and many SWA folks came from other airlines, some of whom had their own financial problems, so it's not as if all SWA folks don't have any idea what some of the pressures and uncertainties that our friends at Frontier must be feeling and otherwise going through. To claim otherwise is an assumption, and an erroneous one at that. Instead of folks wasting time and bandwidth and posting all this repetitive bile about how "sure" the worst-case scenario du jour is, how about everyone *calming down*, and just taking things one day at a time? Just because SWA doesn't yet know whether it'll be 3,792 or 3,793 at this precise moment doesn't mean there's a conspiracy afoot. Those versed in IFR ops know the meaning of "continue", and that what folks should do---continue some common-sense calm, and more info will come out when it's available. ... View more

"Make no mistakes. Southwest is the predator here. They will kill Frontier. Denver and the traveling public will be the worse for it. I hope the process of digesting F9 cripples WN. Southwest is a cancer on the airline industry." I sure wish hyperbole could be refined into 87-octane unleaded, as we could easily see prices back down at $1.50/gal based on all the raw material this WN/F9 deal has created. Look, I liked Frontier v1.0 as much as anyone, and was sorry (and unhappy) to see them disappear into the airline ooze that permeated Frank Lorenzo's empire of the 1980s. I was very happy to see Frontier v2.0 rise from the ashes of their former self (with many employees from the v1.0 airline) and can without any difficulty whatsoever imagine the corporate and employee pride that feat must have produced. All that said, all the other things that the v2.0 airline has experienced since then that have left them in this shape today are not all the fault of WN, and WN isn't an interchangeable corporate anti-Christ like what's-his-name was. It's all the more amazing that some folks automatically assume that they'll somehow get a better deal with Republic. Maybe they should ask the Midwest Airlines folks how that all worked for them. Did WN hire 100% of the ex-Muse/Morris folks? Nope, but betcha they'll do better than what Republic did with Midwest. Promises? Oh, yeah. Neville Chamberlin must be chuckling... Maybe everybody can stay calm until Tuesday, or whenever, and not default to worst-case scenarios... ... View more

>>>We have tickets to fly Aug 17h to Denver. Paid for in advance - what do we do now? 1. Show up at DFW on Aug 17th. 2. Flight on your booked DFW-DEN flight. 3. Have a great time! 4. Repeat steps 1-3 for your DEN-DFW return flight, whenever it is. ... View more

F9 Soon To Be WN, It's nice to see your calm, pragmatic analysis of the situation, and I wish so many of your cohorts were not swinging after the bell as they are. ... View more

Let's try taking the already absurd, and making it even more so. For the sake of argument, let's assume that Aeroflot puts in a bid for $300 million (dollars, not rubles), wins the auction by a country kilometer, and promises not to change anything whatsoever about how Frontier is operated. All the F9 folks and many of the posters on this blog (and others) would be dancing in the streets and lauding Aeroflot management for their amazingly brilliant business savvy, and everyone could all then go to bed and get a good night's sleep. Everyone except the CEO of Aeroflot, who suddenly startles awake in the middle of the night asking himself "Что, черт возьми, мы сделали?!" ("What the hell have we done?!") First thing in the morning (Moscow-time), he calls an emergency meeting, and they do a 180 and decide to change EVERYTHING about how Frontier's going to be operated. In the space of a few hours, those guys have gone from being incredibly savvy businessment to being невероятно глупые идиоты. The absolute truth is that they'd be neither. The reality is that F9 has no real say nor control in the final outcome--that decision baton had been passed to others long ago, whether they believed it or not, or whether they agreed with it or not. До свидания Frontier! It was nice while it lasted, but last it could not... ... View more

"Let's just be clear that this fight for our beloved Frontier has not begun yet." I guess denial isn't just that river in Egypt... The BK Court folks may have some news flashes for you... As the late Mr. Walter C. used to say, "...and that's the way it is..." ... View more

F9 Ramp, L Moody said this earlier on Aug 1st, and with all due respect, you should read and understand their post... "It's time for a reality-check. A surprising number of posters are under the impression that a Knight on a white horse can ride into bankruptcy court, purchase Frontier Airlines, invest large sums of money and continue to operate Frontier in the same-old way. That plan would simply be a round-trip ticket to bankruptcy court. Frontier has been on bankruptcy life-support since April of last year. Frontier cannot save itself. Nobody is destroying Frontier. Bidders at the bankruptcy auction will simply purchase the component assets they feel can be revived—they cannot save the airline as we know it. They can save part of it. Regardless of who purchases what assets at the bankruptcy auction, Frontier's life as we know it is over and it is always painful to lose a beloved friend." L Moody ... View more

L Moody, Your comments were freshingly on-target. Kool Aid is Yumm should try reading them! ... View more

That poster who equates Southwest with Aeroflot just might be on to something. There sure appear to be plenty of folks posting who already think that Southwest will be forcing all the F9 folks to march off to the Siberian Gulags, never to be heard from again... ... View more

"Southwest has just become a ruthless, money hungry, and ignorant carbon copy of the old Aeroflot " Congratulations! You've now taken over 1st Place if the most ridicuously hyperbolic comment division. Well-done! ... View more

