The 800 is nice looking as should be expected in a new design from Boeing. However Southwest is pushing in more rows of seats than originally planned on the 800 and retrofitting part of their existing fleet with more seats (article in this month’s Spirit magazine). I fly over 40 weeks a year and use SW a lot. If there is any loss of space in the seats or leg room I plan to stop flying with them as this will be the last straw. Southwest is the nation’s number one volume carrier and was built on customer service, low cost and on time flights. They are no longer even close to being the low cost carrier and their on time flight record is next to the bottom of the major carriers with only Air Canada being worse (report dated Feb 2012 Southwest 75.4%, Delta 87.4% on time). Lately you can see that the flight attendants have lost that light hearted attitude they used to sport and to me that is part of the customer service they were known for. The pillars they were built on are buckling and a pretty new plane will not make up for the losses.
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