Hey, F9 folks, Please try and cut Paula and Brian some slack here. The news on all this just popped a couple of days ago, and it's not as if they (or anyone else) have an internal memo the size of a phone book that has every nitnoid detail from A-to-Z already figured out in advance. So many things depend upon what happens on the auction day, so interpreting the lack of detailed answers at this point in time as proof positive of some evil plot or other malice aforethought is unreasonable, and just plan silly. ... View more

Hey, proud to be Frontier, We get it! We really do. That said, you're not furthering your case by spamming the blog with multiple copies of the same post.... ... View more

"What if the pilots are alergic to animals? Who gets kicked of the pilot or the animal?" Why, the pilots, of course. There are -so many- experts out there, -surely- one of them knows how to fly a 737, and -better- than anybody. "Hope you will have medical staff on board every flight now that this is allowed." Yes, they'll mounted on the cabin wall behind glass door that says "IN CASE OF PET ALLERGY BREAK GLASS" "Then the extra money for unaccompanied children! I hope the flight attendants will then be a little more responsible for the children then. I have been on plenty of flights that the kids have not been taken care of and run rapid." Gasp! You mean they run fast, or run "rampant"? I'm surprised that some of the people on this thread have the courage to venture out from their homes... ... View more

Out of all the folks protesting and railing against the new policy (some apparently in a hyper-emotionalized manner), I wonder how many have actually taken the time to read the new policy (including the rules and regs) from begining to end. Not many, it would seem. >>>I have flown for business for the past ten years using Southwest Airlines. Not only do I have allergies to fur, but I do not particularly like the idea of possibly sitting next to a pit bull or doberman pincher. Will either of those two breeds of dogs actually *fit* inside of a small pet container that must be able to fit under a seat, while still givng the animal room enough to stand within the carrier itself? Gee, what about my Great Dane or St. Bernard puppy? Geez... >>>Has anyone actually taken the time to consider that having a dog and a cat on an airplane is a really foolish idea - one does chase the other!?! Kind of hard for a dog within a carrier to chase a cat within a different carrier, don't you think? Or do you expect to see the carriers bouncing and chasing themselves up and down the aisles? >>>Who is going to sweep and clean the fur off the seats between flights? Animals are restricted to their carriers. So all this fur is going magically float out of the carrier and land on the seat? Wouldn't the pet's owner be sitting in the seat anyways? Seems like any fur that flies (if it actually does) would land on that passenger, and not the seat. >>>People will let pets out of the carriers and force FAs to be police. Which (the enforcement) is as it should be. There are going to be rules associated with the new pet policy, and they're going to be enforced against those who think they're somehow entitled to make their own rules and regs. As someone else mentioned earlier, non-compliance with F/A instructions (whether one personally disagrees with them or not) is a violation of FAA regs, and ones that even John Q. Passenger can be cited for. There are plenty of folks who've discovered this only upon landing, and only once they were facing federal charges. I'm going to continue to fly SWA with no concerns irrespective of no pets or Yes to pets. I do have allergies (of several kinds), but it's my own duty to make sure that anything I encounter during my day I'll be able to handle on my own with my meds or my Epipen. I'm going to proceed on the logical and reasonable presumption that SWA has given ample thought to the new policy, and will enforce the rules and regs so that it will function as planned and designed. If a problem does arise that goes beyond my what my level of personal preparation can handle, I'll cross that bridge when (and if) I come to it, but I'm not going to let myself get all wrapped around the axle with all these "what if someone tries to bring their herd of pet wildebeasts along" or other goofy "what-if" situations that even a cursory reading of the program's rules and regs precludes. Lions, tigers, and bears; Oh my! ... View more

>>>GK asked: >>>How can you be sure these pet owners will restrain their animals, or will dog fights break out when one dog who can't get along with another dog starts fighting? Dogs can only control themselves as well as their owners, and as we all know, about 1/2 or more of the dog owners are negligent and this will ultimately lead to a whole host of problems. It's really very simple. The rules are that the small dogs (not big ones) and cats have to stay in their carrier. If someone decides that the rules somehow don't apply to them and takes them out, the F/A tells them to put Fluffy back in the carrier ASAP. If the passenger declines to follow the F/A's instruction(s), the passenger has now interfered with a flight crew member (not complying) which violates federal regulations. Local law enforcement folks at the destination (or anywhere they might divert to while enroute) will be only too happy to greet them and explain the federal charges they're now facing.. The folks who are envisioning all these supposed herds of dogs and cats running amuck onboard the aircraft while inflight need to quit hyperventilating... ... View more

Is is just me, or do some of the posts coming out against the new small pet policy sound so very similar? Why, it's almost as if someone was reading/typing from the same list of "talking points". No, I'm not inclined to default to "conspiracy theories" (Hey, I actually *believe* that Oswald *was* the lone assassin, and that Neil Armstrong actually *did* walk on the moon and *not* a sound stage), but some of the negative comments just seem overly artificial, and it makes one wonder. Yes, I know some folks do indeed have allergies( I have some myself), but there are ways to mitigate them. Whenever I encounter something that triggers one of mine (no matter where I run into it), I'm prepared for it. It's called "personal responsibilty" and more people should consider practicng it. ... View more

>>>are you sure your name isn't Ebanezer? Well, we know it's not Daniel Webster... ;) I think SWA's gestures are nice... ... View more

This look familar to anyone? http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/OPNLguy/?action=view&current=OldNWdallasmap.jpg ... View more

>>>and tremember he boat-looking seafood restaurant further down the circle?) That would have been "The Bounty".... ... View more